Strong earthquake hits off Antarctica's coast
A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday off the coast of Antarctica, prompting a warning that there was a "small possibility" it could trigger a tsunami.
The tremor was centered in waters south of South America's southern tip, about 334 miles (539 kilometers) west of Coronation Island and 388 miles northeast of Palmer Station in Antarctica, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
It hit at 9:40 a.m. local time (8:40 a.m. ET) on Sunday, according to the federal agency, and had an estimated depth of 6.2 miles.
Afterward, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center released a statement saying that there appears to be no threat of "destructive widespread tsunami" because of the quake.
But the agency did state "there is a small possibility of a local or regional tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than a few hundred kilometers from the earthquake epicenter.
"Authorities in the region near the epicenter should be made aware of this possibility," the warning center added.
Cruise ship rescue operations suspended for now
The search for survivors and victims aboard the partially sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia was temporarily suspended Monday because the vessel began to move, said the mayor of the nearby island of Giglio, Sergio Ortelli.
The cruise ship hit rocks and rolled onto its side over the weekend, leaving at least six people dead.
Its owner is due to speak to the media Monday morning, and may clear up questions about what caused the disaster.
Divers had been searching the skyscraper-sized ship, working underwater in pitch blackness, in hopes of finding about 16 people still missing after the wreck. There were roughly 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia when it ran aground Friday evening off Giglio.
The disaster will cost its owner $85 million to $95 million in the fiscal year to November, parent company Carnival Corporation said Monday.
The captain of the ill-fated cruise ship may have made "significant" errors that led to wreck, the cruise line said late Sunday.
"The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and the captain's judgment in handling the emergency appears to have not followed standard Costa procedures," Costa Cruises said in a statement.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, was detained Saturday for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers were still on board, chief prosecutor Francesco Verusio told Italy's ANSA state news agency.
Schettino joined Costa Cruises as a safety officer in 2002 before being appointed captain four years later, the company said.
First officer Ciro Ambrosio was being detained for questioning on similar charges, prosecutor Verusio said.
Even with its admission that mistakes were made, the Genoa-based cruise company -- whose parent firm, Carnival Corp., did not respond Sunday to requests from CNN for more information -- defended the ship's crew in the face of criticism.
"It is becoming clear that the crew of the Costa Concordia acted bravely and swiftly to help evacuate more than 4,000 individuals during a very challenging situation," the company said, adding all crew members are trained and the passengers earlier took part in an evacuation drill.
Survivors have described the scene -- after the ship hit rocks near Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany, and turned over on its side -- as "chaos."
"It was just battling, mad scrambles," American student Brandon Warrick said of the fight to board lifeboats, describing it as "a giant every man for himself."
His sister Amanda said she feared she was going to die as they waited for up to two hours for rescue.
"Waiting was definitely the worst. Because we didn't know who was going to be coming, how much longer we would have to wait," she said.
Authorities have said at least 20 were injured due to the incident, in addition to those killed.
That death toll includes two elderly people whose bodies were found, with their life jackets on, near one of the ship's restaurants, Italian Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Cosimo Nicastro told reporters Sunday.
Hours earlier, crews rescued a ship employee trapped in a ship restaurant.
The man -- an Italian purser whose name was not released -- was suffering from hypothermia when rescue crews found him, said Commander Filippo Marini, a spokesman for the Port Authority of Porto Santo Stefano.
Earlier Sunday, before the two bodies were found, Giglio Mayor Sergio Ortelli said at least six ship workers and 11 passengers still had not been located.
Authorities are reviewing passenger lists to confirm the exact number of missing people, said Giuseppe Orsina, a spokesman with the local civil protection agency. Many of those rescued in the early hours were taken to small churches and other buildings around the island for shelter. Some were still wearing the pajamas and slippers they had on as the ship went down.
"These people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals," Orsina said.
The U.S. Embassy in Italy, on its Twitter feed, said two of the 120 Americans who were aboard the ship still had not been accounted for. It was not clear Sunday as to the nationalities of other missing people, with CNN affiliates having reported Italians, Peruvians, Brazilians, French and Britons were all represented on the ship.
All 109 Russians on board have been accounted for, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced late Sunday.
There were fears the death toll could rise as rescuers searched the ship, which was nearly 50% submerged and had a gash in its hull, authorities said.
Questions and criticism continue about what caused the shipwreck and the adequacy of the response.
Speaking on Italian television, the ship's captain insisted the rocks that the Concordia hit were not marked on his map.
"On the nautical chart, it was marked just as water," Schettino said, adding that the ship was about 300 meters from shore.
