Uncle: Pistorius Is 'Numb With Shock as Well as Grief'












Oscar Pistorius is "numb with shock as well as grief" his uncle told reporters Saturday as the Olympian amputee spent his second night behind bars in a South African jail for the allegedly killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.


"All of us saw at firsthand how close [Steenkamp] had become to Oscar during that time and how happy they were," he said. "They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," said Pistorius' uncle Arnold Pistorius.


The 26-year-old athlete, known as the "blade runner" because of the carbon-fiber blades he runs on, was charged Friday with premeditated murder.


Pistorius' family is "battling to come to terms with Oscar being charged with murder," Arnold Pistorius said, and still believe "there is no substance to the allegation."


Oscar Pistorius is suspected of shooting Steenkamp, 29, four times with a handgun early Thursday morning at his home in a gated community in Pretoria.


PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged with Murder


Prosecutors dismissed the reports that Pistorious mistook her for an intruder.


If convicted, Pistorius could face at least 25 years in jail.


According to South African newspaper Beeld, Steenkamp was killed nearly two hours after police were called to Pistorius' home to respond to reports of an argument at the complex.


Police said they have responded to disputes at the sprinter's residence before, but did not say whether or not Steenkamp was involved.






Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images; Mike Holmes/The Herald/Gallo Images/Getty Images











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Oscar Pistorius Murder Charges: Is He Capable of Killing? Watch Video





A memorial service for Steenkamp will be held in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday evening, reported SABC. Her body will be flown back for the service before being cremated, her family said.


"Her future has been cut short...I dare say she's with the angels," said Mike Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's uncle.


Producers of the South African reality show Steenkamp competed in said the series will still premiere Saturday night on SABC as planned, but will now include a special tribute to the slain law school graduate whose modeling career was starting to take off.


RELATED: Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar Pistorius Girlfriend, Saw Self as 'Brainy, Blonde, Bombshell'


"This is the only time that you see the real Reeva," executive producer and director of "Tropka Island of Treasure" Samantha Moon told "Good Morning America." "She was kind and sweet and?so hard working.


"They will see the girl that we loved."


Meanwhile, the sprinter's sponsors ? including Nike, BT, Theirry Mugler, Oakley and Ossur, the Icelandic company that manufactures the prosthetic blades Pistorius races on ? are acting cautiously as the athlete awaits his bail hearing on Tuesday.


M-Net movies, a subscription-funded South African television channel has already pulled their ad campaign featuring Pistorius, tweeting, "Out of respect & sympathy to the bereaved, M-Net will be pulling its entire Oscar campaign featuring Oscar Pistorius with immediate effect."


Nike, who's ad featuring the double-amputee reads "I am the bullet in the chamber," released a statement saying the company is "continuing the monitor the situation closely."


Still, the athlete's' friends and colleagues said the murder charges have yet to sink in.


"When I heard, I was in shock and I'm just still trying to process it," Jamaican gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt told the Associated Press Friday night after the NBA All-Star celebrity game in Houston, Tex.


"I would just like to say, I have dated Oscar on and off for 5 YEARS, NOT ONCE has he EVER lifted a finger to me, made me fear for my life," his ex-girlfriend Jenna Edkins tweeted on Friday.


ABC News' Colleen Curry contributed to this report.



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Bomb kills 64 in Pakistan's Quetta


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Sixty-four people including school children died on Saturday in a bomb attack carried out by extremists from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority, police said.


A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni group, claimed responsibility for the bomb in Quetta, which caused casualties in the town's main bazaar, a school and a computer center. Police said most of the victims were Shi'ites.


Burned school bags and books were strewn around.


"The explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device fitted to a motorcycle," said Wazir Khan Nasir, deputy inspector general of police in Quetta.


"This is a continuation of terrorism against Shi'ites."


"I saw many bodies of women and children," said an eyewitness at a hospital. "At least a dozen people were burned to death by the blast."


Most Western intelligence agencies have regarded the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda as the gravest threat to nuclear-armed Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally.


But Pakistani law enforcement officials say Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has become a formidable force.


