POSSIBLY 73 DEAD IN CRUISE SHIP MISHAP

1/3RD OF SHIPS DESTROYED

REVELATION 8:8-9
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

Italy cruise ship Costa Concordia aground near Giglio-The Independent's travel editor Simon Calder: It is unbelievable ... that this should happen to a 21st Century ship JAN 14,12
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16558910

Three people are confirmed dead after a cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground off Italy.There were scenes of panic as the Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on Friday evening near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees.
Most people reached land by lifeboats but some swam to shore.At least 50 people have not yet been accounted for, Italian officials say, but they caution that the passenger list may not be fully up to date.Coast guard vessels are combing the waters around the ship, while divers are searching the submerged decks.The regional prefect's office said 4,165 out of 4,234 people on board had been accounted for, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.Italian, German, French and British nationals were among the 3,200 passengers on board. There were also 1,000 crew.Three people were confirmed dead, Italian coast guard officials said on Saturday morning - fewer than the six or eight deaths reported by Italian media earlier. Fourteen people were injured.Costa Concordia with hole in its hull (14 January 2011) The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 3,200 passengers when it ran aground off the Italian coast
Mediterranean cruise

The Costa Concordia had sailed earlier on Friday from Civitavecchia port near Rome for a Mediterranean cruise, due to dock in Marseille after calling at ports in Sicily, Sardinia and Spain.One thousand passengers were Italian, with 500 Germans and 160 French.Some tens of British passengers are believed to have been on board, said the UK Foreign Office, which is sending a team to the scene.Some passengers told the Associated Press the crew had failed to give instructions on how to evacuate the ship. An evacuation drill was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.It was so unorganised, our evacuation drill was scheduled for 17:00 (16:00 GMT),Melissa Goduti, 28, from the US told AP. We had joked what if something had happened today.

Investigators will now look into every aspect of this accident, but one of the key elements they will examine will be the electrical systems.Modern ships tend to use electrical generators to drive the engines, so a power cut can leave the captain unable to steer away from danger.Human error could also be a factor, and there will also be concern at the speed which the ship listed on to its side. Not only would that have been frightening, it seems to have affected the crew's ability to launch some of the lifeboats.All ships have to meet safety standards set out by the International Maritime Organisation. Crews are trained to deal with emergency and cruise companies stress this kind of accident is rare.Passengers were eating dinner on Friday evening, when they heard a loud bang, and were told that the ship had suffered electrical problems, one passenger told Italy's Ansa news agency.We were having supper when the lights suddenly went out, we heard a boom and a groaning noise, and all the cutlery fell on the floor, said Luciano Castro.Passenger Mara Parmegiani told Italian media there were scenes of panic.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.The 290-metre (950 ft) vessel ran aground, starting taking in water and listing by 20 degrees, the local coast guard said.Orders were given to abandon ship, Deodato Ordona, a cabin steward on the Costa Concordia, told the BBC.We announced a general emergency and took passengers to muster stations, he said.But it is hard to launch the lifeboats, so they moved to the right side of the ship, and they could launch.Costa Concordia seen from land (14 January 2011) The cruise operators thanked the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio for rescuing those on board the Costa Concordia

Elderly passengers were crying, said Mr Ordona, adding that he and some others jumped into the sea and swam roughly 400 metres to reach land.Helicopters evacuated the last 50 people trapped on the ship.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.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 told the Reuters news agency.The scenes of panic create disaster. There were people scrambling over each other, elderly people wetting themselves.

Hypothermia

Rescued passengers were accommodated in hotels, schools and a church on Giglio, a resort island 25km (15 miles) off Italy's western coast.All those taken to Giglio have now been moved to the mainland, Elizabeth Nanni from the island's tourist information service told the BBC.Usually there are 700 people on the island at this time of year, so receiving 4,000 and some in the middle of the night wasn't easy, she said. Some people jumped in the sea so they had hypothermia.Coast guard official Francesco Paolillo, a local coast guard official, told the AFP news agency there was a 30m hole in the ship but that it was too early to say what exactly had happened.
We think this happened as a result of sailing too close to an obstacle like a reef, he said.Costa Cruises, the company which owns the ship, said it could not yet say what had caused the accident.The gradual listing of the ship made the evacuation extremely difficult,a statement said. The position of the ship, which is worsening, is making more difficult the last part of the evacuation.We'd like to express our deepest gratitude to the coastguard and other emergency services, including the authorities and citizens of the island of Giglio, who did their best in saving and helping the passengers and crew.Two years ago, a Costa Cruises ship crashed into a dock at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, killing three members of the crew.

