• Latvia to purchase machine guns for 5.5 million euros

    The Ministry of Defense of Latvia is spending more than 5.5 million euros on the purchase of machine guns and their components, reported the Delfi news portal.

    7.62- and 12.7-millimeter machine guns and the components for their maintenance will be supplied by the Belgian arms company FN Herstal.

    The weapons were procured through negotiations rather than holding a tender. The machine guns will be used by the regular troops of the National Armed Forces and the units of the Zemessardze, the …

  • Russian hackers gained access to the emails of the Danish Defense Ministry

    Russian hackers have been accessing information in the unprotected email accounts of the employees of Danish Defense Ministry for two years, as stated in a report of the Danish special services, the Danish newspaper Berlingske reported. The emails were hacked in 2015 and 2016.

    "This is very controlled. These are not small hacking groups doing it for the fun of it. This is tied to the intelligence services or central elements in the Russian regime," Defense Minister of Denmark Claus Hjort …

  • Another US citizen detained in North Korea

    On April 21st, North Korea detained another US citizen. An American of Korean descent was taken into custody at Pyongyang airport while trying to leave the country, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Sunday, April 23rd, citing unnamed sources.

    According to the information in the report, the detainee, who is just under 60 years old, is a former lecturer at the University of Science and Technology in the Chinese prefecture of Yanbian. He went to North Korea to assist with …

  • US Department of State calls on Russia to contribute to the investigation of the death of an American OSCE member near Luhansk

    The US called on Russia to use its influence in Eastern Ukraine to conduct a complete investigation of the death of an American citizen in the explosion of an OSCE vehicle near Luhansk. The US Department of State published a statement to this effect on their website.

    Washington expressed shock at the death of the US citizen who worked as a paramedic in the OSCE Mission to Ukraine.

    Aside from that, in the State Department’s report the US calls on Russia to use its influence with the …

  • US and Japanese Navy conduct exercises off coast of Korean Peninsula

    Not far from the shores of the Korean Peninsula, American and Japanese sailors are working together in military operations. The US Navy aircraft carrier strike group and Japanese Navy ships are conducting exercises, according to a report in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.

    The purpose of the exercises is to exert pressure on North Korea in light of the country’s continuing ballistic missile tests. The maneuvers involve two Japanese destroyers – Ashigara  and Samidare – and will last …