In an unprecedented action, an Air Force commander has stripped 17 of his officers of their authority to control and launch nuclear missiles.
The 17 are being sent to undergo 60 to 90 days of intensive refresher training on how to do their jobs. The action comes after their unit performed poorly on an inspection and one officer was investigated for potential compromise of nuclear launch codes, according to Lt. Col. John Dorrian, an Air Force spokesman.
The story was first reported by The Associated Press.
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An American military refueling plane took off and crashed in Kyrgyzstan on Friday, Kyrgyz and U.S. officials said.
Three people were on board, said Bolot Sharshenaliev of the Kyrgyz Emergencies Ministry. A ministry spokeswoman had previously said there were five. The U.S. military didn't give the number of those on the plane and said "the status of the crew is unknown."
The plane was a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft, according to the U.S. 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs Transit Center at Manas, near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The crew and aircraft are assigned to the transit center.
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A military judge on Wednesday set a May 29 court-martial for U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009 that left 13 people dead.
Hasan is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder charges for the alleged shootings at the post's processing center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hasan's court-martial has been repeatedly delayed since it was initially set to begin in March 2012, most notably after an appeals court delayed the case over the question of whether the Army major's beard could be forcibly shaved.
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North Korea on Friday shunned a South Korean proposal for talks over the two countries' joint manufacturing zone, where Pyongyang halted activity this month amid tensions.
In a statement on state media, a spokesman for the North's National Defense Commission described Seoul's offer of talks about the Kaesong Industrial Complex as "deceptive."
The complex, which is on the North's side of the border but houses the operations of more than 120 South Korean companies, is seen as the last major symbol of cooperation between the two countries.
FULL STORYIt's been one year since Fort Bragg soldier Kelli Bordeaux went missing, and there's now a reward being offered for information that could help authorities solve the mystery, according to police in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The military is offering $25,000 for information that could help explain what happened to Pfc. Bordeaux, Detective Jeff Locklear told CNN on Monday.
Last April, police and the military searched an area near a Fayetteville bar where Bordeaux was last seen and last used her cell phone, authorities then told CNN.
The 23-year-old soldier left the Froggy Bottoms bar early on a Saturday, police told CNN then. She had been drinking and was given a ride home by a bar employee, according to a U.S. Army official who spoke on condition of anonymity at the time of that story.
FULL STORYTwo coalition service members died following a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.
ISAF didn't release the service members' nationalities or the precise location of the crash.
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South Korea's government said Sunday it believes North Korea may test a missile around April 10, citing as an indicator Pyongyang's push for workers to leave the Kaesong Industrial Complex by then.
Seoul "is on military readiness posture," said South Korea's Blue House spokeswoman Kim Haeng in a briefing. She said national security chief Kim Jang-soo also based the assessment on North Korea's hint to foreign diplomats in Pyongyang to send personnel out of the country.
FULL STORYA soldier has been detained for questioning in Wednesday's shooting death of a civilian employee at Fort Knox, Kentucky, according to a news release from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
The soldier, who was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, was captured in Tennessee.
FULL STORYThe Coast Guard said Thursday it has suspended its search for a shipyard employee who has been missing since high winds blew him into the Mobile River in Mobile, Alabama, on Wednesday.
The winds also caused a Carnival cruise ship to break loose from a repair dock.
An official with the city's fire department said that the missing employee and another person were in a guard shack at the BAE shipyard that was blown into the Mobile River. One of them was found in the water.
FULL STORYA U.S. Navy SEAL was killed and another was injured in a training accident in Arizona, a U.S. Department of Defense official said Friday.
The SEAL who was killed belonged to SEAL Team Six, the elite squad from which a team was selected to go after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan two years ago, a source said.
The accident occurred Thursday at a U.S. Special Operations Command parachute testing and training facility at Pinal Airpark, Arizona.
The SEALs were transported to the University of Arizona Medical Center, where one remains hospitalized, the official said.
The accident is under investigation, the official said.
FULL STORYNorth Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has signed off on a plan to prepare rockets to be on standby for firing at U.S. targets, including the U.S. mainland and military bases in the Pacific and in South Korea, state media reported Thursday.
FULL STORYPresident Barack Obama has nominated Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove to be the next commander of NATO and commander of the U.S. armed forces in Europe, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced Thursday.
Breedlove has been the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa. He has been in the Air Force since graduating from Georgia Tech in 1977.
The current NATO commander, U.S. Adm. James Stavridis, is scheduled to retire this summer.
The bow of a U.S. Navy warship that grounded on a Philippine reef in January was cut from the rest of the hull on Tuesday, lifted by a massive crane, and dropped on a waiting barge.
"The bow section of the USS Guardian was lifted out of the water around 2:45 p.m.," said Enrico Efren Evangelista, head of the Philippine coast guard Palawan District, according to the official Philippine News Agency.
