Atak said Monday that two people were killed inside the truck and that four others died in a minibus that was caught in the blast. Insurgents regularly attack supply convoys for the U.S.-led coalition and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year. (Source: AP)

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U.S. and NATO missile strikes continued to exact a heavy toll in Afghanistan, with at least 13 Afghans killed in two incidents over the weekend that Afghan officials said were mistakes. One NATO soldier was also killed in the eastern province of Khost. Although NATO did not give the nationality of the soldier, U.S. forces are deployed in Khost. Nine Afghan policemen were killed and five others wounded in a case of friendly fire in western Afghanistan when a joint convoy of Afghan and U.S. forces called in airstrikes on a group they thought to be militants. Separately, at least four people were killed when two mortars fired by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan went astray. The U.S. military announced it was beginning an investigation into the first incident. The joint Afghan and U.S. force came under attack in the province of Farah from an unknown force while conducting nighttime operations in Ana Dara District, a statement issued from Bagram Air Base said. Coalition forces returned fire and then called in airstrikes on the group firing at them. The presidential spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said the strikes had been a case of friendly fire. Among those wounded was the police chief of the district, the deputy provincial governor said, according to Reuters. (Source: IHT)

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Despite the significant gains Canadian troops have achieved in Afghanistan, General Walter Natynczyk admitted Sunday the country's overall situation is worsening. Canada's top soldier told CTV's Question Period that insurgent attacks have increased year over year, specifically in some parts of the country. "You have a worsening security situation, especially localized in three areas, the Kabul area, in the Regional Command East, where the Americans are, and in the south where we are with the British forces and the Dutch," he said. The statement appeared to backtrack from what Natynczyk said earlier this month after he completed his first visit to Afghanistan as the Chief of Defence Staff.

(Source: CTV)

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Afghanistan is replacing Iraq as the destination of choice for international jihadists, Western intelligence agencies claim. Analysts have monitored a surge in online recruitment of “lions of Islam” to join the war in Afghanistan through jihadist websites, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Chechnya and Turkey, in the past year. That is now being matched by evidence of an increase in foreign fighters entering Afghanistan, mostly from training bases established in the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) of Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding. One Kabul-based Western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said: “There is a change with an increase in attacks in the east [along the Pakistan border] and more chatter of foreign voices is being detected.” Intelligence officials say that the number of Al Qaeda-linked foreign fighters involved remains small within the overall context of the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, on a trip to Kabul last week Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters: “There are clearly more foreign fighters in the Fata than have been there in the past. What that really speaks to is that's a safe haven and it's got to be eliminated for all insurgents, not just al-Qaeda.” (Source: The Times-UK)

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France's defence minister told President Hamid Karzai in talks in Kabul Saturday that his country would stand by Afghanistan, which is battling an extremist insurgency. Defence Minister Herve Morin visited Karzai after arriving on a surprise two-day trip to meet French reinforcements deploying to a base near Kabul as part of a NATO-led force battling Taliban and other insurgents. In their talks, Morin "assured his government stands by the people of Afghanistan," Kazai's office said in a statement. (Source: AFP)

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The Pakistani military says six troops and an unknown number of militants have died in fighting in the southwest. A spokesman said the clashes began Saturday when militants attacked a convoy near Dera Bugti in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The spokesman said troops sent to the area destroyed two militant camps before withdrawing early Monday. He said a number of militants were killed, but didn't know how many. The spokesman cannot be identified by name under the military's rules. (Source: AP)

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A court on Monday barred the disgraced architect of Pakistan's atomic weapons program from speaking about nuclear proliferation, less than three weeks after he implicated the army in the sharing of nuclear technology with North Korea. Abdul Qadeer Khan has been largely confined to his home in the capital since taking sole responsibility in 2004 for leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. However, he recently began agitating for an end to his confinement, disowning his 2004 confession in media interviews and saying the army had known all about at least one act of proliferation in 2000. President Pervez Musharraf issued a swift denial. (Source: AP)

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Explosions on two public buses in southwest China early Monday killed two people and wounded 14, heightening fears of terrorism just weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games. The separate blasts went off in downtown Kunming city in southwest Yunnan province, the Yunnan Public Security Bureau said in a notice on its website. They were deliberately set, it said. Photos on the Internet showed a bus with all its windows shattered and a gaping hole in its side. The official Xinhua News Agency said a destroyed bus was seen in front of the Panjiawan bus stop, and broken glass was scattered in front. The government has boosted national security to ensure a worry-free Olympics they say are a target for terrorism. Checks at subway stations and airports have increased, and anti-terrorist forces are being deployed to Olympic sites. Police closed roads and set up checkpoints to prevent suspects from escaping. The first explosion occurred at 7:05 a.m. on public bus 54 on West Renmin road, and the second at 8:10 a.m. at a nearby intersection. No further information was available. The Kunming police refused to comment, saying the information had been released in Xinhua reports. (Source: AP)