TENSIONS


Last month the group said it carried out a bombing in Quetta that killed nearly 100 people, one of Pakistan's worst sectarian attacks. Thousands of Shi'ites protested in several cities after that attack.


Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist groups, led by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, have escalated their bombings and shootings of Shi'ites to trigger violence that would pave the way for a Sunni theocracy in U.S.-allied Pakistan.


More than 400 Shi'ites were killed in Pakistan last year, many by hitmen or bombs, and the perpetrators are almost never caught. Some hardline Shi'ite groups have hit back by killing Sunni clerics.


The growing sectarian violence has hurt the credibility of the government, which has already faced criticism ahead of elections due in May for its inability to tackle corruption and economic stagnation.


The schism between Sunnis and Shi'ites developed after the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 when his followers could not agree on a successor.


Emotions over the issue are highly potent even today, pushing some countries, including Iraq five years ago, to the brink of civil war.


Pakistan is nowhere near that stage but officials worry that Sunni extremist groups have succeeded in dramatically ratcheting up tensions and provoking revenge attacks in their bid to destabilize the country.


(Reporting by Jibran Ahmed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Stephen Powell)



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Tennis: Combative Nadal takes aim at ATP management






SAO PAULO: Rafael Nadal, back in action after a seven-month knee injury absence, is blaming the ATP management for poor playing conditions at clay court events such as the ongoing Brazil Open.

After his straight-sets victory over Brazilian qualifier Joao Souza 6-3, 6-4 in his opening match on Thursday, the 11-time Grand Slam title winner had some harsh words over the choice of balls.

While other players have been complaining about the condition of the court at Sao Paulo's Ibirapuera gymnasium, Nadal said the problem lies elsewhere.

"The problem is not the court. The problem is the ball which is very bad," he told a post-match press conference.

"It's the fault of the ATP for allowing play with a (tennis) ball of poor quality. The ATP does not have the capacity or the infrastructure to be able to analyze the conditions before the tournament begins."

The 26-year-old Nadal, who only returned to competitive tennis last week in Chile, also defended his decision to withdraw from a scheduled doubles match with Argentina's David Nalbandian against Horacio Zeballos and Oliver Marach Wednesday.

That, he said, was a "good decision" that allowed him to rest his knee, after a tough week of play in Chile last week where he made the final, losing to Zeballos.

Nadal was to play his Sao Paulo quarter-final later Friday against Argentina's Carlos Berlocq.

The Spaniard has been in combative mood all week.

On Tuesday, he told reporters that he and other players were concerned about the impact of having to play so many hardcourt events.

"Hard courts are aggressive on the knees, back and ankles," he said. "Can you imagine football players playing on cement?."

"That is a theme among the players and doctors," he added.

Nadal said that while reducing the number of events on hard surfaces was not realistic, "I think that the ATP has to work to think of how to lengthen players' careers."

And he also criticized the decision to enforce a 20-second rule between points at Grand Slams.

"Rule changes should be made to improve the sport," said Nadal, who has been no stranger to time violations in his career.

"I don't think the players in the dressing room are happy with the new rule and we'd like it to be modified and that the referee interpret when you can take longer rather than it be something mathematical.

"People want to see long rallies and hard-fought points," the world number five said. "Twenty five seconds is not enough."

Nadal, the top seed at the $455,775 Brazil Open, lost the singles and doubles finals at the Vina del Mar tournament in Chile Sunday and plans to compete at the Mexico Open in Acapulco later this month.

The seven-time French Open champion won the Brazil Open in 2005 when it was held in Costa do Sauipe in eastern Bahia state.

- AFP/fa



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Passengers trade broken-down ship for broken-down bus

(CBS News) Thousands of passengers erupted into cheers Thursday night as the crippled triumph finally pulled up to the dock. As they stepped onto dry land, and into the arms of their loved ones some couldn't contain their excitement.

Carnival then chartered a caravan of buses to transport folks out of Mobile, Ala. To add insult to injury, at least one of those buses became stranded on the way to New Orleans, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

The nightmare started Sunday, when an engine fire knocked out power.

