Three die amid panic as cruise ship wrecked in Italy

(Reuters) - Passengers leapt into the sea and fought over lifejackets in panic when an Italian cruise ship ran aground and keeled over, killing at least three and leaving dozens missing.

In the chaotic aftermath of the Friday evening accident near the island of Giglio off the coast of Tuscany, Italian officials could still not say how many of the 4,229 passengers and crew on board the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia were missing.

"I was sure I was going to die. We were in the lifeboats for two hours, crying and holding on to each other," said Antonietta Sintolli, 65, breaking down in tears as she recounted the event.

"People were trying to steal life jackets from each other. We could only gets ones for children."

An official involved in the rescue operation said two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were dead. Around 70 people were injured, at least two seriously.

Authorities opened a criminal investigation for possible manslaughter and Italian news agencies reported that the ship's commander, Francesco Schettino had been detained by police.

The vessel's operator, Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp & Plc, the world's largest cruise operator, said it had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock. In a television interview, the ship's commander said the rock was not marked on any maritime charts of the area.

However it remained unclear how the 290 metre-long ship had been able to run aground in calm waters so close to the shore.

"We'll be able to say at the end of the investigation. It would be premature to speculate on this," said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.

The vessel was left capsized on its side in water 15-20 meters deep, with decks partly submerged, not far from the shore. A large gash was visible on its side.

CONFUSION

Officials said the search would continue overnight although darkness and the cold seas would make the work difficult.

Different officials gave varying estimates of the number of missing, with some talking of as many as 70 but there remained considerable uncertainty over how many were really missing and how many had simply not been counted in the confusion.

"We are not sure of the numbers, we cannot exclude that some people are missing, in fact it is very probable," said Ennio Aquilini, head of the fire service rescue operation.

"It could be 10, 20 up to 40 but I cannot give anything more precise. There is a possibility that no one is missing."

Passengers had just sat down to dinner, a few hours after leaving the port of Civitavecchia near Rome on a week-long cruise to Barcelona and Majorca, when a loud bang interrupted the piano player and the ship began to list.

"We heard a loud rumble, the glasses and plates fell from the tables, the ship tilted and the light went off," said passenger Luciano Castro.

"What followed was scenes of panic; people screaming, running around the place, close to us a five-month pregnant young woman was crying and panicking."

The ship, a vast floating resort with spas, theatres, swimming pools, a casino and discotheque, was carrying mainly Italian passengers, but also many foreigners including British, Germans, French, Spanish and Americans. Many were elderly; some were in wheelchairs.

Passengers crowded into lifeboats, but the mainly Asian staff, few of them able to speak Italian, struggled to bring order to the evacuation.

"It was complete panic. People were behaving like animals. We had to wait too long in the lifeboats," said 47-year-old Patrizia Perilli.

"We thought we wouldn't make it. I saw the lighthouse but I knew I couldn't swim that far but lots of people threw themselves into the sea. I think they are some of the dead."

Angel Holgado, 50, a guitarist who had been performing when the ship foundered, said he got into a lifeboat but decided to abandon it after it became dangerously overcrowded.

"There was terrible panic and fear and I jumped into the water and swam to the shore," he said.

SUBMERGED ROCK

Officials said rescue efforts were continuing on Saturday after a night-time operation involving helicopters, ships and lifeboats. The picturesque harbour of Porto Santo Stefano was lined with ambulances and green tents for the victims.

"We have about 40 men at work and we're expecting specialist diving teams to arrive to check all the interior spaces of the ship," said fire services spokesman Luca Cari.

"We don't rule out the possibility that more people will be lost," he said.

Officials said however there was confusion over the numbers of missing and on identifying all the passengers transferred from Giglio to Porto Santo Stefano on the mainland.

"To have a more precise idea we are still waiting for a full list of the people identified in Porto Santo Stefano to make a comparison with the passenger list," said Giuseppe Linardi, police chief in the nearby town of Grosseto.

Passengers were heavily critical of the response by the crew and said they had been left with no information.

"After approximately 20 minutes a voice told us there was a problem with the electricity that they were trying to fix," said Luciano Castro.

"The ship continued to tilt further, after 15 minutes they said again it was a problem with the electricity, but no one believed it," he said adding that once the evacuation began, the increasing tilt of the ship made the operation more difficult.

"Of course panic makes things worse and the crew members struggled in calming down the most active and worried passengers," he said.

The ship was built in 2004-2005 at a cost of 450 million euros at the Fincantieri Sestri shipyard in Italy.

Read More

At least 436 dead after storm pummels Philippines

Manila, Philippines (CNN) -- At least 436 people are dead after Tropical Storm Washi pummeled the Philippines, Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang said Saturday.

The vast majority of the bodies were found in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, according to military officials and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Five people were killed in a landslide, but all others died in flash flooding.

