So far the maiden voyage of the U.S. Navy's littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1) has proved effective in at least one area, counter-illicit trafficking (CIT) operations.

Since Freedom deployed to the Caribbean in mid-February, the vessel has conducted three successful seizures. The latest came last Thursday, when it disrupted a high-speed "go-fast" vessel and recovered 2 1/4 tons of cocaine, according to a Navy statement.

The other two CIT seizures were on Feb. 22 and March 3, when Freedom seized one "go-fast" vessel, five suspects and more than 1,700 kilos of cocaine.

The U.S. Navy's Naval Air Systems Command has grounded 104 Navy and Marine F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets (models A through D) because inspectors discovered the airframes were developing cracks much earlier than engineers had thought reports NavyTimes.com. Interestingly the crash of a Marine F/A-18D last week was not related to this problem according to a Navy spokesperson.

Coast Guard personnel from the United States and Canada are going to conduct a multi-national oil spill tabletop exercise in Anchorage, Alaska on March 16 and 17. The overall objectives of this "Canada - United States North" (CANUSNORTH) exercise is to raise situational awareness of issues surrounding marine pollution in the Beaufort Sea, and to improve joint response operations between the United States, Canada and regional stakeholders.

India's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday arrested two men suspected of plotting to attack a petroleum storage facility in Mumbai. An ATS official said the duo, identified as Abdul Latif Rashid (29) and Riyaz Ali (23), had conducted surveillance on an ONGC location in Nhava-Sheva area of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

California's Port Hueneme now has Radiation Portal Monitors (RPMs) installed. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the deployment on Thursday (3/11) and said the RPMs will help "prevent terrorists from attempting to smuggle radiological materials used in nuclear and radiological dispersal devices."

There are now 1,354 RPMs at the America's land and sea ports of entry.

New Zealander Peter Bethune, the anti-whaling activist seized by Japanese whalers last month, was turned over to the Japanese Coast Guard for questioning Thursday (3/12) in Tokyo Bay

Bethune, who is a member of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had been held by the whalers since he boarded the Japanese security vessel Shonan Maru No. 2 to demand Japan repay him for the loss of his vessel Ady Gil, which Bethune claims the Shonan Maru No. 2 rammed and sank in January.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued two Marine Corps pilots Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. after the pair were forced to eject from their F/A-18D Hornet approximately 35-miles off the coast of St. Helena Sound, South Carolina.

A major earthquake and at least two very strong aftershocks struck in the Libertador O'Higgins region of Chile this morning (3/11). The USGS recorded the magnitude of the first quake at 7.2, and the others at 6.9 and 6.0. All three occurred between 55 and 75 miles west of the regional capital Rancagua, and approximately 80 to 95 miles southwest of the national capital of Santiago.