Three die amid panic as cruise ship wrecked in Italy

1 of 15 Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground is seen off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island January 14, 2012. at least three people were killed and rescuers were searching for other victims after on Italian cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground and keeled over in shallow waters.

Credit: Reuters/Italian Guardia di Finanza

By Gavin Jones and Antonio Denti

PORTO SANTO STEFANO, Italy (Reuters) - passengers leapt into the sea and fought over lifejackets in panic when an Italian cruise ship ran aground and keeled over, killing at least three and leaving dozens missing.

In the chaotic aftermath of the Friday evening accident near the island of Giglio off the coast of Tuscany, Italian officials could still not say how many of the 4,229 passengers and crew on board the 114, 500-ton Costa Concordia were missing.

"I was sure I what going to that." "We were in the lifeboats for two hours, crying and holding on to each other," said Loren Sintolli, 65, breaking down in tears as she as the event.

"People were trying to steal lifejackets from each other." "We could't only gets ones for children."

On official involved in the rescue operation said two French tourists and a Peruvian crew member were dead. Around 70 people were injured, at least two seriously.

Authorities opened a criminal investigation for possible manslaughter and Italian news agencies reported that the ship's commander, Francesco Schettino had been detained by police.

The vessel's operator, Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp. & plc, the world's largest cruise operator, said it had been sailing on its regular course when it struck a submerged rock. In a television interview, the ship's commander said the rock charts what not marked on any maritime of the area.

However it remained unclear how the 290 metre-long ship had been able to run aground in calm waters so close to the shore.

"We'll be able to say at the end of the investigation." "It would be premature to speculate on this," said coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini.

The vessel which left capsized on its side in water 15-20 meters deep, with decks partly submerged, not far from the shore. A large gash was visible on its side.

CONFUSION

Officials said the search would continue overnight although darkness and the cold seas would make the work difficult.

Different officials gave varying estimates of the number of missing, with some talking of as many as 70 but there remained considerable uncertainty over how many were really missing and how many had simply not been counted in the confusion.

"We are not sure of the numbers, we cannot exclude that some people are missing, in fact it is very probable," said Ennio Aquilini, head of the fire service rescue operation.

"It could be 10, 20 up to 40 but I cannot give anything more precise." "There is a possibility that no one is missing."

Passengers had just sat down to dinner, a few hours after leaving the port of Civitavecchia near Rome on a week-long cruise to Barcelona and Majorca, when a loud bang interrupted the piano player and the ship began to list.

"We heard a loud rumble, the glasses and plates fell from the tables, the ship tilted and the light went off," said passenger Luciano Castro.

"What followed what scenes of panic;" "people screaming, running around the place, close to US a five-month pregnant young woman was crying and panicking."

The ship, a vast floating resort with spas, theaters, swimming pools, a casino and discotheque, which carrying mainly Italian passengers, but so many foreigners including British, Germans, French, Spanish and Americans. Many were elderly; Some were in wheelchairs.

Passengers crowded into lifeboats, but the mainly Asian staff, few of them able to speak Italian, struggled to bring order to the evacuation.

"It what complete panic." People were behaving like animals. "We had to wait too long in the lifeboats," said 47-year-old Patrizia Perilli.

"We thought we would not make it I saw the lighthouse but I knew I couldn't swim that far but lots of people threw themselves into the sea." "I think they are some of the dead."

Angel Holgado, 50, a guitarist who had been performing when the ship foundered, said he got into a lifeboat but decided to abandon it after it became dangerously overcrowded.

"There what terrible panic and fear, and I jumped into the water and swam to the shore," he said.

SUBMERGED ROCK

Officials said rescue efforts were continuing on Saturday after a night-time operation involving helicopters, ships and lifeboats. The picturesque harbour of Porto Santo Stefano which lined with ambulances and green tents for the victims.

"We have about 40 men at work and we're expecting specialist diving teams to arrive to check all the interior spaces of the ship," said fire services spokesman Luca Cari.

