Italian island remembers cruise tragedy one year on

Survivors, grieving relatives and locals on the island of Giglio gathered Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, which claimed 32 victims. "It's very important," the island's mayor, Sergio Ortelli, told journalists. "It will be a day of memory and remembrance." The commemorations will begin at 0900 GMT with salvage workers due to replace the rock that the ship crashed into and then ripped from its base back near where it once stood just off the coast. Relatives of the victims will also cast floral wreaths towards the wreck of the vessel, which still lies keeled over on its side. There will then be a mass in the same church in the port that served as a temporary refuge for drenched survivors in the hours after the tragedy. Awards will also be given to some of the rescue workers who scoured the ship for weeks, initially looking for survivors such as the South Korean honeymooners plucked from the wreck, before the grim search began for bodies in the water. After a minute of silence at 2045 GMT, the exact time the ship crashed, all the fishing boats in this seafaring community of 1,500 souls will sound their sirens in tribute to the victims. Then 32 lanterns will be launched from the port, one for each of the dead. Ship owner Costa Crociere, the operator of Europe's biggest cruise fleet, will also be holding masses in the chapels of all its vessels around the world. Their flags will fly at half mast.And in the countries of origin of many of the crew members, the company is organising Catholic masses in Lima and Manila, Muslim rites in Bali and Jakarta, Hindu services in Goa and Mumbai and a Buddhist ceremony in Shanghai. Costa Crociere had asked survivors to stay away from the Giglio ceremonies because of a lack of space but dozens of survivors who spoke of their ongoing trauma one year on defied the request. The 290-metre (951-foot) liner crashed into a group of rocks just off Giglio, veered sharply and keeled over just as many passengers were sitting down for supper on the first night of a Mediterranean cruise. There were 4,229 people from 70 countries on board. Hundreds were forced to jump into the freezing waters after some of the lifeboats failed to deploy, while others climbed down a rope ladder across the hull in the dark to waiting boats. An unprecedented salvage operation to refloat the ship is several months from completion, and a manslaughter trial against crew members and cruise executives is not expected until later this year at the earliest.Twelve of the victims on the luxury liner were from Germany, seven from Italy, six from France, two from Peru, two from the United States, one from Hungary, one from India and one from Spain. Ten people are being investigated for manslaughter including captain Francesco Schettino, dubbed "Captain Coward" in the tabloids for delaying the evacuation for more than an hour and then abandoning ship with people still stranded inside. The accident is believed to have been caused when Schettino changed the route of the ship to perform a "salute" manoeuvre near the island. "I have been tormented throughout the year for what happened the night of January 13. I have been painted as worse than bin Laden," Schettino said in an interview with La Stampa daily last week. Three Costa Crociere managers are also among those investigated and groups of survivors are suing the company as part of legal action that some hope will make the global cruise industry safer.