The provinces of Compostela Valley and Zamboanga del Norte were also hit, added Benito Ramos, chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

About 400 people remain missing after the storm, which is called Sendong locally. More than 2,000 have been rescued, the country's military reported.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said officials are investigating reports that an entire village was swept away.

Authorities have also begun distributing food rations for some 10,000 families affected by the storm, while also handing out thousands of blankets and mosquito nets, the Red Cross reported Saturday.

Flash flooding overnight -- following 10 hours of rain -- fueled the devastation, compounded by overflowing rivers and tributaries. As much as 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain fell within 24 hours in some areas.

Ramos said despite government warning, some did not evacuate.

An estimated 100,000 people are displaced, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

At least 20,000 people were staying in 10 evacuation centers in Cagayan de Oro, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said Saturday.

Some 20,000 soldiers embarked on search-and-rescue operations, the military said.

Officials asked for volunteers to pack food to send to those displaced.

Though Washi was headed away from the Philippines on Saturday, trouble could loom for Vietnam, as the storm's westerly path could cross Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

Read More

Suspect in slaying of Charice's father surrenders

Three days after he started evading the police, the suspected killer of international singing sensation Charice's father, Ricky Pempengco, has surrendered to the authorities.

ANC posted on its account (@ancalerts) that Angel "Capili Jr, the suspect is now being brought to Camp Crame to be turned over to Laguna PNP which has jurisdiction over the case."

Pempengco, who allegedly had an altercation with Capili, was stabbed to death Monday in San Pedro, Laguna.

On Wednesday, the authorities raised the reward to P200,000 from P100,000 for anyone who could give information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect.

In a report by “Umagang Kay Ganda (UKG),” the Pempengco family has opened the wake to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m at the Divine Mercy Chapel, Muntinlupa City. First to visit were Charice’s fans collectively known as “Chasters" who condoled with their internationally-acclaimed idol.

One of them was Kenji Chua who told “UH” that, “Lahat ng Chaster, nagkaisa ngayon para makiramay sa pagdadalamhati ng pamilyang Pempengco especially kay Charice at kay Mommy Raquel.”

Pempengco will be laid to rest in the afternoon of Nov. 5 at the Pasture of Heaven Memorial Park in Cabuyao, Laguna.

‘Forgive my husband’

In an abs-cbnNEWS.com report on Nov. 2, Capili’s wife, Wilma appealed to Charice and the Pempengco family to forgive her husband.

"Patawarin niyo po sana kung ano man ang nagawa ng asawa ko. Kapag sumuko na asawa ko sana hindi niyo hatulan ng kung anong kalaki-laking...isusuko ko rin yun kapag nagkaroon ng komunikasyon. Patawarin nyo na po. Alam ko pong masakit ang nangyari sa ama niyo. Huwag niyo naman i-shoot to kill ang gawin sa asawa ko, susuko rin po yun, di naman mamatay tao yun eh," said she.

The suspect’s wife insisted that her husband is a good person and that there may be a probability that he wasn’t the one who started the alleged fist fight which led to the killing of Pempengco.

"Baka ho naunahan lang ho yun. Baka di naman siya totally ang nanguna. Di ba ho kung kayo ang naunahan, di ba ho kayo gaganti?" she asked.

She said she has yet to talk to her husband.

Read More

Thai flood frustration grows

(Reuters) - Thai authorities tried to stem growing anger among flood victims on Tuesday as water swamped new neighborhoods and the government began mapping out a plan costing billions of dollars to prevent a repeat disaster and secure investor confidence.

The floods began in July and have devastated large parts of the central Chao Phraya river basin, killed nearly 400 people and disrupted the lives of more than two million.

Inner Bangkok, protected by a network of dikes and sandbag walls, survived peak tides on the weekend and remains mostly dry.

But large volumes of water are sliding across the land to the north, east and west of the city, trying to reach the sea and being diverted by the city centre's defenses into new suburbs as they recede in others.

In the northeastern city neighborhood of Sam Wa, angry residents demanded the opening of a sluice gate to let water out of their community. Residents jostled with police on Monday and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered that the gate be opened by a meter (three feet).

But city authorities warned that the flow through the gate could move via a major canal into large parts of the city which are now dry.

"We are opposed to it but the government has ordered the BMA to open the gate, so more water will come," said Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) spokesman Jate Sopitpongstorn.

"It could reach the Bang Chan industrial estate. We have to see the consequences," he told Reuters, adding that residents of the area had been told to be on alert.

Yingluck's government and the Bangkok authority represent opposing factions in Thailand's strife-plagued politics.

An expert from the government flood management team played down the danger to inner Bangkok of opening the sluice gate, saying the flow was relatively small compared with the amount coming in through leaks in the city's dikes.

"Inner Bangkok is not so much an issue," said academic Anon Sanitiwong Na Ayutthaya. "At least we know what to do, it's just a matter of time to fix the leaks."