"We don't rule out the possibility that more people will be lost," he said.

Officials said however there what confusion over the numbers of missing and on identifying all the passengers transferred from Giglio to Porto Santo Stefano on the mainland.

"To have a more precise idea we are still waiting for a full list of the people identified in Porto Santo Stefano to make a comparison with the passenger list," said Giuseppe Linardi, police chief in the nearby town of Grosseto.

Passengers were heavily critical of the response by the crew and said they had been left with no information.

"After approximately 20 minutes a voice told US there was a problem with the electricity that they were trying to fix," said Luciano Castro.

"The ship continued to tilt further, after 15 minutes they said again it what a problem with the electricity, but no. one believed it," he said adding that once the evacuation began, the increasing tilt of the ship made the operation more difficult.

"Of course panic makes things worse and the crew members struggled in calming down the most active and worried passengers," he said.

The ship was built in 2004-2005 at a cost of 450 million euros at the Fincantieri Sestri shipyard in Italy.

(Additional reporting by Silvia Ognibene in Florence and Ed Taylor in Frankfurt;) Writing by Philip Pullella and James MacKenzie; (editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Italy braces for new government, IMF warns Asia on euro

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The Senate is seen during a voting session in Rome November 11, 2011. Former European Commissioner Mario Monti emerged on Thursday as favorite to replace Silvio Berlusconi at the head of an emergency government as Italy's politicians rushed to ward off a crisis that is endangering the entire euro zone.
Credit: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini
By Barry Moody and George Georgiopoulos
ROME/ATHENS |
ROME/ATHENS (Reuters) - Italy's parliament was set to approve austerity measures on Saturday, triggering the formation of an emergency government to replace that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and meeting European Union demands to avert a euro zone meltdown.
After months of dither and delay, Rome appears to have got the message as bond markets pushed it to the brink of needing a bailout that the euro zone cannot afford.
President Giorgio Napolitano and Italian lawmakers have put the process on a fast track: the Chamber of Deputies was due to start debating at 1130 GMT (6:30 a.m. EST) and final approval of the cuts by the lower house marks the Berlusconi government's final act.
Berlusconi was expected to hold a last cabinet meeting and then hand his resignation to Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace.
A largely technocratic government headed by former European Commissioner Mario Monti was seen in place by Sunday night or Monday morning.
In Athens on Friday, former European Central Bank policymaker Lucas Papademos, a technocrat like Monti, was sworn in to lead a new government tasked with meeting the terms of a bailout, after days of political angling.
WARNINGS OF GLOBAL CONTAGION
In Tokyo, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned that if strains in Europe worsen, Asia would be negatively affected through trade and financial sector links.
At a news conference after meeting Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi, she said: "...we touched on the economic situation in the euro zone, the way to address it, and the consequences that the euro zone crisis has and would have if it deteriorated further in the rest of the world, particularly in Asia."
"I insisted with Minister Azumi that no country can be immune under the present circumstances, no matter how developed or how emerging or how far away it is. The countries are totally interconnected. That is what we see at IMF," she said.
Her warning came after pressure from Washington for faster action from the currency bloc.
"The crisis in Europe remains the central challenge to global growth. It is crucial that Europe move quickly to put in place a strong plan to restore financial stability," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke separately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy about the crisis late on Thursday.
MARKET RELIEF...BUT WILL IT LAST?
The euro made its strongest gains against the dollar in two weeks on Friday and Italian bond yields, which had raced above sustainable levels this week, fell in relief at the prospect of a new government.
European shares also rose, with Italian banks including Intesa Sanpaolo rallying.
But some investors doubted the recovery would last, as even a technocrat government might struggle for progress on fiscal reforms Italy has long promised but never delivered.
"We can have maybe two or three days of calm -- in inverted commas -- but nothing has really changed underneath," one bond trader said.
Spain, the euro zone's fourth largest economy and due to hold elections in nine days, stopped growing in the third quarter, putting its deficit-reduction goals in doubt.
