At least 36 dead in boat crash

A vessel that collided with a passenger ferry off Hong Kong's Lamma island is pulled from the water on Tuesday, October 2. The vessel was reportedly taking passengers to watch the city's Chinese National Day fireworks display. Rescuers approach the sinking vessel late on Monday, October 1. Authorities said dozens of people were killed. A survivor is helpd onto an ambulance. The crash necessitated what local police called a "major rescue" operation, according to China's state-run media. Local residents try to get a glimpse of rescue personnel as they tend to a victim Monday night. The incident happened around 8:20 p.m. local time, just off the coast of Lamma Island, southwest of Hong Kong. Rescuers search for survivors near the crash site. More than 100 people were picked up. Survivors are transported to shore on a police boat late Monday. Medical and rescue personnel wait for survivors by the ferry pier. A victim is carried ashore Monday. Rescuers approach an overturned boat. A local company had rented one of the boats for a staff holiday outing. A rescuer looks through a window of the rapidly sinking ship. A passenger is helped on shore. Survivors were taken to a number of public hospitals. Members of the media surround rescue workers as they carry a victim into an ambulance Monday night. The crash sent dozens of passengers into the water. The rescue effort was still going on as dawn approached. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Impact was like hitting a rock or a lighthouse, a passenger says Rescue workers continue to search for survivors near the stricken vessel Death toll from the accident near Lamma Island rises to 36, Hong Kong authorities say The maritime disaster appears to be the territory's worst since 1971 Hong Kong (CNN) -- Rescue workers searched Tuesday off the shore of a Hong Kong island for survivors from the collision of two passenger boats that left at least 36 people dead in the territory's worst ferry accident in recent memory. The crash happened on Monday evening, a night when Hong Kong's busy waters were even more crowded than usual, as the city celebrated China's National Day. One of the two vessels, owned by The Hong Kong Electric Company, was carrying company employees and their families to watch the scheduled fireworks display when it was struck by a passenger ferry traveling from Hong Kong Island to Lamma Island. Government officials said the collision occurred off Lamma's coast around 8:20 p.m., plunging more than 100 people into the water. "I thought we'd hit a rock or a lighthouse," said Chris Head, a school teacher who was on the passenger ferry that crashed into the Hong Kong Electric vessel. He said the ferry went from what felt like full speed to "an abrupt halt." Head said the force of the impact threw him out of his seat at the back of the ferry, which was not very full of people. As the damaged ferry began to move toward the pier in the small town of Yung Shue Wan on Lamma, Head said he could see the other boat had started to sink into the water vertically, like the Titanic. Boats crash, dozens dead in Hong Kong "It was very dark," he said. "There were very few lights on board." Deadly ferry crash in Hong Kong According to the Hong Kong Fire Services Department (FSD), which led the rescue, the vessel began to sink quickly after the impact. It said low visibility and many obstacles on board made work difficult for rescuers. Celebration turns tragic in Hong Kong The FSD said its rescue boats, including a diving support vessel, managed to pull 123 people from the water.  Map: Collision site Map: Collision site Twenty-eight people were declared dead at the scene, and eight others were certified dead upon arrival at the hospital, according to a statement early Tuesday from the Hong Kong government. The death toll would appear to make the crash Hong Kong's most lethal maritime accident since 1971, when 88 people died after the ferry Fat Shan capsized between Hong Kong and Macau amid a typhoon. In 2008, 18 Ukrainian sailors died in 2008 after their boat hit a Chinese cargo ship and sank. "After 10 minutes out a boat crashed into ours from the side at very high speed," one male survivor from the accident Monday told the South China Morning Post, a local newspaper. "The rear of the ferry started to sink. I suddenly found myself deep under the sea. I swam hard and tried to grab a life buoy. I don't know where my two kids are." Residents on Lamma, a lightly populated island to the southwest of Hong Kong Island, reported being woken up in the middle of the night by the massive rescue operation going on offshore. On Tuesday, the front of the stricken vessel was still sticking out of the water, tethered to a barge equipped with a crane just a few hundred meters from the coast of Lamma. Emergency services boats surrounded the scene, and divers were conducting a search. The authorities have not ruled out the possibility that some people may still be inside the partially submerged vessel or missing at sea. Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung held a meeting with senior government officials to discuss rescue and relief work, as well as an investigation of the collision, his office said Tuesday. Despite a hole torn in its bow, the passenger ferry was able to dock safely after the crash. Government officials have not yet confirmed if passengers aboard that vessel were injured, but Head said nobody around him appeared to have been hurt. The narrow sea lanes leading into Hong Kong's main deepwater harbor are some of the busiest in Asia, with giant commercial freighters, ocean liners, passenger ferries and private boats of all sizes sharing the same waters. Hong Kong is home to more than 200 outlying Islands, including Lamma, which lies to the southwest of Hong Kong Island -- the city's financial center. Hong Kong Island is located to the south of Victoria harbor, with Kowloon forming its northern shores. To the north of Kowloon lie the New Territories, which stretch all the way to mainland China. Were you there? Share your stories, images and videos. CNN's Judy Kwon, Pamela Boykoff and Mark Morgenstein contributed to this report.

