News Headlines
Survivors tell of chaotic escapes after cruise ship runs aground off Italy; 3 known dead
PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy (AP) — The first course had just been served in the Costa Concordia’s dining room when the wine glasses, forks and plates of cuttlefish and mushrooms smashed to the ground. At the magic show in the theater, the trash cans tipped over and the theater curtains turned on their side. Then the hallways turned upside down, and passengers crawled on bruised knees through the dark. Others jumped alone into the cold Mediterranean Sea.
The terrifying, chaotic escape from the luxury liner was straight out of a scene from “Titanic” for many of the 4,000-plus passengers and crew on the cruise ship, which ran aground off the Italian coast late Friday and flipped on its side with a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull. At least three bodies had been recovered, and rescuers searching for the missing heard the shouts of a man and a woman coming late Saturday from the wrecked cruise ship. The Coast guard was bringing in a specialized search team to find them, while close to 40 others remained unaccounted for.
The Friday the 13th grounding of the Concordia was one of the most dramatic cruise ship accidents in recent memory. It immediately raised a host of questions: Why did it hit a reef so close to the Tuscan island of Giglio? Did a power failure cause the crew to lose control? Did the captain — under investigation on manslaughter allegations — steer it in the wrong direction on purpose? And why did crew members tell passengers they weren’t in danger until the boat was listing perilously to the side?
The delay made lifeboat rescue eventually impossible for some of the passengers, some of whom jumped into the sea while others waited to be plucked to safety by helicopters.
“We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side,” said Mike van Dijk, from Pretoria, South Africa. “It was a scramble, an absolute scramble.”
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In SC, Romney opponents seek a theme, energy and 1 key Republican rival to stop him
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — With a week left to halt Mitt Romney from sweeping to a third straight victory, his GOP rivals are struggling in South Carolina for a theme, momentum and most crucially, one strong challenger to consolidate conservatives’ misgivings about the front-runner.
The dynamics that lifted Romney to wins in Iowa and New Hampshire seem to be working for him here, even though South Carolina is often described as too evangelical and culturally southern for his background.
In some ways, the former Massachusetts governor is lucky, benefitting from a fractured opposition that has divided the anti-Romney vote for months. In other ways he is benefiting from shrewd and well-organized supporters. He uses TV ads to shore up his weaknesses and to batter the rivals he sees as most threatening.
In Iowa, the target was former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who plummeted under the barrage. In South Carolina, it’s former Sen. Rick Santorum, a longtime champion of home-schooling, anti-abortion efforts and other social conservative causes.
Santorum nearly won the Iowa caucus, and some consider him the best bet for unifying the anti-Romney vote.
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France pushes ahead with reforms after downgrade, Germany urges quick euro pact
PARIS (AP) — France’s prime minister said Saturday his country will push ahead with cost-cutting measures after its top-tier debt rating was downgraded, a blow with repercussions across financially beleaguered Europe.
Other European countries from Austria to Cyprus assailed ratings agency Standard & Poor’s after a raft of downgrades Friday night that renewed questions about the power such agencies wield. The move may make it more expensive for struggling countries to borrow money, reduce debts and avoid a new recession.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said downgrades of nine eurozone countries underline the fact that Europe has a “long road” ahead to win back investors’ confidence. Her own country, the engine of Europe’s economy, was not downgraded.
Merkel and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the downgrades should push European countries to quickly implement a planned pact to strengthen budget discipline. Germany and France have piloted rescue efforts for other eurozone countries as the continent has been swept up in crisis after crisis over the past two years.
Fillon struck a somber, measured tone when responding Saturday to the downgrade, which was particularly wounding to France’s self-image and could hurt bailout efforts. France is central to those efforts, and the downgrade, by pushing up its own borrowing costs, could make it harder for France to help others.
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Labor, Nigeria government fail to reach compromise to end strike ahead of planned oil shutdown
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s government and labor unions failed Saturday night to end a paralyzing nationwide strike over high gasoline costs, potentially sparking an oil production shutdown in a nation vital to U.S. oil supplies.
It was not immediately clear early Sunday whether a major oil workers’ union had gone ahead with its threat to have its members walk off their jobs starting at midnight in an effort to halt oil production.
Nigeria, which produces 2.4 milion barrels of oil a day, is the fifth-largest oil exporter to the United States. Any disruption to oil production could roil the oil futures market at a time traders remain concerned about world supply.
President Goodluck Jonathan did not show up for a meeting with union representatives held Saturday night at the presidential villa in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, nor did Vice President Namadi Sambo. Instead, the nation’s Senate president and its House speaker represented the government along with other officials.
After the meeting, Nigeria Labor Congress President Abdulwaheed Omar told waiting journalists: “We have not reached a compromise.”