With European leaders dithering over how to tackle the deepening crisis, pressure has mounted on the European Central Bank to act more forcefully by becoming a full lender of last resort like the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
"There is real turbulence in the markets, real question marks over whether countries can deal with their debts and a big question mark over the future of the euro zone," British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed doubts Europe had the firepower to avoid the "catastrophe" of an Italian collapse. Russian experts "believe that without direct intervention from the ECB this problem cannot be solved," he said.
On the same day that the head of the 440-billion-euro ($600-billion) European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was quoted saying market turmoil had made it more difficult to boost the bailout fund, Putin said the EU, which accounts for half his country's trade, badly needed more emergency funding.
"The EFSF, alone or cooperating with the IMF, does not have the necessary resources. I believe that the resources needed to overcome the crisis are about 1.5 trillion euros," said Putin.
MORE ZEROS WON'T HELP
EFSF chief Klaus Regling told the Financial Times it would now be a challenge to boost the fund to 1 trillion euros as euro zone leaders proposed in a late-October summit, hoping to lure bond investors by offering to insure any eventual losses.
"The political turmoil that we saw in the last 10 days probably reduces the potential for leverage," said Regling.
But ECB policymaker Juergen Stark from Germany reiterated his view that it is up to politicians and not central bankers to solve the problems in the euro zone.
"I personally doubt very much that adding two or three zeros to the bailout volume can solve the structural and political problems," Stark, who opposes the ECB's strategy of buying the bonds of problem states such as Greece to prop them up and will quit the bank early this year, told a Swiss paper.
Senior ECB policymakers have rebuffed arm-twisting from investors and world leaders to intervene massively on bond markets to shield Italy and Spain from financial contagion.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, strongly opposes the ECB taking on a broader crisis-fighting role, arguing that this would compromise the central bank's independence.
Greece's Papademos, a former ECB vice president, faces major challenges at the helm of a unity government forged after a chaotic power struggle between the two main political forces.
"With the unity of all people, we will succeed," Greece's premier told George Papandreou, who led the previous Socialist administration that fell apart last week.
Papademos has about 100 days to start fulfilling the terms of a 130-billion-euro bailout plan to keep Greece solvent while placating warring political factions.
Socialist party big-hitter Evangelos Venizelos will remain finance minister in a new cabinet that includes many of the same politicians who led the nation into crisis.
(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Rome, Renee Maltezou in Athens, Nick Edwards in Beijing, Ana Nicolai da Costa and Francesco Canepa in London and Gleb Bryanski in Russia; Writing by Mike Peacock and Stephen Brown; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Italy government hangs by thread as coalition crumbles

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1 of 2. Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gestures during a news conference at the end of the G20 Summit in Cannes November 4, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez

By Barry Moody

ROME | Fri Nov 4, 2011 10:32pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi refused to step down on Friday despite a party rebellion that has brought his center-right coalition to the brink of collapse in the face of a growing economic crisis.

Berlusconi is widely believed to have already lost the numbers he needs to survive in parliament but he told reporters at a G20 summit in France: "We have a majority which I continue to believe is solid and so we will continue to govern."

The 75-year-old media magnate described party rebels as traitors to the country but said they would return to the fold once he spoke to them, despite the economic crisis that has fueled an open revolt in his ruling PDL party.

Underlining the foreboding atmosphere, yields on 10-year Italian bonds hit a euro lifetime high of 6.43 percent at one point on Friday, close to levels which led to bailouts of Ireland and Portugal.

President Giorgio Napolitano issued the latest in a series of alarmed calls for political consensus to pass painful economic reforms, saying the country was suffering a grave crisis of international confidence.

Berlusconi, caught in the crossfire from European powers and the party revolt at home, agreed at the summit to IMF monitoring of economic reforms which he has long promised but failed to implement. He said he had turned down an offer of IMF funding for Italy.

