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 divers searched the underwater belly of the boat for a few dozen more who remained unaccounted for. By late Saturday, the number of missing had dwindled to about 40.
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 the Tuscan island of Giglio? Did a power failure cause the crew to lose control? And why did crew members tell passengers they weren’t in danger until the boast 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. Some boats had to be cut down with an axe.
“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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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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Week from South Carolina vote, Santorum wins backing from group of social conservative leaders
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Rick Santorum’s quest to emerge as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney received a boost Saturday from a group of evangelicals and others who voted to back his candidacy in a last-ditch effort to stop the front-runner’s march to the nomination.
About 150 social conservatives meeting in Texas sided with Santorum over a home-state favorite, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The gathering reflected their dissatisfaction with Romney over abortion rights and other issues and their belief that they needed to unite behind one contender if they had any hope of derailing the former Massachusetts governor after his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Their decision comes a week before the next contest, Jan. 21 in South Carolina, where social conservatives are an influential voting bloc. But it was not immediately clear what effect the backing will have.
One participant at the meeting, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, said Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, ended up with 75 percent of the vote.
Former presidential candidate, Gary Bauer, said the group endorsed Santorum after several ballots, winnowing the field down from three candidates: Santorum, Gingrich and Perry. He said that there was some support for Mitt Romney.
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Labor, Nigeria government fail to reach compromise to end nationwide strike over gas prices
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.
Nigeria Labor Congress president Abdulwaheed Omar told journalists outside the presidential palace: “We have not reached a compromise.” He avoided answering direct questions about whether oil production would shut down in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria had threatened to stop all oil production in Nigeria at midnight. President Babatunde Ogun was not immediately available for comment.
Nigeria, which produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude a day, is the fifth-largest oil exporter to the U.S. While the country has a several-week stock of oil ready for export, the threatened shutdown Sunday could shake oil futures as traders remained concerns about worldwide supply.
The strike began Monday, paralyzing the nation of more than 160 million people. The root cause remains gasoline prices: President Goodluck Jonathan’s government abandoned subsidies that kept gasoline prices low Jan. 1, causing prices to spike from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter). The costs of food and transportation also largely doubled in a nation where most people live on less than $2 a day.
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Iran says it has evidence CIA behind assassination of nuclear scientist
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Saturday it has evidence that the United States was behind the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week in Tehran, state media reported.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in a brazen daylight assassination Wednesday when two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to his car in the Iranian capital. The killing bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program, and has prompted calls in Iran for retaliation against those deemed responsible.
The IRNA state news agency said Saturday that Iran’s Foreign Ministry has sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. saying that it has “evidence and reliable information” that the CIA provided “guidance, support and planning” to assassins “directly involved” in Roshan’s killing.
The U.S. has denied any role in the assassination.
Iran delivered the letter to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after U.S. interests in the country. Iran and the U.S. have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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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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Tunisians mark 1st anniversary of revolution that sparked Arab Spring with prudent optimism
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Masses of Tunisians marched in peaceful triumph Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the revolution that ended the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — and sparked uprisings around the Arab world.
Tunisia greeted the anniversary with prudent optimism, amid worries about high unemployment that cast a shadow over their pride at transforming the country.
Now a human rights activist is president, and a moderate Islamist jailed for years by the old regime is prime minister at the head of a diverse coalition, after the freest elections in Tunisia’s history.
Tunisia’s uprising began on Dec. 17, 2010, when a desperate fruit vendor set himself on fire, unleashing pent-up anger and frustration among his compatriots, who staged protests that spread nationwide. Within less than a month, longtime president Ben Ali was forced out of power, and he fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, 2011.
Boisterous marches Saturday reflected the country’s new atmosphere.
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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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Lopez, Anthony appear together to promote television project
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were together again on Saturday — at least to promote their new project.
The stars, who announced last summer they were ending their marriage after seven years, appeared on a stage Saturday to talk briefly about a new music series they are doing together. “Q’Viva! The Chosen” premieres on Univision on Jan. 28.
Anthony reached down to offer his hand and help Lopez climb three stairs to the stage, and later admired the four sparkling rings on her left hand. They sat side by side on director’s chairs.
The two stars, along with Jamie King, travel throughout north and south America to search for artists who will come to the United States and participate in a live show of Latin music and entertainment. It airs in 12 weekly episodes in the U.S. and on Spanish-language stations across Latin America. An English-language version is planned later for Fox.
Anthony and Lopez were working this week to judge some of the contestants, Univision said.
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Paterno speaks: Says ‘didn’t know which way to go’ in 1st interview since firing
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno says he “didn’t know which way to go” after an assistant coach came to him in 2002 saying he had seen retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing a boy.
In his first public comments since being fired two months ago, Paterno told The Washington Post that assistant Mike McQueary “didn’t want to get specific” about details in his 2002 allegation involving Sandusky, who he claimed was showering with a boy in the Penn State football facility.
The Post reported Saturday that Paterno was hesitant to make follow-up calls because he didn’t want to be seen as trying to exert influence for or against Sandusky.
“I didn’t know which way to go … And rather than get in there and make a mistake,” he told the Post before trailing off.
A day after he heard McQueary’s allegation, Paterno reported it to his superiors. Before McQueary visited him, Paterno said he had “no inkling” Sandusky might be a child molester.
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