News Headlines
Captain of stricken cruise ship under scrutiny as 6th body recovered; 16 missing
ROME (AP) — Rescuers raced against time and increasingly turbulent waters Monday in search of survivors from the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Tuscan coast, while prosecutors focused on the captain, who is accused of abandoning the ship well before passengers were safely evacuated.
A sixth body was discovered in the overturned vessel as the rescue mission entered its third day; 16 passengers and crew were still missing after the ship carrying 4,200 struck a reef off the island of Giglio. The body of the male passenger was spotted in a corridor of the part of the Costa Concordia still above water, fire department spokesman Luca Cari said. The victim was wearing a life vest.
“We are still working to pull the body out of the ship,” Cari told The Associated Press. “The sea conditions make it difficult to get into the ship.”
The number of the missing was raised after relatives of two Sicilian women who had been listed among those safely evacuated after Friday night’s grounding told authorities they not heard from them.
Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli said rescuers were in “one of the most important phases” as they sought those who may have found an air pocket. The mission includes a risky inspection of the underwater half of the capsized ship. But, he conceded to Sky News 24, the chances of finding survivors was dwindling.
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Campaign officials: Jon Huntsman to withdraw from race for GOP presidential nomination
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Jon Huntsman staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire and his bid to become a legitimate competitor on distinguishing himself from front-runner Mitt Romney. But less than a week after a disappointing third-place finish in the Granite State’s GOP primary, Huntsman decided to quit the race and back Romney.
Huntsman will endorse Romney, officials said Sunday, because he believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November. Campaign manager Matt David said Huntsman will announce his withdrawal at an event in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Huntsman’s resume had suggested he could be a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and on foreign trade. But the former ambassador to China in the Obama administration found a poor reception for his brand of moderate civility that he had hoped would draw support from independents, as well as party moderates.
Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon. One reason was timing. For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states.
Huntsman, however, was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April. Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech on June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The former Utah governor had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina’s primary this week will be “very low.” Word of the Huntsman withdrawal came on the same day that The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, endorsed him for president.
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Nigerian soldiers block protest sites; president offers concession to end demonstrations
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — For the first time since protests erupted over spiraling fuel prices, soldiers barricaded key roads Monday in Nigeria’s two biggest cities as the president offered a concession to stem demonstrations that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy.
The deployment of troops is a sensitive issue in a nation with a young democracy and a history of military coups. President Goodluck Jonathan said in his speech that was televised early Monday that agitators have hijacked the demonstrations, which were initially focused on his removal of a fuel subsidy but more recently focused on government corruption and inefficiency.
At a park in Lagos’ Ojota neighborhood where more than 20,000 people had demonstrated Friday, two military armored personnel carriers were parked near an empty stage. About 50 soldiers and 50 other security personnel surrounded the area carrying Kalashnikov rifles, waving away those who tried to enter to resume demonstrations. A crowd of several hundred people gathered a few hundreds yards (meters) away.
“They are here because they don’t want us to protest,” said Remi Odutayo, 25, referring to the soldiers in the park. “They are using the power given to them to do something illegal” by stopping demonstrators from gathering.
A few miles (kilometers) away, about 300 protesters marched on a highway toward Ojota. One waved a white puppy above his head like a protest placard. When they approached a military checkpoint, soldiers slung their Kalasnikov rifles to their sides and let the demonstrators pass unhindered. But then around 20 soldiers arrived in two pickup trucks, bayonets affixed to their assault rifles. They told the protesters to go back. The situation remained tense.
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AP expands North Korean coverage, opens first full news bureau by international agency
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — The Associated Press opened its newest bureau here Monday, becoming the first international news organization with a full-time presence to cover news from North Korea in words, pictures and video.
In a ceremony that came less than a month after the death of longtime ruler Kim Jong Il and capped nearly a year of discussions, AP President and CEO Tom Curley and a delegation of top AP editors inaugurated the office, situated inside the headquarters of the state-run Korean Central News Agency in downtown Pyongyang.
The bureau expands the AP’s presence in North Korea, building on the breakthrough in 2006 when AP opened a video bureau in Pyongyang for the first time by an international news organization. Exclusive video from AP video staffers in Pyongyang was used by media outlets around the world following Kim’s death.
Now, AP writers and photojournalists will also be allowed to work in North Korea on a regular basis.
For North Korea, which for decades has remained largely off-limits to international journalists, the opening marked an important gesture, particularly because North Korea and the United States have never had formal diplomatic relations. The AP, an independent 165-year-old news cooperative founded in New York and owned by its U.S. newspaper membership, has operations in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 2,500 journalists across the world in 300 locations.
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Pakistan’s top court orders contempt proceedings against prime minister
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s top court begantype:bold,italic; contempt proceedings Monday against the prime minister for failing to carry out its order to reopen a corruption case against the president, ramping up pressure on the beleaguered civilian government and pushing the country deeper into political crisis.
The Supreme Court ruling opened up the possibility that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani could be prosecuted, imprisoned and dismissed at the hands of the judges.
It came as the government is locked in a conflict with the army, and boosted the sense the administration could fall, squeezed between the court and the powerful generals.
