In a further step toward reconciling with insurgents, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he will soon name the members of a council tasked with pursuing peace talks with rebels willing to break with al-Qaida and recognize the government in Kabul.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates launched into a brutal assessment of the military’s health care system, Tricare, this week, calling it a constant source of complaints from troops and badly in need of financial reform in the face of rapidly increasing cost estimates to the federal government.

U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan are developing a strategy that would tolerate limited corruption but target large-scale abuses, The Washington Post reported late Friday.