Okinawa

In addition to having flown around the world without stopping or refueling, the Voyager now holds some of the most challenging records in aviation. Shortly after landing Tuesday morning, the National Aeronautic Assn. awarded pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager the record for the "world absolute distance" for a straight course--25,012 miles. That doubles the record set in 1962 by Maj. Clyde P. Eviely in an Air Force B-52, an eight-engine jet bomber that he flew from Okinawa to Madrid.

Newly minted Prime Minister Naoto Kan's beleaguered Democratic Party appeared to suffer a resounding defeat in Japan's parliamentary elections Sunday, a blow that threatened to further weaken Kan's already tenuous monthlong hold on power. The Democratic Party of Japan won fewer than 50 seats, well short of the 54 needed for the Democrats and their tiny coalition partner, the People's New Party, to keep their combined majority in parliament's upper house, according to exit polls conducted by Japan's public broadcaster and all major TV networks.

The alleged rape of a Japanese woman by a U.S. airman has rattled the top levels of government in Washington and Tokyo, even though little is known about what actually occurred in the parking lot of an Okinawa club three weeks ago. But one thing is clear, say lawyers who specialize in sexual assault and harassment cases in Japan: Had it not involved a serviceman posted in Okinawa, home to nearly half the 53,000 U.S.

North Korea's string of provocations over the last nine months calls into question America's decisions over the last decade on the number and positioning of ground forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Though Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates insists that we must focus on winning the wars we are in, Pyongyang's repeated acts of aggression should remind us that we cannot be unprepared for the war that may be just around the corner. War on the Korean peninsula is not a distant possibility.

Delbert H. Werden, who charted unexplored territory when he brought neurosurgery to San Diego County more than 50 years ago, has died of a stroke. He was 81. The Los Angeles native studied at UCLA and obtained his medical degree from Loma Linda University in 1930. Werden completed his residency training at Los Angeles County General Hospital (now County-USC Medical Center). "We decided to come to San Diego in 1934," said his wife of 56 years, Ruby Elizabeth Werden.

For the Marines at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, it was a ritual that had been repeated too often. More than 200 mourners crowded into the station's tiny chapel Wednesday to pay homage to their four comrades-in-arms who died last week in a helicopter crash on Okinawa, echoing a service held just 10 weeks earlier for Tustin-based victims of a similar helicopter disaster in May. Capt. Neal T. Lippy, 27; 1st Lt. Charles C. Alsworthy Jr., 30; Sgt. Timothy C. Walker, 25, and Cpl. Charles R.

The tires on Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s Ford Mustang are shrieking as he jerks his car sideways at nearly 90 mph on this serpentine race track in Long Beach. Walls are closing in on either side, leaving no room for mistakes. As the next turn nears, Gittin pumps the clutch and yanks a neon green hand brake. The rear wheels lose traction, sending the car into a power slide and unleashing a torrent of smoke into the packed grandstands. The move brings nearly 15,000 spectators to their feet.

When the Stokes Purple sweet potato shows up in markets next week, it's hard to say what will be more intriguing: its look, with dramatically deep purple skin and flesh, its flavor or the mystery of its origins. It was discovered in the United States by Mike Sizemore, 61, who grew up on a farm in North Carolina, the nation's largest sweet potato-producing state. He said in a phone interview, speaking in a delicious Southern drawl, that he worked for 30 years catching car thieves for the state government before retiring in 2003.

BEIJING - North Korea fired three short-range missiles off its east coast Saturday, following through on months of threats to conduct a missile launch. The South Korean Defense Ministry reported that it detected two launches in the morning and another in the afternoon. Its initial assessment was that the missiles were short-range surface-to-ship or surface-to-surface missiles capable of traveling up to 72 miles, rather than the new medium-range Musudan missile that analysts fear could threaten U.S. troops in Guam or Okinawa, Japan.