Couple rescued from submerged ship Costa Concordia

The South Korean couple were rescued from the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia early on Sunday

Two passengers have been found alive on the submerged cruise ship Costa Concordia, more than 24 hours after it ran aground off the Italian coast.

The South Korean couple, who were on their honeymoon, were found in a cabin, but 40 more of the 4,000 on board are still believed to be missing.

The captain of the Costa Concordia has been detained for questioning, as police investigate why the accident happened in calm conditions.

Three people are so far confirmed dead.

Two French passengers and a Peruvian crew member died, and another 30 people were injured, two seriously.

The South Korean couple was located after rescuers heard voices from a cabin two decks down on the half-submerged ship late on Saturday, and they were reached a few hours later.

The man and woman, about 29 years old, were both said to be in good condition when they were brought ashore.

Meanwhile, divers are continuing to comb submerged parts of the ship, which is lying on its side close to a coastal island.

The vessel, which is operated by Costa Cruises, had sailed from Civitavecchia near Rome on Friday on a regular weekly Mediterranean cruise when it ran aground.

The South Korean man was brought ashore on a rescue boat, after being found with his wife

The president of Costa Cruises, Gianni Onorato, said the main task for the company was now to assist survivors and help repatriate them.

He said it was difficult to determine what had happened, but that the ship had experienced a blackout after hitting "a big rock".

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There was panic, like in a film, dishes crashing to the floor, people running, people falling down the stairs”

Fulvio RocciSurvivor

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Mr Onorato added: "We will be working in full transparency with Italian authorities" to understand the causes of the disaster.

He said normal lifeboat evacuation had become "almost impossible" because the ship had listed so quickly.

Francesco Schettino, the 52-year-old captain, had worked for Costa Cruises for 11 years.

The chief prosecutor in the city of Grosseto told reporters that Capt Schettino "very ineptly got close to Giglio", according to Italy's Ansa news agency.

A large gash can be seen in the hull of the Costa Concordia as it lies on its side about 200m (650ft) off Giglio island.

Shaken

Italian, German, French and British nationals were among the 3,200 passengers on board. There were also 1,000 crew.

Those who died include two French passengers and a Peruvian crewman.

Coast guard captain Cosimo Nicastro told Italian TV that divers had carried out an extensive search of the waters near the vessel and found no further bodies.

Some passengers were rescued by lifeboat, helicopters plucked to safety some who were trapped on the ship, and others jumped from the ship into the cold sea.

A school and private homes took in the passengers and crew. On Saturday the survivors were taken by ferries to Porto Santo Stefano on the mainland, about 25km (15 miles) away.

many arrived there still wrapped in blankets, and some were clearly very shaken by what they had endured.

Passenger Luciano Castro told Ansa news agency: "We heard a loud noise while we were at dinner as if the keel of the ship hit something."

"The ship started taking in water through the hole and began tilting."

A big search-and-rescue operation continued overnight

Some passengers told the Associated Press news agency that the crew had failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the ship.

Titanic comparisons

Another survivor, Mara Parmegiani, told Italian media there were "scenes of panic".

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Costa Concordia

• Entered service in 2006
• Built by Fincantieri in Italy at a cost of 450m euros (£372m; $570m)
• Capacity for 3,780 passengers
• 1,500 cabins, five restaurants and 13 bars
• Four swimming pools
• A 6,000 sq m (64,600 sq ft) spa with gym, sauna, Turkish bath and solarium
• Sports pitch, cinema, theatre, casino and disco

Source: Costa Cruises and cruise industry websites

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"We were very scared and freezing because it happened while we were at dinner so everyone was in evening wear.

"We definitely didn't have time to get anything else. They gave us blankets but there weren't enough," she said.

Several passengers compared the accident to the film Titanic, about the sinking of the giant ocean liner in April 1912 which claimed more than 1,500 lives.

The precise number of those who remain unaccounted for is unclear.

Late on Saturday local official Giuseppe Linardi said up to 41 people were missing.

He said some might still be housed in private homes on Giglio.

About 40 people are being treated in hospital.

"I can easily understand the comparisons to the film, how it must have been on the Titanic, or in a fiction film," passenger Francesca Sinatra said.

Some "tens" of British passengers are believed to have been on board, said the UK Foreign Office, which has sent a team to the area.

Doomsday Clock moves one minute closer to midnight

The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic gauge of nuclear danger, has moved one minute closer to midnight because of "inadequate progress" on nuclear and climate issues.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced the move - to five minutes before midnight - on Tuesday.

