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Operations
Defense Policy / Programs
Defense Industry
Other Conflicts
News Reports

Current Operations

• First British Reservists leave for Sierra Leone UK MOD 20 Dec 2014 -- This morning the first UK reserves and 100 regulars departed for Sierra Leone where they will help to tackle the Ebola outbreak.

Defense Policy / Programs

• Detainee Transfer Announced DoD 20 Dec 2014 -- The Department of Defense announced today the repatriation of Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani, and Mohammed Zahir from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
• Pentagon Says Four Afghan Guantanamo Detainees Repatriated RFE/RL 20 Dec 2014 -- The Pentagon says four detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military detention facility have been repatriated to Afghanistan.
• US Releases 4 Afghan Prisoners From Guantanamo VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- The U.S. Defense Department said Saturday that four Afghans held for more than a decade at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had been returned to their home country.
• Altitude chamber takes its last breath AFNS 20 Dec 2014 -- For more than 50 years, aircrew at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, have shared a common physical experience; they all have felt the effects of rapid depressurization inside a hypobaric chamber.
• US Approves $3 Billion Sale of Tanks, Armored Vehicles to Iraq Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- The US State Department has approved possible sales of tanks and armored vehicles worth approximately $3 billion to Iraq, where Islamic State extremists have been active, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has revealed.
• Russia to Accept Any Scenario With Mistral Helicopter Carriers Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- Russia will accept any development of the situation with Mistral-class helicopter carriers, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said Saturday.
• Ukraine to Spend Over $5 Billion on Defense in 2015: Security Council Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- Some 86 billion Ukrainian hryvnias, or about $5.4 billion, in defense and national security funding will be incorporated into Ukraine's 2015 budget, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said Saturday.
• Ukraine to Hold Three Waves of Military Mobilization in 2015 Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- Ukraine will hold three waves of mobilization next year, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said Saturday.

Defense Industry

Other Conflicts

• IS Militants Use Sex to Lure Recruits VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- Fighters join the so-called Islamic State [IS] for myriad motives, but one big reason might be the lure of one of the most basic human desires: sex.
• ISIL kills 100 members trying to quit terror group: Report Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- The ISIL terrorist group has reportedly killed 100 of its own foreign members who were trying to escape from their headquarters in Syria.
• Islamic State Executes 100 Fighters Who Wanted to Flee Raqqa: Report Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- The Islamic State has executed at least 100 foreign militants, fighting for the radical Sunni group, for trying to leave the Syrian city of Raqqa, the IS stronghold, the Financial Times reports, citing an activist.
• Report: ISIL terrorists fleeing Mosul IRNA 20 Dec 2014 -- Majority of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists have fled the Iraqi city of Mosul, media reports said.
• Iraq army tightening noose around ISIL militants Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- The Iraqi army backed by Shia volunteers, Sunni tribes and Kurdish Peshmerga forces is tightening the noose on ISIL militants in several regions across the country.
• Kurdish Forces Press Sinjar Offensive Against IS Extremists VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- Thousands of Kurdish peshmerga fighters advanced on Islamic State extremists Saturday in the Sinjar Mountains of northwestern Iraq, two days after breaking a months-long siege that trapped thousands of persecuted Yazidi minorities.
• Pakistan to Expel Afghan Refugees in Border Province After Taliban Attack Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- The Pakistani government has decided to expel all Afghan refugees from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border province, following a recent Pakistani Taliban attack on a military school in it's capital Peshawar, the provincial minister for information said.
• Colombia's FARC begins unilateral ceasefire Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has begun an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire, says the Colombian president.

News Reports

• STATEMENT BY RAÚL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCILS OF STATE AND OF MINISTERS AT THE CLOSING CEREMONY OF THE FOURTH SESSION OF THE EIGHTH LEGISLATURE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S POWER ASSEMBLY Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba 20 Dec 2014
• Putin: No country can intimidate or isolate Russia Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin says no country can "intimidate" or "isolate" Russia, after Western governments impose additional sanctions on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
• Putin: No One Can 'Intimidate Or Isolate' Russia RFE/RL 20 Dec 2014 -- President Vladimir Putin has warned that no country can 'intimidate' or 'isolate' Russia. Putin, speaking in Moscow on December 20, said such attempts had repeatedly been made over the centuries. He said that currently 'open calls are being made to make Russia pay dearly for its independent stance, for the support of its compatriots, for Crimea, for Sevastopol, and for our mere existence.'
• Putin: Sanctions Won't Stop Russia's Support of 'Compatriots' VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that his country would not back down from 'supporting compatriots' in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow this year despite widespread Western protests.
• DPRK Foreign Ministry Rejects U.S. Accusation against Pyongyang over Cyber Attack KCNA 20 Dec 2014 -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Saturday as regards the U.S. accusation against the DPRK over a cyber attack on a movie company in the U.S.
• North Korea Proposes Joint Investigation With US Into Sony Cyberattack Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- US accusations that North Korea staged a cyber attack on Sony Pictures are "groundless slander"; Pyongyang wants to set up a joint investigation into the incident with Washington, a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.
• Sony Still Hopes to Release Film About Killing Kim Jong Un VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- Sony Pictures says it still hopes to release its controversial film about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
• Resolve to advance practice of 'one country, two systems' unshakable: President Xi People's Daily 20 Dec 2014 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Saturday that nothing could shake the resolve to advance the practice of 'one country, two systems,' a basic state policy of China.
• President Xi Warns Restive Macau, Hong Kong They Part of 'One China' Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- President Xi Jinping on Saturday urged Macau and Hong Kong special administrative regions to respect their unity with China, following pro-democracy campaigns in both regions earlier this year.
• China to crack down on freeloaders in gov't positions People's Daily 20 Dec 2014 -- China's State Council, or the cabinet, has urged government organs and institutions to crack down on freeloaders.
• Castro Lauds US Outreach, Says Cuba to Remain Communist VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- President Barack Obama won praise from Cuba's leader Saturday for moving to restore diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana, but President Raul Castro told his nation that the change did not mean the end of communist rule in Cuba.
• Putin: Russia Discloses 230 Foreign Intelligence Staff in 2014 Sputnik 20 Dec 2014 -- In 2014, Russian counterintelligence services identified more than 230 foreign intelligence staff, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday.
• Nuclear fuel removed from Fukushima Daiichi reactor Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- The operator of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says one of the four heavily damaged reactor buildings at the site has been cleared of radioactive fuel rods.
• In Guinea, as Ebola spread slows, Ban pledges UN support towards total eradication UN News Centre 20 Dec 2014 -- Cautioning that much remains to be done to wipe out Ebola in Guinea, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that joint national, regional and global efforts have "significantly" slowed the spread of the deadly virus, giving hope to thousands of people and providing space for communities to look ahead to socio-economic recovery.
• Turnout Low for Liberian Election Amid Ebola Fear VOA 20 Dec 2014 -- Health workers manned polling stations Saturday as Liberians voted in a Senate election that was delayed twice because of the West African Ebola epidemic.
• Erdogan raps EU over criticism of crackdown on journalists Iran Press TV 20 Dec 2014 -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the European Union (EU) over its criticism of recent Turkish crackdown on opposition media, lauding as "clean and lawful" the legal process against his opponents.