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“USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) and USS Antietam (CG 54) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait Transit on Oct. 22, in accordance with international law,” said Cmdr. Nate Christensen, deputy spokesman, U.S. Pacific Fleet. “The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.” A similar transit by two U.S. destroyers occurred in July, the first time the Navy had carried out a mission like that in more than a year.

Bob Strait, the 90-year-old Word War II Veteran that was beaten by an Oklahoma man in March, Tyrone Woodfork, 20, has died, reported yesterday by Fox News. Bob Strait was a World War II paratrooper, who took part in the D-Day invasion as part of the 101st Airborne Division. He was also awarded a Bronze Star. Back in March, he and his wife Nancy, 85, both white, were attacked, beaten and his wife sexually assaulted by alledged killer, Tyrone Woodfork, who is black. Two days after the brutal attack, Mrs. Strait, who was nearly blind, died from her injuries.

TULSA, Oklahoma - Tulsa Police have confirmed to News On 6 that an elderly man, who with his wife was brutally beaten by intruders to his home in March, has died. Bob Strait, 90, was critically injured in the March 13 assault, which took place in the 3300 block of East Virgin Street. The couple were married 65 years before Nancy Strait, 85, died at a Tulsa hospital from wounds sustained in the beating.

Full title: Couple met and married within a month and stayed together for 65 years... only to be parted after home invader beat wife to death An 85-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and battered to death by a home invader who also shot her 90-year-old husband in the face with a BB gun. Nancy and Bob Strait, who had celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in December, were discovered by their daughter at their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both the pensioners were rushed to hospital where Mrs Strait, who was nearly blind, died from her injuries. Mr Strait, who served in...

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the United States "reflagged" a number of Kuwaiti oil tankers passing through the narrow and dangerous Strait of Hormuz. The confidence inspired by that action encouraged other tankers to make the trip, and the U.S. Navy was the guarantor of millions of barrels of oil. Today the question of security for tankers in the Strait arises again, with Iran threatening to block the waterway. How might Iran accomplish this, and what resources could the U.S. bring to counter what would be understood internationally as an act of war? (The Egyptian closure of the...

Iran renews warning to US Navy in Gulf AFPBy Marc Burleigh | AFP – 4 hrs ago Iran on Wednesday renewed its warning to America against keeping a US naval presence in the oil-rich Gulf, underlining a threat Washington has dismissed as a sign of "weakness." Meanwhile, diplomats said the European Union was on target to impose a threatened embargo on oil imports from Iran, which France said could come by the end of January and which drew US praise. "The presence of forces from beyond the (Gulf) region has no result but turbulence. We have said the presence of...

George Strait awarded Artist of the Decade.

CANBERRA, Australia A second Chinese defector has backed a Chinese diplomat's claim that China is running a large spy network in Australia and other Western countries. The diplomat, Chen Yonglin, 37, walked away from his post as first secretary at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney last month to seek political asylum in Australia. Chen claimed China ran a ring of 1,000 spies in Australia involved in illegal activities including abducting Chinese nationals and smuggling them back to China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed Chen's claims as slander. But a second Chinese official seeking asylum in Australia, Hao Feng Jun,...

PARIS. March 18 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Russia's support for the idea of China's territorial integrity. "The Soviet Union and Russia have always been in favor of China's territorial integrity. We have not changed our position and think that China has a right to fully restore its territorial integrity. We understand the Chinese authorities' efforts to resolve this problem," Putin told a press conference in Paris on Friday. "We assume this problem will be resolved by peaceful methods," Putin said.

SACRAMENTO – One year after taking office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut taxes, avoided a state cash crisis, improved the business climate and is riding high in the polls. But his bid to become perhaps the biggest reform governor since Hiram Johnson, who nearly a century ago led the drive that allows Californians to vote on laws through the initiative process, has stalled in some cases and not yet begun in others. When the Legislature returns in January, Schwarzenegger will again face an issue that led to the ouster of his predecessor, Gray Davis, in a historic recall election last...

TAIPEI - Proposed Chinese legislation that would give a mandate for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland would provide a legal basis for an attack on the island, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has said. Mr Chen, speaking for the first time on the mainland's proposal to adopt a reunification law, said he was very concerned about it. 'China is undertaking a legal battle. If Taiwan does not follow, it will undertake a military battle,' he was quoted by the United Daily News as saying during a visit to the southern county of Tainan late on Thursday. 'The reunification law...

The Bosporus fascinates me. Click the link for related article and link to a slightly larger image. Istanbul, Turkey: The Crossroads of Europe and Asia Nyamuragira (Zaire) is currently erupting. Here's a picture of what it looked like in 2002. (It's also spelled Nyamulagira.) Here's the report from May 8: Goma Volcano Observatory is announcing the beginning of a new eruption of Nyamulagira. Strong volcanic tremor signalled the onset of eruptive activity on May 8. Activity seems to have begun in the summital caldera of Nyamulagira and later propagated on the North flank. This volcano had shown several seismic swarms...

Mammoth herds 'roamed fertile Bering Strait in Ice Age' Huge herds of mammoth, wild horses and bison once roamed the land bridge between North America and Siberia, new evidence suggests. Plant fossils have shown that 24,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, dry grassland covered much of region. The vegetation would have allowed large populations of mammals to survive all year round on the now-submerged landmass known as Beringia or the Bering Strait. Scientists writing in the journal Nature said the animals would have been sustained by a diet rich in prairie sage, bunch grasses, and other grass-like plants....