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Russia’s Strategic Aviation to Conduct Major Exercises Strategic bombers of Russian Air Forces are to conduct major exercises with launching cruise missiles and mid-air refueling, RIA News agency says with reference to Alexander Drobyshevsky, spokesman of Russian Air Forces. Aviation is to try new crews during the exercises. “Over 50 percent of the participants are young pilots,” said Drobyshevsky. Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers will shoot cruise missiles at northern firing grounds, and Tu-22M3 are to practice bomb-release. Some of the tasks, including mid-air refueling, are to be carried out at night. Exercises of the 37th air army of Russian Air...

Russia Cancels Joint Exercises With U.S. Wednesday September 6, 2006 3:01 AM By MIKE ECKEL Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - Russia said Tuesday it was pulling out of joint military exercises with the United States scheduled for later this month because of unspecified problems with U.S. personnel. A Defense Ministry statement announcing the decision to cancel the Torgau-2006 exercises suggested it was connected to a dispute between NATO and countries participating in the NATO ``Partnership for Peace'' program. ``We are aware of media reports and will work through appropriate channels to determine the status of future military exercises,'' Lt....

MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Japan will hold a joint naval exercise in October 2006, Russia's defense minister said Friday. Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, said: "A major unit of the Pacific Fleet's ships will arrive in October 2006 at the Japanese port of Maizuru to practice rescue and other operations." He was speaking after talks with Japan's Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga. Although Russia and Japan are still involved in a territorial dispute that dates back to World War II and are yet to sign an official peace treaty, Ivanov said...

In a significant move, elite Special Forces of US, India, Russia and United Kingdom are to hold for the first time multi-lateral land and air exercises on the Russian soil early next year. "Russia hopes to organise and host such an exercise" Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov told newsmen after rounding off his visit to India and his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

BEIJING: China and Russia are to hold rare joint military exercises involving up to 8,000 service personnel from Aug 18-26, the Global Times reported, citing Russian media reports. 'Peace Mission 2005' will involve China's army, navy and air force, while Russia will dispatch its navy and air force, it said. China's Defense Ministry has not announced the exercises. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said last Thursday during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao that joint exercises will take place later this year. According to the Global Times, which is run by the official People's Daily, final arrangements for...

DUSHANBE, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - The first phase of CIS combined military exercises began at the Telemba firing range in the Chita region in southwestern Russia Friday. The exercise will last until July 10, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told a press conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, following a meeting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers. The Russian Air Force, the Baltic Fleet's anti-aircraft defense units and Belarus' anti-aircraft defense troops are taking part in the exercises. "The second phase will take place on Kazakhstan territory in Saryshagan, from August 5-12," Ivanov said. The second phase involves Kazakhstan's air...

Israel And Freedom For Jonathan Pollard By Caroline Glick The Jerusalem Post - With INA Publisher's Note Below Jerusalem ---- April 28......Jonathan Pollard is one of the most polarizing figures of our times. Pollard, a former intelligence analyst in US naval intelligence, has now served 20 years of a life imprisonment sentence following his conviction for transferring classified US intelligence materials relating to Arab ballistic missile and nonconventional weapons programs to Israel from May 1984 until his arrest in November 1985. For his contribution to Israel's security and for his long suffering in prison, Israel considers Pollard a national hero....

A major row erupted between China and Russia over the location for joint military exercises, a Russian newspaper reported on Thursday. According to the Kommersant daily, the Russian military had suggested the Xinjiang autonomous region of China, because of the area's problem with Uighur separatists and its proximity to Central Asia, a focus for the international fight against terrorism. However, Beijing flatly rejected the proposal, and instead suggested Zhejiang Province near Taiwan. Exercises in this area, the Kommersant noted in its report, "would look too provocative and trigger a strong reaction not only in Taiwan, but in the United States...

MANILA (AFP) - Nearly one thousand American and Filipino soldiers on Sunday began joint military exercises aimed at improving cooperation against terrorist and other attacks. The two-week exercises are to be held in military camps in Luzon. Some 300 US troops and 650 Filipino soldiers are taking part. The maneuvers are aimed at improving joint planning and enhancing capabilities "against armed attacks, including threats from terrorist groups, as well as readiness to respond to natural disasters," the US embassy said. The Philippines is a US ally in its global war on terrorism, and small numbers of US military advisers have...

NEW YORK (Oct. 23) - Martha Stewart has been exercising, reading and making friends in prison, but the food at the minimum-security prison camp in West Virginia is "terrible," the domestic diva's daughter said Friday. "I'm sure she could give them quite a few pointers, but I think that the budget is so limited that ... I'm not sure how much change they'd be willing to make," Alexis Stewart said on CNN's Larry King Live. "I think airplane (meals) would be better. It's just -- it's terrible," the daughter added. "It's not going to affect her that badly because she's...

