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Coast guard divers searching the submerged part of the Costa Concordia on Sunday found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, authorities said, raising to five the death toll after the luxury cruise liner ran aground and tipped over off the Tuscan coast.

Divers scouring the bowels of the ship in the murky, cold sea discovered the bodies at the emergency gathering point near the restaurant where passengers were dining when the ship carrying more than 4,200 people hit a reef or rock near the island of Giglio, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said.

The discovery reduced to 15 the number of people still unaccounted for after an Italian who worked in cabin service was pulled from the wreckage Sunday and a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued late Saturday in the unsubmerged part of the liner when a team of rescuers heard their screams.

“We are still searching” for any bodies, “but (also) in the hope that there might have been an air pocket” to allow the survival of others, Nicastro told Sky TG24 TV dockside.

Authorities are holding the Italian captain for investigation of suspected manslaughter and abandoning his ship among other possible charges. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison. A coast guard official said Sunday officers exhorted Francesco Schettino to return to his ship as panicked passengers desperately fled the cruise liner.

The chaotic evacuation has added to the difficulty in tracking down survivors _ with six of those unaccounted for crew members and the others passengers. Two of the unaccounted for passengers are American, the U.S. Embassy in Rome said.

In the first hours after the accident late Friday night, three bodies were found in the waters near the ship. The victims discovered Sunday were two elderly men who were wearing life vests, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo.

“The divers had to remove the life vests to get the bodies out,” he said, because they could have floated away. Their nationalities were not immediately released.

The divers’ search through the ship, which is lying on its side with a huge gash, was already dangerous because of the risk the vessel could suddenly move and sink into waters over a nearby lower sea bed.

Their safety was increasingly threatened by floating objects in the belly of the 290-meter (nearly 1,000) foot long liner, as well as muck drastically reducing visibility, Nicastro said.

“There are tents, mattresses, other objects moving which can get tangled in the divers’ equipment,” Nicastro said. Officials were going to huddle soon to see how long the underwater search could safely continue, he said.

Divers say they are using a kind of long cord they hook near the point of entrance and unroll as they work, so they can find their way out when finished.

Prosecutor Francesco Verusio confirmed reports that prosecutors are investigating allegations the cruise liner’s captain, Francesco Schettino, abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped.

Asked Sunday by Sky TG24 about the accusations, Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio replied, “unfortunately, I must confirm that circumstance.”

Paolillo said the captain was spotted on land during the evacuation. Officers had urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone else was safely off the vessel, but Schettino ignored them, he said.

“We did our duty,” Paolillo told The Associated Press.

A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, told the AP they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that _ according to them _ the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.

“The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off,” said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

“Normally the commander should leave at the end,” said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. “I did what I could.”

Schettino has said the ship hit rocks that weren’t marked on his nautical charts, and that he did all he could to save lives.

“We were navigating approximately 300 meters (yards) from the rocks,” he told Mediaset television. “There shouldn’t have been such a rock.”

He insisted he didn’t leave the liner before all passengers were off, saying “we were the last ones to leave the ship.” That clearly wasn’t the case as the finding of the three survivors aboard Saturday night and Sunday showed payday loan no faxing.

Coast guard spokesman Capt. Filippo Marini told Sky Italia TV that Coast Guard divers have recovered the so-called “black box” with the recording of the navigational details from a compartment now under water.

A Dutch firm has been called in to help extract the fuel from the Concordia’s tanks before any leaks into the area’s pristine waters. No leaks have so far been reported.

While ship owner Costa has insisted it was following the same route it takes every week between the Italian ports of Civitavecchia and Savona, residents on the island of Giglio said they had never seen the Costa come so close to the Le Scole reefs and rocks that jut from Giglio’s eastern side.

“This was too close, too close,” said Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the Maregigilo ferry service that runs between the island and the mainland for more than a decade. A now-retired Costa commander used to occasionally do “fly-bys” on the route, nearing a bit and sounding the siren in a special salute for his hometown, he said. Such a fly-by was staged last August, but there was no incident, he said.

He said the cruise ship always stayed more than five to six nautical miles offshore, well beyond the reach of the “Le Scole” reefs, popular with scuba divers.

The terrifying escape from the luxury liner, which was on a weeklong Mediterranean cruise, was straight out of a scene from “Titanic.” Many passengers complained the crew didn’t give them good directions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many to be released.

Several other passengers said crew members told passengers for 45 minutes that there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off.

Amateur footage taken aboard the ship showed the situation immediately after it ran aground, as an announcement in various languages tells passengers the liner is having electrical problems and “the situation is under control.” When a man asks a crew member in Spanish why he is wearing a life vest, the crew member doesn’t answer and continues on his way.

