The blast was apparently aimed at a pair of diplomatic vehicles entering the embassy, but passersby, including women and children, took the brunt of the powerful explosion on a busy thoroughfare in the city center. (Source: Los Angeles)

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Canadian military medic lauded by peers for his quick smile, sharp intellect, and generous heart has been killed by an explosion during an early morning foot patrol in Afghanistan. Private Colin William Wilmot died Sunday in the Panjwaii district near Kandahar city. His age was not released. He is the 87th Canadian soldier killed in the Afghanistan mission. (Source: Chronicle Herald-CAN)

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Afghan officials said fighter aircraft battling militants accidentally killed up to 27 Afghans walking to a wedding ceremony in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, the second military attack in three days with reports of civilian deaths. The U.S. military blamed the claims on militant propaganda and said its missiles only struck insurgents. President Hamid Karzai had already ordered an investigation into allegations that missiles from U.S. helicopters struck civilians on Friday in eastern Afghanistan, though the Defense Ministry said Sunday that attack on the Nuristan-Kunar border killed or wounded 20 militants. (Source: AP)

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Iraq

American and Iraqi forces are driving Al Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror. After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul. A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10. Operation Lion’s Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans’ 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in the death of Abu Khalaf, the Al Qaeda leader, and the capture of more than 1,000 suspects. The group has been reduced to hit-and-run attacks, including one that killed two off-duty policemen yesterday, and sporadic bombings aimed at killing large numbers of officials and civilians. (Source: The Times-UK)

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The United States

He was a flight surgeon with the Navy and a CIA officer in Pakistan. He has also earned a doctorate in sociology and written two books. Now Marc Sageman can add a new entry to his resume: terrorism guru for the New York Police Department. Sageman, billed by the NYPD as its first-ever "scholar in residence," has become a key player in a debate over whether the greatest terror threat America faces comes from inside or outside its borders. His assignment: to teach terrorism workshops to investigators and be a sounding board for a team of NYPD analysts formed after the September 11, 2001 attacks to assess future threats against the city. (Source: AP)

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The major weapons systems being developed and produced by the Defense Department will require $1.6 trillion to complete and $335 billion over the next five years -- money that may not be available because of the continuing cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. In a follow-up to a report conducted last year, which found that the Pentagon "consistently commits to more programs than it can support," the GAO presses for more effective management of weapons systems. The current ones have "cost increases that add up to hundreds of millions of dollars, schedule delays that add up to years, and capabilities that fall short of what was promised," the report concludes.

The GAO also found that funding problems were largely the result of accepting unrealistic original cost estimates, in some cases 30 to 40 percent below current projections, caused mainly by "optimistic assumptions about system requirements and critical technologies." Global Hawk, for example, is an unmanned, remotely piloted, high-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. It can operate as much as 3,000 nautical miles from its launch area and can loiter over a target for 24 hours at altitudes greater than 60,000 feet. The original development estimate for the newest version, now called the RQ-4B, was $900 million; the first review increased that prediction to $967 million. The current estimate is $3.15 billion, according to the GAO. (Source: Washington Post)

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Africa

A lack of laboratory facilities, transport and skilled medical workers is hampering efforts to tackle an outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease also known as kala azar or black fever, in northern Kenya's Isiolo and Wajir districts. "We have a serious shortage of personnel to cover the affected area. We are also faced with the problem of mobility as we have only one vehicle for the work," said Ali Wario, a public health officer in Isiolo, told IRIN. He added that there was a lack of personnel trained in the prevention and management of the disease. The outbreak has killed five people since it was first recorded in April 2008. Ten more cases were confirmed in July by a special surveillance team. In early June, the total number of confirmed cases was 66. (Source: Reuters)

Americas

The Canadian Forces have come under fire in an internal report highly critical of military leaders' lack of interest in an Arctic sovereignty protection exercise last August. Defending Arctic sovereignty is supposed to be a major priority under goals the Harper government set when it took office in February, 2006. The report on Operation Nanook, obtained by The Globe and Mail under the Access to Information law, was written by a Forces directorate that helped organize the August, 2007, Arctic exercise. It says Canadian military leaders didn't place a high enough priority on the operation, and it singles out for criticism Canada Command, the military organization given the task of defending this country. The report says Canada Command failed to issue a set of orders that had been planned to help disseminate instructions on Operation Nanook. (Source: Globe and Mail-CAN)

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The Canadian military will beef up its surveillance capabilities by purchasing a new radar system to guard cities and critical economic areas in the country. The system, GUARD, is expected to be in place by 2010. The system will be ground-based and portable. The radars could see duty at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010. However, one defence official familiar with the GUARD concept said he doesn't expect the air force will meet the necessary timelines to have the system in place for the Games. There are still numerous government approvals to go through for the project. (Source: Canada.com)

