AFP - The Pentagon took a hands off approach to outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Georgia Friday, keeping tabs on US military trainers there and dusting off contingency plans should Americans need to be evacuated, Pentagon officials said.

AFP - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has endorsed a 17-billion dollar plan to double the size of the Afghan army over five years, the Pentagon said.

AP - A Camp Pendleton Marine sergeant was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, Iraq.

AP - As of Friday, Aug. 8, 2008, at least 496 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 Aug. 2, at 10 a.m. EDT.

AFP - US military trainers based in Georgia are not involved in the hostilities between Russian and Georgian forces in breakaway South Ossetia, US military officials said Friday.

AFP - A US Marine is to face a military trial for murder over charges stemming from the shooting death of an unarmed Iraqi prisoner during fighting in Fallujah in 2004, the military said Friday.

AP - A Camp Pendleton Marine sergeant was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, Iraq.

AFP - Radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr has ordered his Mahdi Army militia to lay down its arms if a security pact between Baghdad and Washington provides for a withdrawal from Iraq, his spokesman said on Friday.

AFP - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has endorsed a 17-billion dollar plan to double the size of the Afghan army over five years, the Pentagon said Friday.

AFP - The Pentagon is mounting a 2.2 billion dollar effort to dramatically expand surveillance of Iraq and Afghanistan by manned and unmanned spy planes, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Reuters - The U.S. Defense Department plans to spend $2.2 billion on a new fleet of spy planes and unmanned drones for Iraq and Afghanistan that would greatly enhance the ability of U.S. forces to track militants, officials said on Thursday.

AFP - The top US commander in Afghanistan has publicly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate of "some complicity" over time with militant groups fomenting violence in Afghanistan.

AFP - The Pentagon is mounting a 2.2 billion dollar effort to dramatically expand surveillance of Iraq and Afghanistan by manned and unmanned spy planes, Pentagon officials said Thursday.