Post for Italy's Dr Subtle sparks fury over political perks

ROME | Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:20pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) - The nomination of a former Italian prime minister notorious for collecting multiple state pensions to a lucrative new job has sparked fury among Italians fed up with the privileges of a political class seemingly immune to austerity.

Veteran two-time centre-left premier Giuliano Amato, 75, nicknamed "Dr Subtle" for his political acumen, was named as a constitutional court judge on Thursday.

Viewed as the ultimate political insider, who collects multiple state pensions worth over 31,000 euro ($41,200) a month before tax, Amato was touted for both prime minister and president in turmoil following a deadlocked February election.

His nomination by President Giorgio Napolitano to a post that will earn him an extra 427,000 euros gross a year - twice they pay of a U.S. Supreme Court judge - quickly drew public ire as Italy struggles to plug its budget deficit amid the longest recession since World War Two.

"The country is still at the mercy of the usual suspects," lawmaker Roberto Fico of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement wrote on Facebook. "Italy can no longer be condemned to be a slave to these characters."

Other deputies protested against the decision in parliament.

Anger at revolving-door politics propelled the 5-Star Movement to a quarter of the vote on pledges to cut politicians' salaries - 60 percent higher than the European average - and kick the old guard out of parliament.

Construction worker Tonino Cortese, 53, said a privileged caste appeared to be untouched by austerity while ordinary people paid through tax hikes and cuts to public services.

"Any one of them earns 10 times what I do. I've worked hard every day of my life and it's getting harder to find work," said Cortese, smoking a cigarette outside a Rome building site. "We the citizens are paying for the crisis. It doesn't touch them."

Giulia Rocca, a 23-year-old student, shared his outrage.

"I don't even know what to say," said Rocca. "One group has all the power in Italy and it feels like we can't do anything. We are all fed up and we can't put up with it anymore."

As prime minister in 1992, Amato famously asked Italians "to put one hand on their hearts and get their wallets out with the other" when he imposed a 0.6 percent levy on bank accounts in a "blood and tears" austerity drive following a currency crisis.

(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Paul Taylor)

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Italy's wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship to be raised

The capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia lies surrounded by containers called ''sponsons'' as part of the salvage plan to remove the wreck of the ship outside Giglio harbour August 8, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

ROME | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:44pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) - The wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship could be upright again next week, nearly two years after the liner capsized and killed at least 30 people off the Italian coast.

The giant vessel, which has lain partly submerged in shallow waters off the Tuscan island of Giglio since the accident in January 2012, will be rolled off the seabed and onto underwater platforms.

Workers will look for the bodies of two people, an Italian and an Indian unaccounted for since the disaster, as machines haul the 114,000-tonne ship upright and underwater cameras comb the seabed.

The exact day of the Concordia's rotation - known as parbuckling - has yet to be set, but on Wednesday Civil Protection Commissioner Franco Gabrielli said Monday was likely.

The Costa Concordia hit a rock when it maneuver too close to the island, prompting a chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 passengers and crew, in one of the most dramatic marine accidents in recent history.

Divers have pumped 18,000 metric tons of cement into bags below the ship to support it and prevent it from breaking up in an operation which is expected to last 8-10 hours and is part of a salvage operation estimated to cost at least $300 million.

A buoyancy device acting "like a neck brace for an injured patient" will hold together the ship's bow, and fishing nets will catch debris as it rises from beneath the ship, said Nicholas Sloane, senior salvage master at Titan Salvage.

The salvage team will go through the ship cabin by cabin and had over items found on board to the Italian state prosecutor, and the vessel will be towed away to be dismantled.

Four Costa Concordia crew members and a Costa Cruises company official were sentenced to jail in July for their part in the accident, and the ship's captain Francesco Schettino remains on trial for manslaughter and causing the loss of the ship.

The captain is accused of abandoning ship before all crew and passengers had been rescued. A coastguard's angry phone order to him - "Get back on board, damn it!" - became a catchphrase in Italy after the accident.

(Reporting by Eleanor Biles; writing by Naomi O'Leary; editing by Emma Farge)

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