The destroyer USS Sterett escorts the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a transit through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

By Courtney Kube, NBC News Pentagon producer

ABOARD THE USS CAPE ST. GEORGE – More than 31,000 ships transit the Strait of Hormuz every year, traveling between the Persian Gulf and the North Arabian Sea. Among those are U.S. Navy warships, operating throughout the region to conduct exercises and to support the war in Afghanistan.

• Libya marks first anniversary of uprising against Gaddafi
• UN general assembly calls for President Assad to go
• Death of Middle East reporter Anthony Shadid


Opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi chanting slogans outside the burnt governor's office in Zawiyah as the uprising got under way last year. Photograph: guardian.co.uk

12.17pm: My colleague Paul Owen has been liveblogging David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy's joint press conference in Paris, during which the leaders of Britain and France discussed Syria.

It seems as if almost everyone was surprised by Prime Minister George Papandreou's decision to hold a referendum on the euro zone's bailout package for his country. At the very least, it can probably be said that he is weary of being hammered from all sides -- his own party, the opposition, the people on the street, Germany, the tabloid press, you name it.

Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid may have captured something rather interesting in his short story published this month by The Guardian. And it is not as obvious as it looks.

When former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said this weekend that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not safe under President Asif Ali Zardari, he almost certainly did not mean that the nuclear arsenal is not secure. The nuclear weapons have little to do with the civilian government; they are guarded ferociously by the Pakistan Army both against terrorist attacks and any foreign or U.S. attempt to seize them, and, as a matter of pride for Pakistanis chafing at any American suggestions otherwise, safeguarded to international standards.

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Greeks smashing windows and setting fire to shops and banks in a fury of opposition to yet more austerity is gripping. But it is hardly unique. A few years ago there were similar scenes for weeks after police shot a 15-year old schoolboy. And back when I lived there, U.S. President Bill Clinton was treated to a similar welcome -- mainly because of his military assault on Serbia (a fellow Christian Orthodox nation) during the Kosovo conflict.

Apple shares have soared following blockbuster quarterly earnings and the California gadget-maker leapfrogged over ExxonMobil to become the largest US company in terms of market value.