ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

People hold funeral prayers for the victims of the Taliban attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, at the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, December 17, 2014. (Reuters/Mohsin Raza) Some 500 terror-related convicts are due to be executed in the coming weeks, according to Pakistan’s officials. There are an estimated 3,000 convicted terrorists in the country, and all could put to death after the recent attack at a Peshawar school. “The Interior Ministry has cleared these prisoners for execution and their clemency appeals have already been rejected by the president,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters in Islamabad on Sunday. The minister also revealed that the decision to lift the moratorium on the death penalty was made in principle even before last week’s attack on a Peshawar school, which left 149 people dead, including 133 children, sparking widespread public outrage in Pakistan. A man places a rose after lighting candles in front of portraits of the victims of the...

The find during construction work near Potsdam central railway station also halted local bus, tram and train services and led authorities to clear ministry buildings and the parliament of Brandenburg state. PHOTOS The main train station is cordoned off after a 250-kilogramme World War II bomb was found in Potsdam near Berlin. (AFP/Georg-Stefan Russew) BERLIN: About 10,000 people had to be evacuated on Thursday (Dec 18) after an unexploded 250-kilogramme World War II bomb was discovered in a city near the German capital. The find during construction work near Potsdam central railway station also halted local bus, tram and train services and led authorities to clear ministry buildings and the parliament of Brandenburg state. A bomb disposal squad was seeking to defuse the explosive, believed to hail from a major British bombing raid that destroyed much of the inner city of Potsdam on Apr 14-15, 1945. The ground below many German cities remains littered with unexploded ordnance dropped by...

World’s military giants are no longer spending money on spectacular armies, but invisible ones Russia, apparently not wanting to be overshadowed by yesterday’s announcement that China has built a long-range heat ray weapon, has revealed plans for its nuclear submarines — including on-board battle robots and underwater drones. Through small, unmanned drones in the air, to the invisible pain gun like that made by China , the race in military tech is to create weapons that can go mostly unnoticed, while at the same time managing for control on the battlefield and during civil unrest. Russia’s new submarine takes that battle underwater, too. The country’s new fifth generation submarines could feature drones that can be released by submarines and stay still, while the ship itself moves away. That would allow the submarine to evade anyone watching by giving the impression it has stayed in place, while only the drone has done so. “They’ll be released by the submarine and stay offline before b...

On March 24, 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia in order to stop egregious human rights violations against Kosovo. But this is a very complicated and contentious topic - learn more about what drove NATO to take action in this board. What is Yugoslavia? Source:  icty.org The former Yugoslavia was a territory positioned at the crossroads of East and West. It was made up of seven different modern day nations.  It was formed in 1945, shortly after World War II and began to break up in 1991 after the fall of the USSR. The seven modern day nations that made up Yugoslavia are: Slovenia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Serbia Montenegro Macedonia Kosovo There used to be an 8th, Vojvodina, but today it is a part of Serbia. Yugoslavia is and was a melting pot of ethnicities and religions. As one country, Yugoslavia's rich multiculturalism was a source of contention, culminating in a series of bloody conflicts in the early 1990s.  See this website for maps and more...

Following the Peshawar school massacre in which 132 children died, the military have bombed militant targets in tribal areas amid a new-found resolve and hardening of attitudes towards extremism The grief has given way to rage. Three days after Pakistan suffered its worst ever terrorist attack, with the massacre of 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar, the country has hit back. In the tribal areas of North Waziristan and Khyber along the Afghan border, Pakistani jets strafed militant targets as troops combated militants on the ground. The military says that it has killed 77 as the assault presses on. For days, Pakistanis in major cities held candlelit vigils, placing flowers under portraits of the pupils who were killed in their school on Tuesday. Yesterday, they took to the streets to protest against pro-Taliban preachers and declare their resolve to end the threat that the militants pose. Schools and colleges across the country have been closed until the new year. Major cities were on high...

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...