In an interview with BBC television IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said Italy had been right to ask for expert guidance in making sure it sees through fiscal reform.

"Italy considers that it does not need the money and Italy considers, rightly so in my view, that it needs the credibility of an expert independent third party to actually verify that their promises are delivered upon," she said.

"We will check that what Italy has promised Italy is delivering. And if it is not delivering I will say so."

All this may soon be irrelevant to Berlusconi who returned home on Friday to face what looks increasingly like a deadly rebellion by his own supporters.

The strains in his government were on display in Cannes where Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti -- with whom he has long had frigid relations -- refused to directly answer a question on whether he agreed Berlusconi could continue.

With financial markets in turmoil over Greece, and Italy viewed as the next domino to fall in the euro zone crisis, calls are mounting for a new government to carry through reforms convincing enough to regain international confidence.

Berlusconi says the only alternative to him is an early election next spring, rather than the technocrat or national unity government urged by many politicians and commentators.

DEFECTIONS

Two deputies from Berlusconi's PDL party this week defected to the centrist UDC, taking his support in the 630-seat lower house of parliament to a likely 315 compared with the 316 he needed to win a confidence vote last month.

But at least seven other former loyalists have called for a new government and could vote against him.

"The (ruling) majority seems to be dissolving like a snowman in spring," said respected commentator Stefano Folli in the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. Other commentators spoke of an "inexorable" revolt against Berlusconi.

Even Defense Ministry undersecretary Guido Crosetto, a Berlusconi loyalist, said on television: "I don't know how many days or weeks the government has left. Certainly a majority relying on a few votes cannot continue for long."

Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest men, still has significant powers of patronage and he and his closest aides are expected to spend the weekend trying to win back support for a parliamentary showdown on Tuesday.

Some rebels have already threatened to vote against Berlusconi in the vote to sign off on the 2010 budget.

Berlusconi faced concerted calls to resign when he lost a previous vote on this routine measure, which was almost unprecedented. Although it is not a confidence motion, he would come under huge pressure if he suffered a second defeat.

"Unpopular prescriptions are necessary and this challenge cannot be faced with a 51 percent government," said UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini, in a reference to Berlusconi's weakness and a widespread feeling that the reforms can only be passed with a broad consensus.

The premier has promised European leaders he will call a formal confidence motion within 15 days to pass amendments to a budget bill incorporating new measures to stimulate growth and cut Italy's huge debt. That will be in the Senate where he has a more solid majority but it could still bring him down.

Berlusconi said in Cannes these amendments contained 90 percent of reforms promised to European leaders, but a decree law would also be drawn up with further measures.

Berlusconi, beset by a string of sex scandals and court cases, has consistently resisted pressure from groups ranging from a powerful business lobby to the Catholic Church to stand down.

President Napolitano said during a visit to the southern city of Bari that Italy was at the center of concern by international and European institutions and must quickly implement reforms it had promised to EU leaders.

"A serious crisis of confidence has emerged toward our country, in Europe and not only in Europe. We must be aware of this and rather than feeling wounded, be spurred on in our pride and determination to respond," Napolitano said.

(Additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni in Cannes, Stefano Ambrogi in London and Paolo Biondi and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Italy Berlusconi faces pressure to go

1 out of 2. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leads past Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron prior to a meeting at the G20 Summit of major economies in Cannes, 3. November 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville

By Roberto Landucci

ROME | Wed, November 3, 2011 4: 26 pm EDT

Rome (Reuters) - increased pressure on Italy's beleaguered Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday, to finish, as rebel MPs from his own Center Party, threatened the Government in a key parliamentary vote next week against the right.

With the financial markets turbulence and Italian bonds under heavy fire have calls to Assembly were from all sides for Berlusconi step aside and make way for a new Government to handle a crisis, which now threatens the entire eurozone.