Captain arrested over sinking cruise ship UPDATED: Jan 14, 2012 19:14 GMT

The Italian captain of the cruise ship that ran aground -- killing three person and injuring 20 more -- was arrested late Saturday and is being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship, said a local prosecutor in Grosetto, Italy. The captain, Francesco Schettino, had been earlier interviewed by investigators in Porto Santo Stefano about what happened when the 4,200-passenger Costa Concordia struck rocks in shallow water off Italy's western coast, said officer Emilio Del Santo of the Coastal Authorities of Livorno. Authorities were looking at why the ship didn't hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night, officials said. The ship is owned by Genoa-based Costa Cruises. At the moment we can't exclude that the ship had some kind of technical problem, and for this reason moved towards the coast in order to save the passengers, the crew and the ship. But they didn't send a mayday. The ship got in contact with us once the evacuation procedures were already ongoing,Del Santo said prior to the announcement of the arrest.Fear and panic are comprehensible in a ship long over 300 meters with over 4000 passengers,Del Santo said. We can confirm that the ship has a breach on the hull of about 90 meters, and that the right side of it is completely under water. The three persons dead were two French tourists and a crew member from Peru, Port authorities in Livorno said. Giuseppe Orsina, a spokesman with the local civil protection agency, said 43 to 51 persons were missing, though authorities are reviewing passenger lists to confirm the exact figure. These people could be still on the island of Giglio, in private houses or in hospitals,Orsina said. The coast guard said 50 to 70 people could be missing. One surviving crew member, Rosalyn Rincon, 30, of Blackpool, England, said she wanted to know why the cruise ship was sailing so close to shore. She described a harrowing grounding of the vessel, whose tilting and rising water evoked the film Titanic,she said.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

Why Canadians should care about a euro collapse
By Mark Gollom, CBC News Posted: Dec 1, 2011 1:07 PM ET
ANALYSIS | Jeremy Kinsman: Can Europe be saved? Europe feels the economic pinch

The demise of the euro would deliver a significant blow to the Canadian economy, leading to less trade, higher unemployment and a possible recession, financial experts say.The situation in Europe would create a tsunami that would reach our shores very very quickly, Louis Gagnon, finance professor at Queen’s University School of Business in Kingston, Ont., told CBC News.We would be collateral damage and this collateral damage would be very, very significant.With some European countries seemingly unable to control their spiralling debt crises, and with uncertainty over the type of financial relief the European Central Bank may contribute, there are fears the end of the euro is near.On the business side, we want the Europeans to get out of this. We want them to do well.—Walid Hejazi, associate professor, Rotman School of Management

Gagnon explained that if the euro dissolved as a currency, a number of countries with their debt denominated in euros would immediately have to default since they would adapt their own domestic currencies and those would be devalued from anywhere between 50 to 70 per cent.As the marketplace establishes the exchange rates, Gagnon said, you would see a fire sale on the exchange rates because investors would have very little confidence in these new currencies.These countries would be forced to pay back debt holders in euros which they don't have. As well, financial institutions, all the banks have euro obligations,he said.

Banks' failure may affect the world

As some European governments would default, banks holding those bonds would not have money to lend, drying up liquidity, sparking a severe global economic contraction and causing a major economic crisis.It's one banking system, when we look at it. If it fails in Europe, the rest of the world would be affected,Gagnon said.

But what does that mean for the average Canadian?

This would cause panic, fear, remove all the confidence in the financial system, Gagnon said. The global financial system would become paralyzed … in this way Canadians would be affected.Canadians would stop spending, which could lead to a possible recession in Canada.Walid Hejazi, associate professor of international business at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, said that being part of an integrated global economy means what happens elsewhere could affect us.
Much of our prosperity is driven by our linkages into the global economy and much of the risks are driven by our linkages to the global economy, so you have to deal with both.Hejazi said employment numbers, income growth, value of our assets, our homes and the assets of financial markets would all be put at risk.So it can actually impact the average Canadian quite significantly. So we do have to worry. It's not something the average Canadian can say, It's over there in Europe, who cares?

When they do well, we do well

Hejazi said he worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs on the first study on deepening the economic relationship between Canada and EU in 2008.There was tremendous goodwill about the benefits that come between Canada and the EU,he said. I found that people really wanted to deepen the relationship because of the economic opportunity, but also because of the history.On the business side, we want the Europeans to get out of this. We want them to do well. One thing that's really clear is when they do well, we do well. When they're worse off, we're worse off.Matthias Kipping, professor of policy and chair in business history at Schulich School of Business, said the euro collapse would mean countries would become more protectionist, which would have a major effect on a country like Canada that relies on exports.While Canada’s direct share of global trade with Europe is relatively small, it would be indirectly affected by those countries, in particular the United States, which are heavily exposed to the European market and which Canada trades with.But Kipping said the crisis would take a little while for it to work its way through Canada.People won't get fired immediately tomorrow, but it will work its way through.The doomsday scenario, he said, is the credit flows stop, meaning economic activity and trade stop or get severely curtailed.The next thing is if trade stops, who are you going to sell to? People who make things, they eventually have nothing to do, and they'll be out of a job. It may not happen next week, but could happen next year.While Canadian banks don't have much direct exposure to Europe, they would be affected by the calamity raging in the credit marketplace, Gagnon said, meaning they would have to stop lending to other banks.But Gagnon said Canada, with its relatively healthier banks and deficit containment, is in a better position than other countries to deal with the crisis.Things aren’t looking all that great, but I think we would weather the storm to a better degree than our trading partners and especially Europe.

