BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tries to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

Panetta’s two-day trip had been scheduled before Sunday’s shootings, but it takes on new meaning as political pressure mounts on Afghan and U.S. officials over the unpopular war, now dragging into its eleventh year.

BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Wednesday, as the United States tries to contain fallout from a massacre of 16 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

Panetta’s two-day trip had been scheduled before Sunday’s shootings, but it takes on new meaning as political pressure mounts on Afghan and U.S. officials over the unpopular war, now dragging into its eleventh year.

BISHKEK (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sounded out the government of Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday over the future of an important air base that the Central Asian country’s president wants the U.S. military to vacate when its lease expires in 2014, U.S. officials said.

The United States uses the Manas transit center as a gateway for troops heading to Afghanistan and to stage aerial refueling. The base is adjacent to Kyrgyzstan’s main international airport, also called Manas, just outside the capital of Bishkek.

MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought over the massacre of 16 villagers in Afghanistan, which U.S. officials said they believe was the work of a rogue American soldier.

The shooting spree in the southern province of Kandahar, which killed mostly women and children, has triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit from the country, as Washington tries to negotiate a long-term presence to keep it from sliding into chaos again.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Partial remains from some people killed in the September 11 attacks in 2001 ended up in a landfill, according to a Pentagon-commissioned report released on Tuesday that revealed previously undisclosed blunders at the U.S. military’s main mortuary.

The unidentified remains came from two of the three sites of the September 11 attacks: the Pentagon and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site of one of the hijacked airliners. The World Trade Center in New York City, which was leveled in the attacks, was not cited.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Partial remains from some victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001 ended up in a landfill, according to a Pentagon-commissioned report released on Tuesday that revealed previously undisclosed blunders at the U.S. military’s main mortuary.

The remains came from two of the three sites of the September 11 attacks: the Pentagon and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania crash site of one of the hijacked airliners. The World Trade Center in New York City, which was leveled in the attacks, was not cited.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After a third day of bloody protests over the burning of the Koran, there is a sense that America is lurching from one image crisis to the next in Afghanistan, with no clear path for U.S. officials to defuse the latest uproar.

President Barack Obama apologized on Thursday for the burning of copies of the Koran on a U.S. base in Afghanistan, an incident that has triggered far more outcry than another shocking incident: the emergence of a video last month showing Marines urinating on the corpses of what appear to be dead Taliban fighters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After a third day of bloody protests over the burning of the Koran, there is a sense that America is lurching from one image crisis to the next in Afghanistan, with no clear path for U.S. officials to defuse the latest uproar.

President Barack Obama apologized on Thursday for the burning of copies of the Koran on a U.S. base in Afghanistan, an

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer forcefully argued against a cut-off in aid to Egypt on Thursday but acknowledged there needed to be “consequences” after a crackdown on U.S. pro-democracy activists that has strained ties between Cairo and Washington.

Washington has said $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid is at risk due to an Egyptian probe into civil society groups that has resulted in charges against 43 activists, including 19 Americans who have been barred from leaving the country. Some have taken refuge at the U.S. embassy.