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The leader of a Muslim insurgent group in southern Thailand denounced the recent announcement of a cease-fire in the region as a hoax, while suspected rebels set off a bomb Monday that wounded seven people. Six policemen and a civilian were wounded when the homemade bomb triggered by a cell phone exploded along a road in Yala province. He said Muslim rebels were suspected in the attack. More than 3,300 people have been killed in drive-by shootings and bombings since early 2004, when a decades-old insurgency flared in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, the only Muslim-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist country. Shortly before Monday's violence, the deputy president of the Pattani United Liberation Organization, or PULO, denounced an alleged cease-fire agreement between the Thai government and a group called the United Southern Underground, and said the "struggle for independence" would continue.

The previously unknown group, claiming to represent others involved in the insurgency, announced last Thursday that it had ended all violence in the region. The announcement was greeted with widespread doubt. (Source: AP)

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A local Interior Ministry official says unidentified assailants have shot and killed three police officers in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region of Chechnya. The official says the bullet-riddled bodies of three officers who had been guarding an Interior Ministry trailer were found on a collective farm early Monday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media officially. He says the assailants made off with the officers' guns. Chechnya has been torn apart by two wars since 1994 pitting separatist rebels against Russian forces. (Source: AP)

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Hours of fighting in the Somali capital killed at least seven civilians, including three young siblings who were leaving a religious school when a mortar landed nearby, witnesses said Monday. Sunday's fighting pitted insurgents against government forces and their Ethiopian allies, who come under regular attack in Mogadishu, one of the most violent cities in the world. "One of the shells landed near a Quranic school, killing three children from the same family," said resident Abdi Moalim Haji, who saw the carnage and recognized the children, aged 6, 8 and 11. About 11 other people were injured, he said. His account was confirmed by another witness, Abdi Nur Ahmed. It was not immediately clear how many combatants died; each side claimed to have inflicted heavy losses. (Source: AP)

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Palestinian security officials say Shehadeh Jawhar, military commander of the Jund al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of Al Qaeda, died Sunday after a clash Saturday with members of Fatah inside Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon. Two other Palestinian militants were killed. Jawhar was a prominent extremist who fought American troops in Iraq. He was wanted by Lebanese authorities for numerous acts of violence. (Source: AP/Washington Post)

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With the uncovering of a second Arab-Israeli cell with ties to Al Qaeda in the space of a few weeks, we learn that among Arab Israelis, like the Palestinians in the territories, there is growing support for the messages of Al Qaeda. For some years now the public declarations of Bin Laden and his aides have increasingly focused on Israel and Jewish communities around the world as targets for terrorist attacks. It is also known that cells linked with Al Qaeda operate with relative ease in Gaza. The desire of Al Qaeda to operate in Israel is finding fertile ground. There are those who will willingly offer assistance, and therefore the likelihood of a strike by international jihad on Israeli soil (similar attacks have already taken place in Jordan and Sinai) is of reasonable likelihood. (Source: Ha'aretz)

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Egyptian police say they've arrested nearly 40 members of the country's largest opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood. A police official says 39 men were arrested Monday during a raid on a camp north of Cairo. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter. The official says the men were training to "revive" the outlawed group. But the men, aged 18 to 35, say they were only on vacation. Though officially banned, Brotherhood members have run for political office as independents, and currently hold about a fifth of the 454 seats in Egypt's parliament. (Source: AP)

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Iraq

The Pentagon's top military officer said Sunday a specific time frame for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq could jeopardize political and economic progress, leading to "dangerous consequences." Admiral Mike Mullen said the agreement between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to set a "general time horizon" for bringing more troops home from the war was a sign of "healthy negotiations for a burgeoning democracy." (Source: AP)

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The U.S. military says American soldiers have killed two armed relatives of a provincial governor during a raid against Al Qaeda in Iraq. The military says in a statement that the soldiers were acting in self-defence when they shot the relatives of Hamad Hammoud, governor of Salhuddin province. It says the slain men showed "hostile intent." The raid happened Sunday in Beiji in northern Iraq. The deputy governor, Abdullah Hussein Jabarah, says the slain men were the son and nephew of the governor. The U.S. military says a financier for Al Qaeda in Iraq was wounded and captured during the operation.

