World cruise giant hits trouble after accidents

As the stricken Costa Concordia limped its way towards Genoa last week, all Italy was remembering the 32 people who lost their lives in the cruise ship disaster. All, that is, except for the captain. Francesco Schettino, the slick-haired skipper of the doomed vessel, was photographed on Friday jetting around the holiday island of Ischia, accompanied by a gaggle of glamorous women. Local media suggested he was celebrating signing a book deal.

The Costa Concordia cruise liner began its final voyage Wednesday, slowly being towed away from the tiny Italian island where it capsized more than two years ago, killing 32 people. Boat sirens wailed and bells tolled on the island just before two tugboats pulled the Concordia away from Giglio’s port, where the luxury liner ended up on its side in pristine Mediterranean waters, after being gashed by a reef it struck when its captain steered too close to the island.

Flight MH370 was crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission, well-placed sources revealed Monday night as Malaysia’s prime minister announced that everyone on the missing aircraft had died.

An unprecedented operation to re float the shipwrecked Costa Concordia began Monday in Italy, with salvage workers attempting to raise the rusty liner from its watery grave on the shores of a rugged Tuscan island.

GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy — The disgraced former captain of a luxury cruise liner that capsized off an Italian island went back on board Thursday for the first time since the 2012 shipwreck that killed 32 people. The last time Francesco Schettino was on the Costa Concordia he was about to board a lifeboat while hundreds of passengers and crew were still trying to figure out their own escape routes after the liner rammed a reef close to Giglio Island on Jan. 13, 2012, rapidly took on water and listed badly.

A fire breaks out in the engine room of the Costa Allegra, which is carrying 636 passengers, including eight Americans.

SYDNEY, Australia — Authorities were conducting an air and marine search Thursday off Australia’s east coast for two cruise passengers who were believed to have fallen overboard the night before. The couple from New South Wales were discovered missing Thursday morning after the Carnival Spirit docked at Sydney’s Circular Quay, at the end of a 10-day journey, said New South Wales state Police Superintendent Mark Hutchings.

Over its 41 years, Carnival Cruise Line has had a checkered past. In its heyday, Carnival was the cruise brand known for innovation, but more recently it has become known as the brand with PR disasters to deal with.