Asia

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry insisted Saturday that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology. Abdul Qadeer Khan told The Associated Press on Friday that Pakistan's army supervised a 2000 shipment of used P-1 centrifuges to North Korea. Khan alleged that it must have been sent with the approval of Musharraf, the then-army chief who took power in a 1999 coup. "It was a North Korean plane, and the army had complete knowledge about it and the equipment," Khan said. "It must have gone with his (Musharraf's) consent." The comments caused a stir in Pakistani media, and newspapers played the story prominently on their front pages Saturday. (Source: AP)

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Europe

France says Europe needs stronger defense capabilities, with more helicopters, transport aircraft and space-based surveillance. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says that over the next decade, the EU must become strong enough to run two long-term peacekeeping missions at the same time along with other, smaller missions. Kouchner says Europe also needs to build its abilities to safeguard its sea lanes. Kouchner was speaking Monday at a conference on strengthening ties between the 27-nation EU and NATO. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union and has long pushed for a tougher EU defense. (Source: AP)

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Hundreds of endangered monkeys are being taken from the African bush and sent to a “secretive” laboratory in Iran for scientific experiments. An undercover inquiry by The Sunday Times has revealed that wild monkeys, which are banned from experiments in Britain, are being freely supplied in large numbers to laboratories in other parts of the world. All will undergo invasive and maybe painful experiments leading ultimately to their death. One Tanzanian dealer, Nazir Manji, who runs African Primates, an animal-supplying company based in Dar es Salaam, said that in recent years he had been selling up to 4,000 vervet monkeys a year to laboratories, charging about £60 each. Vervets are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Despite this they are being routinely caught and sold to any buyer prepared to pay. Another Tanzanian dealer, Filbert Rubibira, was asked last year to prepare an order of monkeys to send to the Chinese military for “scientific purposes”. The deal was cancelled at the last minute for reasons that were unclear. Manji said scientists at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran had bought 215 vervet monkeys from him this year but he had become suspicious about their true motive, although he was still trading with them. They had “spent a lot of money” on getting the monkeys, even sending over scientists to check on each consignment. “Iran is very secretive,” said Manji, who has been exporting monkeys for 22 years. “They said it [the monkeys] was for ‘our country’, for vaccine. [They said] ‘We don’t buy vaccine from anywhere; we prepare our own vaccine’. “But I think they use it for something else. You know why? Because they don’t go on kilos. Iran wants [monkeys weighing] 1.5kg to 2.5kg, [but] 1.5kg for vaccine is not possible.” (Source: The Sunday Times-UK)

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Two retired generals were jailed Sunday in connection with an alleged plot to topple Turkey's Islamic-rooted government, the highest-ranking ex-soldiers detained as part of the probe. The two, arrested late Saturday, were among 21 people rounded up in the past week in the investigation into an alleged pro-secular and nationalist network called "Ergenekon," the state-run Anatolia news agency said. Retired General Hursit Tolon, who once headed the paramilitary force, and former top army commander Sener Eruygur, who helped organize a series of anti-government rallies last year, were being held at an Istanbul jail. (Source: AP)

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Middle East

The Egyptian-brokered truce is slowly unraveling as Hamas leaders in Gaza struggle to keep militants, especially their Fatah rivals, from firing the occasional rocket at Israel. After years of derailing Palestinian peace talks with Israel by staging suicide bombings, Hamas is now the one asking rivals to halt their attacks on Israel. Since the cease-fire took hold on June 19, Gaza militants have fired 11 rockets and mortars at southern Israel.

In a Gaza mosque, a group of Islamic Jihad fighters wearing black facemasks and combat vests proudly showed off Chinese-made machine guns and Russian rocket-propelled-grenades. "It's like rain coming down," said Abu Thabet. "You can get all kinds of weapons." "This cease-fire is a matter of rest," said Abu Mohammed. "It's a fighters' break, to prepare for the next stage." (Source: McClatchy)

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Israel's legal authorities have approved Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) plans to target Hamas' civilian infrastructure. After receiving permission to seize property that provides Hamas-affiliated associations with income, even if they are not directly linked to terrorism, the IDF has shut down a mall in Hebron, confiscated buses and prohibited the opening of a new school in Hebron due to ties with Hamas-linked Islamic associations. Offices and storehouses have also been shut down. The IDF argues that closing Hamas-affiliated institutions cuts off a crucial source of funding earmarked for terror activities. The move is also a bid to stem Hamas' rising popularity and keep it from wresting control from the Palestinian Authority. A senior IDF officer said of Hamas, "They have knowledge, funds and skilled people, much more so than Fatah....They won the elections in many towns and local authorities [in the West Bank], and they are gradually gaining control of more education, health, welfare and religious institutions." "We're talking about strengthening the moderate elements that is, the Palestinian Authority, but actually the PA has little control over the area. Hamas has taken over all the associations - not just blatantly Islamic bodies, but also those that used to be under PA control. The Palestinian public prefers Hamas, because they are less corrupt and more efficient." (Source: Ha'aretz)

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Joe Varner is Assistant Professor and Program Manager for Homeland Security at American Military University