As the «Star Wars» theme song played, the U.S. Navy launched two weeks of anti-terrorism exercises with Singapore on Tuesday, days before U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives here to discuss security with his Asia-Pacific counterparts. Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn, U.S. Navy commander of the Logistics Group Western Pacific, kicked off the exercise at a Singapore naval base auditorium to the film's orchestral theme. A written history of Singapore-U.S. naval war games rolled across a big screen like the film's famous opening. More than 1,500 U.S. and Singapore troops, aircraft, a submarine and 12 ships are taking part in the two-week Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training, or CARAT, in the South China Sea, according to AP. Washington fears that al-Qaida linked militants could launch a terror strike in the nearby Malacca Strait, which borders Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and is plied by 50,000 commercial ships a year. More than half the world's oil and a third of its commerce pass through the 900-kilometer (550-mile) strait. A bombing could paralyze its sea traffic for months. --More 1420 Local Time 1120 GMT