S&P downgrades 9 eurozone countries Greek debt talks on hold CBC News Posted: Jan 13, 2012 11:08 AM ET

Bond rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded nine eurozone countries Friday.S&P cut France and Austria’s top, triple-A ratings by one notch to AA+.It left Germany, the Netherlands and Finland's triple-A ratings untouched. Also unchanged were Luxembourg at AAA, Belgium at AA, Estonia at AA- and Ireland at BBB+.That leaves Germany as the only top-rated backer of Europe’s bailout fund for troubled economies.
Downgraded:

• France • Austria • Italy • Spain • Portugal • Cyprus • Malta • Slovenia • Slovakia
Not cut:

• Germany • The Netherlands • Belgium • Luxembourg • Finland • Ireland • Estonia

S&P also cut Italy and Spain by two levels. Italy fell to BBB+ from A and Spain fell from AA- to A. Portugal and Cyprus also dropped two notches. The agency also cut ratings on Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.In our view,it said on its website, the policy initiatives taken by European policymakers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the eurozone.The announcements came after North American markets closed, but reports of the pending downgrades during the day helped send shares lower.France’s finance minister, Francois Baroin, went on television to confirm his country’s downgrade before markets in Canada and the U.S. finished trading for the day, saying the cut was bad news but not a catastrophe.You have to be relative, you have keep your cool, he said.
It's necessary not to frighten the French people about it.Also weighing on shares was the announcement that crucial negotiations between the Greek government and its private creditors on a deal needed to avoid default had been paused for reflection, which raised concerns the negotiations were close to collapse.A downgrade would most likely increase the costs of borrowing.

Negotiations paused for reflection

Earlier, representatives of private bondholders said crucial negotiations between the Greek government and its private creditors on a deal needed to avoid default had been paused for reflection, which raised concerns the negotiations were close to collapse.The talks are aimed at renegotiating the face value of bonds Greece has issued in order to reach an agreement on how much of a haircut the banks will take voluntarily.By making the deal voluntary, Greece would dodge a legal default, which risks triggering a much deeper financial crisis that could curtail European lending.
If Greece's default is disorderly — with the various lenders uncertain of how much they will be repaid — the risk is that banks will become unwilling to lend because they can no longer count on enforcement of the rules that protect lenders when borrowers fail to meet the terms of their loans.More immediately, the bond swap aims to reduce Greece's debt by €100 billion ($130 billion) and is a key part of a second, €130 billion ($169 billion) international bailout installment.The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 43.26 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 12,231.06. It fell by as much as 157 points during the session.The Canadian dollar closed down 0.42 of a cent at 97.78 cents US.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 48.96 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 12,422.06, the Nasdaq composite index fell 14.03, or 0.5 per cent to 2,710.67 and the S&P 500 index ended with a loss of 6.41 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 1,289.09.The euro fell to a 17-month low, and was trading down 1.2 per cent at $1.2666 US late in the afternoon..European markets closed lower, with London's FTSE 100 off 0.46 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX down 0.58 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 closing off 0.11 per cent.Traders had earlier been relieved at successful government bond auctions in Italy and Spain, which had raised hopes that policy-makers may finally be getting a grip on Europe's debt crisis after months of procrastination and indecision.Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves the office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, left, after their meeting with negotiators for private bondholders in Athens. Markets traded lower after the talks were paused Friday.Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves the office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, left, after their meeting with negotiators for private bondholders in Athens. Markets traded lower after the talks were paused Friday. (Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press)On Friday, Italy had seen its borrowing costs drop for a second day in a row as it easily raised €3 billion.It's really mixed news on Europe today; the downgrade is definitely negative, said Jeff Bradacs, portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management.But borrowing by Italy came in at lower rates than expected and that's partially driven by European banks getting low funding costs through the ECB and buying the Italian bonds.On Dec. 5, S&P warned it might make the downgrades, citing a growing reluctance of banks to lend, rising bond yields, continuing disagreements among European leaders on how the resolve the region’s debt crisis, high government and household debt and the rising risk of recession.A weak U.S. trade report added to traders' concerns.American exports dropped 0.9 per cent in November from the previous month. Fewer shipments of autos and capital goods, such as aircraft and machinery, were the key reason. A decline in exports weakens U.S. growth and exports could drop even further in the months to come.