The disaster has been the first big test for the government of Yingluck, the younger sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

Yingluck, a political novice, took over this year after an election that many Thais hoped would heal divisions that triggered street violence last year.

Saving central Bangkok from a ruinous flood would be an important victory. The city's 12 million people account for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product.

But prolonged misery in outlying areas and heavily flooded provinces to the north would take the gloss off any victory for Yingluck, especially given a perception that those areas have been sacrificed to save the capital.

To the north of Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya provinces have been largely inundated for weeks, along with seven industrial estates that have sprung up over the last two decades on what used to be the central plain's rice fields.

"BE PREPARED"

People eked out a living in the flooded provinces on Tuesday with women cooking over gas stoves in the shade of plastic sheets strung up over pick-up trucks while men in their underwear cast fishing nets into water covering roads.

Cars, trucks and taxis were bumper to bumper for about 20 km (12 miles) on an elevated road out of Bangkok, parked and abandoned safely above the murky tide.

The cabinet met to work out a recovery plan that one cabinet minister said this week could cost up to $30 billion, including an overhaul of the water-management system and rehabilitation of industrial estates.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittirat Na Ranong said the government would need to borrow "hundreds of billions of baht" to recover and prevent a repeat of disaster during the annual rainy season.

"Any investor, ambassador, I talk to, they never ask how high the floodwaters are but what will Thailand actually do to prevent this from happening again," Kittirat told reporters.

The government would invite experts from inside and outside the country to help draw up the plan and he would approach the Asian Development Bank to discuss financing.

"We have to be prepared for the future," Kittirat said. "Preparation and the prevention of floods and drought is something we must start to do now."

Yingluck said on Monday she had assured Japanese investors there would be no repeat of the disaster. The government expects it will take three months to get the flooded industrial estates back on their feet.

Thailand is the second-largest exporter of computer hard drives and global prices are rising because of a flood-related shortage of major components used in personal computers.

Thailand is also Southeast Asia's main auto-parts maker and Japan's Honda Motor Co said car production could be difficult in the second half of its business year ending in March. Its Ayutthaya plant has suspended work indefinitely.

The Bank of Thailand has nearly halved its projection of economic growth this year to 2.6 percent from July's 4.1 percent estimate, and said the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- would shrink by 1.9 percent in the December quarter from the previous three months due to the floods.

Headline inflation rose to 4.19 percent in October from 4.03 percent the previous month as the flooding pushed up some prices but the central bank said the rises were temporary and it would focus on longer-term factors in setting policy.

The floods submerged four million acres (1.6 million ha), an area roughly the size of Kuwait, and destroyed 25 percent of the main rice crop in the world's largest rice exporter.

The deluge was caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain but the weather has been mostly clear for the past week. The BMA said 2,245 mm (more than seven feet) of rain had fallen this year to the end of October, 40.8 percent above average. ($1=30.75 baht)

Read More

Charice's father stabbed to death

Ricky Pempengco, who is separated from Charice's mom, Raquel, was stabbed in A. Bonifacio Road, Barangay Laram, San Pedro, Laguna.

Charice and father Ricky Pempengco

A police report said Pempengco was in a drinking session and then left to buy a cigarette.

The suspect, Angel Capili Jr., approached him and stabbed him with an ice pick.

Pempengco was able to walk away and then sit on a pavement, but the suspect went back for him and stabbed him again.

The 12-inch ice pick pierced through Pempengco's body, killing him. The suspect quickly left the scene.

Authorities said Pempengco might have survived the stabbing had barangay officials been able to rush him to the hospital.

Pempengco's drinking buddies didn't help him since they were afraid of getting hurt.

Police said that in 2005, Pempengco quarreled with Capili.

Raquel cries over estranged husband's death

Charice's mother burst into tears after she found out that her children's biological father was killed in a stabbing incident.

In an exclusive interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com, Raquel said she had been unaware of Ricky's death.

She said Charice still does not know about the tragedy.

"Hindi ko alam. Hindi ko alam ang nangyari. Si Charice, hindi pa din niya alam," said Raquel, crying.

Asked if she will go to Ricky's wake, Raquel said: "Hindi ko pa talaga alam, nabigla kami."

Troubled marriage

Ricky was once described by Raquel as a violent husband. She also has a son Carl by Ricky.

Raquel left Ricky years ago, bringing along her kids.

Raquel said she had not communicated with Ricky for a long time.

"Hindi kami nagkausap at wala kaming koneksyon," she said.

Asked if she has already forgiven him, Raquel replied: "Matagal ko na siyang napatawad."

"Kung bakit masakit pa din sa akin at kung mayroon pa din bang love para sa kanya, siyempre ama siya ng mga anak ko," she added.

