Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Davos 2012
Technology
Media
Small Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Summits
Business Video
The Freeland File
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
India Insight
World Video
Reuters Investigates
Decoder
Politics
Politics Home
Election 2012
Issues 2012
Candidates 2012
Tales from the Trail
Political Punchlines
Supreme Court
Politics Video
Tech
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Tech Tonic
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
John Lloyd
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
David Rohde
Bernd Debusmann
Nader Mousavizadeh
Lucy P. Marcus
David Cay Johnston
Bethany McLean
Edward Hadas
Hugo Dixon
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
Susan Glasser
The Great Debate
Steven Brill
Geraldine Fabrikant
Jack & Suzy Welch
Breakingviews
Equities
Credit
Private Equity
M&A
Macro & Markets
Politics
Breakingviews Video
Money
Money Home
Tax Break
Global Investing
MuniLand
Unstructured Finance
Linda Stern
Mark Miller
John Wasik
James Saft
Analyst Research
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Money Clip
Investing 201
Life
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Reuters TV
Reuters News
Article
Comments (0)
Video
Full Focus
Photos of the week
Our top photos from the past week. Full Article
Images of December
Best photos of the year
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
"Barefoot Bandit" gets 6.5 years of federal time
27 Jan 2012
Fading Gingrich attacks Romney in ad
27 Jan 2012
Steve Jobs told Google to stop poaching workers
27 Jan 2012
Exclusive: Germany wants Greece to give up budget control
|
27 Jan 2012
Occupy protesters barred from camping in DC squares
27 Jan 2012
Discussed
369
Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization’s collapse
218
Abortion safer than giving birth: study
160
Romney reports tax bill of $6.2 million for 2010-11
Watched
Magnetic soap could suck up oil spills
Fri, Jan 27 2012
Ron Paul and the pink slip that could decide the election
Thu, Jan 26 2012
Students launch Lego man into space
Fri, Jan 27 2012
Costa Cruises offers compensation to rescued passengers
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
In cruise ship disaster, an SOS for lawyers
Fri, Jan 27 2012
Analysis & Opinion
Costa Concordia: An incredible tragedy
Italian island priest saves Costa Concordia disaster relics as reminder
Related Topics
World »
Italy »
Related Video
Counting cost of Costa Concordia disaster
Fri, Jan 27 2012
Firefighter rescuers work on the cruise liner Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island January 26, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi
By Steve Scherer
ROME |
Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:04pm EST
ROME (Reuters) - Costa Cruises has offered 11,000 euros ($14,500) in compensation to each of the more than 3,000 passengers aboard its liner that ran aground and capsized two weeks ago, Italian consumer groups said on Friday.
The offer is an attempt by Costa Cruises to limit the legal fallout of the accident off the coast of Italy.
Each passenger on the Costa Concordia will also receive a refund on the cruise and the costs of their return home. The offer applies to all passengers, whether child or adult, who suffered no physical injuries.
Injured passengers will be dealt with individually.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered after the 290-metre long cruise liner, with more than 4,200 passengers and crew on board, struck a rock near the Tuscan island of Giglio.
The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and is blamed for causing the accident by steering too close to the island's shore.
Costa Cruises' U.S. parent company Carnival Plc is already facing legal action for compensation. Those accepting Friday's offer will have to agree to drop all future litigation, and receive payment within seven days.
Codacons, a consumer group which did not participate in the negotiations, is collecting names for a class action suit to be filed in Miami requesting 125,000 euros for each passenger.
Carlo Rienzi, president of Codacons, said the offer was insufficient and urged passengers to see a doctor to check whether they had suffered psychological trauma.
John Arthur Eaves, a U.S. personal injury lawyer, is urging passengers to file individual lawsuits in the United States. Eaves represented families of some of those killed when a U.S. military jet struck and severed cables holding skiers in a cable car in northern Italy in 1998, killing 20.
"The class action is not the right tool for this case," Eaves told Reuters Television. "In this case people need to be treated like individuals. Everyone in this boat had different damages."
But Roberto Corbella, head of Italy's association of tour operators, and who helped Costa negotiate the offer with the consumer protection groups, urged passengers to accept it.
"Lawsuits have uncertain outcomes, they take a long time, there are legal costs, and some studies indicate that it's not at all certain that passengers would get more than the company is offering," he said.
"DANGEROUS CONDITIONS"
Crew member Gary Lobaton has already filed a lawsuit against
Carnival in a U.S. district court. His lawyers said in his court filing that he was not aware of the "dangerous conditions" of the cruise ship until it was too late to abandon it safely.
Keiko Guest, a photographer from Atlanta, was a passenger on the Concordia and she said she may consider the offer as long as the equipment she lost was covered by it.
"If they would return my stuff to me alongside this money offer I'd feel better," she said. "I don't know how appealing it will be for some people" who lost $10,000 rings.
Passengers have complained the evacuation was chaotic, with some left waiting in lifeboats for two hours before being able to leave the ship. Several bodies were found by divers in submerged evacuation assembly points, wearing life vests.
On Thursday, Italy's top-ranking Coast Guard official, Marco Brusco, said Schettino lost "a precious hour" which made evacuating the ship more difficult.
Had the order been given earlier "the lifeboats could have been launched calmly, people could have been reassured," Brusco said in Senate testimony.
As divers searched the submerged parts of the ship, Dutch salvage team SMIT finalized preparations to remove fuel from its tanks.
"We could finish today the process of inserting valves on six tanks," said a spokesman for the civil protection agency, which is in charge of operations. That would open the way for fuel removal to begin on Saturday or Sunday.
Many other toxic materials are still onboard the Concordia, including a ton of chlorine to disinfect pools, insecticides, and detergents, according to a list of products distributed by Italian officials. ($1 = 0.7601 euros)
(Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi on Giglio, Gabriele Pileri in Rome, and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware.; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
World
Italy
Related Quotes and News
Company
Price
Related News
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment on reuters.com.
Add yours using the box above.
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Support
Corrections
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.