The court ordered Gilani to appear before the bench on Thursday to explain his refusal to open the corruption probe against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Gilani might choose not to attend the hearing, which could trigger his immediate disqualification from holding office, or pledge to open the graft case. That would carry a political cost, and is something that Zardari’s ruling party has said it will never do.
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Ron Paul wants big spending cuts as president, spends big on first-class travel in Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been spending large amounts on airfare as a congressman, flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state. The practice conflicts with the image that Paul portrays as the only presidential candidate serious about cutting federal spending.
Paul flew first class on at least 31 round-trip flights and 12 one-way flights since May 2009 when he was traveling between Washington and his district in Texas, according to a review by The Associated Press of his congressional office expenses. Four other round-trip tickets and two other one-way tickets purchased during the period were eligible for upgrades to first-class after they were bought, but those upgrades would not be documented in the expense records.
Paul, whose distrust of big government is the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, trusts the more expensive government rate for Continental Airlines when buying his tickets. Paul chose not to buy the cheaper economy tickets at a fraction of the price because they aren’t refundable or as flexible for scheduling, his congressional staff said.
“We always get him full refundable tickets since the congressional schedule sometimes changes quickly,” said Jeff Deist, Paul’s chief of staff. Paul might have to pay out of his own pocket for canceled flights in some cases if he didn’t buy refundable tickets, Deist said.
But records show that most of the flights for Paul were purchased well in advance and few schedule changes were necessary. Nearly two-thirds of the 49 tickets were purchased at least two weeks in advance, and 42 percent were bought at least three weeks in advance, the AP’s review found.
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Father of suspect in string of Calif. homeless killings is homeless himself
YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) — Just days before being arrested, a Marine veteran suspected in the deaths of four homeless men in Southern California visited his father, who is himself homeless, warning of the danger of being on the streets and showing him a picture of one of the victims.
“He was very worried about me,” Refugio Ocampo, 49, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry. I’m a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'”
The father also said his son came back a changed man after serving in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as his family life frayed and he struggled to find his way as a civilian.
The father said he lost his job and home, and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.
His 23-year-old son, Itzcoatl Ocampo, is awaiting charges in connection with the serial killings of four homeless men since late December.
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Car bomb in northern Iraq kills at least 8 in latest in string of attacks since US withdrawal
BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb blew up outside the northern city of Mosul on Monday, killing at least eight people, Iraq officials said, in the latest in a series of attacks to target the country’s Shiite majority since the U.S. withdrawal last month.
Violence has surged across Iraq since the last American troops left the country, with a string of bombings that have left more than 140 people dead. Most of the attacks appear to be aimed at Iraq’s Shiite majority, suggesting Sunni insurgents are seeking to undermine the Shiite-dominated government.
Monday’s blast struck a Shiite district outside of Mosul, a predominantly Sunni city some 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, a police official said.
An official at Mosul’s Al-Jomhouri hospital confirmed the death toll, and said at least six people were wounded in the attack.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
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‘The Artist,’ ‘The Descendants’ top winners as a tamer Gervais leads predictable Golden Globes
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The Hollywood Foreign Press Association dared to let Ricky Gervais come back and host the Golden Globe Awards, a year after he insulted the organization and nearly everyone in the star-studded room with his lacerating wit.
But Gervais and the show seemed tamer and more predictable this year, not quite living up to outrageous reputations. Even the winners themselves, including “The Descendants” and its star, George Clooney, were predictable.
The victory for “The Descendants” in the best drama category sets it up in an expected battle at the Academy Awards with “The Artist,” which won the award for best musical or comedy. Both had been frontrunners all along among people who are the business of prognosticating these things; Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 24, with the ceremony itself coming Feb. 26.
Clooney won for his portrayal of a middle-aged husband struggling to raise his two daughters while their mother is in a coma. Jean Dujardin won the same award in the musical or comedy category for “The Artist” as a silent film actor whose career derails with the arrival of sound. (“The Artist” won the most film awards with three total, including one for Ludovic Bource’s original score.)
It took the presenters and winners themselves to liven up the program — and that includes Uggie, Dujardin’s scene-stealing Jack Russell terrier in “The Artist,” who performed some of his signature tricks on stage toward the end of the night.
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Manning throws for 330 yards and 3 TDs, Giants stun Packers 37-20 in NFC divisional playoff
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — For Eli Manning and the New York Giants, Lambeau Field has become a familiar launching pad. After beating the Green Bay Packers at home for the second time in four years, they only hope this trip ends the same way — at the Super Bowl.
Manning threw three touchdown passes and the Giants shocked the Packers 37-20 in an NFC divisional playoff game Sunday. Manning threw for 330 yards, sending the Giants to San Francisco for the NFC championship game next Sunday night.
The Packers (15-2) might have been the reigning Super Bowl champs, but the Giants (11-7) might be the hottest team in the NFL.
“I think we’re a dangerous team,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “I like where we are and how we’re playing.”
The Giants stunned the Packers with a touchdown off a long heave from Manning to Hakeem Nicks just before halftime, then knocked them out with a late touchdown off a turnover. Lambeau Field fell silent as the Giants swarmed the field in celebration, with a handful of New York fans chanting, “Let’s go, Giants!”
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