The clock last moved one minute back in 2010.

BAS said the failure of multiple nations to control the spread of nuclear weapons was a cause for worry.

The group, which created the clock in 1947, said that two years ago it believed world leaders were trying to address global threat issues.

"In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed," it said in a statement to explain the change.

'No return'

Jayantha Dhanapala, a member of the BAS Board of Sponsors and a former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, said that while Russia-US nuclear relations were improving, others left much to be desired.

The failure by the US, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt and Israel to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and by North Korea on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material "continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons", he said.

The potential for nuclear weapons use in regional conflicts in the Middle East, Northeast Asia and particularly in South Asia was also alarming, BAS said.

Global climate change was also an issue that needed to be addressed, according to Allison Macfarlane, a BAS Science and Security Board member.

"The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth's atmosphere," she said in a statement.

BAS called for the adoption of climate change agreements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and significantly greater investment in renewable energy sources.

The group also said that the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, caused by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, "raised significant questions" about nuclear reactor design and oversight.

The decision to change the time was made after a symposium in Washington DC.

US Marines identify 'urination' troops

Fears of 'Taliban video' backlash
At least two of four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses have been identified, a Marine Corps official has told

The video, which was posted online, purports to show four US Marines standing over the bodies of several Taliban fighters, at least one of whom is covered in blood.

The Marines have begun a criminal investigation and an internal inquiry.

US officials and Afghan officials have condemned the video as "deplorable".

The origin of the video is not known, but it was originally posted to YouTube.

 the official would not confirm the Marines' whereabouts, but news reports suggested the unit involved was based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina - a major military base.

A US Marines spokesman, Lt Col Joseph Plenzler, told the AFP news agency that "we cannot release the name of the unit at this time since the incident is being investigated.

'Total dismay'

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta condemned the acts shown in the video and vowed a full investigation would be carried out by the Marines and the Kabul-based International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

In a statement, Mr Panetta said he had seen the footage, and the Pentagon confirmed that he had spoken by telephone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Karzai condemned the attacks in strong terms.

"I find the behaviour depicted in it utterly deplorable. This conduct is entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military," he said.

In a separate news conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her "total dismay" at the video.

Mrs Clinton said she shared Mr Panetta's view that such behaviour was inconsistent with the standards the "that vast, vast majority of our personnel - particularly our marines - hold themselves to".

The video did not change the tone of US efforts to secure Afghanistan, she said, saying the US continued to support security and reconciliation efforts that were "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

Tentative moves are being made towards peace in the country, ahead of the planned withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.

The US has about 20,000 Marines deployed in Afghanistan, based mostly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. In total, about 90,000 US troops are on the ground in Afghanistan.

The Taliban said last week that they were working to set up a political office, possibly in Qatar, that would help to facilitate negotiations with the Afghan government and Nato countries.

Syria's Bashar al-Assad blames 'foreign conspiracy'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: "Nobody can deny the seriousness of these plots"

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed a foreign conspiracy for trying to destabilise Syria, as a mass uprising against his rule continues.

The "external conspiracy is clear to everybody", Mr Assad said in his first public remarks in months.

He said elections could be held later this year but "terrorism", he added, would be met with an "iron fist".

Meanwhile the Arab League said it held the government "totally responsible" for attacks against its observers.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi denounced "irresponsible action and acts of violence against the league's observers" in Syria.

Mr Arabi said some monitors had been wounded in attacks by both pro-regime elements and by opposition supporters.

Earlier, Kuwait's state news agency said two Kuwaiti members of the mission had been slightly injured on Monday in the city of Latakia by "unidentified protesters".

They were discharged from hospital and have now returned to their duties, Kuna news agency said.

'No order to fire'

President Assad's speech, broadcast live from Damascus University, was his third televised address since protests against his rule began in March, and lasted nearly two hours.

"Regional and international sides have tried to destabilise the country," he said.

"Our priority now is to regain the security in which we basked in for decades, and this can only be achieved by hitting the terrorists with an iron fist.

"We will not be lenient with those who work with outsiders against the country."

the speech was a riposte to those who are asking questions about the pressure under which Mr Assad is operating.

It was a message that there will be no concessions and its main theme was that nothing is going to change as far as the Syrian response is concerned, our correspondent says.

The UN said last month that more than 5,000 civilians had been killed since protests began in March last year.

