The sex scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus widened to ensnare the top US commander in Afghanistan, an improbable drama unfolding at a critical time in the Afghan war effort and just as President Barack Obama was hoping for a smooth transition in his national security team.

A vapour trail resembling a missile launch that crossed the skies off the Southern California coast has left US defence chiefs baffled.

THE caskets of dozens of children lined Jimani’s streets after floods swept away villages and sent families into the darkness and mud in a frantic search for loved ones among the 500 dead and hundreds missing.

A US marine taking part in war games was shot and killed yesterday

Two Kuwaitis shot at US Marines during war games on an island off the Gulf state today, killing one and wounding another in what the Kuwaiti government called a terrorist act. Fellow Marines shot dead the assailants.