ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

A previous search and rescue mission had more money, and a greater range, than today's. It also rescued more people.

Thousands of desperate people risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach Italy. Many never make it.

Mustard gas and other deadly nerve-agent ordnance from WWI are set to be demolished after decades in storage. Ordnance technicians use machines to simulate chemical munitions disposal at the Pueblo Chemical Depot [AP] STORY HIGHLIGHTS The first use of lethal chemical weapons was in Belgium in WWI Israel, Egypt, and North Korea have not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention Poison gas was used by German and Allied forces during WWI Pueblo, United States - At a hi-tech military installation on the windswept prairie of southern Colorado, a small army of workers in protective gear, assisted by precision robots, is training to destroy one of mankind's most vile inventions: chemical weapons. "Chemical agent destruction is a hard role. It's a high hazard operation," says project manager Kim Jackson. "We have explosion hazards, and we also have agent hazards. That means anyone who might be exposed to the blister agent. So we spend a lot of our time with our personnel on

Former CIA director and retired general appears in North Carolina court for leaking military documents to mistress. By Agencies Former CIA director and retired US general David Petraeus has appeared in court on charges of leaking secrets to a mistress who was writing his biography. Petraeus attended sentencing in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday after already agreeing to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorised removal and retention of classified material. As part of an agreement filed with prosecutors in March, the government will not seek any prison time. Instead, Petraeus will agree to pay a $40,000 fine and receive two years of probation, according to court documents. A retired four-star army general who led US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus agreed not to contest the set of facts laid out by the government as part of the deal. David Kendall, Petraeus' lawyer, had no comment ahead of the plea and sentencing hearing. Prosecutors have alleged that while