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BATUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - A U.S. navy warship arrived in Georgia's main Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday with humanitarian aid as Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia's heartland. Russia says the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia's separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal. On Georgia's main east-west rail line, a fuel train exploded on Sunday after apparently hitting a landmine. The conflict erupted on August 7-8 when Georgia tried to...

Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy." While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could...

AN Australian submarine - HMAS Waller - has used a new super torpedo - the Mark 48 - to sink an American warship off Hawaii. The HMAS Waller fired the heavyweight Mark 48 torpedo, which the US and Australian navies say is the world's deadliest, during war games this week. Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said the torpedo had been jointly developed by Australia and the United States. The firing occurred during the Rim of the Pacific 2008 (RIMPAC 08) exercise, involving multiple navies off the coast of Hawaii. "This controlled exercise resulted in the planned sinking of a retired US...

Malabar 2005 Participants - USN, IN USN - USS Nimitz (Aircraft Carrier), USS Higgins (Destroyer), USS Chaffe (Destroyer), 1 X SSN (Nuclear Submarine), 1 X P3C Orion (Operating from Goa), F 18s (Embarked onboard USS Nimitz) IN - INS Viraat, INS Mumbai, INS Godavari, INS Shankul (Submarine), INS Aditya (Tanker), TU 142, Dornier Aircraft Fast Attack, Craft Special Forces (MARCOS) Details - Both groups of ships met at sea on September 25, 2005 at a location 300 nautical miles North West of Goa. The Ships carried out various intermediate level exercises (including joint exercise involving carrier borne aircraft from USS...

Jordan rockets miss US Navy ship     Three missiles have been fired from the Jordanian port of Aqaba, missing a US Navy ship but hitting Israel.     Two rockets missed the USS Ashland, an American naval ship docked in the port. A Jordanian soldier died when one of the two missiles hit the dockside. The third missile landed near Eilat airport in neighbouring Israel, causing no injuries. An internet statement, purportedly from a group which says it has links to al-Qaeda, said it was to blame. The statement, allegedly from the Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades, said the attacks...

Dear Christopher, I wanted to take some time to write a short note to you on this the day of your entry into the United States Navy. Our country faces challenges — no, let me say it stronger— threats, from within and from without, the likes of which it has never faced in its 225+ year history. You have made a choice to serve your country, to embark on a career in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. And I am very pleased, proud even, as I and your friends and family see you off today as...