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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Ship aground off Italy; 3 bodies found, 69 missing

In this photo released by the Guardia di Finanza (border Police), the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. The number of dead and injured is not yet confirmed Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo said. (AP Photo/Guardia di Finanza, ho)

In this photo released by the Guardia di Finanza (border Police), the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. A luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said. (AP Photo/Guardia di Finanza, ho)

PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy (AP) ? Divers have been searching the submerged part of a luxury cruise liner that went aground off the Italian coast in case any of 70 people unaccounted for might be trapped inside, a coast guard official said Saturday, as passengers described a delayed and terrifying evacuation.

Three bodies were recovered from the sea after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull and sending in a rush of water. The ANSA new agency identified them as two French passengers and a Peruvian crew member but did not cite a source.

Passengers described a scene reminiscent of "Titanic", saying they escaped the ship by crawling along upended hallways, desperately trying to reach safety as the lights went out and plates and glasses crashed.

Authorities say there are 70 people of the 4,234 on board who are still unaccounted for amid the confusion. Capt. Cosimo Nicastro cautioned there is no firm indication anyone is inside the ship, but he said since sea searches yielded neither bodies nor survivors, there is a possibility those unaccounted for are in "the belly of the ship" some 18 hours after the it apparently hit a reef near Giglio island ? then lurched over on its side.

Passsengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

Authorities have been checking names against the passenger list, but have had a hard time accounting for everyone. Helicopters whisked some to safety, some survivors were rescued by private boats in the area, and witnesses said some people jumped from the ship into the dark, cold sea.

By morning Saturday, the ship was lying virtually flat off Gigio's coast, its starboard side submerged in the water and the huge gash showing clearly on its upturned hull.

Authorities still hadn't counted all the survivors by the time they reached mainland 12 hours later.

The evacuation drill was only scheduled for Saturday afternoon, even though some passengers had already been on board for several days.

"It was so unorganized, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 5 p.m.," said Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Connecticut, who had set out on the cruise of the Mediterranean hours earlier. "We had joked 'What if something had happened today?'"

"Have you seen 'Titanic?' That's exactly what it was," said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean. They all bore dark red bruises on their knees from the desperate crawl they endured along nearly vertical hallways and stairwells, trying to reach rescue boats.

"We were crawling up a hallway, in the dark, with only the light from the life vest strobe flashing," her mother, Georgia Ananias, 61 said. "We could hear plates and dishes crashing, people slamming against walls."

She choked up as she recounted the moment when an Argentine couple handed her their 3-year-old daughter, unable to keep their balance as the ship lurched to the side and the family found themselves standing on a wall. "He said 'take my baby,'" Mrs. Ananias said, covering her mouth with her hand as she teared up. "I grabbed the baby. But then I was being pushed down. I didn't want the baby to fall down the stairs. I gave the baby back. I couldn't hold her.

"I thought that was the end and I thought they should be with their baby," she said.

"I wonder where they are," daughter Valerie whispered.

The family said they were some of the last off the ship, forced to shimmy along a rope down the exposed side of the ship to a waiting rescue vessel below.

Survivor Christine Hammer, from Bonn, Germany, shivered near the harbor of Porto Santo Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She was wearing elegant dinner clothes ? a gray cashmere sweater, a silk scarf ? along with a large pair of hiking boots, which a kind islander gave her after she lost her shoes in the scramble to escape. Left behind in her cabin were her passport, credit cards and phone.

Hammer, 65, told The Associated Press she was eating her first course, an appetizer of cuttlefish, sauteed mushrooms and salad, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, which was a gift to her and her husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers.

Suddenly, "we heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn't anything dangerous," she said.

Several passengers concurred, saying crew members for a good 45 minutes told passengers there was a simple "technical problem" that had caused the lights to go off. Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life jackets from their cabins and report to their "muster stations," the emergency stations each passenger is assigned to, they said.

Once there, though, crew members delayed lowering the lifeboats even thought the ship was listing badly, they said.

"We had to scream at the controllers to release the boats from the side," said Mike van Dijk, a 54-year-old from Pretoria, South Africa. "We were standing in the corridors and they weren't allowing us to get onto the boats. It was a scramble, an absolute scramble."

Passengers Alan and Laurie Willits from Wingham, Ontario, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, said they were watching the magic show in the ship's main theater when they felt an inital lurch, as if from a severe steering maneuver, followed a few seconds later by a "shudder" that tipped trash cans over. The subsequent listing of the ship made the theater curtains seem like they were standing on their side.