Opinion: New danger from drones

A model of of the European "Neuron" UAV at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, France in 2005. The UAV is an European Research project led by Dassault Aviation. An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) sits in a shelter at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, after a mission on November 10, 2008. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Reaper can carry up to 3,750 pounds of laser-guided bombs and missiles. A British MQ-9 Reaper sits on a runway on March 17. Both British and American Reapers are deployed to Afghanistan. U.S. Marines perform operational checks on a Marine Squardon Two (VMU-2) UAV before a launch at Speed Bag Airfield, near Niland, California, on October 25, 2011. A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator UAV assigned to the California Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing flies near the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California, on January 7. An Iranian-made drone is displayed during the Army Day celebrations in Tehran on April 18, 2010. A model of a surveillance drone built by Dassault Aviation and BAE Systems is displayed at the International Paris Air show in 2011. An Israeli Hermes 500 UAV flies over the Hatzerim air force base near Beersheva, Israel, during an air show at the graduation ceremony of Israeli pilots on June 30, 2011. Chinese visitors examine an unmanned helicopter drone at the China Aviation Expo in Beijing on September 21, 2011. Israeli soldiers prepare to launch a Skylark drone during a drill on January 16, 2012 near Bat Shlomo, Israel. The Skylark can carry a camera payload of up to 1 kilogram, has an operational ceiling of 15,000 feet, and allows users to monitor any designated point within a 15-kilometer radius. The Skylark unit consists of a ground control element and t hree drones, which provide battalion-level commanders with real-time information. An Israel Aerospace Industries UAV on display at the Singapore Airshow on February 15. A model of China's "Dark Sword" UAV. According to Jane's Defense & Security Intelligence & Analysis, the drone remains only a model, but offers an example of where China may go with its drone technology. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Peter Bergen: American monopoly on drones is long gone; 70 nations have them He says drones will change warfare and lead to a new arms race China, Iran, Israel, European nations are among those with drones, he says Bergen: U.S. use of drones is setting a precedent without enough discussion of the legal issues Editor's note: Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, is director of the national security studies program at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that seeks innovative solutions across the ideological spectrum, and the author of the new book "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden -- From 9/11 to Abbottabad." Jennifer Rowland is a program associate at the New America Foundation Washington (CNN) -- A decade ago, the United States had a virtual monopoly on drones. Not anymore. According to data compiled by the New America Foundation, more than 70 countries now own some type of drone, though just a small number of those nations possess armed drone aircraft. The explosion in drone technology promises to change the way nations conduct war and threatens to begin a new arms race as governments scramble to counterbalance their adversaries. Late last month, China announced that it would use surveillance drones to monitor a group of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan. In August 2010, Iran unveiled what it claimed was its first armed drone. And on Tuesday, the country's military chief, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, disclosed details of a new long-range drone that he said can fly 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), which puts Tel Aviv easily in range. Study: Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize too many civilians But without an international framework governing the use of drone attacks, the United States is setting a dangerous precedent for other nations with its aggressive and secretive drone programs in Pakistan and Yemen, which are aimed at suspected members of al Qaeda and their allies. There has been virtually no substantive public discussion about drone attacks among policymakers at the international level. Peter Bergen, Jennifer Rowland Just as the U.S. government justifies its drone strikes with the argument that it is at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates, one could imagine that India in the not too distant future might launch such attacks against suspected terrorists in Kashmir, or China might strike Uighur separatists in western China, or Iran might attack Baluchi nationalists along its border with Pakistan. This moment may almost be here. China took the United States by surprise in November 2010 at the Zhuhai Air Show, where it unveiled 25 drone