Other video shows people crowded together in life jackets, apparently calm and waiting to disembark the ship. A third video taken from a lifeboat, shows mostly darkness as people shout and scream in panic.

Passengers said they had never participated in an evacuation drill, although one had been scheduled for Saturday. The cruise began on Jan. 7.

Costa Crociera SpA, which is owned by the U.S.-based cruise giant Carnival Corp., defended the actions of its crew and said it was cooperating with the investigation. Carnival Corp. issued a statement expressing sympathy that didn’t address the allegations of delayed evacuation.

Some 300 of the crew members were Filipinos and three of them were injured, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said.

The captain has insisted that the reef was not marked, but locals said the stretch of sea is not difficult to maneuver. Anello Fiorentino, captain of a ferry that runs between Giglio and the mainland, said he makes the crossing every day without encountering problems.

“Yes, if you get near the coast there are reefs, but this is a stretch of sea where all the ships can safely pass,” he said.

Islanders on Giglio opened up their homes and businesses to accommodate the sudden rush of survivors. Rossana Bafigi, who runs a newsstand, said she was really moved by the reaction of the passengers.

She showed a note left by one Italian family that said, “We want to repay you for the disturbance. Please call us, we took milk and biscuits for the children. Claudia.”

At Mass on Sunday morning in Giglio’s main church, which opened its doors to the evacuees Friday night, altar boys and girls brought up to the altar a life vest, a rope, a rescue helmet, a plastic tarp and some bread.

Don Lorenzo, the parish priest, told the faithful that he wanted to make this admittedly “different” offering to God as a memory of what had transpired.

He said each one carried powerful symbolic meaning for what happened on Friday night: the bread that multiplied to feed the survivors, the rope that pulled people to safety, the life vest and helmet that protected them, and the plastic tarp that kept cold bodies warm. “Our community, our island will never be the same,” he told the few dozen islanders gathered for Mass.

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Frances D’Emilio contributed to this story from Rome.

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Retail sales rose at the weakest pace in seven months in December as consumers pulled back late in the holiday shopping season, cutting purchases at department stores and spending less on electronic gadgets.

Total retail sales increased 0.1 percent after rising by an upwardly revised 0.4 percent in November, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales climbing 0.3 percent last month.

The upward revision for November sales suggests consumers likely frontloaded their holiday shopping. The government had initially estimated retail sales gained 0.2 percent in November.

Spending at electronics and appliance stores fell 3.9 percent in December, while shopping at department stores slipped 0.2 percent.

Fueling the overall increase in retail sales during December, receipts for motor vehicles and parts increased 1 Internet Payday loans.5 percent, adding to the prior month’s 0.9 percent gain.

Excluding autos, retail sales fell 0.2 percent, the first decline since May 2010.

Sales at food and beverage stores fell 0.2 percent in December. Also holding back the overall gain in sales, receipts at gasoline stations dropped 1.6 percent last month after rising 0.9 percent in November.

Core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline and building materials, dropped 0.1 percent in December after advancing 0.3 percent the prior month.

Core sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of the government’s gross domestic product report.

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The Italian government has won a confidence vote over its package of anti-crisis austerity measures in the lower chamber of Parliament.

Premier Mario Monti called the vote, held Friday in the Chamber of Deputies, to speed passage of the measures he says are vital to save Italy from financial disaster. The package was approved by a vote of 495 in favor and 88 against. The Senate is expected to vote on the measures in the next few days.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ROME (AP) _ The Italian government faces a confidence vote over a package of austerity measures while a transport strike to protest the cuts is causing havoc for commuters across the country.

Premier Mario Monti is putting his package of new and higher taxes and pension reforms to a confidence vote in the lower Chamber of Deputies to speed up its passage cash advance payday loan.

The vote, which is expected by early evening Friday, will likely clear the measures, paving the way for final approval in the Senate within days.

The main political parties have said they would back the package despite disagreeing on some measures.

Monti says austerity is needed to save Italy from financial disaster, but unions are furious. Public transport workers idled buses and subways Friday. State railways were also on strike.

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Singapore Airlines is hoping travelers will “Scoot” to its new long-haul budget carrier as one of the world’s leading airline brands seeks to muscle in on Asia’s burgeoning no-frills market.

Scoot, as the new carrier is known, will begin service by June 2012 with four Boeing 777-200 jets flying by the end of that year, chief executive Campbell Wilson told reporters Tuesday.

Scoot plans to initially focus on destinations that are five to 10 hours from its base at Singapore’s Changi International Airport and fly to four or more cities in Australia and China.

“This new market segment is growing fast,” Wilson said. “We aim to bring new business to the SIA group.”

