An Australian soldier is wounded in Afghanistan – The US hasn’t just been spying on one European leader’s phone, it’s been going on for a very long time – And Saudi women did defy the driving ban after all.

Two soldiers, one Australian and one from New Zealand, were hurt in an “insider attack” in Afghanistan.  An Afghan soldier opened fire on the coalition forces outside Kabul.  Quick thinking Aussie troops shot the gunman and saved the others from being hit, according to the Defence Force.  These troops were not killed, but other insider attacks have killed 15 coalition soldiers this year.

Despite organizers canceling the mass protest, dozens of women around Saudi Arabia defied the oil kingdom’s ban on female drivers, and got behind the wheel.  At least 60 women took part, making it the biggest protest to date against the ultra-conservative and technically unwritten rule.  Saudi security says no one was ticketed nor arrested.

The US has been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone since 2002.  Der Spiegel magazine Merkel’s phone number was on the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) even before she was elected Germany’s leader.  The revelation came from the Snowden documents of US intelligence secrets, as did a new report from Italy:  American and British intelligence services have been spying on Italy’s phone and internet traffic, according to the news magazine L’Espresso.  The UK spy centre GCHQ allegedly eavesdropped on three undersea cables with terminals in Italy and intercepted commercial and military data, sharing it with the NSA.

Close to two thousand people marched in Washington, DC to protest the NSA’s surveillance programs.  The “Stop Watching Us” coalition is made of more than 100 public advocacy groups that want the US Congress to pass laws directing the NSA and spy agencies to end mass surveillance.  The coalition is just libertarians on parade, it included serious groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Gunmen killed 14 Iranian border guards in a southern, predominantly Sunni area of the Shia Islamic republican; Tehran responded by immediately executing 16 prisoners by hanging.  The prisoners and the attackers were referred to as “rebels” and “enemies” of Iran. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is warning that Japan will “stand up to China”.  He told the Wall Street Journal that if Beijing used force to change the status quo in East Asia, Japan is ready to counter it.  China is disputing Japan’s century-plus of control over a group of islands that just happen to sit above lucrative oil and gas reserves.

Serbia held a state funeral with full military honors for Jovanka Broz, widow if the late Yugoslav Communist ruler Josip Broz Tito.  Following the end of the cold war, she had been sent into internal exile, confined to a house with no heat or electricity.  Serbia’s Prime minister rehabilitated her reputation in the last few months.

Actress Marcia Wallace is dead at age 70.  The versatile comedienne provided the voice of Bart’s less-than-dedicated teacher Mrs. Krabappel on “The Simpsons”.  Before that, TV audiences enjoyed her as Carol the receptionist trading witticisms with the doctors on “The Bob Newhart Show”.

Flooding in the Andhra Pradesh area of India has claimed at least 32 lives.  Incessant, week-long rains have finally broken, but not before sending dozens of rivers and streams over their banks.  And more rain is expected in the next few days.