models, some of which were outfitted with the capability to fire missiles. It remains unclear just how many of China's drones are operational and how many of them are still in development, but China is intent on catching up with the United States' rapidly expanding drone arsenal. Drones in Action Obama reflects on drone warfare use 'Drones completely counterproductive' Barack Obama's 'lethal presidency' When President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror" 11 years ago, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 drones. Now, it has around 7,500. As Bush embarked on that war, the United States had never used armed drones in combat. The first U.S. armed drone attack, which appears to be the first such strike ever, took place in mid-November 2001 and killed the military commander of al Qaeda, Mohammed Atef, in Afghanistan. Since then, the CIA has used drones equipped with bombs and missiles hundreds of times to target suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen. CNN Radio: Drone debate -- who can you trust? Only the United States, United Kingdom and Israel are known to have launched drone strikes against their adversaries, although other members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, such as Australia, have "borrowed" drones from Israel for use in the war there. Drone technology is proliferating rapidly. A 2011 study estimated that there were around 680 active drone development programs run by governments, companies and research institutes around the world, compared with just 195 in 2005. In 2010, U.S.-based General Atomics received export licenses to sell unarmed versions of the Predator drone to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. And in March, the U.S. government agreed to arm Italy's six Reaper drones but rejected a request from Turkey to purchase armed Predator drones. An official in Turkey's Defense Ministry said in July that Turkey planned to arm its own domestically produced drone, the Anka. Israel is the world's largest exporter of drones and drone technology, and the state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries has sold to countries as varied as Nigeria, Russia and Mexico. Building drones, particularly armed drones, takes sophisticated technology and specific weaponry, but governments are increasingly willing to invest the necessary time and money to either buy or develop them, as armed drones are increasingly seen as an integral part of modern warfare. Sweden, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France are working on a joint project through state-owned aeronautical companies and are in the final stages of developing an advanced armed drone prototype called the Dassault nEURon, from which the France plans to derive armed drones for its air force. And Pakistani authorities have long tried to persuade the United States to give them armed Predator drones, while India owns an armed Israeli drone designed to detect and destroy enemy radar, though it does not yet have drones capable of striking other targets. The Teal Group, a defense consulting firm in Virginia, estimated in June that the global market for the research, development and procurement of armed drones will just about double in the next decade, from $6.6 billion to $11.4 billion. News: Drones expected to hunt for suspects in Libya attack States are not alone in their quest for drones. Insurgent groups, too, are moving to acquire this technology. Last year, Libyan opposition forces trying to overthrow the dictator Moammar Gadhafi bought a sophisticated surveillance drone from a Canadian company for which they paid in the low six figures. You can even buy your own tiny drone on Amazon for $250. (And for an extra $3.99, you can get next-day shipping.) As drone technology becomes more widely accessible, it is only a matter of time before well-financed drug cartels acquire them. And you can imagine a day in the not too distant future where armed drones are used to settle personal vendettas. Given the relatively low costs of drones -- already far cheaper than the costs of a fighter jet and of training a fighter jet pilot -- armed drones will play a key role in future conflicts. Opinion: When are drone killings illegal? While the drone industry thrives and more companies, research institutes and nations jump on board the drone bandwagon, the United States is setting a powerful international norm about the use of armed drones, which it uses for pre-emptive attacks against presumed terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen. It is these kinds of drone strikes that are controversial; the use of drones in a conventional war is not much different than a manned aircraft that drops bombs or fires missiles. According to figures compiled by the New America Foundation, drone attacks aimed at suspected militants are estimated to have killed between 1,900 and 3,200 people in Pakistan over the past eight years. While there has been considerable discussion of the legality of such strikes in a number of U.S. law schools, there has been almost no substantive public discussion about drone attacks among policymakers at the international level. The time has come for some kind of international convention on the legal framework surrounding the uses of such weapons, which promise to shape the warfare of the future as much as tanks and bombers did during the 20th century. (Fatima Mustafa and Farhad Peikar contributed to the research for this article.) Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

