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ONE person has died and another is in a life-threatening condition after a shooting on board the nuclear submarine HMS Astute

YOKOSUKA, Japan – As if life on a submarine wasn't already stressful enough, with its cramped quarters, long work hours and weeks at sea, thousands of smokers on the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet recently got an unwelcome ultimatum from Uncle Sam. As of last month, all submarines in the U.S. Navy are officially smoke free — and it's been a tense transition. For some officers and sailors, the new policy aiming to reduce secondhand smoke risk has been that extra push they needed to make the decision to quit. But for many more, it means a little more effort at...

Giving up smoking may be a New Year's resolution for some, but all US sailors will now have to follow suit, as the US Navy moves to ban its crews from smoking aboard submarines starting Friday. In a country where fights against Big Tobacco are common, troops deprived of fresh air and natural light for months were surprisingly allowed to smoke in submerged submarines. But no more, after a Pentagon study found the risks of second-hand smoke were severe in those highly confined spaces. Submarine Forces Commander Vice Admiral John Donnelly ordered the ban aboard 73 US subs, citing health...

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus formally announced a policy change Thursday clearing the decks for women to serve on submarines. Women had never been allowed to serve on submarines in the 110-year history of the underwater force. The new coed era will begin once selected female officers complete 15 months of training. The plan calls for three women to be assigned to eight crews attached to four guided-missile attack and ballistic missile submarines, the Navy said on its Web site. The change had been anticipated since Defense Secretary Robert Gates formally presented a letter to...

NORFOLK, Va., April 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy announced smoking will be banned below decks on all submarines effective Dec. 31. "This policy was initiated for the health of the sailors who choose not to smoke," said Lt. Commander Mark Jones, spokesman for the Commander Naval Submarine Forces in Norfolk, Va. "It is unfair for them to be exposed to the unhealthy side effects of secondhand smoke." Jones said a 2009 study by the Navy found non-smokers were exposed to secondhand smoke on all four classes of submarines, CNN reported. The Navy has 71 subs with 13,000 sailors on...

Women to Serve on Subs, Gates Tells Congress By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2010 - The Navy plans to repeal its ban on women serving on submarines, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has informed Congress. Gates signed a letter Feb. 19 informing Congress of the Navy's plan to lift the policy, which it intends to do through the phased-in assignment of women to submarines, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed today. The secretary endorsed the plan, the brainchild of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Morrell said. No change can take effect until Congress has been in...

GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- With the spray of bubbly from a champagne bottle, PCU Missouri (SSN 780), the Navy's newest Virginia-class attack submarine, was christened during a late morning ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., Dec. 5.

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Petty Officer 3rd Class Chad Kahl never suffered from a lack of open space while growing up in North Dakota. When he told friends and family there that he had volunteered to live aboard a 350-foot-long metal tube underneath hundreds of feet of water, they thought he was crazy. Kahl had done his homework on the submarine lifestyle. But as he prepared to get under way for the first time, he wondered if his friends may have had a point. "I think everyone that goes doesn’t really know what they’re getting into," said Kahl of...

After he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1947, Ted Davis' first assignment was aboard the aircraft carrier Antietam. As that tour was ending, his superiors tried to keep him in aviation. "Anybody who would fly on and off this thing is crazy," Davis declared. "I'm going to be a submariner, where it's peaceful and quiet." Davis got his wish, rising through the ranks to command the Grenadier, a Tench-class diesel sub. But things proved to be neither peaceful nor quiet. Fifty years ago this week, he and his 80-member crew made history, forcing a Soviet sub to the...

(CNN) – When John McCain agreed to appear on the day-time talk fest known as The View, he may not have been expecting too many hard-hitting questions. But the Arizona senator was aggressively pressed on VP candidate Sarah Palin's qualifications to be vice president, as well as his new negative campaign ads that several independent fact-checks have called downright misleading. Co-host Barbara Walters immediately asked McCain about a remark he’d made that Palin might just make the greatest vice president, asking, "that's not a little strong?"

