Afghanistan’s defense and interior ministers canceled a trip this week to meet with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in order to deal with the violence in Afghanistan, Pentagon press secretary George Little said Sunday.

The two ministers and other senior Afghan officials were scheduled to meet with Panetta on Thursday, but a wave of violent protests in the wake of the Quran burnings at a U.S. airbase have caused the trip to be put off.

Little said the officials are consulting this week with Afghan government and religious leaders about “how to protect International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) personnel and quell violence in the country.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta might loathe testifying before Congress, but even swearing in public won’t keep him from having to go back to Capitol Hill this week.

Congress will kick things into high gear on the defense budget when it returns from recess this week, with six congressional committees holding nearly a dozen hearings on the Pentagon budget.

Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will reconvene their tag-team duo for two more hearings, this time in front of the House and Senate Budget committees.

“The longer you support the regime’s campaign of violence ... the more it will stain your honor,” said Clinton.

Republicans Sunday cautioned the administration not to use protests against a Quran burning to accelerate the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Romney blasted the president's apology after the accidental burning of Qurans sparked violent protests.

It’s possible the Obama-Netanyahu meeting next week could determine both countries’ course of action for Iran.

Two US officers were killed inside the Afghan interior ministry, NATO officials said.

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Three hawkish senators said Friday that a “Friends of Syria” meeting of nations was not sufficient to stop the violence from the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, reiterating their call for arming the Syrian opposition.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) issued a joint statement Friday saying that the international diplomacy “risks becoming divorced from the reality on the ground in Syria” if more is not done.

Newt Gingrich said the president's apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai was equivalent to "surrender."