War

Never mind the legalities of the situation. Never mind morality either. Just answer the pragmatic question: Is it ever a good idea to start a nuclear war? Because that's the notion that U.S. President Donald Trump is actually playing with.

President Trump has egged on a new arms race. Russia violated weapons treaties to upgrade its nuclear arsenal. North Korea is developing long-range missiles and practicing for nuclear war — and the US military is considering preemptive attacks on the isolated nation’s military facilities.

Meanwhile, nuclear terrorism and dirty bombs remain a sobering threat.

The United States signaled a tougher strategy toward North Korea on Friday that leaves open the possibility of pre-emptive military action and rejects talks with the communist nation until it gives up its weapons of mass destruction.

Every medieval English monarch had to decide how to deal with prisoners of war. Ruling over territory that sometimes ran from the highlands of Scotland to the south of France, their authority rested on violence. Fighting the French, Scots, Welsh, Irish, or their own nobility in a string of civil wars, they could not have kept their throne without victories on the battlefield.

A suicide bomber attacked Afghanistan's Supreme Court just as staff were leaving work Feb. 7, killing at least 19 people and injuring 41 in the second attack on government institutions in under a month.

The bomber, who was on foot, detonated the device in the parking lot as employees were boarding a bus to go home, interior ministry spokesman Najibullah Danish told AFP.  

The trial of eight former members of the Special Brigade of the RS Ministry of Interior (MUP) opened on Monday before the Higher Court in Belgrade.

The men are accused of committing war crimes against civilians in Srebrenica, Tanjug is reporting.

Philippine troops have resumed assaults against communist rebels, killing at least one guerrilla, after President Rodrigo Duterte scrapped peace talks with the insurgents, military officials said on Feb. 6.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2016 were the highest recorded by the United Nations, the world body said on Feb. 6, with nearly 11,500 non-combatants - one third of them children - killed or wounded.

The death toll from a mine collapse in eastern India's Jharkhand state rose to 16 yesterday as rescue workers continued to search for the bodies of seven missing miners.

A massive mound of earth caved in late Thursday at Lalmatia open cast mine, around 390 kilometers from the state capital Ranchi.

Gordana Medunjanin is a no-nonsense woman with military discipline that she passes on to her top recruits - the specially-trained dogs who detect mines and bombs all over the world.

State-run Anadolu Agency has visited Medunjanin's training center on the outskirts of the Serbian capital, Sarajevo, where the sound of dogs barking and yelping filled the country's frosty air.