The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump's young presidency.

The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, the official said. It follows Trump's move to give Mattis the authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn't have enough forces to help Afghanistan's army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency. The rising threat posed by Islamic State extremists, evidenced in a rash of deadly attacks in the capital city of Kabul, has only fueled calls for a stronger U.S. presence, as have several recent American combat deaths.

A popular Lebanese rock band has been banned from performing in Jordan for the second year in a row, amid allegations that the musicians violate the kingdom's traditions.

Dennis Rodman, the former NBA bad boy who has palled around with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday on a trip he says he hopes will "open a door" for his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss — U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hours after his arrival, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that North Korea had released an American student serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts. The family of Otto Warmbier said he was in a coma and was on a Medivac flight home. It wasn't immediately clear whether his release was connected to Rodman's visit.

As a fresh NBA champions cap sat a tad off-kilter on his head, Kevin Durant embraced mother Wanda. Then he moved across the podium and hugged Stephen Curry before accepting his shiny MVP trophy, holding out his arms and hoisting it for everyone to see.

From the Bay all the way to OKC.

A human rights watchdog has urged the U.S.-led coalition battling to capture the Islamic State group's de facto capital of Raqqa to make the protection of civilians its priority in the campaign.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch says in a statement released on Tuesday that the United States and the local partner forces on the ground must respect human rights and rights of everyone caught up in the battle.

A British spokesman in Cyprus says an explosion at the police headquarters of a U.K. military base has slightly injured one policeman and caused minor structural damage.

Kristian Gray said Tuesday that authorities are treating the pre-dawn explosion at Dhekelia Garrison near Cyprus' southeastern coast as a criminal matter.

After nearly five months of living apart, President Donald Trump's wife, Melania, announced Sunday that she and the couple's young son have finally moved into the executive mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Mother and son broke with tradition by living at Trump Tower in New York since the inauguration so that Barron, now 11, could finish the school year uninterrupted; the president lived and worked at the White House.

Qatar said Monday it had begun shipping cargo through Oman to bypass Gulf countries that have cut off sea routes to the tiny, energy-rich nation, the latest move by Doha to show it can survive a diplomatic dispute with its neighbors.

Qatar's port authority published video showing a container ship loaded down with cargo arriving at Doha's Hamad Port from Oman's port of Sohar to a water-cannon welcome.

Its strongholds in Iraq and Syria slipping from its grasp, the Islamic State group threatened to make this year's Ramadan a bloody one at home and abroad. With attacks in Egypt, Britain and Iran among others and a land-grab in the Philippines, the group is trying to divert attention from its losses and win over supporters around the world in the twisted competition for jihadi recruits during the Muslim holy month.

Ken Shefveland's body was swollen with cancer, treatment after treatment failing until doctors gambled on a radical approach: They removed some of his immune cells, engineered them into cancer assassins and unleashed them into his bloodstream.

Immune therapy is the hottest trend in cancer care and this is its next frontier — creating "living drugs" that grow inside the body into an army that seeks and destroys tumors.