Costa Concordia

GIGLIO, Italy -- Searchers on Thursday found three bodies under the hull of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized off an Italian island in January, an official said, raising the number of bodies found so far to 28 and leaving four still missing.

ROME -- In the chaotic evacuation of the Costa Concordia, passengers and crew abandoned almost everything on board the cruise ship: jewels, cash, champagne, antiques, 19th century Bohemian crystal glassware, thousands of art objects including 300-year-old woodblock prints by a Japanese master.

In other words, a veritable treasure now lies beneath the pristine Italian waters where the luxury liner ran aground last month.

ROME -- Costa Crociere SpA offered uninjured passengers (euro) 11,000 ($14,460) apiece Friday to compensate them for lost baggage and the psychological trauma they suffered after their cruise ship ran aground and capsized off Tuscany.

But some passengers are already refusing to accept the deal, saying they can't yet put a figure on the costs of the trauma they endured.

ROME -- Experts can begin pumping fuel from a capsized cruise ship as early as Tuesday to avert a possible environmental catastrophe and the ship is stable enough to let search efforts go on for those still missing, Italian officials said.

ROME -- A new audiotape emerged Thursday of the first contact between Livorno port officials and the Costa Concordia -- and the captain is heard insisting that his cruise ship only had a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.

CHICAGO -- If Jim Salzburg learned one lesson from surviving the wreck of the Costa Concordia, it's to depend on himself and his loved ones in an emergency.

His only other advice: Keep your cell phone and passport at hand.

Salzburg, 70, his wife Jo, 69, who live in far northwest suburban Richmond, and their daughter Mary-Jo, 39, were among the passengers who survived the ordeal -- with no thanks, he said, to the ship's crew. At least 11 people were reported dead and another 29 missing.

ROME -- Five more bodies were pulled Tuesday out of the crippled cruise ship off Tuscany, and a shocking audio emerged in which the ship's captain was heard making excuses as the Italian coast guard repeatedly ordered him to return and oversee the ship's evacuation.

Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated during the grounding of the Costa Concordia cruise ship Friday night.