Hundreds of people were still on the sinking Costa Concordia liner when the captain fled the ship in a lifeboat, a court has been told.

A trainee officer on board the Costa Concordia when it sank off an Italian island last year told a court that the captain did not fall off the stricken liner onto a lifeboat as he claims, but jumped to safety.

A Moldovan dancer who was on the bridge when the Costa Concordia cruise ship crashed into a reef near Italy, killing 32 people, has testified at the captain’s manslaughter trial that the two were lovers.

The captain of the doomed Costa Concordia hit a reef off the coast of a Tuscan island after being disappointed at not getting close enough to it on an earlier attempt, his trial has been told.

Divers have spotted human remains near the shipwrecked Costa Concordia off an Italian island, with authorities saying DNA tests will determine if they are those of two victims whose bodies were never found.

The captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia is hoping an Italian judge will grant his request for an inspection of the crippled cruise liner.

The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship was pulled completely upright early today after a complicated, 19-hour operation to wrench it from its side where it capsized last year off Tuscany.

When salvage teams begin hauling the wrecked Costa Concordia liner upright on the Italian island of Giglio next week, the financial stakes for insurers will be almost as enormous as the awe-inspiring feat of engineering.

An Italian court has accepted plea bargains for five Costa Crociere employees over the shipwreck that killed 32 crew and passengers, convicting all of multiple manslaughter and negligence.

The Italian court trying the captain of the Costa Concordia heard grim details about how the 32 victims of the shipwreck drowned, some after diving or falling into the sea from the capsized cruise liner when lifeboats were no longer accessible.

The Italian court trying the captain of the Costa Concordia has heard grim details of how the 32 victims of the shipwreck drowned, some after diving or falling into the sea from the capsized cruise liner when lifeboats were no longer accessible.

The trial of the captain of the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner has begun in Tuscany, in a theatre converted into a courtroom to accommodate all the survivors and relatives of the 32 victims who want justice over the 2012 tragedy.

The captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia is due to go on trial in Italy today, some 18 months after the luxury liner ran aground with the loss of 32 lives.

The captain of the Costa Concordia has been ordered to stand trial over the shipwreck of the cruise liner, which struck a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.

Italian cruise line Costa Crociere has been fined €1m for the Concordia cruise ship sinking which killed 32 people.

An Italian prosecutor has formally requested a manslaughter charge against the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which crashed into a reef off Tuscany last year, killing 32 people.

Survivors of the Costa Concordia shipwreck and relatives of the 32 people who died marked the first anniversary of the grounding yesterday with the unveiling of memorials to the victims, a Mass in their honour and a minute of silence to recall the exact moment that the cruise ship rammed into a reef off Tuscany.

Survivors and victims' families have returned to the site where 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground a year ago today.

Europe’s top cruise operator came under pressure at pre-trial hearings into the Costa Concordia disaster as captain Francesco Schettino faced survivors for the first time.

The former captain of the shipwrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia has arrived at a court in Italy to hear the evidence against him.

Relatives of the 32 people killed in the Costa Concordia shipwreck have sailed to the Italian island where the cruise ship struck a reef six months ago to remember their loved ones.

The “monumental” operation to re-float and remove the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship will be the biggest and costliest ever of its kind, the company said today.

Work to remove the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship from its rocky perch off Tuscany will begin early next month and is expected to take 12 months, the ship’s owner Costa Crociere SpA said today.

Search crews found five more bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an Italian island in January, officials said yesterday.

Search crews in Italy have found five more bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an island in January.

Searchers have found three bodies in the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which struck a reef off an Italian island in January.

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the disappearance of the bell from the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia.

The first hearing of the criminal investigation into the Costa Concordia’s shipwreck was held in a theatre today instead of a courthouse because of high demand, with angry survivors seeking compensation, justice and the truth.

A cruise ship from the same fleet as the Costa Concordia, on which 32 people died after it ran aground off the coast of Italy last month, is adrift in the Indian Ocean with more than 1,000 people on board following a fire.

Salvage workers yesterday began pumping fuel from the shipwrecked cruise liner Costa Concordia, a day ahead of schedule, officials said.

An Italian court has ruled that Francesco Schettino, the captain of the cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the island of Giglio, killing at least 17 people, must remain under house arrest.

A court has refused to lift the house arrest on the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off a Tuscan island last month.

The Paris prosecutor has opened a preliminary investigation into the grounding off the Italian coast of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that killed at least 17 people.

Italian authorities have ended the search for bodies on the submerged sections of the Costa Concordia, more than two weeks after the giant cruise liner capsized off the Tuscan coast.

Italian emergency officials say they are calling off a search for missing people in the submerged part of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, due to the danger to rescue workers.

Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast have forced a delay in the start of the operation to pump out half a million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise liner Costa Concordia.

A barge carrying a crane and other equipment hitched itself to the toppled Costa Concordia, signalling the start of preliminary operations to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded cruise ship before it leaks into the pristine Tuscan sea.

The captain of the Costa Concordia was not under the effects of drugs when the liner hit a rock that tore a hole in the hull and caused it to capsize near the port of Italy’s Giglio island, his lawyer said.

Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off a Tuscan island, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than previously announced.

Unregistered passengers may have been aboard the cruise liner that capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio, a rescue official said yesterday, raising the possibility that the number of missing might be higher than the 20 previously announced.

Unregistered passengers might have been aboard the stricken cruise liner that capsized off a Tuscan island, a top rescue official said today.

Rescuers have resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies.

Divers searching the capsized Costa Concordia last night pulled out the body of a woman in a life vest and retrieved a safe and documents belonging to the ship's captain.

Divers have found a woman's body in a submerged section of the grounded Costa Concordia, raising the death toll in the cruise liner tragedy to at least 12.