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I rule with the will of the people. If I give up power, I will do so with the will of the people too”

President Bashar al-Assad

Syrian authorities say they are fighting armed groups, and that about 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed so far.

In recent months, army deserters have joined the opposition and targeted government forces.

A team of 165 monitors from the Arab League has been in Syria since December to monitor implementation of a peace plan that calls for an end to all violence, the removal of heavy weapons from cities and the release of all political prisoners.

Opposition groups have accused the Arab League mission of serving to cover up the crackdown on the protests, which has continued despite the presence of the observers.

Mr Assad said that there were no orders for security forces to fire on protesters.

"There is no order from any level about opening fire on any citizen. According to the law, nobody should open fire - only in self-defence or during a clash with an armed person."

Reacting to the speech, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, said Mr Assad's emphasis on restoring order "means he is backing away from his own pledge to the Arab League plan".

Anti-government protests have continued despite a heavy crackdown against them

Mr Ghalioun said the anti-terrorist measures announced by Mr Assad "undercut any Arab or non-Arab initiative to find a political solution to the crisis".

The Local Co-ordination Committees, a network of anti-government activists, said 35 protesters had been killed on Tuesday, including 17 in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour.

The UN says 400 people have been killed by security forces since the start of the observer mission. Last month the UN put the death toll since March at 5,000.

'No snap reforms'

In his speech, Mr Assad lashed out at the Arab League, which suspended Syria in November and imposed sanctions, saying: "We were surprised Arabs did not stand with Syria".

He said Arab countries that opposed Syria were under outside pressure, which was undermining their sovereignty.

But, he added, Syria would not "close its doors" to an Arab solution as long as "it respects Syria's sovereignty".

There were no obstacles to a multi-party system, he said, adding that it was a question of time.

Mr Assad said he welcomed the idea of expanding the government to include "all political forces".

A referendum on a new constitution could be held in March, he said, paving the way for elections in May or June.

Syria is ruled by the Baath party, dominated by President Assad's family and the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

He took power in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 40 years.

"I rule with the will of the people," he said. "If I give up power, I will do so with the will of the people too."

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Alien hunters: Searching for life

Experts at the SETI institute are attempting to find funding amid closures of their facilities

The hunt for signals from intelligent extraterrestrials has been in full swing for half a century. But the effort's flagship facility recently came to a grinding halt. The first of a two-part series on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) takes a look at the facility and what it means for Seti's future.

"It's never been this bad."

Seth Shostak, principal astronomer for the Seti Institute, is trying the door of an outbuilding at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA). Like all the others, it is locked.

"There's always been at least one or two people around who can let you in."

The group of 42 antennas is, as the flyer posted nearby advises, "in the process of being returned to operations". Last April, there wasn't enough money in the Seti coffers to pay the staff, and the facility shut down.

A funding drive raised money from Seti enthusiasts including former astronaut Bill Anders, sci-fi author Larry Niven, and even Hollywood actress Jodie Foster. But it's only enough to keep going for a few months.

"Since 1993, Seti has had to run on private donations from people who think this is an interesting thing to do," Seth tells me.

"I remain confident that we'll find the money to make this a permanent operation. After all, you're not going to find ET unless you have the telescope operational."

Blind valley

But even if the telescope is operational, will the effort find ET? Ask Seth or his colleagues, and you'll get the same answer: it's a long shot. It may take years, or decades, or centuries to pick up a signal.

The Allen Array is now partly used by the US Air Force, who are helping to financially support it

We humans have only been on the radio for about a century, and listening for cosmic signals for half of that. That is an infinitesimal slice of time in the 13 billion years that our Universe has been around.

Yet, we are probably closer, at least philosophically, than we have ever been to answering the timeless question of whether we are alone.

Fifty years ago, all we had was the Drake equation - a string of factors that, multiplied together, yielded a guess of how many ETs might be out there, phoning our home.

Many of those factors were a matter of complete guesswork in the early 1960s: the rate of star formation in the galaxy, how many stars may host planets, how many of those planets could potentially support life.

Today, some of those factors are being solidly quantified thanks to results from the Kepler space telescope, which is discovering far-flung planets - some potentially hospitable to life- at an astonishing rate.

And where once there were single radio dishes listening in on single frequencies - single radio stations - improvements in the electronics behind the scenes make it possible to sift through literally millions of stations automatically.