But Nicastro, the Coast Guard spokesman, insisted that the waters where the ship ran aground were well-mapped. Local fishermen say the island coast of Giglio is known for its rocky sea floor.
"Every danger in this area is on the nautical chart," Nicastro said. "This is a place were a lot of people come for diving and sailing. ... All the dangers are known."
He said the Coast Guard was investigating why the ship took the course it did.
"We know where the ship was," he said. "We know it was too close to the island. ... We don't know why."
Italian prosecutors seized the ship's data recorders Saturday, and expect to analyze them within days. Costa Cruses said Sunday that it can only access that information with authorities' permission.
Built in 2006, the Concordia had been on a Mediterranean cruise from Rome with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo.
The ship was carrying about 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew members when it ran aground and began taking on water Friday night.
The crew kept going because they believed the vessel could continue sailing normally, said Nicastro, the Coast Guard spokesman. Realizing there was a significant safety problem, the commander steered the Costa Concordia closer toward the port of Giglio, he said.
Authorities are looking at why the ship didn't send a mayday during the accident.
Besides the two elderly people, the dead include two French tourists and a crew member from Peru, port authorities in Livorno said. One of the victims was a 65-year-old woman who died of a heart attack, authorities said.
Pakistan PM Gilani faces Supreme Court contempt order
Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a contempt order against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, raising the prospect of his prosecution.
The court has been considering what to do about the government's refusal to reopen corruption cases against the president and other political figures.
Mr Gilani has been ordered to appear in person at the court on 19 January.
It comes on a day of several crucial challenges for the government amid ongoing tensions with the army.
A key vote of confidence in Pakistan's political leadership is scheduled to be held later in parliament.
And another court hearing into a controversial anonymous memo which asked for US help to avert an army coup in Pakistan, in the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, has also resumed.
Correspondents say that Mr Gilani can continue as prime minister while court proceedings take place. If contempt proceedings go ahead and he is found guilty, he could be automatically disqualified from holding public office.
At the heart of the court's complaint is the government's refusal to act on a court order quashing a controversial amnesty, which had protected the country's senior politicians from corruption prosecutions.
One of the cases at stake is against Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari - the government insists he has immunity from prosecution as president.
But the deadline for the government to reopen the corruption cases expired on Monday and government representatives were summoned to court to explain what they planned to do.
"The Supreme Court has issued a contempt of court notice to the prime minister for not complying with its orders," AFP news agency reported judge Nasir-ul-Mulk as telling the court.
The order comes at a time of intense political uncertainty, with the government at loggerheads with country's powerful military as well as the judiciary.
The government's stand-off with the military escalated sharply last week when the army publicly rebuked Mr Gilani warning of "potentially grievous consequences" after he criticised army leaders in a media interview and sacked his defence secretary.
Pakistan has suffered three military coups since independence in 1947 but analysts believe the army has little appetite for a coup in this instance.
Republican primaries: Jon Huntsman 'to end bid'
Jon Huntsman is to end his campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination, US press reports say.
He finished third in last week's New Hampshire primary and had been struggling ahead of this week's South Carolina primary.
Mr Huntsman had hoped for an upset in New Hampshire but polled only 16.9%.
He will announce his withdrawal later on Monday and endorse front-runner Mitt Romney, said campaign officials quoted by AP.
Primaries and caucuses will be held in every US state over the next few months to vote on a Republican candidate before the eventual winner is crowned at the party convention in August.
Low ratings
Mr Huntsman, 51, is a former governor of Utah and served as President Barack Obama's first ambassador to China.
A fluent Chinese speaker, in the early 1990s he became the youngest head of a US diplomatic mission for a century when he was appointed ambassador in Singapore.
But his campaign for the Republican nomination failed to gain momentum, hardly registering in national opinions polls with only 1% or 2%.
His withdrawal comes after he gained the endorsement of South Carolina's largest newspaper The State, which said that he and Mr Romney were the "two sensible, experienced grown-ups in the race'', but that Mr Huntsman was "more principled" and offered "a significantly more important message''.
TV debates
Mr Romney won nearly 40% of the New Hampshire vote last Tuesday, but faces a stern test in South Carolina this week.
The staunchly Republican state has a history of backing the eventual nominee in its primary.
Mr Huntsman's exit will leave Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as the three main candidates chasing Mr Romney's lead.
After his handsome win in New Hampshire, Mr Romney is more vulnerable in socially moderate South Carolina, and his Mormon faith may be a disadvantage among the many evangelical and other conservative Christians in the state.
Televised debates will be held on Monday and Thursday, before the primary vote on Saturday.
