ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Police Commissioner stressed today: "This should never change or destroy the way of our life." The self-styled Islamic preacher who held at least 17 people hostage in a Lindt Cafe on Sydney's Martin Place today is dead, as well as two of his hostages, police have confirmed. Moments after at least five hostages fled the building in terror, army commandos stormed the Sydney café where they fired automatic weapons and threw stun grenades, to a dramatic siege which lasted more than 16 hours. Loud yelling and screams were heard amid a series of explosions and rapid gunfire as the commandos moved into the building. They were followed by a bomb squad and detection robots, who later reported that they found no explosives on the premises. In the wake of the harrowing siege which police have confirmed is over, Australian Prime Minister tweeted: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two deceased hostages, the wounded and the other hostages. #sydneysiege...

The first multirole Yasen K-560 Severodvinsk submarine by the pier of the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk. (RIA Novosti) Russia’s fifth generation nuclear submarines will be armed with robots and underwater drones in addition to conventional weaponry. "The new [fifth] generation [of submarines] will be equipped with both contemporary weapons and those currently being developed,” Nikolay Novoselov, deputy CEO of the Malakhit design engineering bureau, told RIA-Novosti. “We’re talking about battle robots which can be released by the submarine, and a type of underwater drone,” he explained. According to the designer, the robots would be disposable or returnable of military, surveillance or communications purpose. “They’ll be released by the submarine and stay offline before being remotely activated on command. It will give the submarine time to leave the area, with the drone staying in place to maintain a semblance that the submarine is still there,” he said. Novoselov stressed that...