China's defense minister defends intercepting U.S. destroyer in Taiwan Strait
CBSN
China's defense minister defended sailing a warship across the path of an American destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait, telling a gathering of some of the world's top defense officials in Singapore on Sunday that such "freedom of navigation" patrols are a provocation to China.
The Chinese warship intercepted the USS Chung-Hoon and the HMCS Montreal on Saturday as they transited the strait between the self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, and mainland China. The Chinese vessel overtook the American ship and then veered across its bow at a distance of 150 yards in an "unsafe manner," according to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The U.S. guided-missile destroyer slowed to 10 knots to avoid a collision, the command said in a statement.
Two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S., bringing to three the number of slinky predators genetically identical to one of the last such animals found in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday.
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