Report: UK home defense force to cut back on training for 6 months because of budget concerns

September 11th, 2009 White House defends Sept 11 training exerciseWASHINGTON — The White House is defending the Coast Guard's decision to hold a training exercise in the Potomac River on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Spokesman Robert Gibbs says he doesn't believe the White House was notified about the training exercise.

September 8th, 2009 Report: Object found at UK air base not suspiciousLONDON — A suspicious object found at a British air base turned out to be safe, the BBC reported Tuesday, after bomb disposal experts had been called to investigate. The BBC report of a false alarm cited the British military as its source, but a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said she could not immediately comment.

August 21st, 2009 Georgia Def Min: US training could target RussiaTBILISI, Georgia — Georgia's defense minister said Friday that training his troops will receive from the U.S. military before heading to Afghanistan could also be used in Georgia's "very difficult security environment." Asked if he was referring to the possibility of another war with Russia, Georgian Defense Minister Vasil Sikharulidze answered: "In general, yes." "This experience will be important for the Georgian armed forces itself — for the level of training," Sikharulidze said during an interview with The Associated Press in his Tbilisi office.

August 21st, 2009 US training could target RussiaTBILISI, Georgia — Georgia's defense minister said Friday that training the U.S. military is giving to the country's soldiers headed to Afghanistan involve skills that could be used in any new outbreak of fighting between Georgia and Russia.

August 1st, 2009 LONDON - MI 5 targeted by Islamic extremists in rushed recruitment drive after 7/7 terror attacks on London, and now is facing questions over why it undertook the recruitment. The recruitment drive was signalled in January 2006 - seven months after the attacks - when MI5 announced plans to hire another 200 officers as their budget expanded, more than 70 per cent of these would be devoted to counter-terrorism.

June 23rd, 2009 F-16 crashes in Utah; pilot's condition unknownTOOELE, Utah — Military officials are trying to locate the pilot of an F-16 that crashed at the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City. The U.S. Air Force says the aircraft, which is assigned to Hill Air Force Base's 388th Fighter Wing, crashed late Monday night while on a routine training mission.

June 14th, 2009 2 killed in plane crash over BritainLONDON — A British air force plane and a glider collided over Britain on Sunday, killing two people. Police said the pilot of the glider parachuted to safety, but the Ministry of Defense said both service members aboard the single-engine military training aircraft died.

May 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US is proposing to spend more on the Afghanistan war than on the one in Iraq for the first time, indicating a shift in priority, a media report said Friday. The $130 billion in war funds that are part of Pentagon's fiscal 2010 budget request includes $65 billion for Afghanistan operations and $61 billion for Iraq, the Washington Post reported.

April 1st, 2009 WARSAW - A military plane crash in northern Poland was linked to budget cuts that forced pilots to cut back on flight time, reported the daily Rzeczpospolita Wednesday. Four people died in northern Poland near Gdansk Tuesday when a military transporter crashed while landing during a training flight.

March 17th, 2009 LONDON - Arsenal suffered a big set-back as midfielder Tomas Rosicky has been ruled out of action for two weeks with an injury. The Czech player has already spent 14 months undergoing treatment for a hamstring injury.

March 6th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A Pakistan Air Force jet Thursday crashed near the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing the pilot, a media report said. The Mushak jet crashed in the Pindi Gheb area of Attock district in the eastern Punjab province, the private Dawn News TV channel reported.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Monday announced two new pension schemes for widows and physically disabled in the interim budget 2009-10. The Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme will provide a pension of Rs.200 to widows in the age group of 40-64, while the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme aims to provide pension to 'severely disabled persons', acting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech in parliament.

February 11th, 2009 LONDON - Two female teenage air cadets and two Royal Air Force (RAF) instructors were killed in a mid-air collision of two RAF training aircraft in Britain Wednesday. The two light aircraft crashed over sand dunes in a nature reserve in south Wales, the police said.

January 18th, 2009 MUMBAI - The proposed Force One, a crack commando unit of the Maharashtra police, would be operational within the next couple of months, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said here Monday. Force One will be patterned on the lines of the elite National Security Guards (NSG), popularly known as Black Cats, which rendered exemplary services during the Mumbai terror attacks of Nov 26 last year.

December 22nd, 2008 LONDON - What's the height of bureaucracy? The British version seems to be banning police officers from climbing a three-foot tall ladder without formal training. Police officers of Lancashire county were shocked when the local health and safety officials told them they could not go up the small ladder to fix speed limit signs on road sides without training.