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(Reuters) - Finland's EU minister Alexander Stubb, who wants to cut taxes and take his neutral country into NATO, won the leadership of his ruling conservative party on Saturday, putting him on track to become prime minister later this month.

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has long been hard for the central government to control because of its combustible mix of Arabs and Kurds. The first time I visited Mosul was in August 2003 when a tenuous calm was maintained by the 101st Airborne Division. Its commander, a then-obscure two-star general named David Petraeus, had on his own initiative opened the Syrian border to trade, struck deals with Syria and Turkey to provide badly needed electricity, restored telephone service, and held elections to elect local leaders. Along the way he also managed to kill Saddam Hussein’s poisonous offspring Uday and Qusay.

The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Russia has sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Friday that a convoy of three T-64 tanks, several rocket launchers, and other military vehicles crossed the border near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne in the last three days. She called the move "unacceptable."

I am concerned about reports that pro-Russian armed gangs are acquiring heavy weapons from Russia, including Russian tanks. We have seen reports that Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles may have crossed the border into eastern Ukraine. If these reports are confirmed, this would mark a serious escalation of the crisis in eastern Ukraine. I continue to urge Russia to complete the withdrawal of its military forces on the border with Ukraine, to stop the flow of weapons and fighters across the border, and to exercise its influence among armed separatists to lay down their weapons and renounce violence. We...

(Reuters) - Russia has begun military exercises in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad in what the Defence Ministry said was a response to drills by NATO allies in parts of eastern Europe that were launched after Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

Do Finland want to start World War III? It's something to think about if Finland wants to join NATO, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergei Markov. Enlarge Do Finland want to start World War III? It's something to think about if Finland wants to join NATO, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergei Markov. It's not Russian hatred against Finland, but if Finland joins NATO, it shows that the country has a Russia-complex, said Markov, who is a political scientist, to the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. - If Finland wants to join NATO, they should think first . Will...

NATO launched a large-scale exercise, "Steadfast Javelin", in Estonia on 16 May to test Allied forces on their ability to work together and maintain NATO's readiness and combat effectiveness. 6000 troops from 9 Allied nations are participating in these drills, the most important NATO exercise in the Baltic region since the start of the Ukraine crisis. Exercises like this one are especially important in enhancing NATO's readiness to defend its Allies.

NATO Defence Ministers on Tuesday (3 June 2014) agreed to continue and further reinforce NATO’s reassurance measures in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. “This is a time for all Allies to play a part, and all Allies are doing so”, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “Every single Ally is committing resources to our collective defence. When we say NATO’s defence is “all for one”, we mean it.” Mr. Fogh Rasmussen strongly welcomed the United States announcement to commit 1 billion dollars to a European Reassurance Initiative as “a clear sign of America’s commitment to Europe, and the...

(Please excuse the vanity but I did do a diligent search and didn't find a current news article addressing this issue.) The Afganistan War is a war conducted under the auspices of NATO, with some 28 nations cooperating with each other to achieve their goals, some by providing troops and some by providing funds. Not all prisoners at Gitmo were captured by US forces; some prisoners were captured by NATO forces and ended up at Gitmo. So while the USA provides the jail cells and the meals, aren't Gitmo prisoners from the battlefields of Afganistan actually NATO prisoners, and not...

Welcome to NATO headquarters. It’s very good to see you here. Now more than ever, it’s important that we listen to one another and talk to another. We have just had a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on the security situation in and around Ukraine. And we welcome the holding of this meeting. All NATO Allies made clear that we condemn the illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea and Allies will not recognize it. We commend the people of Ukraine for holding free and fair elections largely in line with international standards. They clearly voted for a united Ukraine. Their...

NICOSIA, Cyprus – Several thousand people turned out for Cyprus’ first gay pride parade on Saturday, exceeding the expectations of organizers who said the event’s popularity shows that Cypriots are shedding their conservative attitudes.

Lawmakers urged France on Thursday to cancel the sale of two advanced helicopter carrier ships to Russia and suggested that NATO buy or lease them instead. "The purchase would send a strong signal to (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin that the NATO allies will not tolerate or in any way enable his reckless moves," they said in a letter to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen obtained by Reuters. France has said it would press ahead with the deal because cancelling would do more damage to Paris than to Moscow. The contract, worth $1.66 billion, has created about 1,000 jobs and includes...

NATO Secretary General reaction to reports of Russian troop movements NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made the following comment to the press in Montenegro on Thursday (22 May 2014) regarding reports on Russian troop movements: “Late yesterday, we have seen limited Russian troop activity in the vicinity of the border with Ukraine that may suggest that some of these forces are preparing to withdraw. It is too early to say what this means, but I hope this is the start of a full and genuine withdrawal. At present, most of the previously deployed Russian force remains near the Ukrainian...

The United States and NATO say they've seen no sign Russian troops have moved away from the border with Ukraine, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered such a move.

Former President Jimmy Carter said President Obama couldn’t have done anything to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from annexing Crimea. “I think that was a foregone conclusion,” Carter said on MSNBC. “He was going to do it regardless of the consequences. I think now, that’s far enough.” In comments Monday on "Morning Joe," Carter compared Obama's response to his own decisions at the White House in 1979, when he decided to boycott Moscow's Summer Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

The Czech defense minister says his country does not want to host foreign NATO troops on its soil, as part of plans to beef up the alliance’s eastern wing in light of the Ukraine crisis in contrast to some other eastern European countries like Poland. Martin Stropinsky, the Czech defense minister, has said his country is not in favor of any foreign troops being based in his country, even though they would only come at Prague’s invitation, Reuters reports. “We know well how any permanent stationing (of troops) is still a problem. I belong to a generation that experienced the...

A secret cable released by Wikileaks on Tuesday revealed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Washington as far back as 2008 that US-EU-NATO meddling in Ukraine could split the country in two. “Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine’s intent to seek a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit (ref A), Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potential military threat,” said the 2008 cable classified by William Burns, than US Ambassador to Moscow and currently the US Deputy Secretary of State....

With Nato forces withdrawing from the badlands of Afghanistan, the country's people need all the help they can get to keep extremists from once again seizing power. But it seems a new intervention has come from an unlikely source... outer space. U.S. Marines captured this incredible footage of what looks like a UFO hovering over a Taliban encampment - then blowing it to kingdom come. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2623330/Is-Inter-Stellar-Assistance-Force-Mysterious-UFO-filmed-blitzing-Taliban-base-Afghanistan.html#ixzz3198madDz Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) chief Alana Bjørnland suggests that Ukraine crisis has led to increase of Russian intelligence activities in Norway against the petroleum sector and policy makers. In an interview with TV2, the chief of the PST warns against Russian spies in Norway. She also adds that it’s not only Russian intelligence which is active in Norway, there are other states that need information. But she avoids naming other countries than Russia. - I do not want to comment specifically on the country except for Russia, which is also a player in crisis in Ukraine. PST boss told...

Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe and NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen agreed Tuesday the Ukraine crisis was a threat to global security which must be addressed. As Russia rejected a new peace initiative and fears of open war mounted in Ukraine, Rasmussen said the situation amounted to the "gravest crisis to European security since the end of the Cold War." The crisis is deepening in the run-up to May 25 elections, with some 40,000 Russian troops massed on the border with eastern Ukraine where the Kiev government is under pressure from pro-Kremlin militias. "This is not just about Ukraine," Rasmussen said....