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The grounds of Tazewell's Crab Orchard Museum hosted the sixth annual Skirmish at Jeffersonville this past Saturday. I stopped by during a lull in the fighting and took a few pictures. Actually, the re-enactors seem to spend considerable time socializing and very little in actual hostilities -- probably for the best, considering that the age of many of the re-enactors is close to mine, i.e., getting along in years. [Pictures of brass cannons, caissons, muskets, camp cookery and such]

Okay, folks, spring is here -- time to get out and about and, uh, fire off a couple of black powder volleys. Civil War re-enactors take heed -- the Historic Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell County, Virginia, will host the 6th Annual Skirmish at Jeffersonville on April 16-18, 2010. The Skirmish features living history camps, demonstrations, and battle reenactments complete with percussion muskets and black-powder artillery volleys.

China condemns US warship deployment as tensions mount Jane Macartney in Beijing and Tim Reid in Washington Chinese Navy officers reacted with annoyance today when it emerged that the United States had sent a destroyer to back up a surveillance vessel in the South China Sea after it was harassed by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sailors. The decision by President Obama to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. The vessels harassed and nearly collided with the unarmed USNS Impecccable. One unidentified officer quoted...

Reporting from Sacramento -- The battle over California prison inmates' constitutional rights has come down to this: finger-pointing over who dreamed up the idea of giving convicted criminals taxpayer-funded bingo and yoga rooms. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown have lambasted effortsby J. Clark Kelso, the court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare, to spend $8 billion on a "gold-plated utopian hospital plan" for 10,000 inmates. It features a "holistic" environment with natural light and space for yoga, music, horticulture and art therapy. On Tuesday, Kelso fired back, saying that the facilities are meant for mentally ill inmates, and...

Play Video Video: Zimbabwe cholera death toll rises Reuters Play Video Video: Elders on Zimbabwe crisis BBC HARARE, Zimbabwe – Police wielding guns and riot sticks skirmished with unarmed soldiers in Zimbabwe's capital Monday, after frustration over unpaid wages touched off a riot. Police took away one civilian hit by a bullet. Trouble began when soldiers attacked money changers and stole cash after being unable to draw their wages at banks. Zimbabwe's dire financial situation has triggered a cash shortage, making it impossible for people to get access to enough money to survive. Associated Press reporters watched as hundreds of...

US tells Iran to back down after Gulf skirmish By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 1:53am GMT 08/01/2008 The White House has told Iran that it risked provoking "a dangerous incident" after a weekend skirmish brought the two nations to the brink of conflict. US naval commanders were about to fire on a group of Iranian attack boats after being challenged at the mouth of the Gulf on Sunday, the Pentagon has disclosed. The Persian Gulf is the scene of tensions between Iran and the US Three US navy ships were targeted by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Navy as...

Warning shots fired at Korea border 32 minutes ago South Korean troops fired warning shots on Saturday after five North Korean soldiers briefly crossed into the southern side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the two, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said. The skirmish comes amid rising tension on the peninsula after Pyongyang said on Tuesday it planned to conduct a nuclear test. "Our troops fired warning shots at the five North Korean soldiers after they climbed over the military demarcation line despite several loudspeaker warnings," the military command said in a statement. It said they went about 30...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2006 – A bogus suicide attempt yesterday lured guards into a 10-man detainee bay where an attack awaited them, the admiral in charge of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told reporters today. Two other detainees had attempted suicide earlier in the day. One barrack room in Camp 4, the medium-security facility within Camp Delta at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Camp 4, highly compliant detainees live in a communal setting and have extensive access to recreation. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The large skirmish in...

Taliban insurgents killed in mountain skirmish By Tom Coghlan in Kabul (Filed: 05/05/2005) Twenty Taliban insurgents died and six American soldiers were wounded yesterday during the latest in a series of bloody skirmishes in south Afghanistan, the US military reported. American forces in a mountainous area of the troubled southern province of Zabul called in air support from helicopters and jets to beat off a concentrated attack on a mixed force of Afghan police and American troops that was investigating reports that a local man had been attacked and beaten. In addition to the US casualties one Afghan policeman was...