Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced the creation of powerful new National Guard security force, a move analysts said could be aimed at warding off unrest over the country's economic crisis. Putin said in a televised meeting with interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and other security officials that the force would merge the country's interior ministry troops with riot police and swat teams.

The Dr Rami Ranger CBE Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship at the London South Bank University (LSBU) held its First Annual Enterprise Lecture on 4th February 2016 at the institute’s Keyworth Centre to showcase the work done by the centre since it was inaugurated in 2014. Key speakers at the lecture were the Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, Member of Parliament for Leicester East and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee; Professor Patrick Bailey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of LSBU; Mr Gurpreet Jagpal, Director of Research, Enterprise and Innovation at LSBU and Dr Rami Ranger CBE, Chairman of Sun Mark Ltd. and Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd. The distinguished guests included prominent members of the business community, budding entrepreneurs and lecturers and students from the University who came together to hear the story of one man’s journey from a truly humble start in life in a refugee camp in newly partitioned India to an international business icon. Professor Patrick Bailey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of LSBU welcomed guests and speakers to the lecture and spoke of enterprise engagement being at the heart of the institute’s mission adding that the university has the largest number of employer sponsored students outside the Open University. Mr Gurpreet Jagpal, Director of Research, Enterprise and Innovation at LSBU, chaired the lecture and showcased the work done at the Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship and the ways in which the money from the Dr. Rami Ranger CBE Enterprise Excellence Fund was being put to use such as the hiring of Entrepreneurs in Residence who coach and mentor graduate entrepreneurs at the centre. He then spoke about the projects the centre is working on such as an investment fund that will aid graduate entrepreneurs with capital they need when they launch their business. Mr Jagpal then gave an insight in the life of Dr Rami Ranger CBE and shared parts of his autobiography, “From Nothing to Everything”. with guests. Dr Rami Ranger CBE, Chairman of Sun Mark Ltd. and Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd, took guests through his entrepreneurial journey where he has demonstrated that one does not need an elite education or family wealth to be successful but rather needs five simple qualities: self-respect, work ethics, commitment, vision and empathy. He spoke of his passion to help entrepreneurialism flourish and added that he never could have imagined a day when he would witness a lecture after his own name being delivered by a great icon of the Asian and British community, Mr Vaz and that too in a London University in front of an august gathering. The Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, Member of Parliament for Leicester East and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, spoke about the rising number of new start-ups over the past few years, many people are opting for enterprise to create their own wealth and using their ideas do something different. He then spoke about the qualities that are central to being a successful entrepreneur: being committed, trusting and trustworthy; having the ability to lead, delegate and communicate effectively and having the ability to marry together skills and experience to be successful. He closed by saying “it is within you” to be a successful entrepreneur. The main part of the lecture was followed by a question and answer session when the attendees were given an opportunity to put questions directly to Dr Ranger. The afternoon concluded with an appetizing lunch for all of the guests.

Russian forces could reach the outskirts of the Baltic capitals in less than 60 hours because Nato lacks the forces to defend its eastern-most members, new analysis has shown. According to several war games scenarios conducted by a US think-tank, it would take between 36 and 60 hours for Russian battalions to occupy the Estonian and Latvian capitals of Tallinn and Riga. It highlights, the report says, how ineffective Nato's forces have become, as they would be entirely under-prepared for any potential attack launched by Moscow. The report comes amid rapidly declining relations between Putin and the West. This week, it emerged Sweden has re-militarised an old Cold War frontier base on the island of Gotland, in response to what it believes to be a rising threat from Russia, the BBC reports. Sweden's Supreme Commander, General Micael Byden, said: "This is one of the great challenges right now: What are they up to, and why do they do it?" The analysis by the army research division of the Rand Corporation predicted Russia would most likely launch a two-pronged assault across the Latvian border, sending heavily-armed battalions in a pincer movement towards Riga, fighting Latvian and Nato battalions along the way.