As announced by President Barack Obama and welcomed by Liberian Defense Minister, soldiers from the United States army are expected in the country to provide expertise in the fight against the Ebola virus.  Appearing Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press television program, Obama said U.S. military assets are needed to set up isolation units and equipment and provide security for international health workers.

Britain is to set up a medical centre to treat victims of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, the international development secretary said on Monday. The 62-bed centre near the capital Freetown is planned to be open in eight weeks' time and will be built and operated by military engineers and medical staff. The worst-ever outbreak of the disease has killed 491 people in Sierra Leone, which is one of three countries at the centre of an epidemic that has claimed over 2,000 lives so far.

Pakistan and India have offered each other assistance in dealing with the devastation caused by the floods in the two neighbouring countries. Pakistan on Sunday offered assistance and help to India to mitigate the suffering of the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir due to the floods. While responding to a question regarding floods in held Kashmir, Foreign Office spokesperson said that the government and people of Pakistan express deepest condolences over the loss of precious lives of Kashmiri brethren on both sides of the Line of Control caused by torrential rains and flash floods. 

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is offering to ship rice worth 5 million baht to West African countries hit by the Ebola outbreak. The NCPO is extending its assistance through the World Health Organization (WHO) in a bid to provide humanitarian aid to Ebola patients.

The United Nations and the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders each issued urgent appeals on Tuesday for international aid to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Senior United Nations officials urged diplomats to cable their capitals to send money, doctors and protective gear to the affected region. The doctors’ group called for countries to send civilian and military biohazard experts.

Media outlets in the Maldives have raised nearly $2 million to help Gaza residents affected by massive destruction caused in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, a fundraising organizer said Saturday. “About 10 media institutions, including on-line and print, came together to raise this money,” spokesman Ahmed Zahir said by telephone from Male, the capital of the Sunni Muslim archipelago.

Infectious diseases know no borders, whether it's Ebola spreading fromGuinea to Liberia, measles in the Fraser Valley brought to Canada from the Philippines, or MERS claiming victims across the Middle East. These health crises are grim reminders that new and old infectious diseases often strike where and when we least expect them, in ways that confound us.

In this crisis-heavy summer, once high-priority missions are quickly falling off the public's - and sometimes the national security establishment's - radar. Even the biggest of U.S. military missions - Afghanistan, where roughly 29,000 U.S. troops are deployed -- seems to be on Washington's back burner compared with Ukraine and the threat of the Islamic State. But the commanders running these operations, as well as the personnel carrying them out, certainly haven't forgotten. The Pentagon's top five "forgotten missions" follow.