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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday urged the Kremlin to comply with rules on transparency as it gears up for huge military exercises along the alliance's eastern flank next month. The drill, named Zapad 2017 ("West"), has stoked fresh alarm in NATO-members Poland and the Baltic states as a more assertive Russia pushes back against what it sees as the alliance's unjustified expansion into eastern Europe. "I call on Russia to ensure compliance with its obligations under the OSCE Vienna Document, because predictability, transparency is especially important when we have increased military activity along our borders," Stoltenberg told reporters in Warsaw at a joint press conference with Poland's right-wing Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. The Vienna Document requires all sides to provide advance information about exercises and allow observer teams so as to avoid any dangerous misunderstandings. The NATO chief had much stronger words for Mosco...

  FILE PHOTO: People protest U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military, in Times Square, in New York City, New York, U.S., July 26, 2017. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump walks from Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 23, 2017. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that directs the U.S. military not to accept transgender men and women as recruits and halts the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgeries for active personnel unless the process is already underway. The memo, released by the White House, laid out in more detail a ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. armed forces that Trump announced via Twitter last month, reversing a policy shift started under his predecessor, President Barack Obama. In it, Trump directed the Department of Defense and Department of H...

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 3, 2017 – Coalition airstrikes continue to target and kill Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leaders and foreign fighters in Syria to support coalition partner forces and degradeISIS' ability to inspire, resource and direct terror attacks around the world, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials said today. Most recently, officials said in a statement, the coalition targeted and killed ISIS leaders involved in directing external operations as well as in bomb-making activities directed at regional and Western targets. Coalition forces killed Abd al-Ghafur, a Syria-based ISIS external operations official, and one associate in an airstrikeJuly 24 near Albu Kamal, Syria. His assistant, Abu Hammam, and three other ISIS members were killed by a coalition airstrike July 16 near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria. Ghafur and Hammam were responsible for managing and ...

U.S. Army soldiers install their missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, at a golf course in Seongju, South Korea,  The  second North Korean test launch  of an ICBM within four weeks should convince South Korea to allow deployment of a full THAAD anti-missile battery, the Pentagon said Monday. South Korea has permitted the U.S.  Army  to install two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense launchers on a former golf course south of Seoul, but South Korean President Moon Jae-in has delayed placement  of a full battery of six launchers pending an environmental study that has no timeline. The Pentagon maintained that North Korea’s test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last Friday, following on a similar test launch July 4, had altered the security calculus on the peninsula and made the case for immediate deployment of the full THAAD battery. “A lot of people question the need for THAAD; they question the requ...

Hours after another defeat at the hands of the Republican-held Senate, President Trump launched into a speech about immigrant gang violence on Friday and wound up delivering a de facto campaign rally with a spray of Long Island police officers applauding behind him. In his second brief appearance in his home state since taking office — this time in a small auditorium at the Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood — Mr. Trump described cities as “bloodstained killing fields” that were overrun with undocumented immigrants before his inauguration in January. He described the perpetrators of violent crimes as “animals” and said his administration seeks to “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” gangs. He also used his roughly 30-minute speech to bolster the police, urging them to be less “nice” in arresting immigrant criminal suspects or gang members whom he described as enraptured by slow torture of their victims. The gang...

  After  another North Korean missile launch  on Friday, the US and South Korean military responded by holding a joint missile exercise "to exercise assets countering North Korea's missile launch," a joint statement read. The exercise utilized the Army's Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and South Korea's Hyunmoo Missile II - which were said to be capable of rapidly deploying in order to provide "deep-strike precision capability." The missiles were also said to have been  fired  into the East Sea, where North Korea's latest missile was also rumored to have landed. ATACMS missiles can carry a 500-pound high-explosive warhead and can travel up to a distance of 186 miles. The newest provocation from North Korea appeared to demonstrate the country's advances in its missile program, given that the latest missile was estimated to be capable of reaching major US cities, such as New York and Washington, D.C.,  according to experts . President Donald...

The United States on Thursday hit out at Iran over its test of a satellite-launch rocket, calling it an act that undermined regional stability and saying it appeared to violate UN Security Council resolutions. "We consider that to be continued ballistic missile development," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. "We consider this to be provocative action." Nauert added that if confirmed, the test could be a "violation of UN Security Council resolutions." Iranian state television broadcast footage of the takeoff from the Imam Khomeini space center, named after the late founder of the Islamic republic, in Semnan province in the east of the country. The report said the launch vehicle, named Simorgh after a bird in Iranian mythology, was capable of propelling a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds) to an altitude of 500 kilometres (300 miles) above earth. Western states suspect Iran of developing the technology capable of l...

HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, on a sea trial this week. (Photo by the Press Association)  At a time of rising tensions between China and the US, a move likely to anger Beijing. The UK would increase in presence in the waters after it sent four combat aircraft for joint exercises with Japan in the region last year, British Defense Minister Michael Fallon said Thursday. "We hope to send a warship to region next year. We have not finalized exactly where that deployment will take place but we won't be constrained by China from sailing through the South China Sea," Fallon told Reuters. "We flew RAF Typhoons through the South China Sea last October and we will exercise that right whenever we next have the opportunity to do so, whenever we have ships or planes in the region,” he added. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also said Thursday that Britain plans to sail two new aircraft carriers through contested Asian waters. “One...

FU.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S.  U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry optimistically discussed expanding American coal exports to Ukraine and other energy matters during a lengthy phone call this month with a Russian prankster who Perry thought was Ukraine's prime minister. Perry actually was talking with comedians known in Russia for targeting celebrities and politicians with audacious stunts, Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said in a written statement. Pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Alexei Stolyarov are sometimes called the "Jerky Boys of Russia," after an American duo who put out recordings of their prank phone calls in the 1990s. They have made faux calls to British singer Elton John, who thought he was speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others. "These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are suppor...

REUTERS/Carlos BarriaU.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. President Donald Trump appeared to commend North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's ability to control his country. "Not many 27-year-old men could go in and take over a regime," Trump said in a  Reuters  interview published Thursday night. "Say what you want, but that's not easy - especially at that age." "I'm just telling you, and I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit - I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do." Trump has praised the North Korean dictator's unmerciful rule  in the past . During a campaign stop in Iowa in 2016, he was reported to have said, "You gotta give him credit." "How many young guys - he was, like, 26 or 25 when his father died - take over these tough generals, and all of a sudden ... he goes in, he takes over, ...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Bonn, February 16, 2017. Source: Flickr / MFA Russia U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington is ready to seek new common ground for cooperation with Moscow, Reuters reported "As we search for new common ground we expect Russia to honor its commitment to the Minsk agreements and work to de-escalate violence in Ukraine," Tillerson said after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. In his turn, Lavrov noted, that they "have discussed the situation in bilateral relations, which were seriously undermined by the Obama administration." "Tillerson has confirmed readiness to overcome this period expressed by President Trump during the phone talks with President Putin," Lavrov added. The first meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary  of State Res Tillerson was held in the German city of Bonn on the sidelines of th...

Donald Trump with Michael Flynn during a discussion on national security in his offices in Trump Tower in New York on August 17.AP Photo/Gerald Herbert In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted reporting on his campaign's ties with Russian intelligence officials as "conspiracy theories and blind hatred." "The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!"  Trump tweeted . Both MSNBC and CNN led Wednesday morning shows with a  New York Times report published Tuesday night that said members of Trump's campaign  had multiple communications with senior Russian intelligence officials before the US election,  as CNN White House video producer Elizabeth Landers  observed. Landers also said Fox News had not reported on the Times article Wednesday morning. In a follow-up tweet, Trump dismissed the "Russian connection non-sense" as...

British Prime Minister Theresa May (L) and US President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office of the White House on January 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP) The British government says an invitation for US President Donald Trump's state visit is still in place, despite an outpouring of public and political protest. More than 1.8 million Britons have signed an online  petition  urging the government to withdraw the invitation that Prime Minister Theresa May extended to Trump while she was visiting Washington last month. The petition, which is expected to be put to debate in Parliament, called for Trump to be allowed to enter the UK but not be granted an official state visit because of fears it would cause embarrassment to Queen Elizabeth. In a statement sent to petition signatories, the Foreign Office said the government "recognized the strong views ... but does not support this petition." It also said that the US president should be granted the “full courte...

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear deal as the ‘worse deal’, we don’t think the White House will be killing the nuclear deal,” Roozbeh Aliabadi, managing partner of the Global Growth Advisors from New York, told Press TV on Tuesday. European states, Russia and China are behind the nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the analyst said adding, “it is highly unlikely that we will see killing of the deal.” “It is reasonable for all of us to assume that the nuclear deal will stay in place,” the analyst noted. He said the fact that Trump in his first three weeks in office has not yet discussed the JCPOA with the ...

