2 more bodies found in Italy cruise shipwreck

Rescuers found the bodies of two women in the wreck of an Italian ship on Monday bringing the death toll to 15, as a Dutch company was given the go-ahead to pump out its 2,380 tons of fuel. The grim discovery near the Costa Concordia cruise liner\'s Internet cafe came after navy frogmen used explosive to blow open access points for divers. \"Two more bodies, two women, were found,\" Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy\'s civil protection agency who is overseeing the search and rescue operations on the Tuscan island of Giglio, told reporters on the scene. \"We cannot tell what nationality they were,\" he said. Gabrielli said that DNA from the corpses would be compared to that of relatives of the missing, some of whom are awaiting anxiously on the shore with no news of their loved ones 10 days after the night-time disaster. The mayor of Corato, a town in southern Italy, later said one of the two was 30-year-old local Maria D\'Introno, whose relatives had been informed. He said the woman jumped into the sea wearing a life jacket but could not swim. Officials said 17 people were still missing and an earlier report that there may have been a Hungarian stowaway on board was denied by the Hungarian foreign ministry which said the woman in fact died three years ago. \"Based on officially confirmed information today it has become clear that claims about the missing woman were unfounded,\" the ministry said. \"The person who made the claim about the missing person turned out to be abusing the personal data of a person who had died three years ago.\" Gabrielli said the search of the 114,500-ton ship would continue \"until all parts of the vessel that can be inspected have been checked out\" and that an operation to empty the fuel tanks could be carried out at the same time. \"We have given authorisation for the pumping to begin,\" he said. Bart Huizing, a representative of Smit Salvage on the island, said: \"We are ready to go. We are ready to start working. If possible tomorrow.\" The operation, known as \"hot-tapping\", involves pumping the fuel out into a nearby ship and replacing it with water so as not to affect the ship\'s balance. Environmentalists say the fuel tanks have to be emptied as soon as possible to avert an ecological catastrophe in Europe\'s biggest marine sanctuary. Gabrielli said there has already been some contamination of the sea from toxic substances on board although tests carried out by the environmental agency on samples of sea water near the wreck showed no hydrocarbon pollution. The coastguard said that emptying the fuel tanks would take 28 days. There will be three lines of booms around the ship while the pumping operation is going on to avoid any possible spills. Gabrielli also said that emergency workers were trying to clear out the inside of the wreckage, saying that the decomposition of food products, the clutter of furniture and the turbid waters were complicating the work. \"The ship is stable,\" he added, in response to fears that the vessel, which is lying on its side, was slowly slipping into the open sea. Italian media meanwhile reported that the ship\'s captain, Francesco Schettino, who faces charges of multiple manslaughter, had tested negative for drugs, while his lawyer said there could be other suspects in the tragedy. \"The investigations are in full flow also to determine possible other responsibilities of third parties who could at least have had a role\" in causing the shipwreck, Bruno Leporatti was quoted as saying. Schettino has claimed that the risky route he took close to Giglio in what he admitted was a showboating manoeuvre was agreed beforehand with his superiors at Costa Crociere -- a subsidiary of US-based giant Carnival Corp. He has also said that he kept the company\'s crisis officer fully informed about the scale of the disaster within minutes of hitting rocks, while the order to abandon ship was only given more than an hour later. The shipping line declined to comment when contacted by AFP. The Costa Concordia had 4,229 people on board from more than 60 countries when it hit rocks and keeled over, prompting a chaotic evacuation that included a fight for life jackets and life boats among panicked passengers. Italian news agency ANSA also on Monday published leaked transcripts of the testimony of the ship\'s third officer, Silvia Coronika, describing high jinks on the bridge at the moment of impact which could have distracted officers. Coronika reportedly said that the ship had sailed closed to Giglio in the past in a similar show-off manoeuvre but said that sailing this near \"had never been done before but the captain decided to get really close this time.\" She said that the officer in charge of charts asked Schettino whether \"a distance of 0.5 miles from the island of Giglio was acceptable.\" \"The captain responded in the affirmative,\" she added.