Manas, Kyrgyzstan, Dec. 6, 2013: A rancher watches over a herd of sheep in a field just outside the U.S. Air Force’s transit center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Locals fear loss of jobs when the U.S. Air Force shuts down operations of its center in 2014. The center — in operation since 2001 —employs some 700 locals, but as reporter Josh Smith found, sentiments in the rest of the country were less mournsome. Read the article here.