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former U.S. prison on Thursday despite protests from the American military, which says the men are Taliban fighters who will likely return to the battlefield to kill coalition and Afghan forces.
• The move further strains relations between Washington and President Hamid Karzai, whose increasingly anti-American rhetoric and refusal to sign a long-negotiated bilateral security deal has increased uncertainty ahead of the year-end withdrawal of most international combat troops.
• Karzai ordered the detainees released several weeks ago, after his government took over the prison from U.S. troops. The decision prompted angry denunciations from Washington. U.S. forces in Afghanistan say some of the men are responsible for killing or wounding dozens of international and Afghan soldiers as well making bombs that have killed civilians.
• The prisoners were freed just after 9 a.m. from the Parwan Detention Facility near Bagram Air Field, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Kabul, according to prison spokesman Maj. Nimatullah Khaki.
• They boarded a bus to leave the facility, laughing and smiling, he said.
• ___

• ROTA, Spain (AP) -- The American ship MV Cape Ray arrived Thursday at the Spanish naval base of Rota for crew rest and refueling ahead of an unprecedented mission to collect and destroy highly toxic substances that form part of Syria's chemical weapons program.
• The ship, which left Portsmouth, Virginia Jan. 27, will leave Rota when Syria has completed removal of its chemical materials and proceed to the transloading port in Italy, Defense Department spokesman Col. Steve Warren said in a statement.
• Here are some questions and answers about the Cape Ray and its mission:
• WHAT IS THE MV CAPE RAY?
• It is a giant U.S. government cargo ship, usually based in Virginia, which has been fitted with two machines designed to neutralize hundreds of tons of the most toxic chemicals, including mustard gas and the raw materials for sarin nerve gas, that are being removed from Syria as part of the international effort to destroy its chemical weapons program by mid-year. The 648-foot (197.5-meter) ship is typically used in relief operations after natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Sandy. It has a crew of about 35 civilian mariners and some technical ex

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