Moscow's military force in Syria has grown to about 4,000 personnel, but this and more than a month of Russian air strikes have not led to pro-government forces making significant territorial gains, U.S. security officials and independent experts said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will visit a U.S. aircraft carrier transiting the South China Sea on Thursday, a move sure to raise the ire of China as tensions between Washington and Beijing simmer over the disputed waterway.
Evidence now suggests that a bomb planted by the Islamic State militant group is the likely cause of last weekend's crash of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai peninsula, U.S. and European security sources said on Wednesday.
Plans for a ceremonial joint statement at the end of a Southeast Asian regional defense forum were dropped on Wednesday after differences between China and the United States over the mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the document.
