14/01/2012 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. At least three people have died

after an Italian cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany

last night. The Italian authorities say that they are still searching

for up to 50 possible missing people. Coastguards were asked to

evacuate more than 4,000 passengers from the Costa Concordia near to

the island. Eyewitnesses say that some passengers began to jump from

the ship as it began to list. The Foreign Office says that there were

British people on board, but cannot give the numbers. Yesterday, the

Costa Concordia steaming out of the port of Rome, on the last leg of a

week-long cruise. Now on her side a wrek, resting on the seabed. Why?

There is no official word, but look at this picture. Closing in you can

see a huge gash, perhaps 50m long on the pordside. In calm waters,

something must have gone very wrong. -- portside. Whatever the ship hit

it happened at night. Then it limped to the port, sinking with

more than 4,000 passengers and crew aboard. As they struggled to get

off, the stricken vessel listed over in the darkness.

TRANSLATION: Everything was shaking. The tables falling everywhere.

Panic, the ship was leaning, we did not know what to do. They took us

to the main deck as the ship was sloping and we had to shift the

weight. We had no idea what to do. The Costa Concordia is typical of

today's huge, plush cruise ships. It is nearly 1,000 feet long with

five restaurants, a nightclub, a casino it is like a floating town.

Now it lies on the seabed. Later you could see how the ship

sank more and more. Then it sank, in half an hour, it

sank, the half of the side of it into the water.

Three are confirmed dead, 50 are unaccounted for. The Italian

authorities are still searching the ship. It is known that Britons were

on board. The Foreign Office has sent a team to offer assistance.

Passengers are being ferried to the port of Santo Stefano. Our

correspondent is there. Alan, what is the latest? Well, we have been

hearing through the morning of a major search and rescue operation

continuing with the dozens of coastguard vessels searching the

waters around the vessels and helicopters deployed. Here in the

port we have been watching some people coming back, the passengers,

many wrapped in blankets, towels, many looking dazed and exhausted.

One man telling of chaotic scenes of eating dinner in the dining room

and then the ship jolting, plates, wine bottles, everything flying

across the room. The French Prime Minister, France

France fans has defended his Government's economic policies.

Following the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the rating of

France and eight other eurozone countries. Francois Fillon said he

would push on with the situation. The government here have tried to

keep the triple-A rating a top priority, but Francois Fillon

explaining that although the downgrade was serious it needed to

be kept in perspective. TRANSLATION: It was an alarm call.

It should not be overdramatised, nor underestimated.

It helped French pride that the downgrade was one of several in the

eurozone. France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia have been

downgraded by a notch. The ratings levels of Italy, Spain, Portugal

and Cyprus were reduced bir two notches. In France, there were

protests last night outside of the offices of Standard & Poor's, but

the agency says that its ratings reflect the economic reality.

The measures that have been taken so far are simply to tighten the

fiscal rules. We think that there is a misdiagnosis of the problem.

We see that as more of one of competitiveness.

For France's Nicolas Sarkozy, this is not just economic bad news, but

a political set back too. He promised to keep the triple-A.

Presidential elections are in just 1 hundred days.

A 24-year-old mon has been arrested on suspicion of murder

fortunatelying the deaths of a couple in Birmingham. Avtar Singh-

Kolar and Carole Singh-Kolar were found dead by their son who, is a

placeman on Wednesday morning. 50 people have been killed and 100

injured in a suicide bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Witnesses said that the attack occurred outside of Zubair, south-

west of Basra. The attack comes at the close of

the main -- one of the main Shi'ite holidays.

The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls says that Labour will back the

Government's decision to cap public sector pay in order to reduce the

deficit. In a speech that true an angry response, he said that Labour

could not commit to any of the coalition cuts should the party

come to power. Ed Balls said that the Chancellor's handling of the

economy has forced his hand. Pay re strictiveness in the public

sector in this Parliament, matching the private sector would have been

necessary, whoever was in government, but George Osbourne's

economic mistakes now mean difficult decisions on tax,

spending and pay and it is inevitable that they will last

longer. It is inevitable that pay restraint will have to continue for

longer. Labour cannot duck that reality, we won't. Jobs must be our

priority before the pay. Tesco's defended a decision by its

UK chief operating officer to sell more than �200,000 of the firm's

shares a week before it issued a profits warning. A company