Militia

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino soldier, five militiamen and four villagers were killed by a powerful bomb that exploded in a van the troops were inspecting Tuesday amid threats of bombings in a southern province, military officials said.

Rival Libyan leaders meeting in Paris on May 29 tentatively agreed on a political roadmap leading to parliamentary and presidential elections on Dec. 10, but the plan faces major obstacles in the North African country, where the rival authorities rely on an array of unruly militias.

İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has testified for a prosecutor after she claimed early January that civilians in two Turkish cities were receiving weapons training in militia camps.

The Kremlin said on Nov. 23 that Turkey’s opposition to the participation of Kurdish militias in Syria’s political process would not stand in the way of a peace “congress” Moscow is seeking to organize in the near future.

Afghanistan is considering training and arming 20,000 civilians to defend territories where Islamic militants have been driven out, officials say, sparking fears the local forces could become another thuggish militia.   

In the woods south of Atlanta, John and Yvette DeMaria are with about a dozen camouflage-wearing, heavily armed Americans huffing and puffing as they scramble to navigate the sprawling piece of property where they train, one weekend a month, to ward off enemies — foreign or domestic.

The United States military has 1.3 million active duty troops, making it the third largest behind China (2.2 million) and India (1.4 million). But its huge military spending sets it apart from the rest of the world, while it also has the highest number of personnel stationed abroad in 138 nations, an astonishing 70% of the world!

The Chief of General Army Staff Lt. General Alkiviadis Stefanis, visited the small island of Simi and inspected its forces and especially the reserve militia of the island, the older member of which gathered a lot of the attention!

Switzerland has almost 800 years of peace. Its is famous for its watches, its chocolates and -of course- its banking system. But what not many people know is that Switzerland has a quite strong military force based on the mandatory national service of its citizens.

A Bulgarian lawmaker has proposed to introduce military training for volunteers willing to help police and army personnel protect the border with Turkey from crossing by irregular migrants.

The rationale behind the proposal made on Monday by Boris Stanimirov, a MP from Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), is to put the so-called civilian border patrols under state control.