(Source: AP)

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The U.S. military in Iraq says it has arrested a suspected propaganda expert linked to a militant group that receives training from Iran. The military says it believes the man is a member of the Hezbollah Brigades, an Iraqi group it describes as "an offshoot of Iranian-trained special groups." That's how the U.S. refers to Shiite fighters defying a cease-fire order from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A military statement says the man uploads to the Web images and video of attacks on Iraqi and U.S.-led forces. The information is allegedly used to raise money and other kinds of support from Iranian backers. The suspect was arrested Monday in Baghdad. (Source: AP)

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United States

Osama bin Laden's former driver is scheduled to stand trial on Monday in the first war crimes tribunal at America's terrorist prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The historic action comes nearly seven years after President Bush first moved to establish military commissions to try suspected Al Qaeda terrorists. The special military commission process was designed to offer a stripped-down version of justice to illegal enemy combatants who, by engaging in terrorism, were said to have forfeited any right to more robust legal protections. (Source: CSM)

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President Bush's single largest request for funds and "most important initiative" in the fiscal 2009 intelligence budget is for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a little publicized but massive program whose details "remain vague and thus open to question," according to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. A highly classified, multiyear, multibillion-dollar project, CNCI, or "Cyber Initiative," is designed to develop a plan to secure government computer systems against foreign and domestic intruders and prepare for future threats. Any initial plan can later be expanded to cover sensitive civilian systems to protect financial, commercial and other vital infrastructure data. (Source: Washington Post)

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A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber carrying six crew members and en route to conduct a flyover in a parade crashed off the island of Guam on Monday. At least two people were recovered from the waters, but their condition was not immediately available. Rescue crews from the Navy, Coast Guard and local fire department launched a massive aerial and ocean search for the others in and around a vast area of floating debris and a sheen of oil. The crashed occurred at 9:45 a.m. Monday about 50 kilometres northwest of Apra Harbor. The accident is the second for the Air Force this year on Guam, a U.S. territory 6,000 kilometres southwest of Hawaii. In February, a B-2 crashed at Andersen Air Force Base shortly after takeoff in the first-ever crash of a stealth bomber. Both pilots ejected safely. The military estimated the cost of the loss of that aircraft at $1.4 billion (U.S.). (Source: Globe and Mail-CAN)

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Africa

Zimbabwe's president and opposition leader will sign an agreement setting the terms for talks to form a unity government, South Africa's foreign affairs spokesman said Monday. The spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, said the agreement is "a positive step forward in the ongoing dialogue," to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe since elections in March, which escalated after June's widely condemned presidential runoff. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won more votes than President Robert Mugabe in March but pulled out of the runoff because of escalating state-sponsored violence against opposition supporters. Monday's breakthrough came after South African President Thabo Mbeki agreed Friday to work closely with the UN and the African Union in his role as mediator. The signing is to take place in Harare Monday afternoon in the presence of Mr. Mbeki. It will be a diplomatic coup for Mr. Mbeki, who has insisted that dialogue and not punitive sanctions are the only way to deal with Mr. Mugabe. (Source: AP)

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At a time of drought, skyrocketing food prices, crippling inflation and intensifying street fighting, many of the aid workers upon whom millions of Somalis depend for survival are fleeing their posts - or in some cases the country. They are being driven out by what appears to be an organized terror campaign. Ominous leaflets recently surfaced on the bullet-pocked streets of Mogadishu, Somalia's ruin of a capital, calling aid workers "infidels" and warning them that they will be methodically hunted down. Since January, at least 20 aid workers have been killed, more than in any year in recent memory. Still others have been abducted. The deliberate assault on aid workers is a chilling new dimension to the crisis in Somalia that has unfolded over the past 17 years but has grown increasingly violent as outside forces, including the U.S. military, have turned a civil war into a more international conflict. UN officials are especially worried by the recent attacks because they say Somalia is heading toward another full-blown famine. Without professional workers to distribute food or tend to the sick, the country could sink into a catastrophe reminiscent of the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. (Source: IHT)

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Americas

Omar Khadr would likely never face conviction in Canada even if there was a way to charge him with an offence under Canadian law, legal experts who advocate his repatriation acknowledge. The legal opinions up the ante in the raging public debate between those who want the former child soldier returned to Canada and those who say he should face American military justice. University of British Columbia law professor Michael Byers, a noted international law expert and would-be federal NDP candidate, is one of many who want the Toronto-born Khadr released from the U.S. military prison in Cuba. Khadr, the only westerner being held at Guantanamo Bay, could be tried under Canada's War Crimes Act. Others say Canada could use its anti-terrorism legislation, currently being tested in the bomb-plot trial of Momin Khawaja, as the mechanism for prosecution north of the border. But that doesn't mean Khadr, who was 15 years old when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, would be convicted, or even held in custody. (Source: CTV)

