China has said it is closing off part of the South China Sea for military exercises this week.

“So, who’s stoked about being in Dublin?” The response said it all. “Wooo-hooo!”

The remains of the first American lost in the Gulf War nearly two decades ago have been found in Iraq, the US military said today.

President Bush, pouring over options for war, may call up 30,000 to 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to active duty in the next few days, a defence official said.

A collision between a United States Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet was blamed by a top US officer today on a ‘‘pattern of increasingly unsafe behaviour’’ by China’s military in the South China Sea.