Europe, Italy | featured news

Divers searching the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship off a Tuscan island found eight bodies Wednesday on one of the passenger decks, including that of a missing 5-year-old Italian girl, authorities said....

Italian police said on Friday they had seized about $6 trillion of fake U.S. Treasury bonds in Switzerland, and issued arrest warrants for eight people accused of international fraud and other financial crimes.

Italian emergency officials are ending the search for missing people in the submerged part of the Costa Concordia cruise ship due to the danger to rescue workers.

The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

A recorded conversation between the captain of a sinking cruise ship and a coast guard officer suggests the captain tried to abandon ship.

Shares of cruise operator Carnival Corp plunged 15 percent on Tuesday after a ship operated by its unit struck a submerged rock and keeled over off the coast of Italy late on Friday.

A stricken Italian cruise liner shifted on its rocky resting place as worsening weather disrupted an increasingly despairing hunt for survivors and authorities almost doubled their estimate of the number missing to 29 people.

The captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized, unapproved deviation from its programmed course, a "human error" that led to the grounding of the vessel, the chief executive of the ship's Italian owner said Monday. At least six people died in the incident.

In Spain, the prime minister pledged spending cuts and a banking-system cleanup, while in Italy, the prime minister called for “efforts in favor of growth.”

Italian bond yields are expected to fall from recent record highs in an auction on Thursday in a sign the European Central Bank has managed to ease market pressure, at least for now, with its big injection of longer-term funds earlier this month.