Africa

Via Disobedient Media

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The Islamic State (IS) fighters are trying to flee Mosul. No doubt, the US-supported Iraqi forces will establish control over the city pretty soon. At first, IS militants will leave Iraq for the province of Deir-ez-Zor, Syria, to intensify fighting there. But with Syria no longer a safe haven, they’ll have to move elsewhere looking for weak points, like the countries of Maghreb.

On Friday, Sweden became the latest European target of terrorism after a man plowed a hijacked beer delivery truck into a crowd in central Stockholm, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen (we covered the situation here:  "Swedish Police In Manhunt For Terrorist Truck Driver Who Killed Five").

Since it first entered service with the Soviet army in 1948, the AK-47 and its derivatives have become the world's most widely used assault rifles.

As Statista's Niall McCarty writes, in his book "AK47: The Story of The People's Gun", author Michael Hodges estimates that there are as many as 200 million Kalashnikov rifles in circulation, one for every 35 people on earth. Its popularity among soldiers, criminals and militants is primarily due to its cheap price, durability, reliability and sheer simplicity.

Authored by Daniel Moscadi via GEFIRA,

Vallombrosa is a unique place in Tuscany. Its founder, Saint Giovanni Gualberto, a Benedictine monk, chose this secluded place in the mountains 40 km east of Florence to lead a hermit-like existence, right after the year 1000, and with a restricted group of monks started his own monastic order, the Vallombrosani.