Hurdles abound for Guantanamo closure, 13 years later
Washington (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Thirteen years after terror suspects first arrived in Guantanamo, the United States is sending inmates out at a faster rate than ever before - but hurdles remain in the effort to shutter it entirely.
In 2014, 28 detainees were freed in "the largest single-year reduction in detainee population" since 2009, said Paul Lewis, the US official charged with closing the Guantanamo detention facilit ...
more
DynCorp to provide training support in Afghanistan
Mclean, Va. (UPI) Jan 9, 2015 -
Another U.S. company has been contracted to provide support services for the training of security forces in Afghanistan.
DynCorp International reports the first of two separate contracts from the U.S. Army Contracting Command is for advisory, training and mentoring services for the Afghanistan Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of the country's National Police. The second is f ...
more
China denies retaliation against Uighur journalist's family
Beijing (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
Beijing on Friday denied seeking to retaliate against relatives of a US-based journalist from the mostly-Muslim Uighur minority, one day after Washington voiced alarm about the case.
US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) said that since 2009, Chinese authorities have targeted one of its ethnic Uighur reporters, Shohret Hoshur, who left China in 1994 after authorities deemed two of his articles to ...
more
Security readied in Philippine for Papal visit
Manila (UPI) Jan 11, 2015 -
Thousands of troops and police in the Philippines have been placed on high alert for the visit starting this week of Pope Francis, his first to the country.
As many as 37,000 security personnel are involved - including 17,000 active and reserve personnel of the Philippine Armed forces, and about 3,000 members of the Philippine National Police in addition to local law enforcement person ...
more
Chinese H-bomb physicist gets top award
Beijing (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
A Chinese nuclear physicist whose research was key to the country's development of the hydrogen bomb and whose identity was a state secret for decades was awarded its top science prize Friday, state media reported.
President Xi Jinping presented the State Supreme Science and Technology Award to Yu Min, 89, at an annual ceremony honouring China's leading scientists and accomplishments in rese ...
more
Paris jihadists had serious -- but available -- weapons
Paris (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
The weapons wielded by gunmen sowing mayhem at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris this week were powerful but - for those in the know - available in France, experts say.
Kalashnikov assault rifles, the M82 grenade launcher, hand grenades, explosive material, Tokarev handguns: everything in the arsenals possessed by the Koubachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly would be av ...
more
IS forced to defend supply lines in Iraq: US
Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
Islamic State jihadists are having to spend more effort defending key supply lines in Iraq due to US-led air strikes and pressure from local forces, the Pentagon said Friday.
The IS group's supply routes into Iraq from neighboring Syria have become a central focus of combat, with Iraqi government and Kurdish forces - along with coalition warplanes - seeking to disrupt and cut off the milit ...
more
US trains Iraqis for house-to-house battle against IS
Taji Base, Iraq (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
A team of camouflage-clad Iraqi soldiers lines up near the door of a one-storey house north of Baghdad with rifles ready, preparing to enter and search it.
For now, there are no militants inside, and American and Iraqi instructors are on hand to tell them how to position themselves, where to look when they enter and how to hold their Kalashnikov assault rifles.
But these are skills the s ...
more
IS kills 26 in surprise attack on Iraqi Kurdish forces
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Jan 10, 2015 -
Militants from the Islamic State jihadist group launched a surprise attack on Kurdish forces in the Gwer area of north Iraq, killing 26, security officials said Saturday.
The militants crossed the Zab river by boat and occupied Gwer - some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Kurdish regional capital Arbil - for about an hour before being pushed back, the officials said.
Accounts diff ...
more
France orders patrol boats for use in Caribbean
Paris (UPI) Jan 9, 2015 -
Two light patrol boats have been ordered for the French Navy from shipbuilder Socarenam for use in sovereignty and protection missions in the Caribbean.
France's Ministry of Defense said the Guiana Light Patrol Boats would help guard the country's Guiana Space Center and also engage in counter-narcotics trafficking.
