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$30 Million Bounty Offered for MH17 Attackers as Ukraine Turmoil Continues

A German company is offering a $30 million bounty for the identities of the individuals responsible for downing Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine this summer.

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine are suspected of firing surface-to-air missiles at the civilian aircraft, which crashed July 17 while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board. A preliminary report carried out by Dutch investigators said that the crash was the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck the Boeing plane from the outside.

Gunman and Victim Identified in Ottawa Shooting

One of the two people killed in the shootout in Ottawa this morning has been identified by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as Nathan Cirillo, a 24-year old Canadian soldier from Hamilton.

Ottawa police had confirmed at a press conference earlier this afternoon that two people died in the incidents early today, but did not identify either, only saying that a soldier had been killed and “a male suspect has also been confirmed deceased.”

US officials later told CBS News the name of the dead Ottawa shooting suspect is Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian born in 1982.

Islamic State Video Is Latest in Worldwide Propaganda War

The Islamic State’s media machine took to the web again on Tuesday with the release of a high-production Hollywood-style trailer for an upcoming movie entitled Flames of War.

The 52-second clip was issued in response to President Barack Obama’s vow to “degrade and ultimately destroy [the Islamic State],” and shows flames engulfing footage of the White House and Obama, as well as images of US forces in Iraq — despite Obama ruling out putting “boots on the ground” last week.

US Airstrikes Target the Islamic State’s Seized Syrian Oilfields

At least 19 people were killed on the third day of a US-led air campaign targeting the Islamic State in Syria. Strikes focused on one of the group’s main revenue streams — the region’s captured oil fields.

Activists say that the attacks, made by the US along with five Arab allies, led to the release at least 150 people from a prison in their powerbase of Raqqa in northern Syria, as the militant group feared more strikes, according to the Associated Press.

At least 14 militants were killed in the attacks, which hit four oil installations and three oil fields near the town of Mayadeen in the east of the country. This information came from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which gathers reports from a network of activists on the ground, and was confirmed by two local activist groups.

Venezuelan Government Announces Disarmament Plan — Again

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro launched a nationwide disarmament program in Caracas over the weekend as the head of state tried to cap the alarming rates of violence endemic in his country, which has the second-highest homicide rate in the world behind Honduras.

The plan, announced on September 20 — International Day of Peace — will see the Venezuelan government establish a $47 million fund to help establish 60 centers where citizens can voluntarily surrender their firearms.

Despite passing a law last June to restrict gun sales only to members of the military and security forces, effectively outlawing civilian possession of guns ­— being caught with a firearm in Venezuela can land you with up to 20 years in prison — firearms are still a major cause of death in the country.

The US Navy Is Developing ‘Drone Gunboats’ for Naval Warfare

Robots are no strangers to warfare nowadays. They are regularly used for dangerous battlefield jobs such as surveillance, explosives detection, and air strikes, and, as VICE News reported last week, they are now even used to hunt naval mines from the air. Their utility seemingly knows no bounds, and the US Navy has now revealed a plan that seemingly takes the technology even further into the future.

On Sunday, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced the addition of “drone gunboats” to the US military’s growing family of militarized robots. Developed using existing NASA technology, the robo-boats could be deployed within the year to protect bigger ships or to swarm an enemy with kamikaze-like coordinated attacks.

The program was partly prompted by the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole by al Qaeda. In the attack, suicide bombers drove a boat laden with explosives into the hull of the guided-missile destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 US sailors.

Murder of Transgender Woman Raises Tensions in Philippines Over US Military Presence

A US Marine accused of killing a 26-year-old transgender Filipina woman was turned over to Philippine authorities by the US military on Wednesday in a case that has brought long-simmering tensions between the two countries to a boil.

Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton is accused of murdering Jennifer Laude, formerly known as Jeffrey, by drowning her in a motel bathroom toilet on October 11 after a bilateral training session near a former US naval base at Subic Bay, about 50 miles northwest of Manila.

The gruesome killing comes at a delicate moment for US-Philippine relations. There is political pressure in the Philippines for the former US colony to deny the US access to military bases.

Video Emerges of Ukraine Military and Separatists Clashing at Donetsk Airport

Ukrainian military forces and separatist fighters exchanged fire at Donetsk Airport on Wednesday, as the fragile ceasefire between the Kiev government and breakaway factions in eastern Ukraine frayed further.

The video released by pro-Russia news organization Novorossiya TV shows separatist fighters trading fire with an armored vehicle near the airport. Four minutes into the clip an explosion ignites close to the cameraman, following several minutes of the fighters shooting at the distant vehicles.

Video Shows Al Nusra Tanks Pushing North Towards ‘Another Kobane’

A video showing a large armed convoy of the Jabhat al Nusra militant group entering Khan al-Sabeel, a city on the Homs-Aleppo highway, emerged online on Tuesday.

The high-quality footage, uploaded by a group associated with al Nusra,shows a parade of vehicles and heavy weaponry travelling through the town heading north and suggests that the fighters are making their way, as Kurdish PKK military leader Cemil Bayik has warned, to a Kurdish enclave of Afrin within the Aleppo Governorate.