NYPD commissioner blames rise in crime rate on Apple thefts

By Jonathan Dienst and Shimon Prokupecz, NBCNewYork.com A 40 percent jump in theft of Apple products is the main reason why crime rates in New York City have not declined this year, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly writes in a speech set to be delivered later Tuesday. "Overall crime is up 4 percent.  In the absence of the Apple thefts, we would be experiencing a decline," Kelly wrote.  Kelly said there were 11,447 thefts of Apple products so far in 2012, an increase of 3,280 over the same period last year. Related story: Thefts of iPhones, other Apple gadgets spike in New York Automatic shut off technology when a phone is stolen making it unusable and tracking systems like the "find my iphone" application can help reduce this growing crime problem and aide police in finding thieves, Kelly said. Additional undercover officers will be soon be assigned to patrol the subways where some of the robberies are taking place. The NYPD is also set to announce a new crackdown on street gangs in an attempt to try to further reduce violence and robberies across the city. Related story: NYPD urges iPhone 5 owners to be smart, register devices Dubbed "Operation Crew Cut", the NYPD will double the size of its anti-gang unit to 300 officers to stop local street crews that are increasingly responsible for committing violent crimes. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is expected to announce 150 additional detectives will join the gang unit. "We'll focus those resources not on large, established gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, but on the looser associations of younger men who identify themselves by the block they live on, or on which side of a housing development they reside," Kelly wrote in a speech set to be delivered to the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in San Diego. NYPD Transit and Housing Bureau officers will also assist in increasing patrols to try to keep local street crews in check.  Detectives will also increase their monitoring of social media where crew members sometimes boast of the shootings or robberies they committed or plan to commit, Kelly said. More content from NBCNews.com: Calif. governor vetoes bill that OK'd towns freeing undocumented immigrants Feds: Suspect in multimillion-dollar scam is Harvard law grad Pranked teen shines at homecoming ceremony Police: No foul play in missing NJ teen Kara Alongi case Video: Gearing up for Wednesday's big debate Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

MacArthur Foundation reveals 2012 'genius grants'

CHICAGO — Mandolin player and composer Chris Thile learned the hard way that when you get a call from the 312 area code this time of year, you should probably answer the phone. Thile is among 23 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grants," which are given in a secrecy-shrouded process. Winners have no idea they've been nominated for the $500,000 awards until they get the call, and nominators must remain anonymous. Thile ignored the incessant phone calls from the foundation at first, thinking they were election-year robocalls. Then he received an ominous message: "Don't tell anyone about this call." His tour manager searched for the number online and told him, "It appears to be from something called the MacArthur Foundation." It was a name Thile recognized. "I think I must have turned white," he said. "I've never felt so internally warm. My heart was racing. All of a sudden, I felt very askew physically. I was trying to catch my breath. ... I thought, 'Oh my God, did I win a MacArthur?'" The grants, paid over five years, give recipients freedom to pursue a creative vision. Winners, who work in fields ranging from medicine and science to the arts and journalism, don't have to report how they spend the money. Thile, who played with Nickel Creek and is now touring with Punch Brothers, said he may use the grant to fund a chamber music project for a bluegrass quintet. Northwestern University historian Dylan C. Penningroth said he now can expand his search for court records of property owned by slaves in the pre-Civil War South. "This grant will make it possible for me to think big, to be more ambitious about the time period I cover and the questions I'm trying to answer, like, what's the connection to the modern civil rights era?" Penningroth said. For other winners — there have been 873 so far, including this year's recipients — the grants bring prestige, confirmation and, in some