Three Parties Win Seats in Kazakhstan Parliament
Three political parties will enter Kazakhstan's parliament, where every seat is currently held by the ruling party.
Election results released Monday give the pro-business Ak Zhol party and the largely pro-government Communist People's Party at least seven percent of the vote each.
Under Kazakhstan's new election law, the second-place finisher automatically gets seats. But any party that gets at least seven percent of the vote also wins seats.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party won about 80 percent of the vote.
Mr. Nazarbayev calls his party's huge win a sign of stability and support for his government.
European election monitors issued their preliminary report Monday saying the Sunday elections failed to meet basic democratic principles.
Sunday's elections were held a month after a protest by laid-off government oil workers in the town of Zhanaozen turned violent, leaving at least 15 people dead. Authorities in the town originally cancelled voting, but President Nazarbayev ordered it to be held as scheduled.
Such anti-government violence is rare in Kazakhstan, where despite a lack of free speech and human rights, the country's oil wealth has brought a higher standard of living than in most other Central Asian former Soviet states.
Mr. Nazarbayev has been Kazakhstan's only president since it gained independence in 1991.
Brady, Patriots look better than ever in win over Broncos
Before Saturday night, New England hadn't won a playoff game in four years. From the looks of what the Patriots put on display against Denver, they're not going to have to wait four years before winning another.
Playing the most dominant playoff game in franchise history -- which is saying something, considering this was their 18th postseason win -- New England bolted to a 35-point lead after 35 minutes and obliterated the outmanned Broncos 45-10 at Gillette Stadium in an AFC divisional playoff game. The victory sets up the Patriots' sixth AFC Championship Game appearance in Bill Belichick's 12 years as coach. New England, 4-1 in the previous five title games, will host the winner of Sunday's Houston-Baltimore game next Sunday here.
After watching Tom Brady riddle the Broncos for a league-playoff-record-tying six touchdown passes, and after watching the embattled Patriot defense embarrass Tim Tebow and the Broncos, you've got to think New England's got as good a chance to win the Super Bowl this year as in 2007. That's the year the Patriots went 16-0, then advanced to the Super Bowl with 11- and nine-point playoff wins. New England went 13-3 and earned the AFC's top seed this year as in 2007 -- but the Patriots are playing better late in this season than they were in the 16-0 year.
"Tom was on fire, man,'' said tight end Rob Gronkowski, who caught three touchdown passes on a 10-reception, 145-yard night. "That's just how he is. And obviously, you can't start a game any better than we did.''
It took only nine minutes to burst any hopes Denver had. That's how long it took Brady to go 80 yards in five plays, capped by a lasered seven-yard TD pass to Wes Welker, and a seven-play, 59-yard drive ending in a 10-yard TD pass to Gronkowski. The Patriots scored six touchdowns in the first nine possessions, putting America to sleep early in the third quarter.
Brady has never been better in the postseason, setting a franchise record with 363 passing yards and the six touchdowns. He did it by running an uptempo offense that the Broncos never got used to. "We knew they were going to up-tempo it,'' said cornerback Champ Bailey. "If you're not ready to punch him in the mouth, he's going to eat you up all night.''
The storyline all week was Tebow, and Time, GQ, The New Yorker and People had correspondents on hand to document the most unlikely story of the NFL season -- Tebow taking over the 1-4 Broncos in October and driving them to a division title and a playoff upset of Pittsburgh. At the team hotel Saturday morning, Denver coach John Fox said his message to the Broncos, heavy underdogs to New England, was simple this week: "There's a Cinderella in the NFL playoffs every year. Why not us? Why not now?''
But the only thing this night had in common with the eight glorious games that ended in Tebow victories was a purple-shirted Tebow spending time with a 20-year-old brain-injury victim, Zach McLeod of suburban Boston, and McLeod's family. That's a tradition that Tebow has established this season, hosting a person with some malady at all of his games, spending a few minutes before and after the games with them. That was about the only thing that brought a smile to the face of anyone associated with the Broncos on a very bad football night. For the game, Tebow was 9 of 26 with three drops, for 136 yards and no interceptions or touchdowns. He was sacked five times and harassed all night.
"He's our guy,'' said safety Rahim Moore. "I believe in him and would like him to be our quarterback.''
The likelihood is Tebow will enter the offseason with the starting job, and club president John Elway will bring in a quarterback to eventually challenge him.