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Asia

China and Russia signed an agreement Monday to end a long-running dispute over the demarcation of their eastern border, the scene of military clashes between the once-bitter Communist rivals. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signed the agreement with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, but no details were immediately released on how the border issues were resolved. (Source: Washington Times)

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Cambodian and Thai military leaders held talks Monday aimed at reducing simmering tensions over disputed territory near a World Heritage Site temple, where more than 4,000 troops from the two sides have been deployed. There was little sign of a swift resolution at the talks, which dragged on behind closed doors, leaving delegates from both sides visibly strained. The conflict over territory near the ancient Preah Vihear Hindu temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia's application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site. Thai activists say the new status undermines Thailand's claim to 1.8 square miles around the temple. (Source: AP)

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Sri Lankan government forces captured a Tamil Tiger rebel base in the north Sunday after a 48-hour battle that left at least 15 rebels dead, while air force jets destroyed six rebel boats. Clashes elsewhere in the region killed 16 rebels and one soldier. The civil war on the Indian Ocean island has escalated in recent months, with the military stepping up ground assaults and air strikes after the government pledged to capture rebel-held territory and crush the insurgents. In the latest assault, army troops seized a rebel base in the village of Illupakadavai in the northern Mannar district early Sunday. (Source: AP)

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Middle East

Director of Military Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin told the cabinet Sunday, "We have intelligence indicating terror activities are possible both on the northern and southern fronts. Hizbullah may choose to use one of their still disputed subjects, such as the Shaaba Farms or Imad Mugniyah's assassination." Regarding the Iranian threat, Yadlin said Iran is forging ahead with its nuclear developments, despite the international community implementing some diplomatic and financial duress. Syria, he said, is "escaping its international isolation, despite assisting Hizbullah. Damascus is taking several steps in order to get closer to the West, but is still very much a part of the axis of terror." Yadlin said that in Gaza, "quality arms are still being smuggled into the Strip." (Source: Ynet News)

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Israel is calling for removal of two UN soldiers from Lebanon after photographs surfaced of the soldiers saluting the coffins of Hizbullah terrorists during a prisoner exchange last week. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said he was "shocked and horrified" by the photograph and that it was time for the saluting soldiers to go. "I think they should be recalled and be sent back to whichever country they came from....They are there as peacekeepers with a very clear mandate to disarm Hizbullah, they're not there to honor terrorists," he said. (Source: FOX News)

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Iranian and American officials were deadlocked Saturday after their highly publicized meeting failed to produce a breakthrough. After six unproductive hours the Iranians were given two weeks to respond. "Iran has a choice to make: negotiation or further isolation," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. The negotiations, in Geneva, allowed the U.S. to press its demand for the immediate suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program. However, Iran refused to agree to any such proposal. Diplomats described the talks as a final attempt to persuade Iran that it must freeze its nuclear program. "They can take this message away with them to Iran," said a British official. "If they don't agree to our proposals, we will have to start imposing sanctions." (Source: Times-UK)

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The U.S. is fine-tuning new financial penalties against Iran that would target everything from gasoline imports to the insurance sector, and the prospect of such sanctions grew after talks over its nuclear-fuel program this weekend made no progress. The sanctions could include measures to impede Iran's shipping operations in the Persian Gulf and its banking activities in Asia and the Middle East, officials said. "We have not gotten all the answers to the questions," said EU foreign-policy coordinator Javier Solana after Saturday's meeting. He said the two-week timeframe was meant to give Iran the space to come up with "the answers that will allow us to continue." (Source: Wall Street Journal)

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior U.S. diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions. In her first public comments since Saturday's meeting in Switzerland, Ms. Rice said Iran had given the run-around to envoys from the U.S. and five other world powers. She said all six nations were serious about a two-week deadline Iran now has to agree to freeze suspect activities and start negotiations or be hit with new penalties. At the meeting, Iran had been expected to respond to a package of incentives offered in exchange for halting enrichment of uranium, which can be used to fuel atomic weapons. The Bush administration broke with long-standing policy to send a top diplomat to support the offer. However, Ms. Rice said that instead of a coherent answer, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili delivered a “meandering” monologue full of irrelevant “small talk about culture” that appeared to annoy many of the others present at the table in Geneva. (Source: AP)

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The Gulf Cooperation Council has been urged to bolster military capability in an effort to counter Iranian dominance and reduce dependence on the West. The Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research has released a study that outlined the Western presence in the Gulf region and recommended responses. The United Arab Emirates study, titled "Arabian Gulf Security: Internal and External Challenges," called on GCC and allied states to form a unified defense strategy to counter threats from Iran and Iraq and reduce the Western military presence. (Source: World Tribune)

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