Iraq Kurd chief wants independence referendum
Baghdad (AFP) July 03, 2014 -
The leader of Iraq's Kurds set the ball rolling Thursday for a referendum on their long-held dream of independence, another setback for international efforts to unite the country's politicians against a militant offensive.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki broadened an amnesty offer aimed at undercutting support for jihadists, whose onslaught has have overrun areas of the country and ...
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Kuwait wants U.S. assistance for military hospital
Washington (UPI) Jul 1, 2013 -
Kuwait has asked the United States for a Foreign Military Sales contract for facilities and construction support for a military hospital.
The request, which has received approval from the State Department, was relayed to Congress by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
"The government of Kuwait has requested a possible sale for the design, construction, procurement of me ...
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Lockheed Martin, Zeta Associates in acquisition deal
Bethesda, Md. (UPI) Jul 1, 2013 -
Lockheed Martin has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zeta Associates, a specialist in systems for information collection, processing, and dissemination.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but Lockheed said the move enhances its space and intelligence and surveillance and reconnaissance portfolio.
"Zeta Associates' expertise in cross-platform information collectio ...
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Merger in store for French, German defense companies
Versailles, France (UPI) Jul 2, 2013 -
Two major European Defense enterprises are merging their businesses as early as next year through a joint holding company.
The merger deal is between Germany's Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter Systems of France, providers of land defense systems.
"The alliance of KMW and Nexter creates a group with the momentum and innovative force required to succeed and prosper in international ...
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NATO's weakest flank and softest underbelly -- and what to do about it
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 03, 2014 -
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), created in 1949 to contain and deter Soviet aggression, has been the most successful defensive military alliance in history. Through forty years of Cold War, military planning focused on preventing and blocking a Soviet military assault across the north German plain while reinforcing the so-called northern and southern flanks of the alliance immed ...
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China, S. Korea summit pushes North over nuclear weapons
Seoul (AFP) July 03, 2014 -
China and South Korea issued a joint call for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula at a summit in Seoul Thursday that was seen as a pointed snub of nuclear-armed North Korea by chief ally Beijing.
In a joint statement after their talks, the Chinese and South Korean presidents, Xi Jinping and Park Geun-Hye, reaffirmed their "firm opposition" to the development of nuclear weapons on th ...
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Bloody swath
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 03, 2014 -
From Pakistan on the Arabian Sea to landlocked Afghanistan to Iraq at the heart of the Middle East, to Syria and Gaza on the Mediterranean, the Muslim world is ablaze, fanned by the flames of religious extremism.
Arguably the most dangerous is Pakistan, keeper of Islam's only nuclear arsenal. And the country's powerful military - that has ruled Pakistan for half its existence as an ind ...
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