Wars’ End U.S. ARMY soldiers from 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment sit in a courtyard outside an Iraqi police station during a joint operation with Iraqi security forces on the first day after America ended its combat role on Wednesday. AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

Hawking says God not needed for creation

     LONDON (AP) — Physicist Stephen Hawking says God wasn’t necessary for the creation of the universe.
     In his new book, “The Grand Design,” the British scientist says unraveling a complex series of theories will explain the universe. The book, written with American physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow, will be published Sept. 9.
In an extract published Thursday in The Times, Hawking wrote that it was “not necessary to invoke God.”
     “The Universe can and will create itself from nothing,” Hawking wrote. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.”
     In “A Brief History of Time,” Hawking had appeared to accept the possibility of a creator, saying the discovery of a complete theory would allow humans to “know the mind of God.”

2 US troops killed in Afghanistan

     KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two American troops died in fighting in Afghanistan on Thursday, while NATO and local officials said coalition and Afghan forces killed dozens of insurgents in a series of ground and air engagements.
     U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, arrived in the Afghan capital for meetings with President Hamid Karzai and NATO commander Gen. David Petraeus. The Pentagon chief also plans to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan...

Petraeus calls relationship with Karzai sound

     KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top US military commander in Afghanistan says the sometimes strained relationship between the US and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is solid.
     Gen. David Petraeus (peh-TRAY’-uhs) says Karzai shares US concerns about corruption in his country. Petraeus acknowledged “friction” over the case of a close Karzai aide arrested this summer in a corruption probe. The aide was released after Karzai intervened.
     Petraeus says he heard Karzai assure President Barack Obama that he will back the work of US-sponsored anticorruption investigators.
     The United States has said it views the case of Mohammed Zia Salehi as a test of Karzai’s willingness to take on graft and sleaze in his government.