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If you're the lucky one that finds ET, you get the Nobel prize”

Dan WerthimerUC Berkeley and Seti@home

So Frank Drake, the originator of the equation, says it is a terrible time for Seti and the ATA to be experiencing what he calls a "valley".

"After many years of quite a lot of action, the economic troubles of the world have had a great impact," he told BBC News.

"There are very few searches going on in the world, despite the fact that at the present time we have far better equipment than we've ever had."

Seti does have its economical ways and means, however. As with other areas of science that require vast computing power, there is the seti@home screen saver - which sends signals from the Arecibo radio telescope to millions of volunteers around the world.

"Everybody gets a different part of the sky to analyse, and it wakes up like any other screen saver when you go out for a cup of coffee," says Dan Werthimer, director of the Seti programme at the University of California Berkeley and a Seti@home pioneer.

"It goes through the [Arecibo data] looking for all kinds of possible radio signals. Any strong signals it finds, it sends back to our server at Berkeley. Your name is attached to that data, so if you're the lucky one that finds ET, you get the Nobel prize."

Other things are changing the nature of the hunt, too.

Radio is one good way to squash energy into a signal carried across the cosmos. But another is the laser, which can focus a lot of energy, or information, into a lighthouse-like beam.

Enter "optical Seti" - a hunt using good old-fashioned optical telescopes to look for laser lighthouses in the cosmos - one of the eight types of seti that berkely carries out.

"We think the best strategy is a variety of strategies," Dan tells me. "It's really hard to guess what an advanced civilisation might do."

DNA message

Back at the ATA, we find a technician who lives nearby to drop off the keys so we can head inside the control room.

Seth tells me that his take is that we should be looking for signs of artificial intelligence, as well as squishy "biological" aliens.

The autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners we have now are just a harbinger of the truly advanced intelligence he thinks will soon be developed.

The Arecibo radio telescope sends millions of signals to Seti@home volunteers worldwide

And if any advanced civilisation can invent its technological successor, these "thinking machines" could carry on searching the cosmos long after their biological forebears are gone.

But it gets even more intriguing. Paul Davies of the Beyond Center at Arizona State University has proposed not looking for aliens but looking for footprints of alien technology, such as waste from their nuclear energy technology. And he has other ideas.

"The one that most intrigues me is the possibility that the aliens may have engaged in some kind of biotechnology - if they had come to Earth and tinkered with terrestrial micro-organisms, or even made their own from scratch, the products of that could still be around."

In other words, if aliens came through our neck of the woods long before we were here to see them, they may have left deliberate clues tucked in the DNA of microbes that have faithfully copied the message for millions of years.

Prof Davies reckons that, since we're sequencing the DNA of life of all sorts anyway, we should keep an eye out for this kind of "message in a bottle".

Powerful question

But as the locked doors of the Allen Telescope Array remind me, all of this does take money.

Those at the Seti Institute argue that the $2m (£1.3m) a year or so that the wider Seti effort requires is a drop in the ocean compared to military spending.

Jill tells me that she spends a lot of her time trying to organise a foundation that can fund the effort far into the future - not just money to keep telescopes turning, but also to pay the next generation of Seti scientists.

What is clear, though, is that the Seti effort speaks to something far deeper than the politics and the money issues that occasionally put it in the spotlight.

"Calibrating our place in the cosmos is something that's important for humans to do, to really get a better sense of where we came from and where we're going, and I think that's part of the Seti story," she tells me.

"That question 'are we alone?' hasn't lost any of its impact and its emotive power, even though it's been asked for millennia."

Volkswagen sells record 5.1 million cars in 2011

 

Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, has announced record car sales for last year.

The German firm sold 5.1 million cars worldwide in 2011, a rise of 13.1% on the previous year.

Europe and China were the company's biggest markets, with 1.72 million cars sold in each.

VW said that new versions of models such as the Passat, Jetta and Beetle, had made "an excellent start in difficult market conditions".

It added that it expects conditions to remain challenging in 2012.

The carmaker recorded strong growth across all of its regions, with the exception of South America, where sales rose by just 2.2%.

"Volkswagen Group [is] forecast to maintain its fast growth rate," according to the consultancy firm KPMG's annual survey of 200 executives in the global motor industry.

Some 70% of the respondents said Volkswagen would gain, with only 4% saying they doubted it.

In addition to the Volkswagen brand, the Group owns a string of subsidiaries, ranging from luxury marques such as Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley, to brands such as Audi, Skoda and Seat.