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Iraq blast kills more than 50 Iraqi Shiite pilgrims, deepening fears of sectarian bloodletting
ZUBAIR, Iraq (AP) — A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal.
Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the U.S. no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear to be aimed at Iraq’s majority Shiites, suggesting Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine the Shiite-dominated government are to blame.
Saturday’s blast happened on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen, when hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims travel to the Iraqi city of Karbala and other holy sites. The end of Arbaeen is one of the most sacred times for Shiites, and public processions to commemorate it were banned under Saddam Hussein.
The blast occurred near the town of Zubair as pilgrims marched from the nearby port city of Basra toward the Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the town, said Ayad al-Emarah, a spokesman for the governor of Basra province.
The shrine is an enclave within an enclave — a Shiite site on the edge of a predominantly Sunni town in an otherwise mostly Shiite province.
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With Romney in a position of strength, rivals attack his image
SUMTER, S.C. (AP) — The criticism of Mitt Romney is getting personal.
His rivals have tried to chip away at his business record and they’ve hit him on abortion. Now, Rick Santorum is calling him “bland and boring.” And Newt Gingrich is chiding him for, among other things, once strapping the family dog to a kennel on the roof of his car and speaking French.
It’s a reflection of Romney’s strong standing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination after back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. His opponents are struggling to derail him a week before the Jan. 21 South Carolina contest and just over two weeks until the Florida primary.
The more personal criticism cuts to the heart of one of Romney’s big vulnerabilities — his image.
In his first presidential race four years ago, an always buttoned-up Romney struggled to connect with people, often coming across as stiff and slick. He always wore a suit and tie on the campaign trail. His hair was perfectly coiffed. He told goofy jokes. And the wealthy Boston resident with several homes often had what were perceived as uneasy encounters with voters.
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Police: Man in custody believed responsible for all 4 recent Southern Calif. homeless killings
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Investigators are “extremely confident” that a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday.
Welter said at a news conference that investigators have tied 23-year-old Itzcoatl Ocampo of Yorba Linda to the killings, which have struck fear into the area’s homeless community for the past month.
Ocampo was detained Friday night after a fourth homeless man was found slain in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.
Three other homeless men have been found stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December, and a task force of police officers, sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents had been looking for the single suspect they believed was responsible for all three.
“We are extremely confident that we have the man that is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County,” Welter said.
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Oregon. volcano site of project to demonstrate potential to expand geothermal energy
Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.
They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn’t dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes — without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents.
Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for power and waning political concern over global warming. Efforts to use the earth’s heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, have been further hampered by technical problems and worries that tapping it can cause earthquakes.
Even so, the federal government, Google and other investors are interested enough to bet $43 million on the Oregon project. They are helping AltaRock Energy, Inc. of Seattle and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC of Stamford, Conn., demonstrate whether the next level in geothermal power development can work on the flanks of Newberrry Volcano, located about 20 miles south of Bend, Ore.
“We know the heat is there,” said Susan Petty, president of AltaRock. “The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic.”
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Muhammad Ali comes home for party celebrating his coming 70th birthday; crowd serenades him
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Muhammad Ali soaked in familiar cheers and chants along with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” on Saturday night as friends and admirers celebrated the boxing champ’s coming 70th birthday at a party in his Kentucky hometown.
As party-goers mingled in a lobby of the Muhammad Ali Center before the party, Ali walked slowly to a second-floor balcony overlooking them. The crowd immediately began to clap, then broke into chants of “Ali! Ali!” followed by singing as Ali watched for about two minutes.
The three-time world heavyweight champion, who is battling Parkinson’s disease, leaned against a rail and raised his right hand to wave to the crowd. Ali walked on his own but was at times assisted by his wife, Lonnie, and his sister-in-law. After the brief appearance, Ali went to his party.
Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis said his boyhood idol is “still the greatest.”
“I feel so proud and honored that we’re able to show our feelings and show our support for him,” Lewis said.
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49ers beat Drew Brees, Saints 36-32 and show defense can still win in modern, wide-open NFL
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Alex Smith completed a 14-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis with 9 seconds left just after Drew Brees had put the high-powered Saints ahead, and the resurgent San Francisco 49ers capitalized on five New Orleans turnovers for a thrilling 36-32 playoff victory Saturday.
Smith ran for a 28-yard TD with 2:11 left and threw another scoring pass to Davis. Coach Jim Harbaugh’s NFC West champions (14-3) proved that a hard-hitting, stingy defense can still win in the modern, wide-open NFL by holding off one of league’s most dynamic offenses.
San Francisco triumphed in its first playoff game in nine years, moving within one win of returning to the Super Bowl for the first time since capturing the proud franchise’s fifth championship after the 1994 season. The Saints finish at 14-4.
Next up for the 49ers is the NFC title game against the winner of Sunday’s New York Giants-Green Bay Packers matchup.
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