Campaigners who want to keep a Rutland airbase open have said they will carry on despite complaints over posters.

It was announced in December that RAF Cottesmore, one of the county's largest employers, would shut to help pay for an expanded military helicopter fleet.

But a protest march was postponed when the RAF complained about the use of pictures of the Red Arrows display team on campaign publicity.

THOUSANDS of Welsh soldiers’ homes have fallen into “shaming” conditions since being sold to the private sector by the MoD, campaigners have claimed.

A total of 57,600 homes across the UK were sold in a 1996 deal which saw them rented back to Army personnel and their families. Of these 2,195 properties are in Wales.

The current generation of Scimitar light tanks is due for replacement and the Army said it preferred the CV90 armoured reconnaissance vehicle, built by BAe Systems in Britain.

However, the Treasury overruled it and awarded the £1 billion contract to the Ascot armoured vehicle of General Dynamics, which makes them in Spain and Austria.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's military chief denied reports that top commanders had threatened to resign en masse after more than 30 officers were arrested last month on charges of planning a coup in 2003, Milliyet said on Sunday.

Tensions between the staunchly secular military and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-leaning government have simmered in the weeks that followed the arrests and sent shivers through financial markets.

Around 15,000 bikers roared through a market town on Mothering Sunday to honour troops killed in Afghanistan in the biggest ride of its kind.

Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire has come to represent the nation in paying respect to fallen soldiers as they are repatriated back to the UK.

Hundreds line the high street in silence for each funeral cortege that passes through the town on its way from RAF Lyneham to the coroner in Oxford.

Sunday's crowds gathered along the High Street to watch over 10,000 motor bikers with about 5,000 pillion passengers pass the war memorial on route.

The ride, believed to the biggest of its kind, has raised more than £100,000 so far for the charity Afghan Heroes.

Wootton Bassett Mayor Steve Bucknell said: "The vast majority of the people of the town fully support what the bikers are doing today. Too many times the town has had to stand still in silence but today is all about noise and movement."

A bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan will be awarded a posthumous George Cross.

The Ministry of Defence will announce the award on Friday, senior military sources have revealed.

His widow, Christina, is expected to receive the medal from the Queen later this year.

DailyMail

Organisers of the 10,000-bike charity ride through Wootton Bassett this Sunday visited RAF Lyneham today to pay thanks to the air base on behalf of Afghan Heroes.

Organiser Julia Stevenson lead the group of bikers from the Cross Keys pub in Wootton Bassett to RAF Lyneham, and they were joined by some RAF personnel who were on the ride on Sunday.

The group met Station Commander Group Captain John Gladston to present a glass plaque to show the thanks Afghan Heroes feels for the role RAF Lyneham takes in repatriations.

An idea first aired on social networking site Facebook will become a spectacular reality on Sunday when 10,000 bikers cruise through Wootton Bassett to show their support from soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The tribute, which will raise up to £50,000 for the charity Afghan Heroes, was first suggested on a Facebook group three months ago.

More than 10,000 people joined the group and have registered to take part in the ride. All the participants will pay £5 to the charity.

The group was set up by 18-year-old Lizzie Stevens from Luton but it was pensioner Julia Stevenson from Kent who has brought it to fruition by organising it.

Bikers from all over the country will be arriving in Wiltshire on Saturday night. They will meet at Buckley Barracks in Hullavington on Sunday before heading to Wootton Bassett from l1am