cases, moments of profound reflection about life and fate. "It left me thinking about my childhood," said Dominican-American author Junot Diaz, who wrote the Pulitzer-winning novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." "It would never have dawned on me to think such a thing was possible for me," Diaz said, reflecting on his early years in New Jersey "struggling with poverty, struggling with English. ... I came from a community that was about as hard-working as you can get and yet no one saw or recognized in any way our contributions or our genius. ... I have to wonder, but for circumstances, how many other kids that I came up with are more worthy of this fellowship than me?" David Finkel, author and national enterprise editor for the Washington Post, said the grant will allow him to complete a story he began in his book, "The Good Soldiers." The nonfiction work recounted the experiences of a U.S. Army infantry battalion deployed to Baghdad as part of the 2007 surge. Finkel is now following returning soldiers and their families, "watching a lot of them sink lower and lower and try to get help and maybe not doing so well with the help that's out there." Winning a MacArthur grant felt like an endorsement not only of his own work, he said, but also of the type of long-form journalism he practices, which is in jeopardy as newspapers respond to the digital age. Declining circulation has forced newspaper publishers to shrink the size of their print publications and their staffs. Finkel admires the experimentation under way in journalism, but added: "I'm old-fashioned. The thing I'm most moved by is a well-told, deeply reported long story." Maurice Lim Miller saw the MacArthur nod as validation of his project, called the Family Independence Initiative. The project, started in 2001 in Oakland, Calif., rewards self-sufficiency among residents of low-income neighborhoods by bringing groups of friends together and asking them to track the steps they take toward saving money, finding jobs, helping their children do well in school and other goals. Families increase their incomes and savings, start businesses and buy homes, he said. Neither liberal nor conservative, the initiative transcends the current political debate about personal responsibility, Lim Miller said. "Our work falls between the arguments that are being had between the right and the left," Lim Miller said. "The argument that people DON'T take personal responsibility is wrong. But the argument that they SHOULD take personal responsibility is right." MacArthur winner Elissa Hallem is studying how parasitic worms find hosts through their sense of smell. Threadworms, attracted by carbon dioxide, can enter a person's body through the soles of the feet, for example. Hallem's work may someday prevent parasites from harming humans and improve the efficiency of good parasites that infect crop-killing insects. "I didn't manage to say much other than, 'Wow' and 'Thank you,'" Hallem said about the "genius grant" call, which came as she was working in the microscope room at the University of California, Los Angeles. "I feel very honored that they recognized my work in this way and are making this investment in my research." Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Second arrest in St. Maarten killings

The 17-year-old man is identified by his initials, J.C.M. Another suspect is scheduled to appear in court this week Michael and Thelma King were found stabbed to death in their home (CNN) -- Police arrested Monday a second suspect in connection with the stabbing deaths of an American couple on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, authorities said. The 17-year-old man was identified by his initials, J.C.M. He was arrested in the Cole Bay area shortly before 4 p.m., according to a statement from the St. Maarten Public Prosecutor's office. It said further arrests could not be ruled out. A 28-year-old suspect is already in custody in connection with the deaths of Michael and Thelma King. Their bodies were discovered last month at their oceanfront residence in Cupecoy, a beach town on the southwest tip of the Dutch island nation. That suspect, known as M.K.J., denies any involvement in the killings, his attorney has said. He appeared in a closed-door court hearing last week and is expected to appear again Wednesday, when prosecutors will seek to have the judge order the suspect's pre-trial detention. Neither suspect has been formally charged in court. St. Maarten is a self-governing country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, whose economy is based on the tourism industry. More than 1 million tourists visit the island each year. The killings occurred in what is generally considered a safe area that is popular with tourists, according to the island's solicitor general, Taco Stein. Stein, who was once solicitor general for Aruba, has said authorities "are not certain of the motive in the case." "Some things are missing" from the Kings' home, but there were no signs of a break-in, he said.