Free Republic

MOSCOW (Reuters) - International monitors say they have spotted a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held Ukraine this week, possible evidence of Moscow's continued interest in Ukraine even as it focuses on Syria. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, reported that its monitors had seen a mobile TOS-1 'Buratino' weapons system for the first time. The Buratino is equipped with thermobaric warheads which spread a flammable liquid around a target and then ignite it. It can destroy several city blocks in one strike and cause indiscriminate damage.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said on Saturday.

Given the amount of attention paid over the last year to the capabilities of the Russian military, it is worth considering how the evolving character of warfare over the next 10-20 years is likely to affect Russia’s military capabilities when compared to leading Western states. The trend toward greater automation, including the use of remote control weapons and AI-driven autonomous warfare, will increasingly put the Russian military at a disadvantage. Russia does not have the technology to match Western automated systems and lacks the capabilities to develop such systems on its own in the foreseeable future. Russia’s defense industry is...

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Wednesday reported some of the strongest attacks by pro-Russian rebels since the signing of a peace deal in February, with eight government soldiers killed in the past 24 hours.

<p>Even for Ukrainians hardened by more than a year of war here against Russian-backed separatists, the appearance of Islamic combatants, mostly Chechens, in towns near the front lines comes as something of a surprise — and for many of the Ukrainians, a welcome one.</p>

Mysterious cases of paralysis in U.S. children over the last year have researchers searching for the cause of the illness. Now, a new study suggests that a new strain of a poliolike virus may be responsible for some of the cases. So far, more than 100 children in 34 states have suddenly developed muscle weakness or paralysis in their arms or legs, a condition known as acute flaccid myelitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, researchers linked a virus called enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), which can cause respiratory illness similar to the common cold, with some of...

In an ironic twist of fate, more than two-thirds of the Humvees that the US government supplied to Iraq to fight terrorists have ended up in the hands of Islamic State militants. And the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has not wasted any time in converting those vehicles into one of its deadliest and most nightmarish tools: suicide car bombs.

Moscow and Tehran have concluded negotiations on the delivery of the Russia's long-range S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, which should take place "within a short period," said Iranian Deputy Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on a visit in Moscow on Monday. "The negotiations were completed successfully. I believe that the delivery of the S-300 will take place in a relatively short time", the Iranian deputy minister was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Evgeny Buzhinsky has spent much of his professional life with the threat of global nuclear destruction hanging over his head. A lifelong Russian military officer, he earned his PhD in military sciences in 1982, just as the Cold War was entering its most dangerous period, and served in the Soviet general staff during an arms race that several times came perilously close to triggering a nuclear war that neither side wanted. What follows is a partial transcript of our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.

Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Thursday warned the United States against sending weapons to Ukraine, saying such action would cause "colossal damage" to ties between the former Cold War foes. Moscow is "seriously concerned" by discussions in the West about possible arms supplies to Ukraine which is battling a pro-Kremlin insurgency, said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

SHEAR YASHUV, Israel (AP) — A missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy on Wednesday, an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed six Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia hit back on Wednesday at U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech, saying it showed the United States believes it is "number one" and seeks world domination.

An Iranian general killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria was not its intended target and Israel believed it was attacking only low-ranking guerrillas, a senior Israeli security source told Reuters on Tuesday. The source declined to be identified because Israel will not confirm or deny whether it carried out the strike. Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Mohammed Allahdadi was killed along with a Hezbollah commander and the son of the group's late military leader, Imad Muughniyeh, in Sunday's attack on a Hezbollah convoy near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The West shouldn’t stoke the fires engulfing Russia’s wounded economy. Talk in Washington and Brussels this week of levying further economic sanctions on Russia seems counterproductive and will only make matters worse for all parties involved. Like it or not, Russia’s economy has grown simply “too big to fail,” and its political and military might is too dangerous to ignore. The West might have better luck in advancing its goals in the region by helping, not hurting, the Russian bear in its time of need.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has quietly repatriated a dozen detainees from a small U.S. military prison in Afghanistan, moving a modest step closer toward winding down the United States' controversial post-9/11 detainee system. President Barack Obama, in a letter to Congress released on Thursday, informed U.S. lawmakers that about 38 non-Afghan prisoners remained at the Parwan detention center outside of Kabul, down from around 50 a few months ago.

A suspect reportedly is in custody after a shooting at the VA Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio. According to police scanner traffic, the suspect has been taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital, Fox 45 Now reported. According to WDTN.com, there is one person injured. The shooter was described on police scanner traffic as a black male wearing a black jacket with the U.S. Marine Corps emblem, Fox 45 Now reported.

Beijing (AFP) - While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider 'de-Americanising', a commentary on China's official news agency said Sunday. "As US politicians of both political parties (fail to find a) viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world," the commentary on state news agency Xinhua said.

JERUSALEM — Mortified that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don't be fooled by Tehran's new leadership. Netanyahu contends Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb.

CHENGDU, China—When the government of this southwestern city needed a landmark for a new district, billionaire developer Deng Hong picked up the land cheap five years ago and erected a building almost three times the size of the Pentagon. Nearby, Wu Bing paved a motorway, while Liu Han put up schools. He Yan wired a jail with information technology and Wang Junlin's winery funded government charities. Now, over the past several months, all of those tycoons have disappeared from view. Their absences come amid an alleged corruption scandal that may broadside the economic vitality of this gateway to China's rugged...

New York City (AFP) - Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani called Thursday for Israel to put its suspected nuclear arms under international control ahead of a landmark meeting between foreign ministers from Iran and western nations. Rouhani also said he believed a deal could be made on his country's nuclear drive within three to six months.