Afghanistan

Adjacent to the U.S. Embassy, a five-star Marriott hotel designed to withstand bombings may serve as a "security bubble" once opened in February 2013.

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is also a broad infrastructure building effort, according to military officials who talk about a rail building effort known as the Silk Road Initiative

A U.S. ambassador is proposing a novel approach to helping Afghanistan -- since opium crops are rampant, why not find a way to turn poppies into biofuel?

New video game-like programs are enabling the U.S. military to train for deployment in the middle east. One program is modeled off the urban planning computer game SimCity.

For more than 1,000 U.S. civilians being sent to Afghanistan to aid the nation's political and economic recovery, training starts in a small Indiana city where the Army and National Guard have built a mock Afghan city complex.

In Afghanistan, cities are changing. More and more people are leaving behind their agricultural past for city life, and the tide of new urbanites is stressing the fabric of the city.

A nonprofit program started in 2007 is teaching kids in Kabul, Afghanistan how to skateboard. This slideshow from the Los Angeles Times takes a look.

The military presence in Afghanistan is expanding at a rapid pace, creating a military sprawl.

A ring road covering more than 1,500 miles in Afghanistan has eased shipping in the country, but traveling along the new pavement is still dangerous.