Former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee is endorsing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. The Rhode Islander told The Associated Press he is endorsing Obama in a conference call Thursday. Chafee left the Republican Party last year and became an independent. He was one of the Senate's most liberal Republicans before he lost his seat in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

A nice-sounding bill called the "Global Poverty Act," sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, is up for a Senate vote on Thursday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations. Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama's...

College Park, Maryland - You can see it in their flushed-face smiles and hear it in their screams. They say the phenomenon is difficult to describe, but once they experience it they tell their friends, sisters, mothers and daughters, and they come back for more if they can.

Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey (U.S. Navy, ret.), a wartime submarine commander credited with sinking 29 enemy ships, has passed on. He was 93. Adm. Fluckey was the recipient of the Medal of Honor and an amazing four Navy Crosses among other decorations. He also was an Eagle Scout. In a special statement earlier today, Admiral Mike Mullen, chief of Naval Operations (and Pres. Bush's nominee for the post of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), said: [Adm. Fluckey] helped pioneer the idea of submarine support to special operations. In the summer of 1945, he launched a group of...

(CBS) IRVINE The unsold inventory of new homes in Orange County is at the highest level since 1996, according to an economic forecast released Friday in Irvine. Through August, sales of existing homes in Orange County were off 29 percent compared to the same period a year ago, the largest year-over-year decline, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast: Orange County Economic Outlook for 2007. The rate of sales over the last five months have been "brutally low," with Southern California home sales falling to their lowest level in nine years last month, according to the forecast.

The rate of decline in the US housing market is continuing to surprise the pundits. The number of housing starts - that is, new home construction - fell 6% in August, down almost 20% on last year, the worst annual decline in four years, and a much worse fall than expected. That came hot on the heels of news from the National Association of Home Builders that house builders’ confidence is at its lowest since 1991. “This implies an increasingly negative outlook for the consumer sector given the importance of equity withdrawal and the positive wealth effects housing has provided...

No Shortage of Bubbles and Troubles By Jim Jubak MSN Money Markets Editor 9/27/2006 The stock and bond markets rallied after the Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates steady at its Sept. 20 meeting. Investors believe that the Fed has successfully steered the economy between too hot and too cold, and that we're headed for a just-right soft landing with inflation under control and the economy growing at a solid pace. The so-called "Goldilocks economy" will push both stock and bond prices higher. But I think it's premature to slap the Fed on the back and say "mission accomplished." The...

A SUBMARINE captain berated his subordinates with such rage that his face became "gorged" with blood and his tirades made a lieutenant ill and reduced him to tears, a court martial heard yesterday. The case, being heard at Portsmouth Naval Base, relates to Capt Robert Tarrant's period of command of the nuclear-powered Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Talent, based at Devonport. Judge advocate Jack Bayliss ruled that a substantial part of the case is to be heard in secret because the evidence is likely to include information relevant to national security. Commander Alison Towler, prosecuting, said Capt Tarrant's behaviour towards his subordinates...

Teenage girls so, like, rule English THE teenage girl is the most powerful influence on the evolution of the English language around the world. According to new research, the typical 16-year-old girl -- armed with a mobile phone and a wide circle of friends -- has ensured the success of new phrases such as "muffin top" (a bulge of flesh over low-cut jeans) and "whale tail" (the appearance of a g-string above the waistband of a skirt or trousers). Sali Tagliamonte, associate professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, believes the strongest recent shift has been the spread of...

WHETSTONE — June 9, 1944, is a day Bob Strosser remembers well. The submarine he was serving on was on war patrol off Truk Island, retrieving Army Air Force crew members from aircraft that might have been downed by Japanese gunfire. Strosser, now 80, was one of three lookouts on the surfaced USS Snapper. The former torpedoman put that day’s harrowing experience succinctly. “We got strafed,” he said, as he talked about that day more than 61 years ago. A lookout and torpedoman named McKee was killed, and Strosser and the other sailor were wounded. Strosser was hit by shrapnel...