"And then the magician disappeared," Laurie Willits said, saying the magician left the stage and panicked audience members fled for their cabins as well.

Once at their life boat station, crew members directed passengers to go upstairs from the fourth floor deck; Alan Willits said he refused.

"I said 'no this isn't right.' And I came out and I argued 'When you get this boat stabilized, I'll go up to the fifth floor then," he said. Eventually, his lifeboat was lowered down.

But things didn't improve for passengers once aboard the lifeboats or on land.

"No one counted us, neither in the life boats nor on land," said Ophelie Gondelle, 28, a French military officer from Marseille. She said there had been no evacuation drill since she boarded in Marseille, France on Jan. 8.

A top Costa executive, Gianni Onorato, said Saturday the Concordia's captain had the liner on its regular, weekly route when it struck a reef.

"The ship was doing what it does 52 times a year, going along the route between Civitavecchia and Savona," a shaken-looking Onorato, who is Costa's director general, told reporters on Giglio, a popular vacation isle about 18 miles (25 kilometers) off Italy's central west coast. The captain is an 11-year Costa veteran, he said.

He said Costa was cooperating with Italian investigators to find out what went wrong.

Costa Cruises said about 1,000 Italian passengers were onboard, as well as more than 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.

Some 30 people were reported injured, most of them suffering only bruises, but at least two people were reported in grave condition. Several passengers came off the ferries on stretchers, but it appeared more out of exhaustion and shock than serious injury.

Some passengers, apparently in panic, had jumped off the boat into the sea, witnesses said.

The evacuees were taking refuge in schools, hotels, and a church on the tiny island of Giglio. Those evacuated the port of Porto Santo Stefano on the nearby mainland.

Passengers sat dazed in a middle school opened for them, wrapped in wool or aluminum blankets, with some wearing their life preservers and their shoeless feet covered with aluminum foil. Civil protection crews served them warm tea and bread, but confusion reigned supreme as passengers tried desperately to find the right bus to begin their journey home.

Tanja Berto, from Ebenfurth, Austria, was shuttled from one line to another with her mother and 2-year-old son Bruno, trying to figure out how to get back to Savona, where they began their cruise a week ago.

"It's his birthday today," she said of her son, rolling her eyes as she held Bruno and tended to her mother, who had grown faint and was lying on the ground. "Happy birthday, Bruno."

Survivors far outnumbered Giglio's 1,500 residents, and island Mayor Sergio Ortelli issued an appeal for islanders ? "anyone with a roof" ? to open their homes to shelter the evacuees.

Paolillo said the exact circumstances of the accident were still unclear, but that the first alarm went off about 10:30 p.m., about three hours after the Concordia had begun its voyage from the port of Civitavecchia, en route to its first port of call, Savona, in northwestern Italy.

The coast guard official, speaking from the port captain's office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel "hit an obstacle" ? it wasn't clear if it might have hit a rocky reef in the waters off Giglio ? "ripping a gash 50 meters (160 feet) across" in the side of the ship, and started taking on water.

The cruise liner's captain, Paolillo said, then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio's small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

Five helicopters, from the coast guard, navy and air force, were taking turns airlifting survivors still aboard and ferrying them to safely. A coast guard member was airlifted aboard the vessel to help people get aboard a small basket so they could be hoisted up to the helicopter, said Capt. Cosimo Nicastro, another Coast Guard official.

Costa Cruises said the Costa Concordia was sailing on a cruise across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.

The Concordia had a previous accident in Italian waters, ANSA reported. In 2008, when strong winds buffeted Palermo, the cruise ship banged against the Sicilian port's dock, and suffered damage but no one was injured, ANSA said.

___

D'Emilio reported from Rome.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-14-EU-Italy-Cruise-Aground/id-f4ab5b31ea88422486e14903934b61ba

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Obama takes on big government: `It has to change' (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Seeking more power to shrink the government, President Barack Obama on Friday suggested smashing six economic agencies into one, an election-year idea intended to halt bureaucratic nightmares and force Republicans to back him on one of their own favorite issues.

"The government we have is not the government we need," Obama told business owners he'd gathered at the White House. Lawmakers seemed willing to at least consider his ideas.

Sounding like a manager of a disorganized company, and looking like one by pointing to slides as he spoke, Obama asked Congress to give him a kind of reorganization power no president has had since Ronald Reagan. It would guarantee Obama a vote, within 90 days, on any idea he offers to consolidate agencies, provided it saves money and cuts the government.

His first potential target: Merging six major trade and commerce agencies into a one-stop-shopping department for American businesses. The Commerce Department would be among those that would cease to exist.

