[An Nahar] Six passengers of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast if Italia two weeks ago, are suing Carnival Cruise Lines, demanding compensation totaling $460 million.
Carnival is the parent company of Costa Cruise Lines, which owns Costa Concordia.
Attorney Marc Bern, who represents the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit had been filed in a Miami, Florida, court on Friday, alleging wanton recklessness on the part of the ship operator.
The Costa Concordia had 4,229 people aboard including about 1,000 personnel when it ran aground near Giglio, a picturesque island off Tuscany that is part of a nature reserve known to swimmers and divers for its clear waters.
The official toll from the disaster stands at 16 dead, of whom 14 have been identified, and another 16 missing.
Since the disaster, several consumer associations have announced their intention to bring a class action against Costa Cruise Lines.
On Friday, negotiators announced in Italia that some 3,000 survivors of the ship wreck will receive 11,000 euros ($14,400) each plus expenses as compensation.
Bern said the suit had been filed despite the cruise line's offer to pay passengers who have returned home more than $14,000 each -- and predicted more legal action in the future.
"Over the next two weeks there will be more lawsuits filed in Miami," he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
...A couple other articles I've seen suggest that because of Italian law - and Costa Concordia was an Italian ship - they will have to file in Italy...which requires you to post a 10% bond when you file a lawsuit. I'm sure these nice folks can come up with $4.6M USD in cash...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2012 8:03 Comments ||
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#2
I bet Carnival has set up their registrations and subsidiaries etc. such that it will be very difficult to win a major lawsuit against them. But maybe because there are 4000 people involved it will help - I know from personal experience it is virtually impossible to fight a corporation in Delaware while residing in Louisiana, and this incident ought to be even harder.
#3
And the contract has a clause limiting damages to $71,000/person.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/29/2012 12:48 Comments ||
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I bet Carnival has set up their registrations and subsidiaries etc. such that it will be very difficult to win a major lawsuit against them.
S.O.P. in the maritime world is that the Costa Concordia would be the sole asset of a limited liability corporation, separate from but majority-owned by Costa Cruise Lines.
Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said it adopted on Saturday a new electoral law on the basis of which the North African country will form its first constituent assembly in June.
The law, announced on the NTC's Facebook page, scraps a draft proposal that would have reserved 10 percent of seats on the 200-member General National Congress for women, in a move criticized by women's and rights groups.
The law also stipulates that two-thirds of the congress be made up of candidates from political groups, with the rest going to independent members.
NTC member Mukhtar al-Jaddal confirmed the adoption of the electoral law.
"The NTC adopted the electoral law. The new law has abandoned the 10 percent quota reserved for women" that was proposed in the draft version of the law, Jaddal told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The NTC said on its Facebook page that the adopted law calls for 136 seats of the assembly to go to candidates of political parties and the remaining 64 seats to be held by independents.
It also said that each political party must have equal numbers of men and women in their lists of candidates for the 136 seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually, this could be a better way. Reserving a percent of a parliament for any group is a bad idea, because it gives people a license to legislate with little or no support.
What they did, requiring political parties to have an equal slate of men and women candidates is a much better choice. Especially because women have been enfranchised in Libya since the early 1960s, which became much more popular with the ascendancy of Qaddafi.
This likely means that there is no great bias against women holding office, except by hardcore Islamists, and they might actually do *better* than 10% in the election.
[Pak Daily Times] Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... 's opposition called on Saturday for more 'resistance' against President Abdoulaye Wade, after a night of riots over his plans to run for a third term in elections next month.
Local media reported that one policeman was killed during the riots, in which protesters threw rocks, overturned cars and burned tyres and security forces fired tear gas, raising worries of growing instability in West Africa's most peaceful nation. Calm had returned to the capital Dakar by morning and security boosted around the presidential palace. Truckloads of police in full riot gear patrolled the city, armed with tear gas grenade launchers, according to a Rooters witness.
"We are asking the people to remain alert and to resist Abdoulaye Wade," Abdoul Aziz Diop, the front man for opposition activist movement M23 told Rooters by telephone on Saturday. "If Wade tries to impose himself on us ... we will resist." He said that opposition figures and activist leaders were meeting on Saturday to discuss their next steps.
The festivities came after Senegal's top legal body late on Friday night validated the candidacy of 85-year-old Wade and 13 rivals for the Feb. 26 vote, but turned down the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N'Dour, saying he did not have the required 10,000 signatures of support. Wade's rivals say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. But Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.
Wade appeared on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
late on Friday and made an appeal for calm, promising elections would be free and fair. "Stop these displays of petulance which will lead to nothing," he said. "The electoral campaign will be open. There will be no restrictions on freedom." Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February's poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as a test of social cohesion in the predominantly Moslem country.
Critics say that Wade, who spent 26 years in opposition to Socialist rule, has done nothing during his 12 years in power to alleviate poverty in a country where formal employment is scarce, and has dragged his heels on tackling official graft. Wade points to spending on education and infrastructure projects such as roadbuilding as proof of progress towards turning Senegal into an emerging market country and a trade hub.
His candidacy has raised eyebrows abroad. The senior US State Department official for Africa, William Fitzgerald, told French RFI radio that Wade's candidacy was "a bit regrettable". Rival presidential hopeful Amsatou Sow Sidibe called on Wade to withdraw his candidacy voluntarily. "Peace and tranquility in Senegal depends on it," she told.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] At least 50 people, including a politician, were hurt during a clash between Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... activists and employees of Rangpur Medical College Hospital in the northern city yesterday over the politician's "demand" for jobs for his men.
Five truckload of stick-wielding Jatiya Party activists led by politician Hossain Mokbul Shahriar Asif, nephew of JP chief HM Ershad, went to Rangpur Medical College Hospital to demand 30 class-III and class-IV jobs for his party men around 12:30pm, sources and witnesses said.
