From CNN.com:
A U.S. submarine has collided with a Japanese merchant vessel, a senior U.S. Navy official told CNN.
The USS Newport News was surfacing in the Arabian Sea south of the Straits of Hormuz when it hit the Japanese ship, the official said.
There were no injuries, he said, but there was some damage.
"Neither ship is in extremis," the official said late Monday local time in Washington D.C., meaning the damage was not serious enough to put the ships in jeopardy.
The incident recalled a previous collision between a U.S. submarine and a Japanese ship.
On February 9, 2001, the USS Greeneville struck the training ship Ehime Maru during an emergency ascent demonstration.
Nine people, including four high school students, were killed. Twenty-six others on the ship were rescued.