Singapore Airlines, which is also known as SIA, has long relied on its top-rated in-flight service _ epitomized by the iconic Singapore Girl cabin crew _ to lead the long-haul first and business class market, especially in popular Asia to Europe routes.

However, Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Etihad and Asian rivals such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific and Australia’s Qantas have eaten away at SIA’s market share in recent years, pushing the Singaporeans to eye the growing low-cost market.

Scoot will face two main competitors in the region’s long-haul budget market _ Air Asia X, owned by Malaysia’s AirAsia, and JetStar, a unit of Qantas. Analysts expect Scoot will likely seek to provide more frills at a slightly higher price that its rivals.

“This new airline is a poor man’s excuse to fly SIA,” said Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard and Poor’s in Singapore. “It will be like luxury budget. When you’re flying 12 to 13 hours, you need to throw in some of the facilities people are used to on intercontinental flights.”

Wilson said Scoot will offer two classes of cabin, with economy tickets up to 40 percent less than full-service carriers. Customers will be able to choose seats, meals and baggage options, he said.

“We’ll offer many other options so people can customize their experience,” Wilson said.

The airline plans to eventually buy several Boeing 777-200ER planes, which can travel up to 13 hours, allowing Scoot to fly to Europe and Africa, he said. Scoot also plans next year to hire about 52 pilots, 250 flight attendants and 40 ground staff with what Wilson called “Scootitude.”

Scoot is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, which invested 283 million Singapore dollars ($227 million) to start the long-haul carrier. SIA already owns SilkAir, which targets popular Asian holiday destinations, and has a one-third stake in Tiger Airways, a short-haul budget carrier.

Growing demand for budget flights has been a bright spot for the airline industry this year as slowing global economic growth and higher fuel costs hurt earnings. The International Air Transport Association forecasts global airline profits will drop to $6.9 billion this year and $4.9 billion in 2012 from $15.8 billion last year.

Asian airline stocks have also taken a hit, with most carriers, including Singapore Airlines, down at least 20 percent this year. Only AirAsia has bucked the trend, jumping 50 percent so far in 2011.

Some analysts expect travel demand in Asia to improve next year. Airline analyst Mark Webb at HSBC forecasts Asian passenger numbers will rise 7 percent this year and 9 percent next year. He upgraded his rating on Singapore Airlines shares to “neutral” from “underweight” last month.

Scoot hopes to ride the low-cost wave that has made budget flights about 25 percent of Changi’s traffic this year from almost nothing a decade ago. The best earners among Asian airlines this year have been short-haul budget carriers Indonesia’s Lion Air, AirAsia and Cebu Air in the Philippines, S&P’s Yusof said.

“Budget airlines are not a fad. They’re here to stay,” Yusof said. “The market certainly has shifted from legacy carriers to discount carriers.”

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Encouraging news from Europe helped ignite stock prices in October. This week, investors will shift their focus to U.S. economic data, which might temper their exuberance.

Three events this week will command attention: the U.S. jobs report for October, the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s quarterly news conference.

A report Thursday showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a solid 2.5 annual rate in the July-September quarter. That helped ease concerns that another recession might be nearing. Yet the news may have also raised unrealistic expectations about the economy. Investors could end up disappointed.

“There’s a big difference between avoiding recession and stronger growth,” said Eric Green, chief U.S. economist at TD Securities. “The economic data will be OK, but it’s not going to be a catalyst to move stocks up” significantly.

Last week, investors were cheered by the deal European leaders reached Thursday. European banks agreed to take a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds. They will also set aside more money to cushion against future losses.

Leaders also pledged to expand the European Union’s bailout fund.

The announcement catapulted U.S. stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rocketed 339 points Thursday and appears headed for its sharpest monthly gain since 1987.

Economists caution that European officials must still fill in the details of their plan and implement it. Even then, it might not work. When world leaders meet in France on Thursday and Friday, investors will want to see signs that China and other nations are prepared to help bolster Europe’s bailout fund.

For all that, some stock analysts remain bullish.

“The market was priced for meltdown, and didn’t get it,” Green said. “However inadequate the European package may appear, it is a decisive step in the right direction.”

Stocks had plummeted in September over fears that Europe’s debt burdens would trigger a financial catastrophe. With those fears fading, U.S. stock prices looked cheap last week, analysts said.

The U.S. economy appears more resilient than it did in August, when worries had grown that the United States would fall back into recession. Consumers’ sentiment tumbled that month after Congress fought over raising the nation’s borrowing limit and Standard & Poor’s downgraded long-term U.S. debt.