Attacking senseless duplication across the executive branch he runs, Obama said: "Why is it OK for our government? It's not. It has to change."

Politically, Obama is seeking advantage on the turf often owned by Republicans: Smaller government.

He is attempting to directly counter Republican arguments that he has presided over the kind of regulation, spending and debt that can undermine the economy ? a dominant theme of this year's debate and one often cited by his potential re-election rival, Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama said he would use his expanded authority to recommend the collapsing of other agencies across the government, not just in the business field, without getting specific. Congress would keep the final say over any proposal. But fast-track power would give Obama a stronger hand to skip much of the outside lobbying and turf battles and get right to a vote.

Congressional reaction was mixed, but generally followed a pattern from both parties ? support for making government more efficient, and wariness about how Obama's plan could upend the trade American trade agenda or undermine the prerogatives of Congress.

Republicans skeptically pointed to Obama's past promises as the size of the nation's debt keeps growing.

"It's not often that we see real proposals from this administration to make government smaller," said Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "I look forward to reviewing the proposal and hope that it will be the first of many to unravel the red tape."

Indeed, Obama promised more plans to shrink things if given more power, citing inefficiencies all across the government.

In an unusual united front that underscored some bipartisan skepticism, the chairmen of two of Congress' most powerful committees joined in a statement that questioned the president's desire to wrap the U.S. Trade Representative office into a new agency. The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont, said government cannot be reduced "at the expense of programs that are helping businesses, ranchers and farmers create jobs."

For Obama, it was all about common sense.

He spoke of business people who deal with the government as part of their daily life and are exasperated by a maze of agencies, permits and websites.

"We can do this better," he told them. "So much of the argument out there all the time is up in 40,000 feet, these abstract arguments about who's conservative or who's liberal. ...You guys are just trying to figure out, how do we make things work? How do we apply common sense? And that's what this is about."

Obama had an imperative to deliver. He made the promise to come up with a smart reorganization of the government in his State of the Union speech last January.

Not in decades has the government undergone a sustained reorganization of itself. Presidents have tried from time to time, but each part of the bureaucracy has its own defenders inside and outside the government, which can make merger ideas politically impossible. That's particularly true because "efficiency" is often another way of saying people will lose their jobs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she hoped Congress would quickly approve Obama's proposal, which she said tracked with worries Democrats have been hearing from small business owners.

Beyond the politics, the merger Obama offered would have big implications for trade and commerce in America.

Presidents held a fast-track reorganizational authority for about 50 years until it ran out during Reagan's presidency in 1984, the White House argued.

Obama wants to merge: the Commerce Department's core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.

The White House says 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be cut, but the administration would do so through attrition. The administration says the consolidation would save $3 billion over 10 years by getting rid of duplicative overhead and programs, although it has yet to spell out any plan in detail.

Obama's announcement treads on ground that Romney, the Republican front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, frequently stakes out on the campaign trail. Romney often says he would try to shrink government by eliminating offices that duplicate functions performed somewhere else, citing as examples more than 80 different workforce training programs.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said streamlining government was always a potentially good idea but expressed suspicion about whether the plan by Obama would really help business. Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, pledged Obama's plan would get a careful review.

But he added: "It's interesting to see the president finally acknowledge that Washington is out of control."

Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt, Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Ken Thomas contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_trimming_government

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Friday, January 13, 2012

Ohio Amish say not guilty in beard-cutting attacks

CLEVELAND?? Twelve members of a breakaway Amish group pleaded not guilty Wednesday to beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in a feud over church discipline.

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The seven original defendants arrested in November and five more added in an indictment returned last month entered the pleas in the crowded federal courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster refused a defense appeal to release on bond the suspected ringleader, Samuel Mullet Sr., 66, and his son, Johnny Mullet, 37, from eastern Ohio.

A feud over church discipline allegedly led to five attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, which is considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.

The seven-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy, assault and evidence tampering in what prosecutors say were hate crimes motivated by religious differences.

Samuel Mullet Sr., handcuffed at the wrists and ankles, his beard reaching the V-neck of his orange jail outfit, watched from the jury box and nodded occasionally as his attorney, Ed Bryan, argued that Mullet wasn't a risk of violence or flight.

He said Mullet should be freed pending trial because he has no criminal record and has ties to the community, including scores of grandchildren.

Any suggestion that Mullet could be violent or flee "is not a legitimate fear," Bryan said.

