Two US Coast Guard members were shot dead at a communications station on an island off Alaska in what officials said appeared to be a double murder. They have yet to identify a suspect.

Rihanna, 24, revealed she was single as she promoted new action movie 'Battleship' after bristling at being probed about her private life.

A cruise ship hit by an engine fire was on the move today as Mexican tugboats began towing it towards California.

AN Irish group has issued an urgent appeal for donations to help it bid for memorabilia associated with one of the great pioneers of polar exploration.

A mile-long oil sheen spread from an offshore oil platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico today.

An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill, coast guards said today.

BP crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform.

Choppy seas, strong winds and rain today halted the clean-up of an oil spill around a massive drilling rig which exploded and sank off the US.

An oil platform which was rocked by a massive explosion two days ago has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, the US Coast Guard said today.

Nine victims of a mid-air collision between a coastguard aircraft and a US Marine Corps helicopter were feared dead today as the investigation focused on how the crews failed to see each other in a heavily-used military training area.

The US Coastguard said one of its planes collided with a military helicopter off the Southern California coast early today.

Up to 85 people are missing after a boat carrying Haitian migrants capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Coast Guard said today.

Two whales that took a wrong turn and swam 90 miles inland to California’s capital are heading back towards the Pacific Ocean today, according to the US Coastguard.

A powerful storm pounded the eastern US with wind and pouring rain, grounding hundreds of airline flights and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding in 14 years.

A package that was to be loaded on to a cruise ship at the Port of Miami tested positive for plastic explosives today, the US Coast Guard said.

VINCENT DILELLA looked up when he heard a strange sound from the sky, knowing almost immediately that something was horribly wrong.

Indonesia pulled 7,118 new bodies from the rubble near a shattered beachfront community visited today by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, bringing the confirmed overall death toll from the Asian tsunami to nearly 150,000.

By the time spear fisherman Ignacio Siberio realised his boat had drifted away in the chilly waters off the Florida Keys, it was too late to signal for help.

Further details of the fire which crippled a Canadian submarine and claimed the life of one of its seamen, as well as the heroic rescue effort to return the vessel and its crew safely to shore, were expected to emerge today.

THE body of the Canadian seaman who died following a fire on the stricken submarine, Chicoutimi, was returned home yesterday after a joint Irish-Canadian military and religious service at Dublin Airport.

A stricken Canadian sub was today continuing its slow progress towards a naval base on the west coast of Scotland, four days after a fire left it paralysed in the mid-Atlantic.

A rescue operation to tow a stricken Canadian submarine to safety started tonight, as a second crewman remained in a critical condition.

A diver forgotten at sea by a boat crew in the US drifted for five hours and prayed for his life before a sharp-eyed boy scout on an ancient excursion ship spotted him and organised a rescue.

A ferry that capsized in a sudden storm on Baltimore Harbour was towed to a dock as divers searched for three people, including a child, who were still missing.

Four people are believed to have died when a water taxi with 25 people aboard capsized in the US city of Baltimore’s Inner Harbour after a violent gust of wind struck the boat.

Two workers have been killed in a blast at an oil depot on New York’s Staten Island which occurred as a petrol barge was being unloaded.

A Florida yachtsman, who was lost at sea with a broken mast for more than two months, was rescued last night 40 miles off the US coast.

At least 16 passengers are missing after a ferry sank in rough waters near central Philippines.