This did not go well with the employees of the hospital and they set up a barricade between the JP activists and the hospital director's office. A clash ensued and law enforcers had to fire 40 teargas canisters and use truncheons to dispel the feuding sides.
This did not go well with the employees of the hospital and they set up a barricade between the JP activists and the hospital director's office. A clash ensued and law enforcers had to fire 40 teargas canisters and use truncheons to dispel the feuding sides.
Lawmaker Asif, eight journalists and seven coppers were among the injured, said Altaf Hossain, officer-in-charge of Rangpur Police Station. Of the injured, Asif with head injuries and a police sub-inspector were admitted to the very hospital while others received first aid.
Witnesses said the MP along with his party workers and followers went to the hospital to demand the jobs for JP men. After the initial clash at the barricade, employees of the hospital unitedly put up a resistance.
Around 1:30pm the JP activists tried to move towards the hospital again but police lobbed around 40 rounds of tear shells and charged truncheons on the JP activists and the hospital employees.
Officer-in-Charge Altaf Hossain said they tossed in the clink Abu Bakar Siddique, the son of an employee of the hospital, in connection with attacking the politician.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment... Rangpur Medical College Hospital Director Toufiqul Islam told The Daily Star that Asif demanded 30 jobs for his men and as he refused, the MP and his men went to his office to assault him. He denied any irregularities in the appointments of the class-III and class-IV employees.
Lawmaker Asif refused to make any comment on the incident.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... JP Presidium member Moshiur Rahman Ranga and the party's Rangpur secretary general Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa denied allegations made by the hospital director. They too refused to comment on yesterday's incident.
Convener of class-III and class-IV employees union of the hospital Mafizul Haque said Jatiya Party leaders and activists demanded jobs in the hospital and mounted pressure on the director which led to an altercation between them and resulted in yesterday's clash.
The hospital authorities held exams on December 10 last year to appoint 186 class-III and -IV employees. The result was published two weeks later and their interviews were taken in December and January. It is now appointing the selected candidates.
On January 19 leaders of Rangpur Medical College Hospital Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... unit and on January 25 Awami League Rangpur unit locked the director's office demanding jobs for their men, sources claimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2012 00:00 ||
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Hasan Küçük, Hague councilor for the Islam Democrats, says dogs should be banned as pets in the city, reports De Telegraaf. The Muslim party says that the animals belong in nature, not inside the house. Küçük says that keeping dogs is animal abuse and should therefore be criminalized.
He responded sharply during a council debate last Thursday, when the Party for Animals suggested more consideration for dogs.
They're both nuts. 'Party for Animals'? Does Fido get a vote in this?
But as Joseph Mendiola might say, I ain't got no dog in this fight. Rwwf.
Paul ter Linden (PVV councillor) responded saying that pets are the norm in the Netherlands, and whoever disagrees should move to another country.
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar: Allah's Apostle ordered that the dogs should be killed.
From Abu Dawud #2839
Abd Allah B. Mughaffal reported the apostle of Allah as saying: Were dogs not a species of creature I should command that they all be killed; but kill every pure black one.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/29/2012 7:21 Comments ||
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Muslims in the Netherlands don't realize yet that every time they open their yap these days it is a recruiting pitch for Geert Wilders Party For Freedom.
#4
Well in an actual catch and release program, they usually trunk the subject out into the far end of some park, reservation, or BLM parcel before opening the back door and 'prodding' them out. Having to trek back for a couple days through the wilderness would probably alter a few behavioral issues.
Israel's current coalition government is one of its most stable in decades, and the next scheduled national poll is nearly two years off. Yet election fever has gripped the country and some believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quietly preparing to call for an early vote, perhaps in the middle of this year.
The two biggest political parties - Netanyahu's conservative Likud and its main rival, the centrist Kadima - recently announced that they would hold primaries to select leaders whose names would be on the next election ballot.
The left-leaning Labor Party held a leadership convention in September. And this month, popular TV news anchor Yair Lapid promised to shake up the status quo, saying he would compete for prime minister as head of a new party.
In a country where the prime minister's average term in recent decades has been shorter than three years and most governments collapse prematurely, some believe that Netanyahu, who took office in 2009, will seek to capitalize on his improving popularity by securing another term before the U.S. presidential election in November.
Netanyahu and President Barack Obama have had several high-profile clashes over Israel's continued settlement construction on land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War. In recent months, the White House has scaled back pressure, probably out of concern that such moves might anger Jewish and evangelical Christian voters in the United States and provide Obama's Republican challengers with ammunition.
HT to Weasel Zippers. Especially for the schadenfreudy-good note of the day
While a sale of the company is not likely, Bloomberg has a dark bottom line amid some optimism about the digital future and reduced debt: "The company has lost more than 80 percent of its market value from a high of about $8.5 billion in 1999 to its current value of $1.18 billion. It has not paid dividends to shareholders for the past three years."
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2012 15:58 ||
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2big2fail? Certainly true as long as Carlos Slim is around...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2012 17:59 Comments ||
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And remember: their public class A shares have no voting rights. The company is controlled by the owners of the class B shares, and Pinchy (and family) own all those.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2012 18:00 Comments ||
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#4
yep - but that "investment" is like owning a boat. No returns, and depreciating at a climbing rate. I would personally like to see Pinch and his family whoring on the streets of NY. It's not like that's new to them
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2012 18:13 Comments ||
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"I would personally like to see Pinch and his family whoring on the streets of NY."
I thought they already were.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/29/2012 18:45 Comments ||
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There is the real 1 percent and it isn't even registered as a Trunk or Tea Party.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Six passengers of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the coast if 
