Bad Weather Hits Search For Concordia Missing

Divers have been blasting holes inside the stricken steel-hulled liner to help them look for those unaccounted for.

The disaster earlier this month has so far claimed 16 lives with at least another 16 people missing.

On Tuesday, the body of a woman was discovered after divers managed to enter a submerged section on the third floor deck of the Concordia.

The victim was found with a life jacket and her body was taken to a mortuary on the mainland.

The ship, carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew, ran aground and capsized on January 13 after the captain veered from his approved course.

Work on pumping out 500,000 gallons of heavy duty diesel from the wreckage of the stricken vessel has now begun.

The £5m operation to remove the fuel from the ship's 13 double bottomed tanks and ten single bottom tanks is expected to last between four and six weeks.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently under house arrest after he steered his 114,000-ton ship onto rocks close to the island of Giglio allegedly in a ''sail by'' salute to impress a crew member.

His wife, Fabiola Russo, has defended her husband, saying: "He is not a monster" - and she spoke out as calls increased for prosecutors to widen their probe into the disaster.

In an interview with glossy Italian weekly magazine Oggi, Fabiola said there was a witch-hunt against her husband, who is under investigation for multiple manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a ship wreck.

Fabiola, who lives with Schettino and their 17-year-old daughter in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, said: "My husband is not a monster. He was always the go-to guy for the crew.

"I am the wife of a seaman, so I am used to doing things on my own. I tackle situations and I resolve them.

"This is a witch-hunt, everyone is out to get my husband. The media has made out he is to blame. He loves ships, he knows all about them and has never stopped studying them, to learn what they are capable of and what their limits are.

"He didn't stop at just sailing ships. That's why for his crew he was always the go-to man, a maestro. He is decisive, stable and lucid, he analyses situations, understands them and then acts.

"At times Francesco seems arrogant because he puts himself above the people he is speaking to and often tells them to shut up. He wasn't in charge of the Concordia by chance, he knows how to do his job but sometimes even those who know how to do their job can make mistakes - that's if he did make a mistake."

Fabiola also revealed how they had once been fined for sailing too close to the shore in their sailing boat and added: "What we really like is canoeing and to row together you need to be in harmony and my husband and I are."

She spoke out as Beniamino Deidda, the prosecutor general of Tuscany, the Italian region Giglio is in, called for attention in the investigation to also focus on the Concordia's owners Costa Cruises.

He said: "For the time being the main focus of attention is the captain, who, it has been shown, was tragically inadequate. But who chose him?

"The lifeboats did not lower properly, the crew didn't know what to do, they were unprepared in dealing with an emergency, wrong orders were given, such as being told to return to cabins.

"The confusion that has emerged shows that there was an incredible lack of attention to safety procedures. Safety should have been rehearsed beforehand. You cannot blame all of this carelessness on the conduct of the captain. That's why this investigation cannot exclude others."

Stormy weather batters Britain

The latest round of unsettled weather added more misery to the January blues as people returned to work after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The bad weather meant some East Coast main line trains between London and Scotland had to start and terminate at Newcastle upon Tyne.

Also, buses had to replace trains on some East Coast services between London and Harrogate and Hull.

And the QEII Bridge on the M25 between Essex and Kent was closed due to gale-force winds.

In Northern Ireland 105mph winds hit Malin Head in Co Donegal.

While at Great Dun Fell in the Pennines gusts of 106mph were recorded.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings across many regions of the UK.

Forecasters told those living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be prepared, while localised flooding and a marked drop in temperature was expected for parts of Wales and north-west England.

Scotland was braced for the harshest weather conditions ? the Met Office has issued warnings for both snow and high winds.

Parts of Wales saw gusts of more than 90mph in the early hours, with gusts of 93mph hitting Aberdaron in North Wales.

Billy Payne, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Much of Wales and south-west England have had gusts of over 60mph this morning.

"As low pressure comes in, central and south Scotland will bear the brunt of the winds today. We will see gusts of 70mph to 80mph, even 85mph in places."

He warned of "heavy rain, stormy winds and severe gales with damaging gusts", but said the rain should clear most parts of the country by this afternoon.

Mr Payne added: "The rain will probably hang on nearer Scotland, leading to hill snow.

"Upland areas of the north and west may see couple of inches of rain. It will cause ponding of water on the roads."

SEVERE warnings issued as storms with 85mph winds batter country

Weather experts predicted a marked drop in temperature yesterday, with the unusually mild conditions that prevailed over Christmas and the New Year making way for more seasonal mercury readings.

Issuing a yellow warning for strong winds and heavy rain, the Met Office said: "A spell of wet and very windy weather will affect the UK during Tuesday."

People were warned of "the possibility of disruption" to travel due to strong winds this morning in most parts and during the afternoon across north-eastern Scotland.

The Met Office added: "A spell of heavy rain will also affect many regions, with a risk of localised flooding over parts of Wales and north-west England."

In the South West, the Environment Agency has "yellow" flood alerts active on 21 rivers from Cornwall to Wiltshire.

The Tamar Bridge, which spans the river between Devon and Cornwall, has been closed to high-sided vehicles because of strong winds.

First Great Western rail services between Truro and Penzance are being affected by an obstruction blocking "all lines".

The Port of Dover in Kent have announced that it has closed due to strong winds of Force 11 in the English Channel.

A spokesman said passengers should contact their operator before setting out to the port.

The weather in November

Last month was the second warmest November in a record that stretches back to 1659, behind only November 1994. The autumn as a whole was the second warmest, just beaten by 2006, with rainfall well below average in the east and south-east, but well above in the north and west. The November warmth can be attributed to unusually frequent south-west to south-easterly winds. This was also a factor in the dryness across much of the country, even in what are normally wet areas such as the western Highlands, the Lake District and Snowdonia. In those regions, however, exceptionally wet and windy conditions in the last week made up for the earlier absence.

Temperatures

The mean maximum temperature in November ranged from 14.6C at Jersey airport in the Channel Islands to 9.4C at Carter Bar, Roxburghshire. The Central England Temperature (CET) was 9.7C, 2.8 degrees higher than average, making it the highest since 1994 and the second highest on record. The highest single temperature was 18.1C at Otterbourne, Hampshire, on 13 November, and the lowest was -6.9C at Carleton near Skipton in North Yorkshire early on 7 November.

Rainfall

Averaged across England and Wales there was only 49mm of rain, which is 49% of the November average, the lowest for November since 1956. Only six Novembers were drier in the last 100 years. Scotland had 96mm, 90% of the average, while Northern Ireland measured 64mm, or 76%. The wettest location was Inveruglas in Dunbartonshire, where a total of 402mm of rain fell through the month, while the driest was Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, with only 11mm.

Sunshine

Sunshine across England and Wales was just about normal at 66 hours, or 99% of November's average. However, that was still the lowest total for seven years. Scotland had 70 hours, representing 138% of its average, and Northern Ireland recorded 79 hours, or 145%. Kinloss in Morayshire was the sunniest location with 101 hours, while Lerwick had the lowest amount of sunshine with only 29 hours.