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China "has arrived as a world power," the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

The House has passed a $649 billion defense spending bill that boosts the Pentagon budget by $17 billion....

Syrian tanks rolled into a northwestern village and opened fire Monday, wounding at least six people in the latest military maneuver in a weekslong siege near the Turkish border that seeks to crush the country's pro-democracy uprising, activists said.

Military officials are charging three California-based Marine corporals with fraud and larceny for entering in a pair of sham marriages to collect housing funding, officials said. The military alleges that a lesbian couple — one a Marine, the other a civilian — decided to live together off base and wanted to collect the $1,200 housing benefit granted to married Marines.

A day after stepping down as CIA director, Leon Panetta was sworn in Friday as secretary of defense. He began settling into the job by telling members of the military and their families they are "at the top of my agenda."...

Syrian tanks and helicopters opened fire and killed at least two civilians as the military advanced through a series of villages in northwestern Syria on Thursday, a push that sent residents running for the hills, several villagers said in phone calls with CNN.

President Obama pulled another military surprise today during Defense Secretary Robert Gates' farewell ceremony.

Amnesty International said Monday that Egypt's military rulers have acknowledged carrying out so-called "virginity tests" on female protesters -- the first time the army has admitted to the much-criticized practice.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he will withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by year's end and a total of 33,000 by the summer of 2012.

President Barack Obama has made a final decision on his plan for a drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and will announce it in a primetime address to Americans on Wednesday, the White House said on Tuesday.