Passengers leave cruise ship telling tales of woe

Kendell Jenkins won the trip in a contest, but said it was more like cruising on a floating port-o-potty. "I'm just really thankful and blessed to be back," she said. "I mean there was sewage, water everywhere, mix that with some rotten food smells and welcome to carnival Triumph."

"No ships were coming, no boats, were coming, we saw no helicopters," said Jenkins. "It scared us because we thought the ship wasn't notifying or coming out to help us."

It took more than a day before the first tugboat arrived. As passengers got cell reception, they shared photos revealing squalid conditions - sewage seeping through the floors, plastic bags used for restrooms. Tent camps above deck, and mattresses sprawled out below. For some, the hardest part was losing contact with their family.

Stricken Carnival Cruise Line ship Triumph expected to dock in Mobile, Ala.



It took several grueling hours to drag the massive ship through a narrow channel Thursday. At the terminal, carnival C.E.O. Gerry Cahill addressed reporters.

"We pride ourselves in providing our guests with a great vacation experience and clearly we failed in this particular case," he said. He then boarded the ship and apologized to passengers, but some still want answers.

For Anna Werner's full report, watch the video in the player above

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Cruise Ship Now Faces Expected Wave of Lawsuits












Despite having their feet back on solid ground and making their way home, passengers from the Carnival Triumph cruise ship are still fuming over their five days of squalor on the stricken ship and the cruise ship company is likely to be hit with a wave of lawsuits.


"I think people are going to file suits and rightly so," maritime trial attorney John Hickey told ABCNews.com. "I think, frankly, that the conduct of Carnival has been outrageous from the get-go."


Hickey, a Miami-based attorney, said his firm has already received "quite a few" inquiries from passengers who just got off the ship early this morning.


"What you have here is a) negligence on the part of Carnival and b) you have them, the passengers, being exposed to the risk of actual physical injury," Hickey said.


Click Here for Photos of the Stranded Ship at Sea


The attorney said that whether passengers can recover monetary compensation will depend on maritime law and the 15-pages of legal "gobbledygook," as Hickey described it, that passengers signed before boarding, but "nobody really agrees to."


One of the ticket conditions is that class action lawsuits are not allowed, but Hickey said there is a possibility that could be voided when all the conditions of the situation are taken into account.


One of the passengers already thinking about legal action is Tammy Hilley, a mother of two, who was on a girl's getaway with her two friends when a fire in the ship's engine room disabled the vessel's propulsion system and knocked out most of its power.


"I think that's a direction that our families will talk about, consider and see what's right for us," Hilley told "Good Morning America" when asked if she would be seeking legal action.


While she said that she does not want to be greedy or exploit the situation, she does not feel that Carnival's $500 compensation is enough for the trauma passengers suffered.








Carnival's Triumph Passengers: 'We Were Homeless' Watch Video









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Carnival Cruise Ship Passengers Line Up for Food Watch Video





"You talk about the emotional trauma and just last night, feeling what we went through last night while we were on land with our families and our insides just trembling," she said. "I don't think it begins to even say what is needed here."


In addition to the money, passengers will receive a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for another cruise.


"We made our own nest [on deck] because we were just too terrified to go inside because of the smells and the germs, so we just banded together and made our own little nest and just survived," Hilley's friend Ann Barlow said.


Her friend Carolyn Klam said she got a stomach virus from drinking bad water once the power went out and friend Tammy Hilley said her cell phone was stolen this morning as the boat came into port.


"I think going back to our room was kind of traumatic and seeing that from day one we had no home, we were homeless," Hilley said. "We would go downstairs below deck and your feet could feel the sludge that you were walking through. The smells and the liquids draining from the ceiling and the stories of people sleeping in the hallways and the sanitary bags in the hallway, that was traumatic to just watch it start piling up."


The more than 4,000 passengers and crew began to disembark from the damaged ship around 10:15 p.m. CT Thursday in Mobile, Ala., amid cheers and tears. The last passenger left the ship at 1 a.m. CT, according to Carnival's Twitter handle.


Passenger Brandi Dorsett was thankful to be home, especially for her mother who was with her on the ship. Dorsett said she wasn't pleased with the doctor on staff.


