Carnival Triumph out of commission through mid-April due to fire

As tugs continue to pull the fire-disabled Carnival Triumph to land, Carnival Cruise Lines said it has canceled another 12 sailings aboard the stricken vessel.

Tuesday night, the company’s president and CEO, Gerry Cahill, said only the Feb. 11 and Feb. 16 Caribbean voyages had been axed. But Wednesday afternoon, the Miami-based cruise operator said the Feb. 21 through April 13 sailings were also being canceled.

Parent company Carnival Corp. estimated that the financial hit from the canceled trips and repair costs would be eight to 10 cents per share, or $64-$80 million, for the first half of 2013.

Carnival said guests whose trips have been canceled will get a full refund of their cruise fare, non-refundable transportation costs, pre-paid shore excursions, tips, government fees and taxes. They will also be entitled to a 25 percent discount on three- to five-day cruises or 15 percent discount for six- to seven-day sailings.

The 2,758-passenger ship, which launched in 1999, is based in Galveston, where it sails four- and five-day trips to the Caribbean.

Triumph departed Thursday with 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew. It was scheduled to return to port early Monday after a weekend stop in Cozumel, but fire broke out Sunday morning in the engine room. The cause of the blaze, which was put out by automatic systems, is still not known.

The ship lost propulsion and had to rely on emergency generator power, leaving passengers with a limited number of working bathrooms and no air conditioning. Guests have reported long lines for food and said they were forced to use bags as toilets.

“No one here from Carnival is happy about the conditions on board the ship and we obviously are very, very sorry about what’s taken place,” Cahill said Tuesday night at a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Doral. “There’s no question that conditions on board the ship are very challenging. I can assure you that everyone on board in the Carnival team and everyone shoreside is doing everything they can to make our guests as comfortable as possible.”

Two tugs are towing the ship to Mobile, Ala. Carnival has lined up more than 1,500 hotel rooms in Mobile and New Orleans and chartered more than 20 flights to get passengers back to Houston. Bus service directly to Houston and Galveston will also be provided.

In a similar case, the Carnival Splendor was set adrift in the Pacific in November 2010 after an explosion in a diesel generator. It was out of service for about three months; the company estimated the loss at $56 million.

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Chinese New Year rings in at St. Thomas University

A Chinese Lunar New Year celebration was held at St. Thomas University on Sunday, Feb. 10, in Miami Gardens. The free event was open to the public and also featured an ancestral-veneration ceremony, lion dances and a reception.

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Faith Hill Becomes a Brace Face

Faith Hill has been rocking a new accessory that garnered lots of attention when she hit the Grammy Awards red carpet on Sunday. The country crooner stepped out wearing clear braces, which led us to ask: What was wrong with her teeth in the first place?

Never mentioning that she's been wearing veneers for decades, Hill, 45, explained the mouth metal to radio station KNIX at the Country Music Awards, saying, "I had braces as a kid. I forgot to wear my retainer."

She added jokingly, "Kids, wear your retainer!"

RELATED PICS: What supermodel also had dental work?

Hill and her husband Tim McGraw, 45, were both presenters at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Hill paired her brace face with a stunning black J. Mendel gown.

What do you think of Hill's braces? Does she need them?

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Mom tells Dr. Phil son saw shooting of standoff suspect in bunker

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — The mother of an Alabama boy held hostage in an underground bunker for days says her son witnessed officers fatally shoot his kidnapper.

Jennifer Kirkland's comments about her son, Ethan, came in an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw for the "Dr. Phil Show." It's set to be aired Wednesday; a clip already is posted online.

Kirkland says her son saw officers shoot the gunman identified as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes of Midland City.

The FBI says agents wearing combat gear entered Dykes' bunker on the sixth day of the standoff in southeast Alabama. He was shot multiple times.

Reuters

Authorities secure the residence of Jimmy Lee Dykes where a five-year-old boy was rescued after being held hostage for almost one week in an underground bunker.

Authorities say Dykes shot and killed Ethan's school bus driver before grabbing him.

Ethan wasn't physically injured.

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U.S. Century to OK details of new deal

U.S. Century Bank is expected to sign off on Monday on its letter of intent — the framework for a plan to recapitalize the bank.

Under the deal, a local group of investors, led by Jimmy Tate of Tate Capital and Sergio Rok of Rok Enterprises, will bring in fresh capital and wipe out the Doral bank’s bad loans, while allowing it to operate independently.

