-"Our targets will no longer be subject to START constraints, which limited our use of air-to-surface and waterborne launches of targets which are essential for a cost-effective testing of missile defense interceptor against medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the Pacific region."

WASHINGTON: NATO forces will launch a major offensive in the Afghanistan city of Kandahar in June, sources told Fox News, part of a new war strategy that began earlier this year with the offensive in Marjah.

MOSCOW: The navies of Russia and Ukraine will resume the practice of joint exercises in the Black Sea. Russian-Ukrainian naval exercises, the first after seven years, will be held in Sevastopol from June 22 to 25.

Two elements of the US anti-missile shield, the radar and the anti-aircraft command center, may soon appear in the Czech Republic, the Czech News Agency CTK reported citing a source in the country’s ministry of defence. This information proves that Americans have not abandoned their missile plans in Europe. Russia has repeatedly voiced its concerns over this project but yet no progress has been achieved in negotiating the issue with the US.

NATO has made much of its planned June invasion of Kandahar, so much so that the they have been trumpeting their buildup in the region for two months, and are expected to do the same thing for two more months, until the invasion begins. It will be, by NATO’s own reckoning, the largest and most significant battle of the war’s ninth year.