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A MiG-21 combat aircraft flown by a Syrian pilot who defected to Jordan in June was found to have been upgraded back in Syria to carry chemical weapons and to fly without a pilot, the Yisrael Hayom daily reported on Tuesday. According to the report, U.S. experts who examined the plane believe Russian engineers helped convert the plane and that Syria has more of them in its air force. On June 21, Syrian pilot Hassan Hamada, who holds a rank equivalent to colonel, took off in his MiG-21 from al-Dumair military airport northeast of Damascus and flew to King Hussein...

— The human hand is a finely tuned piece of equipment that is capable of remarkable dexterity: creating art, performing music and manipulating tools. Yet David Carrier from the University of Utah suggests that the human hand may have also evolved its distinctive proportions for a less enlightened reason: for use as a weapon. In a new study, Carrier and colleague Michael Morgan publish their theory that human hands evolved their square palms and long thumb to stabilise the fist and produce a compact club for use in combat.

Recently The Post reported that four women serving in the Army, two with Purple Hearts, had filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the military’s combat exclusion policy. “Combat exclusion” is code for being kept from serving in the close-combat arms of the Army, Marines and special forces. These units are made up of soldiers whose purpose is to kill the enemy directly. They also do virtually all of the military’s dying: Since the end of World War II, four out of five combat deaths suffered by men and women serving in the U.S. military have been in the infantry,...

Except as otherwise provided in this title (sections 451 to 471a of this Appendix) it shall be the duty of every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, who, on the day or days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, to present himself for and submit to registration at such time or times and place or places, and in such manner, as shall be determined by proclamation of the President and by rules and regulations prescribed hereunder. That is section 453...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union sued on Tuesday on behalf of four U.S. servicewomen to challenge a longstanding policy barring women from thousands of ground combat positions, citing the changing nature of warfare and fairness for career soldiers. The civil rights group argued in a legal complaint filed in federal court in Northern California that a military policy to bar women from combat roles on the basis of gender was unconstitutional. "Nearly a century after women first earned the right of suffrage, the combat exclusion policy still denies women a core component of full citizenship -...

Posted at 9:09 pm on August 31, 2012 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments Barack Obama ✔ @BarackObama A promise kept: pic.twitter.com/m7iLA3eF 31 Aug 12 Reply Retweet Favorite We’re certainly aware the president isn’t sitting in front of a copy of Photoshop putting these tweets together personally, but are we the only ones noticing a peculiar trend? The Obama campaign recently honored the late astronaut Neil Armstrong by posting a photo of … Obama. So what better way to mark the anniversary of the end of combat operations in Iraq than by posting another photo of Obama?

The topic of women in combat has always been a touchy one. Many feel that while women should be allowed in the military, they do not belong in jobs that place them on the front line. Others believe that women are just as capable as men and should be given the opportunity to take on any role within the military.

I am not going to praise him. From the short time we spent talking, I got the impression that he wouldn't appreciate it. Either way, he's just a regular American kid, a Star Wars geek no less, who happened to have been faced with extraordinary circumstances. My simple aim is to use my soapbox to share his story, and explain why I think that amid the din of chattering voices that various media channels confront us with daily, his narrative is worth paying attention to. His name is Izzy Ezagui, he is 23 years old, average height, has dark hair...

World’s deadliest golf course boasts land mines and man-bear-pigs Along the DMZ, golf is not a sport for the faint of heart. The golf course at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Korean demilitarized zone, boasts just one hole, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in hazards. Live land mines line the course, and bizarre animals stumble out from the woods. Formerly Camp Kitty Hawk, United Nations Command post Camp Bonifas was renamed in 1986 to honor Captain Arthur G. Bonifas, who had been axe murdered in 1976 during a conflict with North Korea...

The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it is taking another step toward allowing women to serve in combat roles. Gen. James Amos, Marine Corps commandant, said selected groups of female Marines will get combat unit assignments later this year as part of a study on the appropriateness of women on the battlefield. Amos announced the initiative in a message posted on a service website. The program calls for assigning women officers, gunnery sergeants and staff sergeants to combat artillery, tank, amphibious, engineer and assault units. Current law restricts women from serving in direct combat in all but a few assignments,...