"My mother is a diabetic, and they would not even come to the room because she cannot walk the stairs to help her with insulin. She hasn't had insulin in three days," Dorsett said.


The Carnival Triumph departed Galveston, Texas, last Thursday and lost power Sunday.


Cruise Ship Newlyweds Won't Be Spending Honeymoon on a Boat


After power went out, passengers texted ABC News that sewage was seeping down the walls from burst plumbing pipes, carpets were wet with urine, and food was in short supply. Reports surfaced of elderly passengers running out of critical heart medicine and others on board squabbling over scarce food.


"It's degrading. Demoralizing, and then they want to insult us by giving us $500," Veronica Arriaga said after disembarking the ship.


As the ship docked, passengers lined the decks of the Triumph, waving and whistling to those on shore. "Happy V-Day" read a homemade sign made for the Valentine's Day arrival, while another sent a starker message: "The ship's afloat, so is the sewage."


WATCH: Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill Apologizes to Passengers






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Meteorite explodes over Russia, more than 1,000 injured


CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) - A meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people.


People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.


The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.


Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.


"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.


"I felt like I was blinded by headlights."


The meteorite, which weighed about 10 metric tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.


The energy released when it entered the Earth's atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotonnes, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.


No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.


The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.


WINDOWS BLOWN OUT


The early-morning blast and ensuing shock wave blew out windows on Chelyabinsk's central Lenin Street, buckled some shop fronts, rattled apartment buildings in the city center and blew out windows.


"I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend," said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. "Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows."


A wall and roof were badly damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said no environmental threat resulted.


One piece of meteorite broke through the ice the Cherbakul Lake near Chelyabinsk, leaving a hole several meters (yards) wide.


The region has long been a hub for the Russian military and defense industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned.


A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteorite storms were extremely rare and Friday's incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.


But an astronomer at Russia's Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, cast doubt on that report and the European Space Agency said its experts had confirmed there was no link.


The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorite shower had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said 300 buildings had been affected.


Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.


"Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!" one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that on Friday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles ($49.46).


RARE EVENT


The Emergencies Ministry described Friday's events as a "meteorite shower in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic.


The first footage was shot by car dashboard video cameras and soon went viral.


Russians also quickly made fun at the event on the Internet. A photo montage showed Putin riding the meteorite and Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy said in jest it was really a new weapon being tested by the United States.


Experts drew comparisons with an incident in 1908, when a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia, breaking windows as far as 200 km (125 miles) from the point of impact.


Simon Goodwin, an astrophysics expert from Britain's University of Sheffield, said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 metric tons of material rained down from space towards the earth every day, but most burned up in the atmosphere.


"While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts."


The meteorite struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 m in diameter, was due to pass closer to Earth - at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) - than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago.


($1 = 30.0877 Russian roubles)


(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Michael Roddy)



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Karzai summons top NATO commander in Afghanistan






KABUL: Afghan president Hamid Karzai has summoned the new commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan over an air strike that allegedly killed ten civilians, according to a statement issued Thursday.

General Joseph Dunford, who took over from General John Allen on Sunday, was called in "for explanations" to the Afghan presidential palace following the air strike in the insurgency-plagued Kunar province a day earlier.

"Pointing to a commitment Gen. Allen had previously made not to conduct any air strike or bombing in residential areas, President Karzai reminded that such incidents must strictly be avoided in future and any recurrence is not acceptable," the statement said.

US forces in Afghanistan confirmed the meeting, re-iterating that the forces had launched an investigation over the circumstances surrounding the incident.

General Dunford, as the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A), "expressed his personal condolences for any civilians who may have died or been injured as a result of the operation," their statement said.

Air strikes have long been a source of friction between NATO forces, led by the US army, and Kabul.

A report by a United Nations committee last Friday said that hundreds of Afghan children have been killed by US military forces during air strikes in Afghanistan over the past five years.

The report by the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the deaths were "due notably to reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force," but gave no precise statistics.

USFOR-A dismissed the committee's concerns as "categorically unfounded," explaining that NATO forces had reduced civilian casualties by 49 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011 and the number of children killed or wounded in air strikes had dropped by nearly 40 per cent in the same period.

