If convicted, the officers face a maximum five-year sentence. The captain, chief mate, second mate, third mate, chief cabin steward, and housekeeper of the Greek-flagged vessel were arrested after the accident, a merchant marine ministry spokeswoman said earlier on Saturday. All were released pending further investigations.

Missing tourists

Two French passengers are still missing after the sinking of the Sea Diamond, which hit rocks on Thursday and sank off the coast of the Greek island of Santorini. The rest of the 1,154 passengers and 391 crew were safely evacuated. The 469ft vessel hit a well-marked and charted reef in fair weather inside Santorini's sea-filled crater. The ship had been due to dock a few minutes later. The sinking vessel was evacuated in a three-hour rescue operation, but Jean-Christophe Allain, 45, and his 16-year-old daughter, Maud, from Doue-la-Fontaine in western France were later listed as missing, feared to have been trapped in their flooded lower-deck cabin.

Largest Greek rescue

The ministry spokeswoman said the search for the two continued, while divers continued to investigate the hulk of the Sea Diamond. Officials were also carrying out a clean-up effort for fuel that leaked out of the 21-year-old vessel, which sank 15 hours after the accident.

"The vessel maintained the highest level of safety standards and was equipped with the latest navigation systems," said Giorgos Stathopoulos, spokesman for the ship's operator, Louis Cruise Lines. Thursday's evacuation was the largest Greek rescue operation since the September 2000 Express Samina ferry disaster, which killed 80 people near the holiday island of Paros when it struck rocks in the night and sank. It also created a major headache for officials in Greece's key tourism industry - which accounts for an estimated 18 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.

"Whoever is responsible for this will be held accountable in the strictest way," Fanny Petralia, the tourism minister said. "Greece is a major tourism destination and incidents like this must not be allowed to occur. Authorities handled the rescue very well."

'Orderly evacuation'

Manolis Kefaloyannis, the merchant marine minister, said the evacuation "was orderly and successful. "Every decision was taken in a way that would not endanger lives". But some passengers complained of an insufficient supply of life vests, little guidance from crew members and being forced into a steep climb down rope-ladders to safety. Most of the passengers were American, but there also were groups from Canada and Spain.

The report, issued Friday, paints a bleak picture of Earth's future: hundreds of millions of people short of water, extreme food shortages in Africa, a landscape ravaged by floods and millions of species sentenced to extinction.

Despite its harsh vision outlining devastating effects that will strike all regions of the world and all levels of society, the report was quickly criticized by some scientists who said its findings were hijacked by some governments.

"The science got hijacked by the political bureaucrats at the late stage of the game," said John Walsh, a climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who helped write a chapter on the polar regions.

"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit (by global warming)," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report is also, in a sense, a more pointed indictment of the world's biggest polluters -- the industrialized nations – and a more specific identification of those who will suffer, said the paper.

Thus, some nations lobbied for last-minute changes to the dire predictions. Negotiations led to deleting some timelines for events, as well as some forecasts on how many people would be affected on each continent as global temperatures rose, the paper noted.

Charter Communications Inc. filed a $150-million lawsuit Friday against Irell & Manella, accusing the prominent Los Angeles law firm of "critical errors" in completing a 1999 cable TV acquisition.

Charter's suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, also alleges that Irell concealed its mistakes for as many as nine months in 2002 after learning about them.

Irell has been the longtime counsel for St. Louis-based Charter and its controlling chairman, Paul G. Allen, on a variety of deals, including recent refinancings.

Charter spokeswoman Anita Lamont said Friday that the malpractice claims could not be resolved short of a lawsuit.

Irell partner David Gindler accused Allen of failing to "honor the intent" of the deal that Charter's board approved.

"If Charter suffered any loss at all, our firm was not the cause," Gindler said. "We are confident that we will prevail as the whole story emerges in court."

A man has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after authorities said he told workers at a local shelter that he was getting rid of his Doberman puppy because his hands hurt from hitting it.

Isaak Gowhari, 34, of Los Angeles, was sentenced Thursday to 45 days in county jail after entering his plea to the misdemeanor counts. The judge also barred Gowhari from owning an animal for three years.

Gowhari could not immediately be reached for comment. His telephone number was unlisted.

Authorities said Gowhari came under investigation after he gave Gracie, a 7-month-old Doberman, to an animal shelter. The puppy had newly broken ribs and injuries to its legs.

"Gowhari told the animal shelter workers that he was surrendering the dog because his hands hurt from hitting the animal," said animal control Officer Ernesto Poblano.

Photos seized by investigators showed Gracie's snout taped shut and her legs bandaged.

"At times, Gowhari did get Gracie medical care for the injuries he inflicted, but he apparently did not follow up on treatments and the injuries became aggravated and did not heal," Poblano said.

Gracie recovered from her injuries and has since been adopted.

Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, on Wednesday waived his right to a federal grand jury indictment and pleaded guilty to crossing state lines with a minor for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.

Sanchez is expected to be sentenced June 22 to at least five years and as many as 30 in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall advised Sanchez that after he completes his prison term he will be deported.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James K. Filan Jr. told the judge that the teenager admitted having a sexual relationship with Sanchez.

On June 10, Filan said the pair left Norwalk and traveled to New York City, where they boarded a bus with the intention of going to California, where they would live with Sanchez's sister.

The girl's parents contacted authorities, who quickly learned from one of her friends that she had telephoned from New York.

Filan said FBI agents were able to trace telephone calls she made to a bus station in Indiana and learned the bus was headed to St. Louis. On June 14, agents stopped the bus, boarded it and arrested Sanchez, the prosecutor said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani said prosecutors would recommend lenient sentences for both men, provided they continued to cooperate. Each man could face as long as 13 years in prison if maximum penalties are imposed.

Government attorneys and Levin and Lawrence agreed in a "statement of facts" document that Monem received $532,000 from L&L Inc., which the two defendants own.

"These payments were meant to influence and reward the (Oregon Department of Corrections) employee, and corruptly ensure future sales of distressed foods by L&L Inc. to ODOC," the document says.

Between July 2004 and January 2007, the Oregon prison system purchased $4.36 million worth of food from the California firm, court papers show.

A driver arrested after the crash that killed "A Christmas Story" director Bob Clark and his son pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Prosecutors say Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, steered his sport-utility vehicle into the wrong lane of Pacific Coast Highway early Wednesday. Clark, 67 and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, died at the scene.

Velazquez-Nava had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit, authorities said.

Velazquez-Nava was being held on $200,000 bail, although a federal immigration hold prevents him from posting bail. Immigration officials have said he is in the country illegally.

If convicted, he could face at least 10 years in state prison, prosecutors said.