10 Weapons That Animals Use We've come a long way from thinking that what separates us from the animals is, say, using a rock to bash in the skull of our competitors. It turns out that there are a lot of creatures out that that re-purpose tools to make their personal world better and someone else's world a lot worse. Take a look at the world's craziest and most intimidating weapons wielded by animals. 10. The Herring Gull's Bread This bird has learned how to use bread to construct a trap. Herring gulls live in large colonies in the urban...

Watch full metal jousting tonight at 10 est on history channel. My son in law is Josh Knowles. He is made fun of on "The Soup" last week. have you ever been made fun of on "The soup"? Pretty kewl!

Newt Gingrich criticized Republican rival Rick Santorum on Tuesday afternoon for his “complete misunderstanding of modern warfare” over the former Pennsylvania senator’s remarks on women in combat. Santorum on Thursday said he had “concerns about women in frontline combat.” “I think that could be a very compromising situation … where people naturally, you know, may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved,” Santorum told CNN’s John King. Gingrich fired back at Santorum, calling his credentials to be commander in chief into question during a press availability...

While I understand that only a fraction of the population of this nation is directly affected by what you are about to read, I would never-the-less like to remind you that the remainder of the population is affected coincidentally. While the majority of the American population probably never even considered the Armed Forces as a possible career objective, there are those who never considered life without serving their country, in uniform, on a field of combat. Most of these young men and women never take the time to internalize some idealized vision of charging death for God and Country,

Rick Santorum, in an interview with CNN's John King a bit ago, was asked whether he thinks it's a good idea or a bad idea for the Pentagon to relax some of the rules about women taking frontline roles in combat, "perhaps opening the door to a broader role for, ultimately, women in combat." His answer was both praising of women serving the country, and as a part of the armed services, but he went on to explain why he would take issue with women on the front lines. "Look, I want to create every opportunity for women to be...

I've never been a soldier myself. But I understand why my country has been successful like no other on the battlefields of Europe (and even outside of our continent) throughout the centuries. A strong, well organized country will always enjoy a major advantage against an instable nation where many locals are willing to aid the invading forces. We've beaten the Russians with an army 1/10 their size (at Narva). Afterwards, Charles XII of Sweden said that it was "great fun fighting fleeing Russians, because you could actually sit comfortably mounted on your horse and shoot them like they were little...

Reporting from Washington— On the evening of April 5, a pilot settled into a leather captain's chair at Creech Air Force Base in southern Nevada and took the controls of a Predator drone flying over one of the most violent areas of southwestern Afghanistan. Minutes later, his radio crackled. A firefight had broken out. Taliban insurgents had ambushed about two dozen Marines patrolling a bitterly contested road. The Air Force captain angled his joystick and the drone veered toward the fighting taking place half a world away, where it was already morning. He powered up two Hellfire missiles under its...

Emerson Knives, Inc. has been building custom knives for the Navy SEALs since its founding in 1979. This month, Emerson is memorializing the SEALs whose helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Afghanistan on August 5th with a commemorative Emerson CQC-6 combat knife with a blade constructed with steel from the World Trade Center. The Emerson CQC-6 design has been a sidearm staple for the SEALs since the 1980s. The knife’s letters, CQC, mean “Close Quarter Combat,” and the “6” refers to SEAL Team 6. According to Ernest Emerson,

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- California officials have released thousands of insects in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to combat an invasive weed that has clogged the waterway. The state Department of Food and Agriculture let more than 5,000 water hyacinth plant hoppers go at several locations in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties this month. Officials hope the insects, which are native to South America, will establish self-sustaining colonies and begin chomping down on water hyacinth. The invasive plant forms a dense carpet on the surface of waterways, impeding boat access and clogging water intake systems.

U.S. Army may soon equip troops with smartphonesBy Mark Milian, CNN July 12, 2011 For U.S. Army troops, smartphones could become requisite field gear, along with boots, guns and ammunition. **SNIP** This dry run has proved so encouraging that Army officials say they expect the first wave of smartphone-equipped soldiers could be shipped overseas later this year. Certain members of brigades are already assigned tactical radios. The phones wouldn't replace radios, but they would be distributed more widely and would ideally operate in conjunction with older equipment, officials said. The infantry is using smartphones to text message updates about their...