- AFP/jc



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The 404 1,208: Where we're a heartbeat away (podcast)





Leaked from today's 404 episode:


- Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn Google internship trailer debuts


- NY restaurant offers fake "homemade" meal to go for amateur chefs, pre-dirtied cookwear included.


- In high-tech Japan, the fax machines roll on.


- Most definitely the scariest Valentines day app around.


- Guns in movies: Find your favorites in the Internet Movie Firearms Database.


Bathroom break video: Jackie Chan - "Love Me"





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Ex-San Diego mayor gambled away charity funds

SAN DIEGO Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor acknowledged Thursday in federal court that she misappropriated $2 million from her late husband's charitable foundation due to a gambling addiction in which she won more than $1 billion but lost even more over nearly a decade.

O'Connor made the acknowledgement in an agreement with the government to defer prosecution for two years while she attempts to repay the debt.

O'Connor was the Democratic leader of California's second-largest city from 1986 to 1992. The two-term mayor was elected San Diego's first female leader after eight years on the City Council. She was married to Robert O. Peterson, founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain.

Prosecutors said her gambling winnings amounted to more than $1 billion from 2000 to 2009 but she lost more than that.

Her defense attorney estimated the debt at $13 million.

O'Connor gambled in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, N.J., and San Diego.

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Cruise Passengers Celebrate as They Near Land












The 4,000 passengers and crew aboard the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship will disembark after dark tonight from the fetid cruiser dubbed "the poop deck" on social media, according to officials.


"It will come in. It will not stop," Alabama State Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons said at a news conference today. "We're going to do everything we can from our standpoint to ensure that this is as smooth as possible."


He estimated the ship would arrive between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. tonight.


Delighted passengers waved at media helicopters that flew out to film the ship and passenger Rob Mowlam told ABCNews.com by phone today that most of the passengers on board were "really upbeat and positive."


Nevertheless, when he gets off Mowlam said, "I will probably flush the toilet 10 times just because I can."


Mowlam, 37, got married on board the Triumph Friday and said he and his wife, Stephanie Stevenson, 27, haven't yet thought of redoing the honeymoon other than to say, "It won't be a cruise."


Lyons said that with powerless "dead ships" like the Triumph, it is usually safer to bring them in during daylight hours, but, "Once they make the initial effort to come into the channel, there's no turning back."


Click here for photos of the stranded ship at sea.






Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell/U.S. Coast Guard/AP Photo











Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship On Its Way to Port Watch Video









Carnival Cancels All Scheduled Voyages Aboard the Triumph Watch Video









Carnival Cruise Ship Making Its Way to Port Watch Video





"There are issues regarding coming into the ship channel and docking at night because the ship has no power and there's safety issues there," Richard Tillman of the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau told ABCNews.com.


When asked if the ship could be disembarked in the dark of night, Tillman said, "It is not advised. It would be very unusual."


Carnival Cruise Senior Vice President of Marketing Terri Thornton, however, insisted during a news conference at the port of Mobile today, "Our understanding is it will be alongside this evening."


Thornton denied the rumors that there was a fatality on the ship. He said that there was one illness early on, a dialysis patient, but that passenger was removed from the vessel and transferred to a medical facility.


The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting now and there are multiple generators on board. And customs officials will board the ship while it is being piloted to port to accelerate the embarkation, officials said.


After eight miserable days at sea, the ship's owners have increased the compensation for what some on board are calling the vacation from hell.


All 3,143 passengers aboard the 900 foot colossus, which stalled in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire early Sunday, were already being given a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for a another cruise. Carnival Cruise Lines is now boosting that offer to include another $500 per person. Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, announced the additional compensation Wednesday.


"We know it has been a longer journey back than we anticipated at the beginning of the week under very challenging circumstances," he said in a statement. "We are very sorry for what our guests have had to endure. Therefore, in addition to the full refund and future cruise credit already offered, we have decided to provide this additional compensation."


Carnival also said that it has canceled a dozen planned voyages for the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before an engine-room fire left it powerless in the Gulf of Mexico.






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