The removal of the bow of the U.S. Navy minesweeper followed that of the ship's auxiliary engine room, a 200-ton piece that was removed a little more than an hour earlier.
With the removal of the two sections, about 900 tons of the formerly 1,300-ton warship remain on Tubbataha Reef, the news agency reported.
FULL STORYMilitary officials have released the names of the gunman and two victims killed at a Marine base in Quantico.
Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata, Corporal Jacob Wooley and Sgt. Eusebio Lopez were killed in the shooting.
Authorities have identified Sgt. Lopez as the alleged shooter.
FULL STORY[Updated at 8:16 a.m. ET] A Marine shot and killed two of his fellow service members at a Virginia base on Thursday night and then apparently killed himself, base officials said.
The incident took place at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The shooter gunned down a man and a woman, the spokesmen said. All are Marines – permanent personnel assigned to the officer candidate school.
Authorities did not disclose a motive and were investigating the incident. The identities of the victims were not immediately disclosed as authorities work to notify next of kin.
FULL STORYThey came from all across America - from Connecticut to Florida to Illinois, and many points in between.
One had been in the Marines for nearly four and a half years, another for just a few months. Many served in Afghanistan, earning numerous honors before making it safely back home to the United States.
On Wednesday, the military released the names of the seven Marines killed Monday night during a training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in western Nevada.
FULL STORYThe U.S. Marine Corps has released the identities of the seven Marines killed in Monday's explosion at the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. They are:
• Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, Clearfield, Pennsylvania;
• Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, Polk City, Florida;
• Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, Fairfield, Connecticut;
• Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, Marietta, Ohio;
• Lance Cpl. Mason J. Vanderwork, 21, Hickory, North Carolina;
• Lance Cpl. William T. Wild IV, 21, Anne Arundel, Maryland;
• Cpl. Aaron J. Ripperda, 26, Madison, Illinois.
The cause of the Monday night blast was a 60 mm round that detonated inside a mortar tube, Brig. Gen. James W. Lukeman, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division, told reporters.
The Marines said in a statement Tuesday evening that all 60 mm mortar rounds and tubes used to fire them are being pulled pending an investigation.
FULL STORYPresident Barack Obama is visiting Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank for the first time since he became president. He and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint news conference Wednesday evening in Jerusalem.
[Update 3:16 p.m.] The news conference has concluded.
[Update 3:15 p.m.] Netanyahu said the United States and Israel have a "common assessment" on Iran's progress in developing a nuclear weapon.
[Update 3:09 p.m.] Obama said that he "purposely did not want to come here and make some big announcement that might not match up to the reality" on the ground regarding the Middle East peace process.
[Update 3:04 p.m.] "I think there is time to resolve this issue diplomatically," Obama said about tension over Iran's nuclear program.
[Update 2:56 p.m.] Obama said that "all options are on the table" regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions, adding that "we will do what is necessary in preventing Iran from getting the world's worst weapons."
Netanyahu said he was "absolutely convinced" that Obama is "determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."
[Update 2:52 p.m.] Obama said he has ordered an investigation of whether the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people, adding he was "deeply skeptical" of any claim the opposition had used them.
"Once we have established the facts, I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game-changer," Obama said, stopping short of saying what he would do if Syria had crossed his "red line" for stronger action.
[Update 2:49 p.m.] Obama said the Syrian government's "use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people would be a serious and tragic mistake," adding that Damascus "will be held for accountable for the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to terrorists."
[Update 2:45 p.m.] Obama said he and Netanyahu discussed extending U.S. assistance for Israel beyond the 2017 deadline of the current agreement between their countries.
[Update 2:42 p.m.] Netanyahu said Wednesday that he hoped the visit by Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry can "help us turn a page in relations" with Palestinians seeking their own state.
[First post 2:38 p.m.] Netanyahu said Wednesday that diplomacy and sanctions have not stopped Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon so far, adding that a peaceful solution also requires a clear and credible threat of military action.
[Updated at 12:29 p.m. ET] The blast that killed seven U.S. Marines and injured eight others Monday night during a training exercise at Nevada's Hawthorne Army Depot was caused by a 60 mm round that detonated in a mortar tube, according to a military official.
[Posted at 9:22 a.m. ET] Seven U.S. Marines were killed and several others were injured during a training exercise Monday night at the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.
The cause of the incident is under investigation, the Marines said.
FULL STORYA group of farmers is on its way to tend to crops. Suddenly, a missile slams into its midst, thrusting shrapnel in all directions.
A CIA drone, flying so high that the farmers can't see it, has killed most of them. None of them were militants.
It's a common scenario, a United Nations human rights researcher said Friday in a statement on drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan.
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