The Pakistan Armed Forces conducted on Monday the first successful launch of the Babur-3 cruise missile from a submarine in the Indian Ocean, the press service of Pakistan's Armed Forces said in a statement.
It was added in the statement that Babur-3 was able to deliver a wide range of payloads and would provide Islamabad with the capability to respond to a potential nuclear attack against Pakistan.
"Pakistan conducted its first successful test fire of Submarine Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM) Babur-3 having a range of 450 kilometers (some 280 miles), from an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean. The missile was fired from an underwater, mobile platform and hit its target with precise accuracy," the statement said.
According to the statement, the missile can evade radars and air defense systems and is equipped with several stealth technologies.
Israel’s renowned spy agency, the Mossad, has started its first recruitment campaign specifically designed to attract women.
An advertisement, published Tuesday in the Israeli press, shows a portrait of a young women with white lettering stating ''wanted - powerful women.''
“We don’t care what you did; we care about who you are!" the ad reads.
The agency is looking for women to join their mostly male group of case officers, who are in charge of recruiting, training and handling agents. Inside the agency, 40 percent of employees are women with 24 percent holding high-ranking positions.
The ad refers the potential candidates to their website.
Pakistan former army chief General (retd) Raheel Sharif has been appointed as head of a 39-nation Islamic military coalition formed to combat terrorism, confirmed Pakistan Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday.
Khawaja Asif made the revelation during a TV talk show.
He said that a formal agreement in this regard was finalised a few days back, but he refused to divulge on details.
The federal minister further said that the government was also taken into confidence prior to the appointment as per the rules.
The defence minister said that any such assignment or posting requires proper clearance from the government and General Headquarters (GHQ) both and confirmed that the due process was followed before finalising the agreement. He was, however, unaware of the exact details.
“As you are aware that this thing was in the pipeline for quite some time and the prime minister was also part of the deliberations,” Asif said.
He was of the opinion that formation of such an alliance is a good step, as the “Muslim Ummah is in a spot of bother right now and needs unity among its ranks”.
The headquarters of the new Saudi-led coalition would be based in Riyadh.
After initial reluctance, Pakistani government confirmed its participation in the newly formed military alliance of Muslim countries.
The scope of Pakistan’s role in the alliance would be defined after Riyadh shared the details of the coalition, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi had told media persons.
Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archrival, is absent from the states named as participants.
Sky News' Nation Divided series aims to look at whether Britain is more divided following the vote to leave the European Union six months ago.
Senior Correspondent Michelle Clifford visited two areas either side of the Brexit divide - Glasgow, where two thirds voted to stay in the EU, and Burnley where two thirds voted to leave. She asked the people of both areas about the direction the country is taking as a result of the Brexit vote.
The Syrian government and the armed opposition yesterday agreed to a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight last night, in a breakthrough truce aimed at ending the bloody five-year conflict.
The deal follows talks between Turkey and Russia and could potentially pave the way for a lasting political agreement.
If the truce lasts, regime and opposition groups will sit down for peace talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan next month. Moscow and Ankara, which support opposing sides in the conflict, promised to act as guarantors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in Moscow that three documents had been signed: an agreement between the Syrian government and the rebels on a ceasefire, measures for overseeing the truce and an agreement to start peace talks.
"The agreements reached are, of course, fragile, need a special attention and involvement... But after all, this is a notable result of our joint work, efforts by the defence and foreign ministries, our partners in the regions," Mr Putin said.
Mr Putin also declared he would reduce Moscow's military contingent in Syria, which has been flying a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad since last year.
The decision was likely prompted by Mr Assad’s victory in Aleppo, where most of the Russian troops on the ground in Syria had been tied up.
The fall of Syria’s second city, dubbed a key strategic prize in the conflict, has handed Mr Putin a victory and the leverage to position Moscow as a Middle East power broker.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said the truce will include 62,000 opposition fighters from seven groups across Syria but will exclude Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (Isil) and the formerly al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS).
Those who do not observe the ceasefire “will be treated as terrorists,” Mr Shoigu said.
