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Operations
Defense Policy / Programs
Defense Industry
Other Conflicts
News Reports

Current Operations

• Afghan forces kill 22 Taliban militants across country Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- Afghan security forces backed by army troopers have killed 22 Taliban militants and detained five others during separate cleanup operations across the war-wracked country.
• US, Germany, Italy, Turkey to Lead New NATO Mission in Afghanistan Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- The United States, Germany, Italy and Turkey will share responsibility for training and advising Afghan troops in different parts of the country as part of NATO's new 'Resolute Support' mission in the coming year, the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Wednesday.
• 'A new chapter in Afghan-NATO ties' - Op-ed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for Pajhwok Afghan News NATO 24 Dec 2014 -- "As we complete the international combat mission at the end of 2014, we open a new chapter in the relationship between NATO and Afghanistan."

Defense Policy / Programs

• Reserve aircrew deliver food to thousands in Nicaragua AFNS 24 Dec 2014 -- Reserve Airmen from the 512th Airlift Wing delivered 125,000 pounds of humanitarian supplies to Nicaragua aboard a C-5M Super Galaxy Dec. 20, just in time for the holidays.
• Luke returns F-16Ds to flight after longeron repair AFNS 24 Dec 2014 -- Air Force officials removed 82 two-seat F-16D Fighting Falcons from flight earlier this summer after discovering cracks along the canopy sill longeron between the front and rear pilot seats.
• France's Suspension of Mistral Delivery Not Unavoidable: Russian Deputy PM Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Russia does not consider France's reasons to suspend its delivery of Mistral-class helicopter carriers to be force majeure, and the situation reflects the country's geopolitical weakness, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday.
• US-Russian Arms Reduction Treaty Still Observed: Russian Defense Ministry Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia continues to be observed, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Wednesday.
• Impossible to Resell Mistral Warships Designed for Russian Navy: Official Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- France will not be able to resell the two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to a third country because they were designed specifically for the Russian Navy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday.
• Russia to Expand Military Cooperation in Latin America: Defense Ministry Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Russia plans on expanding its military and technical cooperation with Latin America by creating ports and using local airports, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Wednesday.
• NATO pushed Ukraine to shelve non-aligned status: Russia Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- A Russian deputy defense minister has accused members of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of pushing crisis-hit Ukraine to drop its non-aligned status and seek membership in the military alliance.
• Ukraine Must Conduct Reforms Before Applying for Membership: Stoltenberg Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Ukraine can only submit an application for joining NATO after it conducts all the necessary reforms, the alliance's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has announced.

