Written by  Asif Haroon Raja ; Originally appeared at  VT The US-North Korea antagonism has its roots in the 1952-3 Korean War which had divided the country. While North Korea is backed by Russia and China, South Korea is protected by the US and it has a large military presence in the country. In order to ward off impending danger posed by USA and its allies, North Korea despite being an impoverished country, developed nuclear bombs and missiles, causing deep anxieties to USA and its allies South Korea and Japan. The US imposed sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s defiance of previous UN resolutions banning the testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. When North Korea launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in July 2017, which many analysts believe are capable of hitting the US mainland, the US piled on more sanctions in August 2017, which further inflamed tensions. Russia and China bear a measure of responsibility for the latest outburst. The two st

FILE IMAGE: Russian Special Operations Forces troops are in Syria The Russian military announced on October 24 that ISIS now controls less than 5% of the Syrian territory. “Today, ISIL [ISIS] controls less than 5%, before the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, ISIL controlled more than 70% of Syria’s territory,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during the fourth meeting of defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and dialogue partners,  according to TASS . “Some 998 towns and settlements have been liberated, and the liberated territory reaches 503,223 square kilometers. Many militants have been killed. The process of restoring peaceful life in the country has started.” According to the statement, about 2,500 settlements across Syria have joined reconciliation effort thanks to the Russian center for reconciliation of warring parties. Since 2015, 1.126m people have returned home. Shoigu added that the ISIS oil r

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. (Vincent Kessler/Reuters) The Ukrainian media  reported  of a foiled assassination attempt on President Petro Poroshenko on October 23. The assassination had been planned to take course during his visit to Avdiivka. “Security Service of Ukraine [ SBU] forces have dismantled a terrorist cell, that had planned to assassinate the President of Ukraine. Two cell members were killed during the operation,” Vesti Ukr’s report says refering a website of SBU as the original  source of the information. The killed had in their possession a Steyr-Mannlicher sniper rifle, a Makarov pistol with two magazines, two anti-tank grenades, two hand grenades and three smoke grenades. “The killed had taken part in Kyiv riots. The investigation is still ongoing,” the report added. However, right now, the official Security Service of Ukraine website contains no report of the assassination attempt. SBU later  posted  on its Facebook page that the report regard

 Unless you’ve been associated with the U.S. military in any capacity, you likely have never heard of the “naval militia.” In fact, even if you  have  been in, chances are good you’re hearing about this particular branch of service for the first time. But, as noted by LTC (OH) Deano L. McNeil, MPA, MCP in a  piece for  InHomelandSecurity , not only is the naval militia a real entity, but it is one of the most  underused of all Pentagon assets, and at a time when terrorism threatens our homeland and great powers increasingly threaten global stability, now is a perfect time to revitalize this forgotten branch of service. “The United States government and the governments of the states and territories utilize a multi-tiered military and emergency management force structure to prepare and respond to issues pertaining to homeland security and domestic military operations,” McNeil writes. “This force structure includes active and reserve federal military forces, the United States C