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French police launched raids across the country early on Monday, dismantling a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria ... anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets, mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the northern region of Normandy. ... In recent months France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, has been facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on their homeland. The new reality was driven home in a video from the Islamic State group released...

Greek authorities are investigating a pre-dawn, drive-by gunfire attack on the Israeli embassy in Athens, which caused no injuries or damage. […] There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. …

It is probably the best-known weapon in the world, brandished by everyone from Che Guevara to Osama bin Laden. But the Kalashnikov assault rifle has failed to produce a profit for its makers for years. Things were just starting to improve when the firm was hit by Western sanctions. With Russian military stores full of the famously durable Kalashnikovs, and dwindling orders from abroad, the company had turned its attention to civilian firearms markets. In January it finally secured a foothold in the biggest of them, sealing a lucrative deal to supply up to 200,000 rifles a year in the...

When people see the AK-47 and the StG-44 side by side and know nothing about their internal mechanisms, the nearly universal assumption is that one is a copy of the other. The overall layout of the two rifles is strikingly similar, and one would reasonably make the assumption that Kalashnikov got his hands on a captured StG and simply rebuilt it in 7.62×39. This is, of course, not true.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the world's most famous gun, has died. While Kalashnikov designed a weapon that became synonymous with killing on a sometimes indiscriminate scale. He was seen in the Soviet Union as a national hero and symbol of Moscow's proud military past. A former soldier, inspired by the drawbacks of Russian weaponry in the Second World War he decided to invent a new assault rifle. This process culminated in 1947 with the design of the AK-47. Over the course of his career he evolved the basic design into a weapons family. Kalashnikov, who was in his 20s when...

SEE IT: ‘Come and take it, motherf--kers!’ Police chief curses liberals, sprays automatic weapons in foul-mouthed viral videos In a series of provocative videos, Gilberton, Pa., top cop Mark Kessler curses Secretary of State John Kerry and rants about 'libtards' and 'cry babies' before spraying automatic weapons into the distance. City officials say he won't be disciplined because he's not breaking the law. A Pennsylvania police chief is getting heat for appearing in a series of foul-mouthed YouTube videos ranting about liberals, cursing Secretary of State John Kerry and firing automatic weapons. Despite the backlash, Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon...

Viktor Kalashnikov is a Russian freelance journalist and a former KGB colonel. In the autumn of 2010, he and his wife Marina, a historian, were treated in a hospital in Germany for mercury poisoning in what they said had been an attempt on their lives by Russia’s FSB, the successor to the KGB. He is a distant relative of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47. Kalashnikov and his wife have been publishing articles critical of the Kremlin since the 1990s. After living in Europe for several years they are now back in Moscow. A Russian Analyst’s View, Part One...

After some careful consideration, I've decided that I don't like the term "Modern sporting rifle" to describe firearms like the AR-15 or semi-auto versions of the Kalashnikov. Yes, they're modern. Yes, they're rifles. And yes, they can be used for shooting sports. But the 2nd Amendment isn't about sporting goods. Calling these guns "Modern sporting rifles" is like saying that the Founders bled and died to preserve our right to engage in sports; to play games. It would be like saying that they fought to ensure that they and their descendents would forever have the liberty to engage in Pilates...

The first clues appeared in Kenya, Uganda and what is now South Sudan. A British arms researcher surveying ammunition used by government forces and civilian militias in 2006 found Kalashnikov rifle cartridges he had not seen before. The ammunition bore no factory code, suggesting that its manufacturer hoped to avoid detection. Within two years other researchers were finding identical cartridges circulating through the ethnic violence in Darfur. Similar ammunition then turned up in 2009 in a stadium in Conakry, Guinea, where soldiers had fired on antigovernment protesters, killing more than 150. For six years, a group of independent arms-trafficking researchers...

Mikhail KalashnikovThe creator of the Kalashnikov assault rifle agreed to let his name be used as a brand for a new arms corporation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Sunday. The new group of companies will unite Izhmekh and Izhmash, two prominent state-owned enterprises in the republic of Udmurtia in Volga federal district. Mikhail Kalashnikov, who turned 93 on Saturday, personally authorized the use of his name for the new group, Rogozin, who oversees military equipment matters at the government, said on his Twitter. The Izhmash was manufacturing Kalashnikovs since the rifle first went into mass production...