For the fifth time running, Europe's largest peacetime exercises at sea, organized by countries taking part in the Partnership for Peace program, started in Gdynia. Forty-one battleships, 35 aircraft and helicopters of the marines practiced on the Baltic and at the Polish military exercise ground in Ustka to improve their capability to react during an international crisis. "A blockade operation, protection of a sea transport with humanitarian aid and evacuation of population from dangerous areas were the most important elements of the exercise," said Rear Admiral Thomas J. Kilcline, commander the Baltops 2004 exercises. After leaving Gdynia, the vessels regrouped...

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The United States must modernize its fighter jets to maintain air supremacy, a top Air Force general said on Wednesday citing the success of advanced Russian-made jets against American planes in a recent exercise as signaling an erosion of its overwhelming advantage. Gen. Hal Hornburg, head of U.S. Air Combat Command, said a U.S. air-to-air exercise with the Indian Air Force in February, in which India used Russian jets to defeat aging American F-15Cs, revealed "that we may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we once thought we were."...

North Korea has urged the South to stop its military exercises with the United States. The two Koreas are currently holding important political talks. The Cabinet level talks are being held in Pyongyang. In his keynote speech, South Korea's chief delegate urged the North to resolve the crisis surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions. The top North Korean official replied by accusing Washington of preparing a pre-emptive nuclear strike and insisting that joint US-South Korean military drills be scrapped. At a dinner on Tuesday night, the North Koreans expressed gratitude for the aid send to victims of a recent train tragedy....

JERUSALEM: Israel will hold joint naval exercises with the United States and Turkey in August, an Israeli military spokesman said Thursday. The exercises are the sixth to be held by the three navies, the military said, and will take place in international waters off the Turkish coast. The last U.S-Israeli-Turkish naval exercises took place in January off the Israeli coast. Bilateral military relations between the U.S. and Turkey and the U.S. and Israel have been strong, but only since the early 1990s have defense links between Israel and Turkey developed. They feature joint Israeli-Turkish air force exercises in Turkish air...

MOSCOW: Russia wants to stage joint Pacific Ocean naval exercises with the United States, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov told his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld in Brussels, media reports said on Friday. Ivanov met Rumsfeld immediately upon his arrival in Brussels on Thursday, ahead of Friday's meeting of the year-old Russia-NATO Council that was built to ease Moscow's concerns about its former Soviet-era foe's expansion towards Russia's borders. Russian media reports said that Ivanov told Rumsfeld that the two sides had no serious disagreements about world affairs despite Moscow's earlier misgivings about the US-led war in Iraq. He added that...

This is the scenario: At noon in Seattle, a hidden bomb explodes south of the central business district, causing more than 100 casualties. Significant levels of radiation are detected near the site of the explosion and it soon becomes apparent to local officials that this was no ordinary bomb, but a radiological dispersal device, commonly known as a "dirty bomb." The next day and some 2,000 miles to the east, people complaining of flu-like symptoms begin to trickle into hospitals in the Chicago area. Over the next 24 hours, the number of arriving patients escalates dramatically. Local officials diagnose the...

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - The United States and Russia held joint coast guard exercises in the northern Bering Sea, the Russian officials said Wednesday, despite tensions between the nations over the war in Iraq. Last week's drill was to be followed by a series of meetings between top U.S. and Russian coast guard commanders in the region, said Andrei Orlov, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Border Guards Service's northeastern regional directorate. The cooperation comes in spite of Moscow's adamant opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. It presents a stark contrast to the severance of many bilateral programs following the...

Breast exercise sessions have been launched in Thailand to help local women boost their busts. They are aimed at helping women who feel overawed by media images of big-breasted western women. Health officials also say Thai women's breasts are being misshapen by unsuitable imported bras. Organised by the public health ministry, the first exercise session in Bangkok attracted plenty of participants. A troupe of dancers led the way in showing women how to improve their bust without resorting to cosmetic surgery. Dr Pennapha Subcharoen said: "Many women are not aware that wearing an appropriate size of bra, and regularly taking...

AMMAN, July 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. and Jordanian troops are to hold joint exercises in August 1, a Jordanian official said Thursday, July 18, stressing the war games were “not connected in any way” to U.S. threats to attack Iraq. “Routine Jordanian-U.S. maneuvers will be held in the last week of August in the Aqaba region (of southern Jordan) involving thousands of soldiers,” the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), asking not to be named. He insisted it was part of a program of twice-yearly joint exercises with the United States and “not connected in any way” with...