Berlusconi wrote six former parliamentary loyalists demand a new Government in a letter in the daily Corriere della Sera published.

"The backer be a new political phase and a new Government," wrote the MEPs.

One of the delegates, Isabella Bertolini, said that Berlusconi next Tuesday against could the rebels in a parliamentary vote, ratify the budget 2010.

"We are convinced that a strong political signal come, otherwise we will see how we will act," told reporters.

The vote could further rebel from the ruling party of PDL in open she added if the 75 years of Premier does not change course.

"We ask Berlusconi, give us a signal." Whether through a transformation, a new Government or a new premier until is to choose him, "she said."

Votes are no confidence motion, but it is of vital importance to the Affairs and defeat lay his inability that legislation would bare.

Berlusconi has repeatedly rejected calls to the stood aside and make way for a transitional Government, saying the only alternative would be early elections next spring, a step, which he says would be irresponsible during the crisis.

Doubts about Greece crashed havoc in the markets, the renewed political uncertainty in Rome in Italian Government bonds future in the euro zone already.

Yields on bonds of the 10-year BTP meet more than 6.3 percent, creeping closer to the 7 per cent, which many analysts believe could lead to a so-called "buyers strike" in the investor fear and refuse to buy the paper.

TRUST VOTUM

A government source said Reuters Berlusconi his European partners a G20 Summit in Cannes had informed on Thursday that he would within call a vote of confidence by 15 days of the new measures in the light of the economic crisis.

Votes with a bill currently before the Senate be linked, to which the Government plans, would add you the latest in a long line of reforms promised.

As the growing number of PDL believe desert, Mr Berlusconi the opposition, that they have the numbers to topple him next week.

If previous party revolts, has always managed to the billionaire businessman, enough rebels again the Government fold to survive, to convince, but the rebellion this time looks as if it could be fatal.

The Liberal Party UDC said that two other deputies PDL join she would moved non-aligned during three members of the smaller ruling coalition block known as 'The charge' in the so-called mixed group of members.

A further PDL Deputy, Giuliano Cazzola, gave an interview of the online Affaritaliani daily Berlusconi should leave and an another centre right Government to enable the power.

"" "The Government should resign and the PDL should manage another solution without the alternative"Us or new elections"," he said indicating that Berlusconi could lead a new Government Chief of staff of Gianni Letta,.

President Giorgio Napolitano said on Tuesday, that he sounds support for the reform of political forces outside the ruling right, suggested that the he was broad-based look at the possibility of a Government of national unity.

But in a statement on Thursday said he, that was the ruling coalition had, Berlusconi would continue and he was able to carry out its commitment to economic reforms. Napolitano noted that the opposition to broad a national unity Government.

The head of State said that he on his next step to see what happening in the Parlament-an apparent reference to Tuesday's vote would decide.

WOMAN MELTDOWN

With Greece on the edge of leave may the euro move could who are now dependent on future of the European single currency, would be to prevent a meltdown in Italy that the block overload current defence mechanisms.

Berlusconi could support at a cabinet meeting late on Wednesday for the comprehensive reforms to promote growth and cut Italy's large debts, which he wanted to take to the G20 win.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti, a constant thorn in his side, accused his supporters to block a deal.

A decree, which was immediately implemented could have the Cabinet meeting agreed only on a so-called Maxi-amendment measures, the Bill now before the Senate added.

A Government statement said the amendment was in line with what had been agreed with EU partners at a Summit last week, but contain no information.

An official said the included tax breaks for investments in the infrastructure, simplify bureaucracy and youth employment but education to help.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the increasing indignation with unfulfilled displayed reform has promises of Rome, the reaction of many summarized, as he said, the question was not the content of the Italian budget package, but whether it is implemented.

(Additional reporting by Alberto Sisto in Rome, Giselda Arcangelo in Cannes;) Written by James MacKenzie. (Edit by Sophie hares)

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