Five lives have been tragically lost during a routine drill in the port of Santa Cruz, but this sad event is an industrial accident, not a calamity threatening all on board.

We've only just wiped the sweat from our brow following the averted Mayan apocalypse, but already news is spreading of another impending doom; and this one even has actual science behind it.

According to a group of experts at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, a solar superstorm - caused by the Sun ejecting billions of tonnes of highly-energetic matter travelling at a million miles an hour - is not only inevitable - but coming soon. "The two challenges for government are the wide spectrum of technologies affected today and the emergence of unexpected vulnerabilities as technology evolves," says Professor Paul Cannon. So let's prepare...

Are you tempted by the idea of a cruise, but wary of committing too much of the holiday budget and your annual leave to something you might not enjoy? Booking a mini-cruise of two to four nights is a low-risk way of dipping a toe in the ocean of available cruise lines and ships.

Following her stint as Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical, an album of familiar show tunes is a logical solo gambit for Kimberley Walsh; but familiarity is a Faustian pact from which she profits little on Centre Stage.

Men and women of marriageable age: do you feel the groom should always be taller than the bride?

The tour

Even though he's been a Hollywood star for three decades, Tom Cruise says he still has fun making movies.

Book on Scientology claims actor had political role for Church

This year brings a host of new ships to the seas, adding to the scores already jostling for our bookings. Planned at least three years ago, these gleaming newly built ships will be launched with fanfares despite gloomy economic forecasts for 2013.

Argentinian protesters disrupted the cruise ship industry today as they demonstrated for the Falklands Islands to be handed over.

The residents of Knightsbridge are suffering. Their simple village ways are under threat and their traditional lifestyle assailed by insensitive newcomers. And the problem, it seems, is the wrong kind of rich people. "Gulfies", to be specific, the local nickname for the moneyed Gulf Arabs who favour that part of London for their summer holidays and prefer to bring their own cars with them rather than rely on a holiday rental.

Alice Jones' Arts Diary

The number of passengers taken ill in suspected norovirus outbreaks on two luxury cruise liners has reached 400, US health authorities have said.

Shorter cruises are all the rage, says leading cruise line P&O (0843 374 0111; pocruises.co.uk), which is adding nine new two- to five-night sailings to the Channel Islands, Belgium and the Netherlands, all departing from Southampton. A two-night cruise on Azura to St Peter Port, Guernsey, costs from £199pp, including meals and entertainment. Departs 16 April.