News and Prophecy Staff

In response to Russia’s stepped-up air-defense training flights and the reopening of Russian military bases closed since the Cold War, “Norway’s defence minister has said her country’s armed forces will be restructured so they can respond faster to what she called increased Russian aggression” (The Guardian, February 25, 2015).

“A girl thought to be as young as seven killed herself and five others in a suicide bombing in north-east Nigeria on Sunday as the country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, conceded that his government had underrated the capacity of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

The provincial government of Ontario has announced a newly revised sex education curriculum—to begin this autumn (The Star, February 23, 2015). Critics warn that the curriculum provides too much information at too young an age: same sex relationships in grade 3, sexting and sexual pictures in grade 4, masturbation and consent in grade 6 (ibid.).

Reversing a decades-old policy not to sell arms to “crisis regions” of the world, Germany sold 270 of its most advanced Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia in 2011 (Der Spiegel, October 14, 2011). This action caught many off guard, even some within the German government. 

“The Ukraine crisis has dramatically worsened relations between NATO and Russia. With cooperation on nuclear security now suspended and the lack of a ‘red telephone,’ experts at the Munich Security Conference warn any escalation in tensions could grow deadly” (Der Spiegel, February 13, 2015).