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AT least one person was killed and 16 were missing in frigid, choppy waters off Canada's Atlantic Coast after a helicopter crashed last night while ferrying workers to two offshore oil projects.
One of the passengers was rescued and taken to a hospital and an official said another person had been found dead.

Search crews had found no sign of the others, although they were wearing signal equipment designed to help locate them in case of a crash.

"At this time, all we've got is the debris field. There is no indication of survivors, but the search will continue," Denis McGuire of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said.

The survivor, who was from St. John's, was being treated in intensive care, local media reported.

Two life rafts pulled from the water near where the aircraft went down were found to be empty. The passengers and crew were wearing suits designed to help them survive in the water for up to 30 hours.

"We will continue to search until there is absolutely no chance that survivors will be found," Mr McGuire said.

Related Coverage

* Fears for 16 in oil-rig chopper crashThe Australian, 13 Mar 2009
* One dead, one rescued in chopper crashNEWS.com.au, 13 Mar 2009
* Missing trawler foundNEWS.com.au, 10 Mar 2009
* Fisherman tells of miracle rescuePerth Now, 10 Mar 2009
* Plane crash found on hunchCourier Mail, 2 Mar 2009

The helicopter sank in the North Atlantic about 65km southeast of the Newfoundland and Labrador capital, St. John's.

"The pilot did report that he was having some technical malfunction and was turning back to St. John's," said Rick Burt, general manager of Cougar Helicopters, which operated the Sikorsky S-92 transport.

Officials declined to speculate why signals from the locater beacons carried by the passengers and crew had not been heard. Passengers are required to put on the survival suits before boarding the aircraft.

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Online merchants challenge 43% of credit card chargebacks and recover losses from 39% of those challenges, resulting in a net recovery of 17% of chargebacks, CyberSource says. USA Today also runs an article on cyber-merchants challenging more chargebacks from unscrupulous customers.

Visits to 7 of the top 10 online shopping sites increased by double digits in October 2005, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Target was #1 with visits increasing 63% to 17.6 mln from 10.8 mln in October 2004. Shopzilla.com experienced the second largest increase, with visits rising 56% to 17.5 mln from 11.2 mln in October 2004; followed by Overstock.com, up 38% to 14.1 mln from 10.2 mln; Dell, up 27% to 16.7 mln from 13.2 mln; Wal-Mart Stores, up 26% to 16.2 mln from 12.9 mln; Amazon, up 19% to 39 mln from 32.7 mln; the Shopping.com network, up 13% to 16.8 mln from 14.8 mln, and eBay, up 9% to 53.2 mln from 48.6 mln. Visits dropped at two sites: Yahoo Shopping, where visits fell 36% to 11.2 mln from 17.5 mln, and Expedia, where visits decreased 3% to 15 mln from 15.5 mln.

57% of Australian shoppers prefer to pay for online item purchases using direct bank deposit. 31% prefer using a third party secure online payment system. Money orders/cheques were preferred by 5%. Credit cards were preferred by only 5% of respondents. 52% of sellers preferred accepting payment via third party secure online payment systems. 46% of sellers preferred receiving payment via direct deposit. Credit cards were preferred by 1% of sellers.

According to Stored Value Systems, 80% of US consumers said they would rather receive a gift card to their favorite retailer than any other kind of gift. 76% of adults purchased gift cards in the 2005 holiday season. 91% of adults who had received holiday gift cards had redeemed them before the end of February 2006. 75% of recipients made sure they used up the card completely. 80% of people would rather get a gift card to a favorite retailer than any other kind of gift. More than 50% of respondents say that they always or often add their own money when making a purchase with a gift card. Of those purchasing holiday gift cards, 67% bought them in early December 2005. 68% of adults prefer or bought gift cards with an appropriate holiday design. 80% say that they spend more (33%) or the same amount (47%) on a gift card than they would on an alternate gift. Those who received gift cards during the 2005 holiday season were given an average of 2.6 cards, with an average value of $42.32. 91% had redeemed their gift cards before the end of February 2006 - internet marketing news.