The government said in a court filing before the arraignment that Mullet could not be trusted to appear in court when ordered and sending officers to his farm compound to get him could lead to "the risk of tragic consequences."

Because the compound doesn't have electricity, release with electronic monitoring wasn't an option, the judge said.

He set a March 19 trial date.

Women dressed in traditional Amish apparel and bonnets filled several benches in the courtroom. One wiped away tears after the arraignment and another turned aside an interview request.

The indictment also charges three other children of Mullet, a son-in-law, three nephews, the spouses of a niece and nephew and a member of the Mullet community in Bergholz.

Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to other Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

The others charged before the indictment was returned were Mullet's sons Daniel and Lester Mullet; son-in-law Emanuel Schrock; nephew Eli Miller; and community member Levi Miller.

Newly charged in the indictment were Mullet's daughter Linda Schrock; nephews Lester and Raymond Miller; Anna Miller, the wife of another nephew; and a niece's husband, Freeman Burkholder.

Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.

Amish often mete out their own internal punishment and rarely report crimes to law enforcement. Some beard-cutting victims declined to press charges earlier.

Ohio has an estimated Amish population of just under 61,000 ? second only to Pennsylvania ? with most living in rural counties south and east of Cleveland

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45961647/ns/us_news/

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Kelly Clarkson Will Sing The National Anthem At The Superbowl

Kelly Clarkson has been given the honor of singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, traditionally one of the biggest TV events around the globe and considered a huge honor for any performer to be asked. Previous singers of the anthem have included Dianna Ross, Mariah Carey and Harry Connick Jr; however for just [...]

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Rukus solar-powered Bluetooth sound system thinks you should rock more in direct sunlight

What's got Bluetooth, big solar panels and an e-ink display? Not a heck of a lot of gadgets prior to today's introduction of the Rukus portable sound system from Eton. The solar-power speaker system can stream music wirelessly from your Bluetooth devices, bumping it in style through two full-range speaker drivers. The system is powered by a solar panel (though you can also power it the old fashioned wired way, when the sun's nowhere in sight), but don't worry about reading the screen in the sunshine -- the Rukus has an e-ink display, which also helps the thing conserve a fair amount of power. Eton also says that the player is "virtually indestructible," a claim we're sure some folks will want to put to the test when it drops in Q2 for $150.

Continue reading Rukus solar-powered Bluetooth sound system thinks you should rock more in direct sunlight

Rukus solar-powered Bluetooth sound system thinks you should rock more in direct sunlight originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/rukus-solar-powered-bluetooth-sound-system/

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Bridesmaids" director picked to helm "Better Woman" (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Universal is has found another project for "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig.

The studio has enlisted Feig to direct "The Better Woman," TheWrap has confirmed.

The romantic comedy centers on a young, high-powered cosmetics executive who gets dumped by her boyfriend for an older woman. The executive then becomes obsessed with getting her boyfriend back -- and, in the process, winds up becoming friends with the older woman.

"The Better Woman" is produced by Jennifer Simpson ("Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde"), Julie Yorn ("We Bought a Zoo") and Ronald Bass ("The Joy Luck Club"). Amy Palladino ("Gilmore Girls") is writing the script, which is based on an idea by Jen Smolka and Bass.

Feig, creator of the short-lived TV show "Freaks and Geeks," had been on board to direct the third installment in the "Bridget Jones" franchise for Universal. After developing a draft of the script, he left the project in October.

The status of Universal's planned sequel to "Bridesmaids," which grossed $288 million worldwide, is unclear. While Feig has said he would direct the movie, co-writer/star Kristen Wiig and co-writer Annie Mumolo are not yet onboard. Co-star Melissa McCarthy said in a recent interview with E! that she "would never want to" return to the franchise without Wiig and Mumolo.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_bridesmaids_director_picked_helm_better_woman020806779/44126870/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/bridesmaids-director-picked-helm-better-woman-020806779.html

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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Stella C. Simmons, 91, Wesley Chapel, Florida

Simmons, Stella, 91, of Wesley Chapel, passed away peacefully on Saturday, January 7, 2012. She was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years. Survivors include her 2 daughters; Pat (Doug),& Alex; son Bob(Beverly), 5 Grandchildren & 12 great-grandchildren. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday, 10Am at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. Interment will follow at Florida National Cemetery. The family will receive friends Tuesday from 2-4PM at the Blount & Curry Carrollwood Chapel, 968-2231. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Gulfside Regional Hospice or the Humane Society of Tampa Bay in her memory.

Source: http://abcactionnews.tributes.com/show/Stella-C.-Simmons-93088251

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