Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Rather than take the holiday off, churchgoers, neighbors and volunteers from across the city gathered at a Bronx soup kitchen Monday for a day of service to honor slain civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


Friendly banter and belly laughs filled the basement of the Caldwell Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in Morrisania as about 30 do-gooders of every age and race slathered mayonnaise on ham-and-cheese sandwiches and worked to clean up, paint and renovate the modest space.


“I come here to help out every week because I know what it feels like to be hungry,” said church member Dennis Kirby, 59, wielding a broom. “Dr. King wanted to see people come together for a good cause - and here we are. It feels like a blessing to me.”


The Caldwell Temple soup kitchen - open every Saturday and every other Wednesday - caters to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country.


In his 1964 Nobel Lecture, King challenged the world to end hunger. But today more than one in five Bronx households has trouble putting food on the table, according to a recent survey.


“Martin Luther King stood for helping everybody,” said Crystelle Slappy, 14, a volunteer who trekked to the church from Queens Village, Queens. “Some people don’t have money to eat.”


King - who would have turned 83 on Sunday - with a day of service. At left, Christy Wong (left) of San Jose and Louise Johnson of San Francisco attend a celebration of the civil rights leader's life at the YerbaBuena Center for the Arts.


Around the nation: In South Carolina and Atlanta, voters' rights messages take center stage at holiday events. A5


Bay Area: Several hundred people commemorate 1965 civil rights marches with a trek through San Francisco. C1

Carnival and cruise sector count cost of disaster

Older people, and families with young children, often choose to go on cruises because they are undoubtedly one of the safest, and most comfortable, ways to see the world. White-gloved stewards fuss over passengers, who are offered endless rounds of lobster tail and mojitos, and every imaginable form of entertainment from casinos and live music to history lessons and cooking classes.


However, the grounding of the  Costa Concordia, 100 metres off the Italian island of Giglio, and the chaotic evacuation of its 4,200 passengers, raises serious questions about the safety, training and rigour in the industry. That the captain, Francisco Schettino, allegedly abandoned the 114,500-tonne, six-year-old vessel, and is now in detention for sailing off course without authorization, is worrying enough.


More troubling is the very fact that a ship of this magnitude, sailing in well-charted waters, could hit a rock, and that there were delays in the evacuation. Even the most basic precautions may not have been taken. There are reports that the ship only held safety drills every 15 days, so that not all passengers underwent a safety drill before the vessel embarked. If so, they were not briefed about the location of lifeboat muster stations and life jackets – basic and vital precautions.


Carnival had already warned in December that it had lowered its prices for 2012 cruises because of weaker demand in Europe as the euro zone crisis took its toll.


Shares in Carnival were down 16.5 percent to 1,856 pence by the close of trading, knocking nearly 700 million pounds off the company's value. Rival Royal Caribbean Cruises' (RCL.OL) (RCL.N) Oslo-listed shares ended the day down 7.7 percent.


Carnival said the Costa Concordia is expected to be out of service for at least the remainder of its financial year.


"For the fiscal year ending November 30, the impact to 2012 earnings for loss of use is expected to be approximately $85-$95 million or $0.11-$0.12 per share."


That impact is from loss of use of the ship alone and does not take into account the likely impact on bookings. Carnival said it anticipated further costs to the business that it was too early to determine.


Costa Concordia is insured for 405 million euros by insurers including XL (XL.N), RSA (RSA.L) and Generali (GASI.MI), with specialist marine insurers providing extra cover for potential injury claims, industry sources said.


An RSA spokesperson said the company's exposure to the disaster was below 10 million euros, while a spokesperson for Generali said the impact on the company would be small. XL could not immediately be reached.


Market expectations for Carnival's earnings before interest and tax EBIT.L currently range between $2.36 billion and $2.64 billion with the average at $2.47 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 11 analysts. The average forecast for earnings per shares stands at $2.67.


Carnival and Royal Caribbean account for around three-quarters of the global market.


Europe's two biggest travel companies by sales, TUI Travel (TT.L) and Thomas Cook (TCG.L), also have sizeable cruise ship businesses. Shares in TUI Travel were up 3.2 percent to 166.9 pence with Thomas Cook unchanged at 15.25 pence.


Global demand for cruises almost doubled from 9.7 million passengers in 2000 to 18.8 million in 2010 and the industry generates annual revenue of over 35 billion eurosin Europe alone.