The PLGs will have a length of 196.8 feet, a beam of 31 feet and ...
more
Boeing delivers new F-22 flight simulators
St. Louis (UPI) Jan 9, 2015 -
The first flight simulators for F-22 fighters with an immersive 360-degree visual environment have been delivered by Boeing to the U.S. Air Force.
The two simulators are paired with the company's Constant Resolution Visual System that provides "high-resolution imagery for pilots to train with nearly 20/20 acuity," Boeing said.
"Boeing has delivered what are probably the most adva ...
more
Nigeria appeals for support after 'deadliest' Boko Haram attack
Abuja (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Nigeria's military has called for support in tackling Boko Haram after a major attack on a key northeast town that is feared could be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.
There are still no independently corroborated figures for the huge numbers said to have been killed in Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in the far north of Borno State.
But defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said ...
more
Iran nuclear chief insists on enrichment ahead of talks
Tehran (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Iran's atomic agency chief insisted Sunday on Tehran's demands for increased uranium enrichment, days before the resumption of thorny talks with world powers in Geneva.
Ali Akbar Salehi, a former foreign minister and ex-nuclear negotiator for the Islamic republic, said that within eight years the country would need 12 times more enriched uranium than at present.
Iran's level of uranium e ...
more
US slams N. Korea offer on nuclear tests as 'implicit threat'
Munich, Germany (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
The United States on Saturday slammed an offer by North Korea to suspend future nuclear tests temporarily if Washington cancels military drills with the South as an "implicit threat."
Pyongyang was "inappropriately" linking routine military exercises between Washington and Seoul to the possibility of a nuclear test, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"A new nuclear test would b ...
more
N. Korea developing sub-based missiles: US think-tank
Seoul (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
Recent satellite images offer fresh evidence of North Korea developing a marine-based missile system that would give the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike nuclear capability, a US think-tank said Friday.
The commercial satellite pictures suggest the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine - first seen in July last year - houses one or two vertical launch tubes for either ...
more
China says Sri Lanka 'friendship runs deep' despite election
Beijing (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
China on Friday downplayed the impact of Sri Lanka's presidential election upset, dismissing suggestions that the stunning win by Maithripala Sirisena could shake up Beijing's plans in the Indian Ocean.
Sirisena on Thursday ousted longtime president Mahinda Rajapakse, who has relied heavily on Chinese funding for major infrastructure work in his island country.
Among the major projects i ...
more
Sweden confirms second 'submarine' sighting
Stockholm (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Sweden's military on Sunday confirmed a second sighting in October of what appeared to have been a submarine in waters near Stockholm city centre, not long after a search had been launched for a suspected Russian submarine off the coast.
In November the Swedish military released images of tracks on the sea bed and an apparent submarine periscope which it said proved that "a mini submarine vi ...
more
Intelligence indicates Assad building nuclear plant: report
Berlin (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
Intelligence suggests that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is building a secret underground plant with the aim of developing nuclear weapons, Germany's Spiegel news magazine said Friday.
Citing information made available by unidentified intelligence sources, Spiegel said the plant was in an inaccessible mountain region in the west of the war-ravaged country, two kilometres (1.2 miles) from ...
more
Marotta To Develop Power Units For Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile
Montville, NJ (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
Marotta Controls announces that it has been selected by Lockheed Martin to develop multiple power conversion units for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), which Lockheed Martin is developing as a joint program with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of the Navy and the U.S. Air Force.
Lockheed Martin will integrate Marotta's power conversion units into vari ...
more
Russia's Northern Fleet Receives S-400 Air Defense Systems
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 11, 2015 -
Russia's Northern Fleet has increased its air defense capability with the addition of S-400 Triumph air defense missile systems, the Fleet's spokesperson Vadim Serga said Friday.
"A division of air defense of the Northern Fleet has adopted into service new S-400 Triumph air defense missile systems," Serga stated without giving further details.
The S-400 Triumph long- to medium-range ...
more
