#CARNIVAL

Dozens of Costa Concordia survivors have joined in a Florida lawsuit against Carnival Corp. accusing them of negligence and fraud.

The 2012 carnival season has arrived! From Venice to Rio, Tenerife to Trinidad, here's a preview of what to expect at the world's greatest carnivals.

On Friday, unions representing the city's police, firefighters and military police voted to strike and to protest in downtown Rio de Janeiro. But Carnival and nearly one million tourists are arriving in just seven days.

Masked revelers in colorful makeovers thronged to the Venetian streets and the city's St. Mark's Square as a preview of the Venice Carnival 2012 was held Feb. 4 and 5 in Venice, Italy.

More than 100 people on board a cruise ship operated by a unit of Carnival Corp have fallen ill with a stomach virus, the latest setback facing the world's biggest cruise company, which came under scrutiny last month for the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in Italy.

In the wake of the Costa Concordia cruise ship sinking, two lines are offering vacationers free flights as part of a new marking campaign.

Shirley MacLaine is coming to Downton Abbey.

Though Carnival revealed its sales had declined in the mid-teens on Monday following the Costa Concordia cruise ship sinking, most travel agencies have seen little change in bookings.

Carnival Corp said on Monday that it will take a hit between $155 million and $175 million against fiscal 2012 net income because of the wreck of the Costa Concordia.

Carnival Corp. on Monday said it would take a $155 million to $175 million hit against net income in fiscal 2012, blaming the Costa Concordia cruise ship catastrophe.

The Costa Concordia crew is suing the Carnival Corp. for at least $100 million following the Jan. 13 disaster that has left the cruise ship sinking off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio.

Costa is offering the passengers who were aboard the Concordia when the cruise ship sank an 11,000 euro ($14,500) compensation package, which, when totaled, will bring a significant loss to the cruising company.

Many consumer groups in Italy have signed an agreement with Costa Cruises to offer about 11,000 euros ($14,458) as compensation to each of the more than 3,000 passengers for losses and injuries after the Concordia cruise ship capsized near the Italian Island of Giglio.

The offer of a 30 percent discount on future cruises, made by the owners of the recently shipwrecked Costa Concordia (Costa Cruises), has been faced with a number of angry responses from passengers of the ill-fated luxury liner.

Italian Coast Guard divers battling the elements including light fuel seeping into the water have found a woman's body in a corridor of a sunken section of the Costa Concordia cruise ship. The woman's body, one of the 21 still missing, was found Saturday. Italian Coast Guard divers found the woman wearing a life jacket in a narrow corridor near an evacuation staging point at the ship's rear, according to The Associated Press.

The first of what will surely be many inevitable lawsuits against the Costa cruise line over the sinking of the Concordia have been started. Two U.S. law firms are planning to sue on behalf of the passengers of the cruise ship.

With his cruise ship sinking, the captain wanted food, said a cook from the ship in an interview with a Filipino television station on Thursday. Cook Rogelio Barista told the GMA Network that Schettino ordered the dinner amid the deadly chaos that killed at least 11 people with some 21 still missing.

A new audiotape released Thursday, details the first contact between the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that ran aground by the Tuscan island of Giglio, and the port of Livorno, the Associated Press reported. On the tape, Capt. Francesco Schettino is heard telling the port that the Costa Concordia was only suffering from a blackout - 30 minutes after his ship hit a reef.

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia cruise ship, is in police custody and for good reason. He went against the maritime protocol and endangered the lives of the 4,200 people on board the ship when it went down.

There are procedures and protocols in place for all maritime disasters. Costa captain Francescho Schettino didn't appear to follow any of them when the ship crashed on Friday.

A total of 14.8 million passengers went on cruises in 2010, an increase of 10.3 percent over the prior year,