Carnival's Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison said the company was prioritising the safety of its passengers and crew.


"We are deeply saddened by this tragic event and our hearts go out to everyone affected by the grounding of the Costa Concordia and especially to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives."


Rescue workers searching the ship for missing passengers and crew recovered a sixth body on Monday.


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Divers blast holes in Italy ship to speed rescue

Italian naval divers on Tuesday used explosives to blow holes in the hull of a cruise ship grounded off a Tuscan island to speed the search for 29 missing people. One official said there was still a "glimmer of hope" that survivors could be found.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, prepared to question the captain, who is accused of causing the wreck that left at least six dead and abandoning the  Costa Concordia  before all 4,200 people on board were safely evacuated when the vessel capsized Friday night.


The divers set four microcharges above and below the surface of the water, Busonero said. Television footage showed one hole above the waterline to be less than 6 feet in diameter.
A stricken Italian cruise liner shifted on its rocky resting place as worsening weather disrupted an increasingly despairing hunt for survivors and authorities almost doubled their estimate of the number of missing people to 29.


The missing appear to include a group of Germans, two Americans and six Italians. Family members have identified the Americans as Jerry Heil, 69, and his wife Barbara, 70, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Italian Coast Guard official Marco Brusco said Tuesday there was still "a glimmer of hope" survivors could still be found on parts of the vast cruise liner not yet searched. The last survivor, a crewman who had broken his leg, was rescued Sunday.


The ship is carrying some 500,000 gallons of fuel on board. To date there's been no word of any leaks, but choppy waters that slightly shifted the wreckage on Monday escalated fears of one and suspended rescue operations for several hours.


The ship's operator, Costa Crociere SpA, has enlisted one of the world's leading salvagers, Smit of Rotterdam, Netherlands, to handle the removal of the 1,000-foot cruise liner and extract the fuel safely.


The cruise operator has said Capt. Francesco Schettino strayed from the ship's authorized course into waters too close to the perilous reef. The navigational version of a "fly by" was apparently a favor to the chief waiter who is from Giglio and whose parents live on the island, local media reported.


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Ron Paul: The Great Contrarian

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (CNN) – Six days before South Carolina's presidential primary, Ron Paul scored one of the most sought-after political blessings in the state.


On Sunday, state Sen. Tom Davis endorsed the Texas congressman in Myrtle Beach. Davis is a rising star in Republican circles and a highly regarded fiscal conservative who holds sway over many tea party activists.


Tune in Thursday at 8 p.m. ET for the CNN/Southern Republican Presidential Debate hosted by John King and follow it on Twitter at #CNNDebate. For real-time coverage of the South Carolina primary, go to CNNPolitics.com and on the CNN apps for iPhone, iPad, Android or other phones.




Paul himself told CNN the nod would bring "a lot of attention for me."


In a packed hotel conference room at a Paul campaign event, Davis stepped onto a stage in front of a few hundred Paul loyalists and explained why he would support Paul over his rivals in the GOP presidential race.


Paul, who is distinguished among the Republican field for having amassed his war chest in small contributions from plain folks, is the kind of candidate who gives people hope that our electoral politics can change for the better. That big money will not always dominate, and that the people can unseat the establishment favorites if they muster enough votes. That every vote counts more than every corporate contribution or massive donation by an individual.


The problem with Paul is that his contrarianism often goes too far even for those who sympathize with him. In Paul’s worldview, the U.S. isn’t merely more hesitant to be engaged globally; it is nearly disengaged. He wants the U.S. to pull out of the United Nations.


Paul also aspires to eliminate no fewer than five cabinet departments within the federal government. And the Federal Reserve System to boot. Not reform, mind you. Extirpate. To enact even half of Paul’s to-do list would turn this country on its head.


He has also denounced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on the grounds that it violated the Constitution. With opinions like this, Paul shows symptoms of that malady in which an ideology — in his case, libertarianism — sometimes disables the faculty of common sense.


Long after Mitt Romney is nominated as the GOP candidate, and after the outcome of a Romney vs. Obama matchup is known, will come the analysis of this presidential campaign. We’ll know who funneled the money to achieve the result, and what spoils they reaped in reward. And it won’t make any of us feel good about the health of our democracy.


If Romney fails to unseat Obama, look for the Ron Paul insurgency within the GOP to grow. And where that could take the party is anybody’s guess.