AFGHANISTAN

The U.S. Army has started a system-wide review to ensure its mental healthcare facilities are not engaging in the unacceptable practice of considering treatment costs in making a diagnosis, Army Secretary John McHugh told a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Bales, a four-tour combat veteran, will also face other charges, including attempted murder.

As the dust settled the details of Merah's life began to emerge, painting a picture of a troubled young man who was swept up in and radicalized by Middle Eastern jihadism.

After a 32 hour standoff,the Islamic terrorist accused of killing seven people was killed Thursday as police raided his apartment. Click through the slide show to check out dramatic images of the Merah's standoff with French police forces.

A video of an apache helicopter crash disaster in Afghanistan made its way onto the Internet on Thursday, prompting officials to start an investigation for possible criminal charges.

Marine Corps sergeant Gary Stein faces a possible discharge after starting a Facebook page openly condemning President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

The United States should keep a substantial number of troops in Afghanistan despite intensifying doubts about America's mission there, Marine Gen. John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

The French citizen of Algerian heritage had been on the U.S. watch list for two years before he began the rampage that led to his death Thursday. He is believed responsible for the shooting deaths of seven people, including schoolchildren, in Toulouse.

France currently has about 5-million Muslims, making it the largest Islamic community in Europe.

Mohammed Merah, suspected in the killings of seven people in recent days, was found dead Thursday morning after jumping from a window of his Toulouse apartment building, France's interior minister said.

French police set off explosions Wednesday night at a block of flats in Toulouse where the self-proclaimed killer of four Jews was holed up, but the standoff continued into Thursday morning.

Mohammed Merah has been named the suspect in the recent killing of a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school and three French paratroopers. At the moment, French police are in a tense standoff with him. As authorities attempt to negotiate his surrender, facts about the murder suspect are beginning to emerge.

The stand-off between French police and Mohamed Merah has gone on for hours, and with the Toulouse shooting suspect saying he will turn himself in late this evening, it could be a full day before the ordeal is finished.

Victims of the shooting outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France were laid to rest in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening.

The 24-year-old French citizen of Algerian heritage had been under police surveillance since the March 11 killing of a soldier in Toulouse. Two other French service members were killed, followed by three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school Monday.

Police surrounded the apartment building of 24-year-old Mohammed Merah, a French national and self-confessed al Qaeda member, after an early-morning raid went awry.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the American soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in cold blood, will face charges within a week.

Islamabad also wants an end to U.S. drone strikes which they claimed have caused more damage than they are worth.

Sgt. Robert Bales has no memory of the slaughter of Afghan civilians he is accused of, his lawyer said Monday.

The Israeli officials have agreed with the U.S. assessment that Iran has not yet decided on the actual construction of a nuclear bomb, the Associated Press reported quoting senior Israeli government and defense figures.

With formal charges against his client likely within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers was flying to Kansas Sunday and getting ready to meet the soldier for the first time.