The agreement also excludes the YPG, the Kurdish militia that has carved out de-facto autonomous areas in the north of the country. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization.
Spokesmen for the Free Syrian Army, an alliance of rebel groups, said they would abide by the ceasefire.
Leaders from the opposition told the Telegraph all rebel-held areas of Syria would be covered.
However, uncertainty remains about the province of Idlib, which is now the opposition’s largest stronghold and home to thousands of fighters and civilians forcefully evacuated from Aleppo.
The area is largely under the control of JFS and more extreme Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham. Ahrar al-Sham is one of the seven groups the Russian ministry of defence said had signed the ceasefire deal, although Moscow has previously described it as a terrorist group.
The government has escalated its aerial campaign against Idlib since the fall of Aleppo and will likely use the pretext of combating terrorism to continue its strikes on the city in spite of a truce.
In a sweeping response to election hacking and other meddlesome behavior, President Barack Obama on Thursday sanctioned Russian intelligence services and their top officials, kicked out 35 Russian officials and closed down two Russian-owned compounds in the U.S. It was the strongest action the Obama administration has taken to date to retaliate for a cyberattack.
"All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said. He added: "Such activities have consequences."
In a bid to expose Moscow's cyber aggression, the U.S. also released a detailed report about Russia's hacking infrastructure that it said was designed to help computer specialists prevent more hacking. And Obama said more action was coming.
"These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities," Obama said in a statement released while he was vacationing in Hawaii. The U.S. has previously left open the possibility it could mount a retaliatory strike.
The spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the new sanctions were a sign of Obama's "unpredictable and, if I may say, aggressive foreign policy" and were aimed at undermining President-elect Donald Trump.
"We think that such steps by a U.S. administration that has three weeks left to work are aimed at two things: to further harm Russian-American ties, which are at a low point as it is, as well as, obviously, to deal a blow to the foreign policy plans of the incoming administration of the president-elect," Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Ahead of the announcement, Russia's foreign ministry had threatened to retaliate against American diplomats if the U.S. took action against Russian officials.
The White House has promised to release a report before Obama leaves office detailing Russia's cyber interference in U.S. elections, a move that could address Russia's complaints that the U.S. hasn't shown proof of its involvement. But the U.S. moved forward with the response Thursday even as the report has yet to be released.
Still, Obama administration officials said the list of entities Obama was sanctioning made clear who exactly the U.S. believes was behind hacking of Democratic groups and the theft of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.
Obama ordered sanctions against two Russian intelligence services, the GRU and the FSB, plus companies which the U.S. says support the GRU. The cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate theft of its emails determined earlier this year the hacking came from the Fancy Bear group, believed to be affiliated with the GRU.
The sanctions freeze any assets the entities or individuals have in the United States, and also block Americans from doing business with them. It wasn't immediately clear what impact they would have on the intelligence services' operations.
The FSB is Russia's main domestic and counter-terrorism intelligence agency. It was formed following the Soviet collapse when the KGB was split into the FSB and the foreign intelligence agency SVR. The GRU is the Russian military intelligence agency.
The president also sanctioned Lt. Gen. Korobov, the head of the GRU, and three of his deputies. Other individuals sanctioned include Alexei Belan and Yevgeny Bogachev, two Russian nationals who have been wanted by the FBI for cyber crimes for years.
Obama's move puts Trump in the position of having to decide whether to roll back the measures once in office, and U.S. officials acknowledged that Trump could use his executive authorities to do so.
U.S. allegations of hacking during the campaign have ignited a heated debate over Trump's approach to Russia and his refusal to accept the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia's government was responsible and wanted to help him win. Though U.S. lawmakers have long called for Obama to be tougher on Russia, some Republicans have found that position less tenable now that Trump is floating the possibility of closer ties to Moscow.
"While today's action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Obama said the hacking "could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government," a contention the U.S. has used to suggest Putin was personally involved.
Although the White House announced at the same time it was kicking out Russian officials and closing facilities, it said those were responses to other troubling Russian behavior: harassment of U.S. diplomats by Russian personnel and police.
