China's Xi congratulates N. Korea's Kim
Seoul (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un, congratulating him on his election as ruling party chairman at a congress at which Beijing - Pyongyang's closest ally - was notably absent.
In his message, Xi described ties with North Korea as a "precious asset" that was personally "cultivated by the leaders of the elder generation" the North's official KCNA news ag ...
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MBDA's Brimstone missile completes RAF trials
Ridgecrest, Calif. (UPI) May 10, 2016 -
MBDA's enhanced Brimstone air-to-surface missile successfully completed U.K. Royal Air Force trials in February.
The trials, undertaken at China Lake in California, comprised 11 missile firings, including at the edge of the system's performance envelope, according to a company release.
Trials involved a variety of scenarios and resulted in precise hits on everything from very sma ...
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Jordan to buy US-made TOW missiles: company
Amman (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
Jordan has signed a contract to buy TOW anti-tank missiles from US firm Raytheon, the company said in a statement issued Tuesday at the SOFEX arms fair for special forces.
Raytheon said the contract was signed between the Jordanian army and the US defence department, without specifying the contract's amount or the number of missiles involved.
It said Raytheon would begin deliveries "this ...
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'Executed' N. Korean general named to senior party posts
Seoul (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
North Korea's former military chief of staff who was reported executed earlier this year is apparently alive and well after being named Tuesday in a number of senior ruling party posts.
Intelligence reports in South Korea had suggested Ri Yong-Gil, former chief of the Korean People's Army (KPA) General Staff, was executed in February on accusations of corruption and forming a political facti ...
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Germany to increase troops for first time since Cold War ended
Berlin (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
Germany is raising the number of its troops for the first time since 1990, ending a quarter of a century of successive cuts in the army since the end of the Cold War.
The Bundeswehr is expected to increase in the next seven years by 14,300 soldiers, while 4,400 civilian officers will also be added to the service, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.
This boost in troop strength i ...
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Ex-NATO heads, US defence chiefs fire Brexit warning
London (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
Britain leaving the EU would damage Western security and dangerously weaken Europe, five ex-NATO chiefs and a host of former US secretaries of state and defence warned on Tuesday.
The former NATO heads said a so-called Brexit would undermine the transatlantic military alliance and "give succour to the West's enemies", and would "undoubtably lead to a loss of British influence".
In a lett ...
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Philippines' Duterte open to territory-row talks with China
Davao, Philippines (AFP) May 10, 2016 -
Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte is willing to talk with China over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea, his spokesman said Tuesday, in a significant reversal of the incumbent's stance.
Duterte, who won Monday's election in a landslide, is also willing to form partnerships with China to extract gas and oil deposits that are believed to be in the sea, as we ...
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