The advantage for Tebow will be that he'll have a normal offseason -- with minicamps and practices with Denver's first offensive units that he hasn't had in either of his two offseasons as a pro. The question will be whether offensive coordinator Mike McCoy will be able to improve Tebow's accuracy to the point where he can be an effective NFL starter. This game showed the huge gap between Tebow and Brady.
Then again, this game showed a gap between Brady and almost every quarterback in football. If he plays like this, with his tight ends and Welker such big weapons, the Patriots are going to be a very tough out in the conference title game and beyond.
Usain Bolt will make his first appearance of the year in Oslo in June
Usain Bolt will make his first international appearance of the year at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 7 June.
The triple Olympic champion will run in the 100 metres at the event, which takes place six weeks before the 2012 Olympics gets underway.
Before that he plans to run at least three training races in Jamaica starting next month.
"My preparations have been good this fall [autumn], 2012 is going to be a great year!" he said in a statement.
"I am injury free, working hard and everything is going according to plan.
"There is only around six weeks to go to the London Olympics after this race and there is no doubt it will be surrounded by an enormous amount of interest.
Bolt, currently the 100m and 200m world record holder, will take part in races in Kingston at the Camperdown Classic on 11 February, the Gibson Relays on 25 Feb and the UWI Invitational on 17 March.
He is expected to run the 400m at the events to gauge his fitness, with his first sprint race likely to come at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston on 5 May.
The 25-year-old broke his first world record in 2004 when he beat the previous World Junior 200m record with a time of 19.93 seconds.
He then broke both the 100m and 200m world records at the 2008 Beijing Olympics running the 100m in just 9.69secs and the 200m in 19.30secs.
He bettered both of those times a year later at the World Championships in Berlin. The 100m record now stands at 9.58secs, while the 200m record is 19.19secs.
The Jamaican has already declared that he wants to try and become a "legend" at London 2012 by winning four gold medals.
Clippers beat Lakers 102-94 behind 33 by Paul
The Los Angeles Clippers showed they could beat the Lakers even with Kobe Bryant going over the 40-point mark for the fourth consecutive game.
Chris Paul scored 33 points, Blake Griffin had 22 points and 14 rebounds, and the Clippers led all the way in winning 102-94 on Saturday night, their second victory in four days over one of the NBA's elite teams.
"It's early. We're not going to get too high with these wins," Paul said. "We definitely made strides in the right direction defensively and with rebounding. We got to make that habit and not a one-time thing."
Chauncey Billups added 19 points, former Laker Caron Butler had 13 points and DeAndre Jordan had 10 rebounds for the Clippers, who beat Miami 95-89 in overtime on Wednesday and have won five of their last six.
Paul limped off after hitting a jumper in the final minutes and said after the game that he hurt his left leg and would see a doctor.
Griffin said he wasn't concerned with the doubters who wonder if the Clippers may finally shed their reputation as perennial losers.
"It's definitely going to take time if we're going to remove that label," he said. "We don't care. We're worried about this year."
Paul, Billups and Butler - all added before the season began - are paying early dividends. Paul, who had 27 points against the Heat, was originally headed to the Lakers from New Orleans until Commissioner David Stern nixed the deal.
"They couldn't guard him," Billups said of Paul. "Coming off the pick-and-rolls, he was unstoppable. His shot was on point and he really caused them a lot of problems."
The Clippers controlled the boards 50-42, including a 17-11 edge on the offensive glass, despite being the league's worst rebounding team playing against the league's best.
"We talked about how they focused on the glass and they just did a terrific job on the boards," Bryant said. "Seventeen offensive rebounds is a lot of offensive rebounds. That's the area that really killed us. We did a pretty good job defensively in holding them to a low shooting percentage, but 17 offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points, that's tough to deal with."
Bryant notched his fourth straight game of 40 or more points but the Lakers had their five-game winning streak snapped by their Staples Center co-tenants, who beat them twice in the preseason. Bryant was 14 of 28 and made 12 of 14 free throws. He had 42 against Cleveland on Friday, 48 against Phoenix on Tuesday and 40 at Utah on Thursday.
"When a player of that caliber is looking to shoot that many times, he's going to make shots," Griffin said.
The Lakers got no closer than five points early in the fourth quarter as the visiting team. Bryant broke out for 21 points in the third, but he was limited to 10 in the fourth against the Clippers' double teams.
"Kobe got going and we came with some different coverages on him," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "He hit some tough shots, but I thought overall we controlled the tempo of the game in the fourth quarter, which was one of the big keys for us."
Derek Fisher had no luck in containing Paul and the 37-year-old Lakers guard didn't return until there were 4 minutes left in the game.
