An off-duty police officer was shot and wounded with his own gun after a traffic collision escalated to a shooting near the 5 Freeway in Castaic, Calif., early Saturday.
The territorial dispute between China and Japan shows little sign of abating.On Monday, a number of Chinese ships entered waters near the disputed Senkaku - or Diaoyu - islands and remained there for 12 hours.Some fear that an accidental collision could escalate tensions still further.Mariko Oi asked the head of Japan's Maritime Self Defence Force, Katsutoshi Kawano, if he feels under pressure.
The worst-case-scenario is a collision that could escalate into a larger conflict if managed badly.
The police arrested two of the motorcyclists, including the one, Christopher Cruz, 28, whose collision with the vehicle escalated the confrontation.
IT begins as a small provocation a nationalistic gaffe by a Japanese leader, a crudely political WTO complaint by the Philippines, a collision with an American warship and soon escalates into a full-blown Sino-American war.
A brushing incident at sea, for example, even an inadvertent collision, has the potential to rapidly escalate: One nation's "bumping" is another's "ramming".
Which inevitably set police on a collision course with pickets as industrial action escalated in the early 1980s.
AS China's outrage escalated last week over the midair collision of a Chinese military jet and a United States Navy surveillance plane, fear of the repercussions grew, too, spilling over into the business world.
A similar hotline is expected between the two countries' navies, partly in order to prevent incidents such as accidental collisions at sea from escalating.
"We call for calm and prudent action by China in order not to further escalate the situation," Shikata said, adding that the investigation into the collision was legally, not politically, motivated.