Defense Industry

• DoD News: Contracts for December 24, 2014

Other Conflicts

• 24 December 2014 - Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General United Nations 24 Dec 2014
• Estimates Rising of Foreign Fighters in Iraq, Syria VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- Foreign fighters are making more of a mark on the battles raging across Syria and Iraq than initially thought.
• Islamic State Holds Jordanian Pilot; US Denies IS Claim F-16 Jet Shot Down VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- A captured Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot is the first casualty of the U.S.-led coalition airstrike operation against the hard-line Islamic State group known as ISIS or ISIL.
• Jordan confirms ISIL captured its pilot in Syria Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- Jordan's Air Force has confirmed reports that the ISIL terrorists captured one of its pilots after the aircraft went down during a mission in Syria.
• Jordanian Pilot Captured by IS During Coalition Airstrikes: Armed Forces Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- The Jordanian military has confirmed that one of its fighter jets has crashed in northern Syria near the city of Raqqa, and that the pilot has been captured by the Islamic State militant group, Al Arabiya reports.
• Jordanian Pilot Captured by IS Militants in Syria VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- Islamic State militants have captured a Jordanian pilot whose plane was shot down in Syria during a combat mission against the extremist group.
• Iraq to Demand US Explanation Over Delayed F-16 Deliveries Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Iraq will compel the United States to explain why it has delayed the delivery of F-16 fighter jets which Baghdad plans to use against Islamic State (IS) insurgents, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee told a local news agency Wednesday.
• No Progress Seen After Initial Ukraine Talks VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- Ukrainian government negotiators and their pro-Russian separatist counterparts have ended a first day of talks Wednesday without visible signs of progress toward ending an eight-month rebellion near the Russian border.
• Ukraine officials, pro-Russia fighters start peace talks Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- Representatives from the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia forces have launched peace negotiations in Belarusian capital, Minsk, to reach a stable ceasefire in violence-scarred eastern Ukraine.
• Ukraine Peace Talks Under Way In Minsk RFE/RL 24 Dec 2014 -- Ukrainian crisis talks have begun in Minsk, bringing together representatives of Ukraine, Russia, pro-Russian separatists, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
• Donbas Militia Release Over 1,300 Ukrainian Soldiers: Security Service Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Independence supporters in Ukraine's south-eastern regions (Donbas) have released over 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers they had captured as prisoners in the course of Kiev's military operation in the region, the country's Security Service has announced in a statement.
• Ukraine and Separatists Resume Peace Talks VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- Representatives of Ukraine and separatist rebels who support Russia resumed fresh peace talks Wednesday, with the Russian government and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also taking part.
• India forces impose curfew in Assam Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- India's security forces have imposed a curfew across the communal violence-hit regions of the remote northeastern state of Assam.
• Kurds warn Ankara hostilities could resume Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- A senior leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that hostilities could resume in southeast Turkey if the current talks with Ankara make no headway.
• Israeli Forces Come Under Fire, Strike at Gaza, Killing 1 VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- The Israeli army said a firefight erupted along the border with the Gaza Strip after its troops came under attack from Palestinian sniper fire.
• 2014 Saw Intensification of Boko Haram Insurgency VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- The year 2014 saw Nigerian militant sect Boko Haram intensify its five-year insurgency and target civilians in large numbers as it seized territory in the northeast. The kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in April sparked global outrage, but failed to become the turning point against the sect that Nigeria's president said it would be. The picture at year's end is one of devastation and uncertainty.
• Pakistan Broadens Anti-Militancy Drive VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced wide-ranging measures to counter religious extremism and terrorism in the country, a week after a Taliban assault on a school killed 150 people, almost all of them children.
• After Kenyatta Setback, ICC Struggles to Move Ahead VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- The International Criminal Court was created to pursue some of the world's most heinous crimes in places unable to deliver justice. No perpetrator is too powerful to face charges at the Hague-based tribunal. Or that was the idea. But the collapse of the case against Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and other setbacks are fueling a debate about the ICC's effectiveness and relevancy.
• UN Peacebuilding Commission commends Liberia for peaceful elections UN News Centre 24 Dec 2014 -- The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission has congratulated the Government and people of Liberia for the peaceful conduct of their senatorial elections which took place on 20 December.

News Reports

• UN Ebola response efforts at 'full capacity' following warehouse fire UN News Centre 24 Dec 2014 -- The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) has reported that a main United Nations logistics hub managed by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Guinea is fully operational despite the fire that swept through the facility last week threatening medicines and laboratory materials used in the fight against Ebola.
• Is North Korea Really Responsible for Sony Hack? VOA 24 Dec 2014 -- On December 19, less than one month after Sony Pictures Entertainment suffered one of the worst computer hacks in history, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it had found the culprit: North Korea.
• Zarif: Lifting all sanctions essential for deal ISNA 24 Dec 2014 -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that easing all sanctions is the essential part of any agreement between Iran and G5+1.
• Shinzo Abe Re-Elected as Japanese Prime Minister Sputnik 24 Dec 2014 -- Shinzo Abe was re-elected on Wednesday by an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Japanese parliament, becoming the 97th Prime Minister of Japan.
• Aceh redux: The legacy of Aceh's emergency economy IRIN 24 Dec 2014 -- What happens when you suddenly inject billions of dollars, hundreds of jobs and 500 aid agencies into to an isolated corner of the world battered by more than a quarter century of conflict and then devastated by one of the world's worst natural disasters? IRIN looks back at some of the unintended and residual consequences of the international response in Indonesia's Aceh Province to the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.
• Sri Lanka, the tsunami and the evolution of disaster response IRIN 24 Dec 2014 -- On the morning of 26 December 2004, Mohideen Ajeemal, a fish distributor from Sainathimaruthu, a village on Sri Lanka's eastern coast, hurriedly climbed a coconut tree to escape rapidly rising seawater. As he did so he saw his young daughter and son struggling to save themselves. "I found both bodies later that afternoon. My son's body was swept away about a mile, my daughter's had got stuck in a fence," he said.
• Somali parliament endorses new prime minister Iran Press TV 24 Dec 2014 -- Somali parliament has endorsed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke to serve as the new prime minister of the country.
• 'No sign of improvement' for human rights in Belarus, warns UN expert UN News Centre 24 Dec 2014 -- Amid the continuing application of death sentences, the harassment of human rights defenders and independent journalists, and a new censorship law clamping down on internet freedom, the Government of Belarus shows no imminent sign of bettering its human rights record, a United Nations expert has declared.