Operations

The Army's top officer proposed a 8,000 to 9,000-man force to remain in Afghanistan after all U.S. and allied combat forces withdraw from the country next year. 

Leaders of the primary Islamist militant sect in central Russia are denying any ties to the two suspects accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings. 

The White House said Monday it will not treat the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon attack as an enemy combatant.

Canadian police have arrested two people in connection with the plotting of a major terrorist attack, according to reports.

Canadian authorities will announced later Monday they are arresting two suspects in Montreal and Toronto, who are expected to appear in court Tuesday, the CBC reported.

The case has no connection to last week’s Boston Marathon bombing, Canadian officials said.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai is demanding the CIA ramp down its operations in Afghanistan as Kabul prepares to take over security operations from U.S. and allied forces. 

Germany pledged to keep 600 to 800 troops in Afghanistan to help with training after 2014 when combat troops are scheduled to depart.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière said Thursday that Germany wants to keep the troops in Afghanistan in 2015 for a two-year period, The Associated Press reported.

The soldiers would be stationed in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. After the two years, about 200 to 300 would be concentrated in Kabul, according to the AP.

The Topline: Inside a Hart Senate Office Building hearing room on Wednesday, things proceeded normally, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The scene outside was a different story.

Capitol Police had locked down the Hart Building to investigate a suspicious envelope on the building’s third floor and a suspicious package in the atrium. Another suspicious envelope was found in the Russell Building.

For more than an hour staffers were told to stay in their offices and no one was let inside the building. A police officer was stationed right outside the door of the hearing room where Hagel and Dempsey were testifying, requiring spectators and reporters to remain inside.

The suspicious packages turned out to be harmless, but the incident underscored the tension in the Capitol after a letter containing the deadly poison ricin was sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Tuesday.

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A letter with the poison ricin was sent to Wicker's office but caught at a mail processing facility.

As the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan drops, the number of American drones in the country must increase, the top U.S. commander in the region told Congress on Tuesday. 

Pakistan is not taking steps to sandbag an Afghan-led effort to get the Taliban to the negotiating table, despite claims by Kabul the country is intentionally sabotaging the peace process.