The 35 Russian diplomats being kicked out are intelligence operatives, Obama said. They were declared "persona non grata," and they were given 72 hours to leave the country. The State Department declined to identify them.
The two compounds being closed down are recreational facilities owned by Russia's government, one in Maryland and one in New York, the U.S. said. The White House said Russia had been notified that Russia would be denied access to the sites starting noon on Friday.
Russian officials have denied the Obama administration's accusation that the Russian government was involved at the highest levels in trying to influence the U.S. presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia's goal was to help Trump win - an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.
Romania's president has rejected the Social Democratic Party's candidate to be prime minister, Sevil Shhaideh, who would have been the country's first Muslim and first female in the office.
Klaus Iohannis gave no reason on December 27 for refusing to accept Shhaideh, a little-known politician who had previously served for six months as Romania's regional development minister.
"I have properly analyzed the arguments for and against (Shhaideh) and I have decided not to accept this proposal," Iohannis said in a televised statement.
He called on the Social Democrats, who won the December 11 parliamentary elections, to make another nomination.
Liviu Dragnea, chairman of the Social Democrats, is ineligible to become prime minister because he was convicted of election fraud earlier this year and is on probation.
Dragnea's close friendship with Shhaideh - he served as a witness to her 2011 marriage - led the opposition to claim she would act as the party leader's puppet.
A Russian military plane enroute to Syria has crashed off Sochi coast. There were 92 people on board the Tupolev Tu-154 plane. Russia's Defense Ministry said that the Russian military plane crashed in the Black Sea, killing 92 passengers. The plane was going to Syria.
Search and recovery operations are under way after a Russian military plane - carrying members of a prominent armed forces song-and-dance ensemble to Syria for a New Year’s concert - crashed in the Black Sea killing all 92 people on board.
Russia’s Defense Ministry says "no survivors have been seen" at the crash site and President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will observe a national day of mourning on December 26.
The plane had vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off at 5:40 a.m. local time on December 25 from the southern city of Sochi. It was flying to Russia's Hmeimim airbase outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia.
The cause of the crash isn't immediately known. Putin "has ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to form and head a state commission to investigative the crash of the Tu-154 plane," the Kremlin said in a statement on December 25.
The Defense Ministry said rescuers have recovered at least 10 bodies off the coast of Sochi, where dozens of ships, drones, and divers are searching for more.
Earlier, the ministry said that "fragments … of the plane were found 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of the city of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 meters."
The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Sochi on the Black Sea where it had stopped for refuelling.
The Defense Ministry has released a list of the passengers. They include 64 members of the Aleksandrov Ensemble, the official army choir of the Russian armed forces. The ensemble’s leader Valery Khalilov was among the passengers.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the ensemble members had been flying to Latakia for a New Year's performance for Russian troops deployed in Syria.
Nine Russian reporters were also been on board as well as military servicemen. The state-run TV stations First Channel, NTV, and Zvezda said they each had three staff onboard the flight.
The passenger list also includes Elizaveta Glinka, known as Doctor Liza, a prominent activist and member of Putin's advisory human rights council.
The ministry said 84 people aboard the aircraft were passengers and eight were crew members. The flight originated in the capital, Moscow, and had a stopover in Sochi for refueling.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was too early to say what had caused the crash.
Officials said a probe has been launched to determine if any violations of air transport safety regulations had taken place.
Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov had flown to Sochi along with a team tasked with clarifying the circumstances surrounding the crash, spokesman Konashenkov said.
Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov, the head of a state commission probing the crash, is also on his way to the region, the government said in a statement.
Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of the Russian parliament, said he "totally excludes" terrorism as a possible cause of the crash.
In remarks carried by the state news agency RIA Novosti, Ozerov - without citing any source - said the crash could have been caused by a technical malfunction or a crew error, but he believes it could not have been terrorism because the plane was operated by the military.
According to the Defense Ministry, the aircraft had been in service since 1983 and had flown some 7,000 hours since. The plane last underwent repairs in December 2014 and was serviced in September, the ministry said.
The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the plane had not sent an SOS signal.