In 2008, a drama about Charice's life was shown on Maalaala Mo Kaya's episode "Ice Cream."

Read More

Gadhafi's death should be probed, U.N. agency says

According to CNN Joe Sterling, the circumstances of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's death are "unclear" and need to be investigated, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday.

"More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture," the agency said.

"There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died. As you are aware, there are at least two cell-phone videos, one showing him alive and one showing him dead. Taken together, these videos are very disturbing."

The agency said it's important that "justice is done" to bring "closure on the legacy of Gaddafi's 42-year despotic rule, and on the bloody conflict this year." It said "human rights must be the cornerstone of all policies and actions" in a new Libya.

"The thousands of victims who suffered loss of life, disappearance, torture and other serious human rights violations since the conflict broke out in February 2011, as well as those who suffered human rights violations throughout Gadhafi's long rule, have the right to know the truth, to see the culture of impunity brought to an end, and to receive reparations," the office said.

"In order to turn the page on the legacy of decades of systematic violations of human rights, it will be essential for alleged perpetrators to be brought before trials, which adhere to international standards for fair trial, and for victims to see that accountability has been achieved."

Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's transitional prime minister, said Gadhafi was captured alive and unharmed on Thursday as troops from the National Transitional Council overran his hometown of Sirte. But a gunbattle erupted between transitional council fighters and Gadhafi's supporters as his captors attempted to load him into a vehicle, Jibril said, leaving Gadhafi with a wound to his right arm.

More shooting erupted as the vehicle drove away, and Gadhafi -- overthrown in August -- was hit in the head, Jibril said, Gadhafi died moments before arriving at a hospital in Misrata, Jibril said, citing the city's coroner.

Amnesty International urged the NTC "to make public" the "full facts" on Gadhafi's death.

"It is essential to conduct a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish whether Colonel Gadhafi was killed during combat or after he was captured," the group said on Thursday.

Amnesty urged the NTC "to ensure that all those suspected of human rights abuses and war crimes" get humane treatment and are given fair trials if captured. That includes Gadhafi's family members and his inner circle.

Read More

Raj Rajaratnam sentenced to 11 years for hedge-fund insider trading scheme

Galleon Group LLC’s Raj Rajaratnam is sentenced to 11 years on Thursday for masterminding the biggest hedge-fund insider trading scheme in U.S. history, that stretched from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.

U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell in Manhattan presided over the jury trial in which Rajaratnam was convicted of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. It was the stiffest sentence ever given for trading in the stock market using confidential corporate information.

The longest insider-trading sentence before Galleon was 10 years, given to former Credit Suisse Group AG banker Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, who was convicted in 2008 of leading a $7.8 million scheme.

Sri Lankan born Rajaratnam's rapid flight to billionaire hedge fund chief was undone with the arrest of a former Atherton resident who became a federal informant.

The informant, Roomy Khan, had been caught faxing confidential information to Galleon in 1998 when she worked at Intel. She pleaded guilty in 2002. Caught again in 2007, Khan agreed to cooperate in an investigation of Galleon. 

Rajaratnam, 54, was at the center of a seven- year conspiracy to trade on inside information from corporate executives, bankers, consultants, traders and directors of public companies.

He is fined $10 million and was also ordered to forfeit $53.8 million in illegal profits by the U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell, his "crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated." Said Howell.

In court papers, the government urged Holwell to make an example of Rajaratnam, saying he "represents the worst of illegal insider trading." Prosecutors compared him to Enron Corp.'s Jeffrey Skilling and WorldCom Inc.'s Bernard Ebbers, convicted in what prosecutors called "the worst of accounting frauds," and Bernard Madoff, the man behind history's biggest Ponzi scheme.

Rajaratnam's lawyer has asked for leniency based on medical conditions he said would be life-threatening if he's sent to prison.

Also caught up in the case Danielle Chiesi, the former beauty queen turned stock trader sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for her role in the biggest insider-dealing case in decades. She pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud arising from an insider trading scheme.

Chiesi, 45, was the former confidante of hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon hedge fund.

Alan Kaufman, her lawyer, argued that Chiesi, said she was the victim of a "toxic" sexual relationship with Mark Kurland, her former boss and lover at trader New Castle Partners.

Chiesi was the 10th person to be sentenced after an insider-dealing investigation that has secured 46 guilty pleas and convictions.

The investigation caught many prominent valley figures. Among them were Anil Kumar, of Saratoga, a McKinsey & Co. executive who gave Rajaratnam a tip about an Advanced Micro Devices acquisition; Rajiv Goel, of Los Altos, an Intel executive who furnished advance word on Intel's earnings and an acquisition of broadband company Clearwire; and Ali Harari, of San Jose, an Atheros Communications executive who was accused of divulging confidential information. Richard Choo-Beng Lee and Ali Far, who ran the short-lived Spherix hedge fund in San Jose.

Read More