"We didn't do a good job as a team on him," Bryant said. "We were short in our pick-and-roll coverage and let Chris kind of split us, mess around with the ball, dribble through the lane and do all the stuff that we're not supposed to let him do."
Billups and Paul hit consecutive 3-pointers to help the Clippers extend their lead to 67-53 midway through the third.
Bryant took over from there, scoring 17 of the Lakers' final 19 points of the quarter to close to 76-72. He began and ended the spurt with 3-pointers and in between hit 7 of 8 free throws while the Clippers were held to nine points over the final 5 minutes.
"I was just getting in spots to be effective and I was hitting my mid-range jumpers," Bryant said. "We were struggling and it just seemed like we were kind of dead in the water. I didn't get us off to a good start at all. I took the responsibility to try and generate some energy and try to get us back in the game. We were able to do that, but they made two big 3s to stretch it back out."
The Clippers' biggest first-half lead was 55-42 at the break. They outshot and outrebounded the Lakers, who were better in the paint.
The Lakers twice closed within three points in the second quarter, but the Clippers outscored them 16-6 to end the period, with Billups, Paul and Griffin combining for 14 points.
The Clippers opened the game on a 13-4 run, then outscored the Lakers 13-9 to lead after the first quarter. Things got chippy in the final 12 seconds when Darius Morris went up for a basket after Paul was whistled for a foul and Griffin pushed off him with both hands as Morris came down.
"We knew it was going to be a grind and get chippy," Jordan said.
Lakers coach Mike Brown got incensed and was called for a technical, while nothing was called on Griffin. Morris had the last word, though, when he sank a jumper from before the half-court line at the buzzer as Paul tried to cut him off. Metta World Peace and Grififin also had technical in the game.
SI
Barbados beat Jamaica by 62 runs
Dwayne Smith blasted a memorable, boundary-studded 86 to set up a comfortable win for Barbados by 62 runs against Jamaica that lifted them to the top of the standings in Group B of the Caribbean Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground on Saturday night.
Living up to his reputation as one of the most dangerous hitters in the game, opener Smith smashed seven fours and six sixes in his breath-taking knock, which led Barbados to 157 for seven off 20 overs after they won the toss.
The dominance of Smith was underlined by that fact that the next best score of 18 not out off nine balls came from veteran all-rounder Ryan Hinds, who slammed two consecutive sixes off pacer Andre Russell in the final over of the innings.
Smith was third out in the 16th over, pulling a short ball from leg-spinner Nkrumah Bonner into the hands of backward square on the boundary in Krishmar Santokie.
Left-arm pacer Santokie took two for 27 and left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, two for 27.
Jamaica lost wickets early and steadily and after ten overs were tottering on 45 for five before being bowled out for 95 in 16.5 overs.
Several of the Jamaica batsmen were caught in the deep as Barbados fielded and caught brilliantly.
Opener Bonner topscored with 27 off 31 balls.
Tino Best again bowled fast and hostile to finish with two for 17. Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn picked up two for 24 and off-spinner Ashley Nurse, two for 30.
The win was the second for Barbados in as many matches, pushing them to eight points – the same as Jamaica who have played three matches.
Barbados also boast of a healthy Net Run Rate of +4.273 compared with Jamaica’s -0.113. (CMC)
Volleyball Teams To Compete Abroad
The Bermuda Junior National Volleyball Teams are headed off to the northern regions of the U.S. to heat things up on the court.
The Girls team will be travelling to Hartford, Connecticut where they will participate in the 2012 WinterFest Volleyball Tournament, which will include hundreds of teams from all over the US.
Head Coach, Donna Smith and Assistant Coach, Stacey Madeiros-Cooke will lead Captain Khianda Pearman, Michaela Eberly, Kristyn Dale, Jade Weaver, Melissa Fiddick, Amber Lopes, Ariel Kaplen, Ciara Rego, Eden Smith, and Kyla Sinclair.
The Boys team will be competing at the CAN-AM Volleyball Tournament in Rochester, New York, where they will face teams from Canada and the US. There are nearly 80 teams in the competition, with 28 teams in the under 18 division, in which the boys will be playing in.
Head Coach, Bill Bucci and Assistant Coach, Mark Hamilton will lead Captain Daniel Fiddick, Joshua Malpas, Tiago Ferreira, Adrian Faries, Eron Woods, Kyle Hamilton, Keiran Hamilton, Brandon Sousa, Nicholas Coelho, Luke Parker, Chas Smith and Kazim Muhammad
Both teams have been training and hope to see another success following their Bronze and Silver medals at the ECVA Tournaments in St. Martin and Anguilla in the Summer of 2011.