Although we detest problems, they are often blessings in disguise. Unknown to you, what you view as a problem today may be the only link with your miracle or breakthrough.....

As a Christian, if you are facing a big problem right now, you should be rejoicing because, one day, you will give your testimony and the whole world will rejoice with you. You are not single out for a problem. You are singled out for a testimony. If there is no problem, there will be no testimony. The challenge you have today is to allow God to convert your problem to a testimony.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of nuclear "saber rattling" after it announced an increase in its missile arsenal on Tuesday and he warned that it was "destabilizing and dangerous".

At a news briefing in Brussels, Stoltenberg said such rhetoric from Moscow explained the Western alliance's increased preparedness on the part of its forces to defend its members.

"This nuclear saber-rattling of Russia is unjustified," he said. "It's destabilizing and it's dangerous. This is something which we are addressing, and it’s also one of the reasons we are now increasing the readiness and preparedness of our forces.

"We are responding by making sure that NATO also in the future is an alliance which provides deterrence and protection for all allies against any threat."

   

MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) - A plan by Washington to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia's border would be the most aggressive U.S act since the Cold War, and Moscow would retaliate by beefing up its own forces, a Russian defense official said on Monday.  

The United States is offering to store military equipment on allies' territory in eastern Europe, a proposal aimed at reassuring governments worried that after the conflict in Ukraine, they could be the Kremlin's next target.

Poland and the Baltic states, where officials say privately they have been frustrated the NATO alliance has not taken more decisive steps to deter Russia, welcomed the decision by Washington to take the lead.

But others in the region were more cautious, fearing their countries could be caught in the middle of a new arms race between Russia and the United States.

"If heavy U.S military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics, that will be the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War," Russian defense ministry official General Yuri Yakubov said.

A combat-decorated Green Beret told Congress today that he fell under criminal investigation by the Army this year after informing Congress about a scuttled deal he tried to cut with the Taliban to free Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl along with all of the American and Canadian civilian hostages held by terrorists in Pakistan.

 Warren Weistein is dead. Colin Rutherford, Joshua Boyle, Caitlin Coleman and the child she bore in captivity are still hostages in Pakistan. I failed them. I exhausted all efforts and resources available to return them but I failed," Army Special Forces Lt. Col. Jason Amerine said before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

President Obama recently announced that Weinstein, a USAID worker held for years, was accidentally killed along with an Italian aid worker in a CIA drone strike on a Pakistan al Qaeda hideout last January. Coleman is an American, who, along with her Canadian husband Boyle and their unborn child, were taken hostage in Afghanistan two years ago possibly by the Haqqani Taliban network. Rutherford also is a Canadian.

 

 

At a hearing looking into retaliation against federal whistleblowers, Amerine's testimony is startling, not just for his extraordinary claims of bureaucratic infighting that failed to free at lease five hostages held by the Haqqanis and their longtime al Qaeda allies. But also because the be-medaled operator will be that rare whistleblower to appear in uniform before the committee as a living Army legend.

40 militants have joined the national reconciliation process in eastern Kunar province.

Officials at the Ministry of Defense say that the group was involved in armed activities against government in Chapa Dara District of Kunar province.

Led by Khair Mohammad, the group with 36 different types of weapons joined the peace process yesterday after being confinced by the officials of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Kunar province.

The group promised to live in peace and continue ordinary life.