AP - As of Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT.

AP - Iraq's central government on Friday stressed its opposition to any unilateral move to change the status of an oil-rich city the Kurds want to annex and warned against efforts to stir ethnic tensions in that area.

Reuters - Seven years after the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue.

AP - An army spokesman says a roadside bomb attack has killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two others in northern city of Kirkuk.

AFP - A new defense strategy released Thursday places the "long war" against extremism above potential conventional challenges from China and Russia as the top priority of the US military in the coming years.

AFP - The Pentagon's new national defense strategy calls for a shift in focus from conventional warfare to mastering the complex threat of global extremism, a published report said Thursday.

Reuters - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month approved a new National Defense Strategy that recommends making fighting al Qaeda and other militant groups the top military priority in coming decades, the Washington Post reported in Thursday editions.

AFP - A reported rift between the US and Pakistani intelligence agencies reflects deepening US frustration over Islamabad's role in a worsening insurgency in Afghanistan, analysts said here.

AFP - Electrical accidents have killed 16 US troops in Iraq since the start of the war, the Pentagon said Tuesday, but it said critics were wrong to blame KBR and other contractors.

AP - As of Tuesday, July 29, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT.

AFP - The United States and Iraq are on track to achieve an agreement governing US troop levels in the nation beyond 2008, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said here Monday.