Free Republic

HARTFORD, Conn. — A new, Spanish-designed submarine has a weighty problem: The vessel is more than 70 tons too heavy, and officials fear if it goes out to sea, it will not be able to surface. And a former Spanish official says the problem can be traced to a miscalculation — someone apparently put a decimal point in the wrong place. “It was a fatal mistake,” said Rafael Bardaji, who until recently was director of the Office of Strategic Assessment at Spain’s Defense Ministry. The Isaac Peral, the first in a new class of diesel-electric submarines, was nearly completed when...

An Israel Navy ship sank a Palestinian boat off the shore of the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning. The small Palestinian craft, designed to carry one or two people, was apparently attempting to re-enter - without permission - Palestinian waters after leaving them, Army Radio reported. Despite repeated calls from the navy to stop, the Palestinians continued sailing. At this point, shots were fired at the navy ship from the direction of the Gaza shore. Seeing that the Palestinian boat was trying to escape, the navy opened fire and sank it. The fate of the boat's passengers was unknown.

AN AMOROUS couple who took to sea in a dinghy sparked a major rescue operation when their lovemaking was mistaken for cries for help. Police and lifeboat crews were scrambled to waters off Torbay, Devon, after a passer-by raised the alarm. When they reached the tiny boat, the rescuers realised nobody was in danger - but the man and woman on board were naked. A police spokesman said the couple put their clothes back on after returning to the shore and were given "words of advice".

Bush goes ahead of Kerry for the first time since 9 Aug. This means Kerry had a bad day of polling yesterday, as his raw daily data leading into today's number was 47,47. He had to have polled at 45 or 44 today, while Bush polled at 47 or 48.