American civilians are buying as many AK47s from Russia's top armory as the Russian military and police. The surge in sales of Russian assault rifles and shotguns are fuelled by firearms enthusiasts who are paranoid about the weapons being banned in the United States. The semiautomatic weapons, fitted with high-capacity magazines, are manufactured at Izhevsk Machinebuilding Plant, Russia's primary small arms factory. They are built alongside the fully-automatic military versions that are used by armies, militias and terrorists around the world. In the United States, they have become immensely popular. Among hunters, recreational shooters and survivalists, they are known for...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his government has begun to assemble Kalashnikov assault rifles with assistance from Russia and has also started making surveillance drones. Chavez says Venezuela has produced three drones so far.

Russia's largest firearms manufacturer, Izhmash, has unveiled a prototype of its new Kalasnikov assault rifle with improved ergonomics and tactical flexibility. The new assault rifle, dubbed AK-12, is being designed as a basic platform for the development of nearly 20 different modifications of the weapon. It could be adapted for cartridges varying from 5.45x39 mm to 7.62x51 NATO. The state tests of the rifle may begin at the end of 2012 despite the fact that the Russian Defense Ministry has not shown interest so far in the new weapon citing the financial difficulties of the Izhmash company and a huge...

Russia stays loyal to Kalashnikov MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian military will not abandon the legendary Kalashnikov AK assault rifle, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Wednesday. Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov said in September that the Defense Ministry had stopped procuring AK-47 rifles because of oversupply, indicating that new models of small arms and light weapons would replace it. But Serdyukov dismissed those suggestions as absurd. “For some reason everyone decided that if the Defense Ministry has not signed large-scale contracts for the procurement of Kalashnikov rifles they will be taken out of service....

Russia stops buying Kalashnikov The Russian army has said it will stop buying the country's famous Kalashnikov assault rifles until its designers come up with a genuinely new model. By Andrew Osborn, Moscow The current modification of the weapon – the AK-74 – was developed in the early 1970s and the defence ministry says its warehouses are "overflowing" with millions of the Soviet-era rifles, stocks of which are likely to last for a further twenty years. "The guns being offered to us are hardly any different from those in the warehouses," a defence ministry source told the daily Izvestia newspaper....

AK-74M Azerbaijan has started serial production of AK-74M assault rifles under licence from Russia. The Khazri assault rifle has some different features from the Russian original. They include the possibility of installing night vision devices, laser targeting, optical sights and lighting. The design of the rifle has also been changed slightly, but the weight remains the same. The rifle is being produced under licence from Kalashnikov's producers, Izhmash, the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant. Under the State Defence Order Program, the Ministry of the Defence Industry will produce 5,000 AK-74M Khazri assault rifles this year for delivery to the Defence Ministry.APA...

Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has caused quite a controversy in the country with his remarks about Russian small arms, particularly the legendary Kalashkikovs and the Dragunov SVD sniper rifles. Mr. Serdyukov stated that the Russian small arms had become outdated, and added that Russia could purchase small arms from abroad after it was decided to acquire Mistral helicopter carriers from France. What do Russian professions think on the subject? "Foreigners admit that Russian small arms are one of the best in the world. Just show me a foreign rifle which would compete with a Russian one on all specifications,...

In his new book, The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War, out Oct. 12, New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers traces the origins of modern assault rifles—particularly Avtomat Kalashnikov 47, or the AK-47—and analyzes how they've changed warfare. Popular Mechanics spoke to the author about how and why the AK-47 was developed and why it has had even more of an impact than nuclear weapons.

It was designed with input by U.S. Special Operations Command warriors for special ops missions to be lighter, more maneuverable and longer lasting. Earlier this month, the MK-17 – dubbed the SCAR by its Belgian manufacturer FNH – went into "full rate production" making it the first new assault carbine to be purchased by the U.S. military since the M-16 and M-4 rifles went online four decades ago. The rifle is expected to be particularly valuable in situations like those faced by soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, where the weapon's additional range will provide a significant upgrade.

Soldiers serving on Camp Taji, Iraq, trained Iraqi troops on the fundamentals of marksmanship with the M-16 rifle, June 15. The training was part of a continued effort by the U.S. to phase out the Iraqi Army's use of the Soviet-era AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle. The swap between the two weapons has gun-enthusiasts across the military and social-media sites up-in-arms, as fans of both weapons debate the practicality of the initiative. The AK-47, which has become symbolic of Middle Eastern militaries, has been used by the Iraqi Army since the 1960s. The weapon is less accurate than the western M-16...