Israeli Ambassador to Cairo David Govrin Israel's internal spy agency, Shin Bet, says the regime has temporarily withdrawn its ambassador to Egypt, citing security concerns in the North African country. "Due to security considerations the return of the foreign ministry embassy staff to Cairo has been restricted," the agency said in a statement released on Tuesday without elaborating on when the pull-out took place. However, Britain's  Daily Telegraph  said Israel's ambassador to Cairo, David Govrin, had been pulled out of the diplomatic mission at the end of last year. According to the report, the envoy is currently working from Jerusalem al-Quds while Tel Aviv hopes that he will be able to return to his post soon. Egypt has been wracked by a series of terror attacks. A Daesh-affiliated militant group operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has recently stepped up its assaults, taking advantage of the chaos created following the ouster of the country’s...

Lee Jae-yong (C), the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, arrives to be questioned as a suspect in a corruption scandal at the office of the independent counsel in Seoul, South Korea, February 13, 2017. (Photo by AFP) Samsung Group remains a target for prosecution as the office of South Korea's special prosecutor reiterates that it will seek a warrant for the arrest of the company's chief amid a probe into a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. The office made the announcement in a statement released on Tuesday, a day after Lee Jae-yong, Samsung's vice chairman and the son of the group's boss, Lee Kun-hee, was questioned for more than 15 hours by the special prosecutor on Monday. The prosecutor is also seeking the arrest of Park Sang-jin, the company's executive, in the graft investigation. "We have filed for an arrest warrant for Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and President Park Sang-jin today," the statement read....

Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami (Photo by AP) The US has imposed sanctions against Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami over his alleged involvement in drug trafficking, in yet another hostile measure that could spark fresh tensions between the two countries. Late on Monday, the US Treasury Department blacklisted El Assiami and his associate, Venezuelan businessman Samark Lopez, over allegations of having a role in global drug trafficking. As part of the sanctions effort, 13 companies owned or controlled by Lopez -- including five based in the US state of Florida -- will be blocked and both men will be banned from entering the United States. Lopez stands accused of serving as El Aissami’s “key front-man” to launder drug proceeds and purchase assets. El Aissami, who has long denied any criminal ties, did not immediately react to Washington’s move. Since his days as interior minister, El Aissami has been the target of US law enforcement investigation over al...

PressTv This file photo taken on January 04, 2017 shows Michael Flynn, then National Security Adviser designate, arriving at Trump Tower for meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump in New York. The White House announced February 13, 2017 that Michael Flynn has resigned as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, amid escalating controversy over his contacts with Moscow. (Photo by AFP) The latest controversy of the new US administration has been the resignation of Michael Flynn as the US national security adviser over his secret contacts with Russia. In his resignation letter, Flynn admitted to phone conversations with Moscow's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. The conversations apparently revolved around the lifting of the Obama administration’s sanctions against Moscow.    In an interview with Press TV, Jim W. Dean, the managing editor of  Veterans Today , described Flynn’s resignat...

FILE PHOTO: Former President, Goodluck Jonathan The Peoples Democratic Party remains Nigeria’s strongest and biggest party despite losing the 2015 presidential election, and will win the next general election, former President Goodluck Jonathan has said. Mr. Jonathan said current efforts at reforming the party are “a clear sign” the PDP will win in 2019. The former president said this on Monday in Abuja while receiving a report from the Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee of the PDP. “Yes we lost the presidential election but that doesn’t diminish us. Every other party still knows that PDP is a leading party,” said Mr. Jonathan who received the team in his House in Abuja. “Losing the presidency is something temporary. We should be able to get that position back as long as we are able to get our acts together. I am happy that you people are working towards that,” he said. Mr. Jonathan was the party’s candidate in ...

By Pap Saine and Lamin Jahate By Pap Saine and Lamin Jahateh BANJUL (Reuters) - Gambia's new government has told the United Nations it will remain in the International Criminal Court (ICC), state media reported on Monday, reversing the previous administration's plan to withdraw from the tribunal. Former president Yahya Jammeh announced in October that he would pull Gambia out of the ICC, accusing the world body of ignoring alleged war crimes of Western nations and seeking only to prosecute Africans. But President Adama Barrow, who defeated Jammeh in a December election, pledged during the campaign to undo Jammeh's decision, restore human rights and repair the country's badly-damaged foreign relations. "As a new government that has committed itself to the promotion of human rights ... we reaffirm The Gambia's commitment to the principles enshrined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court," said a statement read on state television and r...