European Command

The Hydra frigate of the Hellenic Navy set sail on Monday night from Salamina to the Naval Station of Crete in Souda from where it will head to the Red Sea, in the framework of the Aspides (Shield) operation of the European Union to protect safe navigation to and from the Suez Canal.

Five U.S. servicepeople were killed when a military helicopter crashed over the eastern Mediterranean Sea during a training mission, U.S. officials said Sunday.

The military's European Command said all five crew members on board were killed when the aircraft went down "during a routine air refueling mission as part of military training."

The desire of Sweden and Finland to become members of NATO will not require the deployment of additional ground forces on their territory, said yesterday to US senators a US general nominated for the post of European Command, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.

Their goal is to establish the "Club 100," writes Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti.

According to the newspaper, university professors and public figures would enter this "Club 100" in order to openly promote a policy of abandoning Serbia's current course of neutrality.

A senior US military leader's recent comment has triggered tension across the globe. During his recent visit to an American military base in Norway, Marine Corps Commandant General Robert B Neller told the US soldiers to be prepared for a "big fight".

A Russian military jet came within a few feet of a US destroyer in international waters in the Baltic Sea during a series of "aggressive" overflights, US officials said on April 13.

The State Department and Pentagon ordered the families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel on March 29 to leave posts in southern Turkey due to security fears.

The two agencies said dependents of American staffers at the U.S. consulate in Adana, the Incirlik air base and two other locations must leave.

For over ten years, the local authorities in Cincu, a village in the mountains of central Romania, said they did not have the money to refurbish the main road connecting their village to the surroundings.

But, this week they found some 116,000 lei (27,000 euro) from the budget to plug potholes and fix the road, battered by harsh winters.