The investor group is expected to inject $50 million in capital into the bank, becoming majority owners. In addition, the group will pay about $90 million to buy certain loans, including all $98 million of U.S. Century’s non-performing loans, said U.S. Century President and Chief Executive Carlos J. Dávila. The deal would also provide for a negotiated amount to be paid to the federal government to repay U.S. Century’s $50.2 million in TARP funds.

A definitive agreement, based on the letter of intent, is expected next month. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal could be completed by mid-year, Dávila said.

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Carnival ship fire quickly extinguished as ship wallows in Gulf awaiting tug

The Carnival Triumph, a Galveston, Texas-based passenger cruise ship with the theme “Great Cities Around the World,” might have been better off sitting at port, as a court initially ordered.

As of Monday morning the 14-year old ship was going nowhere, operating on emergency generator power after a fire Sunday in one of the diesel generators killed its propulsion. The fire was quickly put out by an automatic fire extinguishing system, and none of the 4,229 passengers or crew are said to be in any danger

All were waiting patiently as a giant tug boat trudged toward the Triumph, now operating under generator power, with the intention of hauling the 100,000 ton, 893-foot vessel to the nearest port in Progreso, Mexico. It is expected in port some time Wednesday afternoon. Carnival Cruise Lines headquarters are in Miami-Dade.

“The cause of the fire is still to be determined,” said Carnival spokesman Vance Guliksen. In a brief news release, Guliksen said “there were no casualties to guests or crew.”

He said all passengers will be flown back to the United States and will be fully refunded.. Carnival said it will cover any additional transportation expenses. Passengers will also receive a free future cruise.

As of 11 a.m. Tuesday another Carnival ship, the Carnival Elation, was on the scene transferring food and beverages.

According to Carnival, some basic auxiliary power has been restored, cabin toilets are working on part of the ship and some elevators are operational. The dining areas are serving hot coffee and limited hot food.

The $420 million Triumph made news early last year after the family of a German tourist killed in the Costa Concordia disaster in the Mediterranean filed a $10 million lawsuit against Carnival. A judge found the family had standing, and ordered the ship held at port in Galveston. The court later allowed the ship to move between ports until a hearing takes place.

The lawsuit contends that Carnival Cruise Lines is the corporate parent of the Costa Concordia.

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The Backstreet Boys Get Their Own Documentary

Who doesn't want to know the inside story of one of the biggest boy bands in pop culture history?

It's just been confirmed that director Stephen Kijak -- who directed documentaries Stones In Exile and Scott Walker -- is directing a film about the Backstreet Boys' journey from child stars to global sensations, which is being billed as a "tell-all project about all five original members of the band."

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BSB confirmed the news in a statement.

"We always wanted to make a film and now is the ideal time. With Kevin back, the fact that we are masters of our own destiny, a new album in the works and our 20th anniversary -- it all adds up to being the right time to share our story," they said.

Just don't expect a fluffy feel-good film.

"What drew me to this project is their [Backstreet Boys] openness and willingness to push themselves into uncomfortable places, to be vulnerable and honest and to be really trusting of the filmmaking team to steer them in the right direction," Kijak said. "BSB is getting real and it has been exciting to work with them as they explore their past and start to look towards their futures."

Video: Backstreet Resurrects a Classic

Kijak aims to finish the film this fall.

In the mean time, BSB fans can catch them at one of their shows on The Package Tour, which is also bringing back New Kids on the Block, 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men.

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'Spidey' claims self-defense after allegedly hitting woman in Times Square

A Times Square Spider-Man claimed he was acting in self-defense when he slugged a woman who refused to tip him him yesterday.

Philip Williams, 35-year-old Williamsburg resident, was released without having to post bail this morning after he was charged with assault and harassment.

Williams had posed for pictures with the 44-year-old woman's kids but didn't receive a tip, according to prosecutors.

"Sorry I don't have any [money]," the woman said, according to prosecutors. Williams responded "You're crap," the DA said.

The women then made a snowball and beaned Williams, his defense lawyer and prosecutor agreed.

Steven Hirsch

Philip Williams in court today.

Defense lawyer Rachel Black insisted this was clearly a case of self-defense.

"The complaining witness made contact with my client," she said.

Prosecutors said Williams has a rap sheet that includes a grand larceny and and retail fraud bust when he was 17 and living in Michigan.

Black didn't dispute the DA's claim, but told the Manhattan judge that Williams made all court appearances in that matter.

Cops showed up yesterday near 141 W. 43rd St. after the 3 p.m. and stopped the victim's husband from possibly hurting Williams, law enforcement sources and witnesses said.

