Drew Expo organizers weigh options after weekend fights [with video](Roanoke, VA)

(EDITOR'S WARNING: This reader-submitted video includes profanity and other derogatory language that may be offensive to some viewers.) In the days following a two-night melee at the annual Drew Expo carnival last weekend, an event promoter and police are left to consider how to avoid a repeat next year. Erect a $5,000 fence around the festivities? Increase the police presence? Event promoter Jan Wilkins said he’s noticed a steady increase in violence at the carnival over the years, fighting that reached a crescendo Friday and Saturday nights. Wilkins said the yearly problem eats into the carnival’s reputation and financial take-away....

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Carnival Fails Crisis 101 in Costa Response

With bodies still trapped inside Costa Concordia’s underwater tomb, Carnival (CCL: 30.48, 0.00, 0.00%) now finds itself at the heart of scrutiny only likely to rise along with the death toll. Carnival’s worst-ever wreck and one of the most high-profile incidents since the Titanic sank 100 years ago, it’s hard to imagine such a massive company blaming the disaster on a single person -- even if he did abandon ship early and steer a little too close to shore. Even worse, while Carnival has vehemently denied earlier reports that it would offer survivors a 30% discount off future cruises, instead...

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Carnival Cruise Lines: No 'Spam-cation'

SAN DIEGO - Carnival Cruise Lines said Thursday although Spam was among the food items delivered to the stranded Splendor, the canned meat was not served to guests. "Despite media reports to the contrary, Carnival Splendor guests were never served Spam!" Carnival said on Twitter. The U.S. Navy Tuesday delivered food items to Splendor that Carnival ordered in the wake of the ship's four-day shutdown after an engine fire. Photos of Navy helicopters dropping crates of Spam sparked the term "Spam-cation." "We gave our food order to a supplier, not the Navy. The Navy kindly delivered the goods, (and) Spam...

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2nd tugboat fails, leaving 1 tugboat pulling crippled cruise ship to San Diego (Carnival cruise)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Coast Guard official says one of two tugboats tasked with pulling a disabled cruise ship to San Diego didn't have enough power and was forced to turn back. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jetta Disco says a Mexican company has sent a third tugboat to the scene but authorities are trying to determine whether it would be better to leave the one tugboat alone while it slowly makes headway.--snip--Instead of lavish buffets, passengers on the Carnival Splendor were subsisting on Spam, Pop Tarts and canned crabmeat flown in by Navy helicopters. People were trying to keep...

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Carnival Splendor Will Be Towed to San Diego, Next Cruise Canceled

Carnival Splendor, crippled by an engine-room fire on Monday and set adrift west of Baja California, has been met by one of the commercial ocean-going tugs sent to rendezvous with the ship, Cruise Critic has learned. Although the tug was originally intended to tow the ship -- with 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crewmembers onboard -- to Ensenada, Mexico, Carnival has announced in its latest statement that, given the ship's current speed and location, it will head to San Diego, where it's expected to arrive on Thursday. The cruise line is making arrangements for hotel accommodations and flights home for all...

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Nearly 4,500 Passengers Stranded on Carnival Cruise Ship Off Mexico

SAN DIEGO -- A cruise ship stranded offshore with 4,500 passengers and crew must be towed slowly into a Mexican port and will not arrive until at least Wednesday night, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

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US Virgin Islands: Gang shootout kills tourist

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S Virgin Islands — A 14-year-old Puerto Rican tourist was killed in front of her horrified family when she was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight attributed to warring gangs on the U.S. Virgin Islands. Gov. John deJongh identified the slain tourist as Lizmarie Perez Chapparro from Puerto Rico, who was struck by a bullet as she rode with her relatives on a packed "safari bus" that ferries tourists across the three-island territory. The girl and her family arrived in St. Thomas aboard the Carnival Victory, a Carnival Cruise Line ship that departed Puerto Rico's capital of...

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