Current Events in Europe

From Flight Global [excerpt]

Including commander of Cypriot Navy

From Reuters [excerpt]

If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you...

STRATFOR article

BBC Newsbeat story. It gets the point across in an amusing way.

Who else can understand or appreciate the Russian opposition to Europe based missile defense?

In the first deployment in Europe of the CVN-77 George H.W. Bush, the Spanish AEGIS frigate F-102 Juan de Borbon (the never-king father of Juan Carlos I) is integrated for a month in the CVN-77 CVBG (named GHWB Carrier Strike Group in this case): http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=116308 I remember it's not an unusual situation, that is not the first time a F-100 series frigate is integrated in a CVBG. Also, I constate the usual escort from a time ago in a CVBG is 2xCG Ticonderoga and 2xDDG Arleigh Burke, but see also: http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/cvn77/Pa...sSquadrons.aspx

War crimes suspect arrested in Serbia after 15 years on the run.

Aviation Week report

From DefenseNews [excerpt]

From Aviation Week's Ares blog There's something very cool about an Apache operating in a maritime environment: So who's going to put together a 'pirate hunter' scenario using sea borne Apaches and the Middle East or South Africa battleset? Get crackin!

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

CV32: Potentially useful scenario fodder here, folks. See US Dept of State news release/fact sheet [excerpt]

BBC News story

I'm playing around with ideas for scenarios and I was curious if people had any suggestions regarding this one... 2016: A worst case scenario for Italy. Forget the sword of Damocles; you should worry about his mountain. Vesuvius explodes. And it's a bad one, about as powerful as the Avellino eruption of c. 1600 B.C., several times more powerful than the one that wiped out Pompeii. Tragically, the eruption came with relatively little warning, and the Italian government simply was not ready to handle the evacuation. As the volcanic dust clears, the horrifying damage is revealed: at least a quarter of a million people are dead, another half-million are injured, more…

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

This report from RIA Novosti was interesting. [excerpt] Yesterday it was reported that Medvedev and Putin were to decide which would run for the presidential seat. One wonders if the two are drifting apart, especially in light of their knocking heads over Libya, and the implications.

BBC News link My thoughts are with the families of the two victims.

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]