“A woman came to me and said, ‘What did you do to me, you f--ker?’ ” said another Times Square Spidey, who wouldn’t give his name.

“Her husband came over and said it was a different Spider-Man. They went over to the other one and started fighting.”

Witnesses said the woman’s husband pounded the offending Spider-Man with a backpack before cops arrived to bust Spidey.

This unwanted attention has other Times Square cartoon characters worried about their livelihood.

“Getting arrested isn’t good for any of us,” said Times Square worker Christian, who dresses as Big Bird. “It makes us all look bad.”

The incident casts another mark on the city’s costumed busker community.

A man wearing an Elmo costume was arrested last September for disorderly conduct after spouting anti-Semitic rants in Central Park. Another man — dressed as video-game hero Mario — was arrested in December and charged with forcible touching after allegedly groping a woman.

Additional reporting by David K. Li

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Green cards for sale at a South Beach hotel: Competition is on for EB5 investment visas

If David Hart gets his way, South Beach’s 42-room Astor Hotel will be on a hiring spree this year as it adds concierge service, a roof-top pool, an all-night diner, spa and private-car service available 24 hours a day.

New hires will be crucial to Hart’s business plan, since foreign investors have agreed to pay about $50,000 for each job created by the Art Deco boutique.

The Miami immigration lawyer specializes in arranging visas for wealthy foreign citizens under a special program that trades green cards for investment dollars. Businesses get the money and must use it to boost payroll. The minimum investment is $500,000 to add at least 10 jobs to the economy. That puts the pressure on Hart and his partners at the Astor to beef up payroll dramatically, with plans to take a hotel with roughly 20 employees to one with as many as 100 workers.

“My primary responsibility is to make something happen here over the next two years that will create the jobs we need,’’ Hart said a few steps away from a nearly empty restaurant on a recent weekday morning. “It’s all going to be transformed.”

Though established in the 1990s, the “EB5” visas soared in popularity during the recession as developers sought foreign cash to replace dried-up credit markets in the United States.

Chinese investors dominate the transactions, accounting for about 65 percent of the nearly 9,000 EB5 visas granted since 2006. South Korea finishes a distant second at 12 percent and the United Kingdom holds the third-place slot at 3 percent. If Latin America and the Caribbean were one country, they would rank No. 4 on the list, with 231 EB5 visas granted, or about 3 percent of the total.

Competition has gotten stiffer for the deep-pocketed foreign investors willing to pay for green cards. The University of Miami’s bio-science research park near the Jackson hospital system raised $20 million from 40 foreign investors under the EB5 program, most of them from Asia. The money went into the park’s first building; visa brokers are waiting to see if the second building will proceed so they can offer a new pool of potential green-card sales.

In Hollywood, the stalled $131 million Margaritaville resort had hoped to raise about $75 million from EB5 investors before ditching that plan last year to pursue more traditional financing. A retail complex by developer Jeff Berkowitz in Coral Gables also launched a program to raise $50 million in EB5 money for the project, Gables Station. Hart worked with other EB5 investors to back pizza restaurants in Miami and South Beach. A limestone mine in Martin County also was backed by EB5 dollars.

This year, the city of Miami itself is expected to get into the business by setting up an EB5 program to raise foreign cash for a range of city businesses and developments. The first would be the tallest building in the city — developer Tibor Hollo’s planned 85-story apartment tower, the Panorama, in downtown Miami.

With a construction cost of about $700 million, Miami’s debut EB5 venture hopes to raise about $100 million from foreign investors, said Laura Reiff, the Greenberg Traurig lawyer in Virginia working with Miami on the EB5 effort. “This is a marquis project,’’ she said.

The arrangement is a novel one for Miami, with the city planning to help a private developer raise funds overseas for a new high-rise. And it would allow Hollo and future participants to tout the city of Miami’s endorsement when competing with other Miami-area projects for EB5 dollars. “We will have the benefit of the brand of the city of Miami,’’ said Mikki Canton, the $6,000-a-month city consultant heading Miami’s EB5 effort. “A lot of these others are privately owned and they won’t have that brand.”

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Two Fantasy 5 tickets sold in Broward take $92,069 jackpot

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Three tickets, two purchased in Broward County, matched all five Fantasy 5 numbers to collect a jackpot worth $92,069.38 each, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.

The winning tickets were bought in Plantation and Tamarac and in Homosassa, lottery officials said.

The numbers drawn Saturday night were 1-3-16-18-25

The 463 tickets matching four numbers won $96 each.

There was no Florida Lotto winner. The jackpot is now $16 million for Wednesday’s drawing.

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