Afghanistan

Seventeen civilians, including two women, were beheaded in Helmand after a late-night music and dance party — in a Taliban-controlled district.

In July 2012, video circulated of Najiba, a 22-year-old Afghan woman in Parwan province, being publicly shot by a gunman as a crowd of men looked on.

In Herat, Afghanistan, farmers swapped opium poppies for saffron — the world's priciest spice — at the cost of Taliban threats and kidnappings.

About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned after drinking contaminated water at a school in Takhar on April 17, 2012 — officials blamed opponents of female

As Leon Panetta's plane landed at Camp Bastion on March 14, 2012, an Afghan contractor drove a stolen truck onto the runway in a suicide-bomb attempt.

In July 2011, after the U.S. froze $800 million in aid, Pakistan's defense minister threatened to pull troops from the Afghan border.