Heads are rolling in Taiwan after officials were forced to recall an estimated 285 passports and trash 200,000 others after designers included an image of the Washington Dulles Airport, instead of the country's Taoyuan International Airport, on its books.
Lockheed Martin has an interesting new graphic posted on its website showing its F-35 converting from stealth mode to “beast mode,” in which it can expand to hold 14 beyond-visual-range missiles - 10 more than normal.
Check out some of the most interesting and important events of the week, captured by photographers from different parts of the world.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from earlier this month found that 41% of Americans favor Congressional impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump. Speaking with Sputnik, University of Virginia law professor Dr. Saikrishna Prakash outlined whether the president's impeachment was actually a realistic possibility.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded two defense contractors more than $100 million each to design a missile with “networked, collaborative behaviors (swarming) to address Integrated Air Defense (IAD) system threats around the world,” Lockheed Martin announced December 27.
Beijing has stepped up its "railway diplomacy" by boosting its infrastructural projects simultaneously on three continents. Speaking to Sputnik, analysts highlighted China's competitive advantages and shed light on the obstacles the People's Republic is facing while implementing its initiatives.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announced on Friday that the military aggression of the mainland has reached new heights and that her country would increase its military spending to meet the intensifying security challenge.
A viral video of an Indian politician slapping a policewoman and getting slapped back in return has become a new hit with amused netizens sharing the video on various web platforms and making some side-splitting comments.
LONDON (Sputnik) – The United Kingdom’s local authorities are forced to spend funds to cover additional rent arrears in support for tenants set to face further reduction in income when transferred to the Universal Credit benefit, the opposition Labour party said in a statement, citing data received from freedom of information requests, on Friday.
BEIRUT (Sputnik) - A cameramen, who was working for the Syrian state broadcaster Sama TV, was killed when covering a military operation in the south of the Idlib province, while the broadcaster’s correspondent was injured, local media reported on Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A total of 100 Palestinians have suffered injuries during clashes with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Qedra told Sputnik Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova, Sofya Grebenkina - As the year of 2017 draws to a close, in the United Kingdom the question is whose interests Prime Minister Theresa May is serving – Europeans Union’s or the United Kingdom’s.
BERLIN (Sputnik) - Officers of the Bavarian criminal police have detained in Munich a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina suspected of committing crimes against humanity during the military conflict on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday approved a law introducing harsher penalties, including life sentences, for terrorist recruitment, according to documents published on the Russian legal information website.
Concerned about Russian influence in the Balkans, US lawmakers have tasked the Pentagon with preparing a report on Russian military cooperation with Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Speaking to Sputnik, retired Serbian major-general Mitar Kovac explained that the US effort is but another attempt to pressure Belgrade against cooperation with Moscow.
EAST GHOUTA (Sputnik) - The Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation assisted the evacuation of 111 people from Eastern Ghouta as part of the first humanitarian evacuation of critically ill patients and hostages from territories controlled by the armed opposition.
The calendar, created especially for the company Lindner Coffins by the marketing department of the Italian multinational Pirelli, is already in its ninth year.
For over four years, Robert Stuart has been forensically investigating the innumerable inconsistencies, contradictions, anomalies and apparent falsehoods in BBC Panorama documentary Saving Syria's Children. Speaking exclusively to Sputnik, the former journalist shares his most troubling discoveries.
After receiving inputs about a phenomenal increase in investments into virtual currencies by Indians, the Government issued an alert warning to citizens to participate in Bitcoin trading “at their own risk.”
The planet has natural mechanisms to cope with the mini ice age due to hit Earth in the 2030s as a result of fluctuations in the Sun's activity; however, humans need to prepare for the impact of the cold spell on food supplies, Professor Valentina Zharkova of Northumbria University told Radio Sputnik.
TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), signed by the Soviet Union and the United States, does not apply to Japan and does not have any relation to the deployment of the US Aegis ballistic missile defense system on Japanese territory, Japan's Foreign Ministry told Sputnik Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iran’s police have arrested a total of 52 people for participating in an unauthorized rally in the northeast city of Mashhad and for the destruction of the state property, local media reported on Friday, citing a police chief of the Razavi Khorasan province.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Tehran is ready to introduce a visa-free regime with any country on a mutual basis, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranian Affairs Hassan Ghashghavi said Friday.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - The Syrian government forces have pushed terrorists from the strategically important Abu Dali settlement in Syria's western Hama province, a source told Sputnik Friday.