U.S. general killed, German general wounded in Afghan attack: officials

 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers keep watch at the gate of a British-run military training academy Camp Qargha, in Kabul August 5, 2014.

 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers keep watch at the gate of a British-run military tA U.S. general was killed and more than a dozen people were wounded, including a German general, in the latest insider attack by a man believed to be an Afghan soldier, U.S., German and Afghan officials said on Tuesday.

The slain general, whose identity was not immediately released by the Pentagon, was believed to be the most senior U.S. military official killed in action in Afghanistan since the war there began in 2001.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters that "many were seriously wounded" and the gunman was killed in the attack, which took place on Tuesday at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University, a training center in Kabul.

Air strikes in east of Syrian capital kill 64: monitoring group

Children react beside a dead body under rubble at a site hit by what activists said were two airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Douma in eastern al-Ghouta, near

Air strikes by Syrian government forces in the eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus killed at least 64 people at the weekend, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

Bombardments, gun battles and executions regularly kill over 150 people a day in Syria's three-year-old conflict, but the toll from the air strikes was especially high.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group that tracks violence through a network of sources in Syria, said the attacks occurred in the areas of Kafr Batna and Douma in the eastern outskirts of the city.

Central African Republic ceasefire in tatters after clashes

                                   Seleka fighters take a break as they sit on a pick-up truck in the town of Goya

The Central African Republic's Muslim rebels and Christian militia accused each other on Tuesday of violating a ceasefire deal signed last month, following days of clashes in the country's remote north.

The signing two weeks ago in the neighboring Congo Republic raised hopes of a political solution to sectarian violence that has killed thousands and displaced more than a million people since the Muslim Seleka fighters seized power in March 2013.

The Christian "anti-balaka" took up arms in response to a wave of abuses by Seleka fighters once in power last year, pushing the rebels back northward. Tens of thousands of Muslims fled militia violence into the Seleka-controlled enclave.

Ukraine keeps up anti-rebel offensive with nervous eye on Russia

 Members of Ukrainian self-defence battalion "Donbass" prepare to relocate to another base in the eastern Ukrainian town of Popasna

Ukrainian government forces, backed by warplanes, kept up a military offensive to claw back lost territory from pro-Russian separatists on Tuesday while casting a nervous eye at Russian military exercises over the border.

Kiev's military said government forces had clashed 26 times with separatists in the Russian-speaking east in the 24 hours up to Tuesday morning, while fighter jets had struck at rebel positions and concentrations of military equipment.

But it acknowledged that separatist forces had pushed it out of Yasynuvata, a railway junction near the main rebel-controlled city of Donetsk that it seized from separatists on Sunday.

Sierra Leone, Liberia deploy troops as Ebola toll hits 887

Health workers, wearing head-to-toe protective gear, prepare for work, outside an isolation unit in Foya District, Lofa County, Liberia in this July 2014

Hundreds of troops deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia on Monday to quarantine communities hit by the deadly Ebola virus, as the death toll from the worst-ever outbreak reached 887 and three new cases were reported in Nigeria.

With healthcare systems in the West Africa nations overrun by the epidemic, the African Development Bank and World Bank said they would immediately disburse $260 million to the three countries worst affected - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

The World Health Organization, which warned last week of catastrophic consequences if the disease were not controlled, reported 61 new deaths in the two days to Aug. 1 as the disease continues to spread.