►Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate foreign relations committee that the U.S. should have an increased role in Africa to help its countries counter a rapidly emerging jihadist threat [1]. Clinton says remnants of al Qaeda, combined with the flow of weapons from Libya, are fueling instability in Northern Africa. "This Pandora's box of weapons coming out of these countries in the Middle East and north Africa is the source of one of our biggest threats," she said. "There's no doubt that the Algerian terrorists had weapons from Libya. There's no doubt that the Malian remnants of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has weapons from Libya. We have to do a much better job."

►The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is developing a decision support tool [2]that can identify chemical or biological agents, determine their location, and alert authorities. Read more about the tool, which researchers hope will be completed this year, from Emergency Management.

►The U.S. has taken action against another criminal gang affiliated with the Japanese gangs called the Yakuza--in this case, [3], the Inagawa-kai, by freezing its assets [4] in the United States and designating it a transnational criminal organization. “By designating the clan a transnational criminal organization, the government also prohibits people in the U.S. from doing business with the group,” the Associated Press reports.

►In other news, watch these key moments from Clinton’s Benghazi testimony [5]. ♦ The FAA Says the number of reports of people shining lasers at planes has increased [6] over the years. Most recently a man was arrested in Oakland for shining a laser at the cockpits of a news helicopter and a highway patrol airplane. ♦ And the Pentagon opens up more combat roles [7] to women.