Military Maneuvers

A sonar technician listening through his headset caught the trail of an "enemy" submarine just before a line of warships cruised through waters between Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands. The whooshing sound of bubbles created by the submarine's propeller had been picked up by passive acoustic monitoring, made famous in the movie "The Hunt for Red October."

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday rejected the Bush administration's attempt to exempt Navy sonar training from key environmental laws, saying that there's no real emergency to justify overruling court-ordered protections for whales and dolphins. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper also suggested that President Bush's effort to maneuver around an earlier federal court order was "constitutionally suspect," although she made no ruling on that issue.

A two-day show of force by Iran through the launching of medium- and long-range test missiles was meant to strike fear in the hearts of the country's rivals. Instead, many officials and experts Thursday downplayed the Iranian war games near the Persian Gulf as more propaganda than peril. News reports emerged indicating that Tehran doctored a photo of the launches, and analysts questioned whether the tests revealed any new Iranian capability to strike Israel or other U.S.

American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians. The maneuvers involve 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft. Iran has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a face-off with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team. Although U.S.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday announced reinstatement of the Soviet-era practice of having nuclear bombers routinely make long-distance flights that bring them within striking distance of the United States and its allies. "Today just after midnight, 14 strategic missile aircraft, with support and fuel planes, took off from seven airfields across Russia," Putin said in televised remarks. "Combat duty began in which a total of 20 planes are taking part.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has given the U.S. Navy a temporary go-ahead to use high-powered sonar during nearly a dozen upcoming training exercises in Southern California waters. Friday's ruling puts a temporary stay on an injunction ordered last month by a Los Angeles federal judge to stop the powerful bursts of sonar -- used to detect hostile submarines -- because they could "cause irreparable harm to the environment." Scientists have linked sonar use to mass whale die-offs.

If nations rose and fell according to their camp quotient and funny hats, then these rivals would still be locked in a total stalemate. Most every evening for nearly 60 years, a peculiar ritual has unfolded here on what has been one of the world's hottest borders.

Israel has decided to move an upcoming military exercise off the Golan Heights to avoid raising tensions with Syria, defense officials said. Israel captured the region from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the military's decision. The exercise is slated to be the largest Israeli military maneuver since last summer's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Russia said Wednesday that it would start its first major naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea since Soviet times, the latest move by an increasingly assertive Moscow to demonstrate its military might. "The aim of the sorties is to ensure a naval presence in tactically important regions of the world ocean," Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told President Vladimir V. Putin, who wished the sailors well. The rest of the meeting was closed.

North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles, renewing concerns over the communist regime's nuclear weapons program. The regime in Pyongyang has test-fired short-range missiles many times, including three tests of land-to-ship missiles in 2003, during heightened tensions over its nuclear program. The White House said the tests showed the importance of six-party negotiations over the country's nuclear program.