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The last thing I remember before my German colleague Volker Handloik died in a hail of bullets was a feverish but a very methodical mental calculation: should I stay or should I follow him and jump?

Muzzle flashes from at least half-a-dozen AK-47 assault rifles and a heavier PK machine gun, spewing hundreds of rounds at us, illuminated the velvet Afghan night barely 25 meters to our right.

Several of the Northern Alliance soldiers accompanying us also jumped or fell as the infantry fighting vehicle we were on, an old Russian-made BMP-1, lurched down the hill slope like a wounded animal, trying to evade the Taliban ambush.

In the split second it took me to decide to stay on top of the BMP, Volker rolled on the ground like a stuntman and disappeared from my view.

I never saw him again.

But that image of Volker, a writer for the German Stern magazine, wearing his quilted Afghan overcoat, his long ginger curls tied in a knot in the back, rolling on the ground to break the jump from the fast-moving troop carrier, remains seared in my memory 15 years later.

Johanne Sutton (left), Volker Handloik (top right) and Pierre Billaud (bottom right) were killed in a Taliban ambush in northeastern Afghanistan on Nov. 11, 2001.

Two other European journalists - Radio France International reporter Johanne Sutton and her friend Pierre Billaud of Radio-Television Luxembourg (RTL) - were also killed in that incident on Nov. 11, 2001 near the village of Dasht-e-qala in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Takhar.

And I can still feel Johanne Sutton’s smooth and tender hand as warmth left her lifeless body with every drop of the blood that oozed out of a gaping wound in her back as I held her for one last ride bumpy ride on Afghan roads.

'A wake-up call'

Their deaths, first in a line of many others to come after 2001, became a catalyst in a major shift in how media organizations in the developed countries approached covering wars and conflicts, said Michel Cormier, a veteran foreign correspondent.

Since 2001, 215 journalists have been killed while covering war and conflict, according to statistics compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The total number of journalists killed from 2001 to date (as of Nov. 19, 2016) is 866.

“Before we were just babes in the woods,” said Cormier, head of news and current affairs at Radio-Canada, the French-language service of Canada's public broadcaster.

(Watch an illustrated excerpt of the interview with Michel Cormier, executive director News and Current Affairs of CBC/Radio-Canada French Services)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xQHmHU0wMU

Many journalists weren’t aware of the dangers, had no equipment to protect themselves from bullets or shrapnel, or even from disease or car accidents. And most reporters had no training whatsoever in first aid, said Cormier who has covered several conflicts, including the war in Afghanistan, for Radio-Canada and CBC.

“I think Afghanistan changed the way we covered wars,” Cormier said. “For one thing we were not in conventional wars, now we were perceived as part of the enemy.”

New realities of war

News organizations and reporters had to adapt to the new realities of this guerrilla warfare where there are no clear frontlines, Cormier said.

“And secondly we’ve learned that we need to know how the war works: what kind of weapons we’re up against, what’s the trajectory of bullets, how far they travel, through what they actually move, whether it’s a brick wall or a car tire,” Cormier said. “I think that was a wakeup call for most of the journalists at the time.”

Many media organizations now have experts on staff whose main job is to take care of the security of journalists and make sure tha...

Freedom of religion is one of the fundamental guarantees in Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The government of Canada says it is "committed to religious pluralism." And more and more members elected to Parliament reflect the growing religious diversity in Canada. Still the separation of church and state is also a founding principle of Canada's political system.

As Amanda Pfeffer reports, sometimes the political role of the politician can conflict with his or her religious beliefs. Navigating the fine line between religion and politics on Parliament Hill is the focus of this report.

https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/05/AUDIO_EN-FAITH-POLITICS.mp3

This report is part of our special Democracy & Religion, From One Prayer to Another

An annual intelligence assessment, which in large part focuses on Russia's actions in the Arctic, released by Norway's foreign intelligence service last week is drawing a lot of interest among defence and security experts in circumpolar countries, including Canada.

The report entitled Fokus 2016 was presented to the public on Wednesday by the head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) Lt. Gen. Morten Haga Lunde.

“Russia shows increased willingness and ability to use a wide range of instruments to achieve its political goals, and the modernization of its military powers enhances the ability to influence, also in the high north,” The Independent Barents Observer online news portal quoted from Fokus 2016.

Russia has re-established military infrastructure in the Russian Arctic over the last few years, reorganized and modernized its Arctic military units, increasing their capabilities with, new and modernized equipment, the NIS claims.

“From a Russian perspective the sum of these primarily defensive measures helps to create the necessary conditions for ensuring national control in Russia’s Arctic regions and protect the nation against threats from a northerly direction," says the report. "It also increases Russia’s ability to restrict Norwegian and allied freedom of action in the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea."

Lessons for Canada

The report's focus on Russia is natural, given that both countries share a land border along the Kola Peninsula and a maritime boundary in the Barents Sea, said Prof Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia.

(click to listen to the full interview with Prof Michael Byers)

https://www.rcinet.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/02/Michael-Byers-Fokus-2016-report-ed1_6029003_2016-02-26T18-38-35.000.mp3

The most relevant point of the report for Canada's Arctic policy was a statement made by Lt. Gen. Lunde in connection with the release of Fokus 2016, Byers said.

“Russia is no military threat to Norway today, but Russia has clearly displayed a willingness to use all the resources available to it in order to protect its interests inside Russia and abroad,” Lt. Gen. Lunde said in the statement.

"It's not an alarmist report, it's actually fairly cautious," said Byers. "And this is a very important point for Canada: Russia is no military threat to Norway because in the Arctic Russia has been behaving itself."

In this Sunday, July 26, 2015 file pool photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, reviews a Navy parade in Baltisk, western Russia, during celebration for Russian Navy Day. Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA-Novosti

Canada geographic location, buffered from direct contact with Russia by Alaska on its western side, Greenland and the North Atlantic region on the eastern side, and the still frozen and inhospitable expanses of the Arctic Ocean to the north, make Russia even less of a threat to Canada than it is to Norway, Byers said.

"And Russia's actions in the Arctic in terms of military activities have focused on building a few small bases for 100-150 men and increasing their capacity to do search and rescue and police the Northern Sea Route, a shipping route that passes along the northern coast of Russia," Byers said. "This is not a massive military buildup and there is no sign of any inclination towards aggression in the Arctic."

Far from that, Russia seems to have made the calculation that keeping the Arctic peaceful is in its interests because then it can devote more resources to places like Crimea or Syria, Byers said.

Dealing with Russia

Canada's policy of dealing with Russia would require a careful balancing act between active,