National News & Announcements

Each pack contains nutritionally balanced meals, providing 4,000 calories to sustain an active person over a 24-hour period. Thousands of unused military ration packs are to be donated to charities over the next few years. The Ministry of Defence will provide operational ration packs to FareShare, a charity who distributes food to nearly 10,000 UK charities, including community groups, homeless hostels and lunch groups for the elderly.

This would seek to ensure that the UK sought derogation from international human rights law, when it deployed troops abroad, to avoid them being taken to the international court, later on. He says the bill aims that the armed forces are protected from legal pursuit and to ensure that the power of the military to carry out action is "undiminished". "Soldiers do not want to be above the law," he says, "they just want to be protected by the correct laws."

The new campaign features posters targeting "Snow Flakes", "Selfie Addicts" and "Binge Gamers" (Pictures: British Army).The British Army has unveiled its latest recruitment campaign after struggling to get new recruits through the door last year. The campaign 'Your Army Needs You' is comprised of a series of posters and video and radio adverts and has been designed to show the Army looks beyond young stereotypes and "sees people differently" and recognises their "need for a bigger sense of purpose", according to British Army Major General Paul Nanson.

The New Year Honours list has been announced with a number of military personnel being recognised for their service. One hundred and eighteen personnel from across the tri-services are included in the list of honours from Her Majesty the Queen. The Chief of the General Staff, General Mark Carleton-Smith has been given a knighthood, with Vice Admiral Clive Johnstone, Commander, Allied Maritime Command, also being knighted.