Yet the economy managed to expand in the July-September quarter at the healthiest pace in a year. Despite their gloomy outlook, consumers spent more. Companies increased their investment in software and equipment.

The focus on Europe “taught us something very important,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Fund. “Despite all the turmoil in Europe and the drop in confidence caused by it, the U.S. economy is still growing.”

All that makes the Fed less likely to announce any new steps Wednesday at the end of its two-day policy meeting no fax cash loans. Several members of the policy committee have suggested more action may be needed to try to help the economy _ perhaps another round of bond purchases to further cut long-term interest rates. But few analysts expect any such announcement yet.

Three of the 10 members of the policymaking committee have dissented from the Fed’s smaller-scale efforts to boost growth in recent months. Two of the three are scheduled to lose their voting privileges in 2012.

Investors might welcome a quiet Fed meeting, analysts said. It would suggest that the economy might be able to recover on its own.

“Every time the Fed administers medicine to the economy, it convinces people that the economy is sick,” Kelly said. “There would be incredible cheering if the Fed decided that the economy is on the mend and no further action is required.”

Also Wednesday, the central bank will update its economic forecasts, which Bernanke will discuss at his news conference. The Fed is expected to revise down its estimates for hiring and growth from its last forecast in June. Investors will scrutinize how Bernanke explains any such revisions.

The Fed’s meeting will be followed by the most closely watched economic indicator the government releases: the monthly jobs report.

The economy is growing, but not enough to generate many jobs for the 14 million people unemployed. Employers added 103,000 net jobs in September. That wasn’t enough to lower the unemployment rate, which has been stuck 9.1 percent for three months.

Analysts expect roughly 100,000 jobs to be added in October. Anything less could raise concerns that the economy may slow. Stocks might stumble.

A gain of 100,000 jobs is scarcely enough to keep up with population growth. More than double that total would be needed consistently to reduce unemployment significantly.

“The jobs report will be a sobering reminder … that all is not well with the economy,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at brokerage firm BTIG.

This week will bring other economic reports, too. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, will issue its surveys of purchasing managers for manufacturing and service-sector companies. Those will provide early reads of whether growth will accelerate in the final three months of the year or drop back.

And automakers will report their October sales, a gauge of whether consumers are willing to make big purchases. Consumer sentiment has fallen to recession levels. But that doesn’t necessarily mean shoppers will reduce their spending.

The auto sales data, in particular, will show “what the consumer does, not what the consumer says,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds.

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Hundreds of jailed members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA have called for an end to violence as a tool for achieving Basque independence, boosting pressure for ETA to disband and prompting the government on Saturday to call the appeal significant but insufficient.

A group representing the 700 ETA prisoners in Spain and France made the appeal in a statement Friday night, adding that they themselves should be granted amnesty.

The call endorsed a groundbreaking agreement reached late last year by pro-independence Basque political parties _ chiefly the remnants of ETA’s banned political wing, Batasuna _ and civic groups that said Basque independence should be achieved through peaceful means, not by shooting people or setting off car bombs.

But the prisoners stopped short of calling on ETA to dissolve, as demanded by Spain, and reiterated traditional demands that the government also rejects, such as letting the Basque people decide whether to break away or remain part of Spain.

ETA declared a cease-fire in September 2010 and went further in January by calling the truce permanent and saying it was prepared to let international observers verify it.

ETA has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at forcing the government to allow creation of an independent Basque homeland straddling the Basque provinces of northern Spain and southwest France. But the group has been decimated in recent years by arrests of its leaders and members, and has not killed anyone in Spain in more than two years.

Government spokesman Jose Blanco said Saturday the prisoners’ appeal was unprecedented.

“It is an important step, a significant one. But it is not the one that society in general and the government wanted because it is not definitive, nor is it the one that announces the end of ETA,” Blanco said.

Debate among ETA prisoners _ seen as holding much sway in the organization _ on whether to renounce violence has been under way for months.

The appeal comes now with a general election due in Spain in November. The governing Socialists, who negotiated with ETA in 2006, are expected to lose badly to the opposition conservatives, in large part because of the dismal state of Spain’s economy.

While many in Spain see Europe’s last major armed militancy as being on its last legs, one big question mark is whether ETA will make some kind of big announcement before the voting on Nov. 20.

Some in Spain say ETA’s demise _ the golden ring that successive Spanish governments have sought in vain for decades _ might conceivably be enough to save the Socialists by letting them claim credit for what would be a historic event.

Meanwhile, Basque police said some 10,000 protesters marched through the region’s main city, Bilbao, Saturday evening to protest a 10-year jail term given Sept. 16 to activists who include Arnaldo Otegi, the former Batasuna leader who has been credited with leading the pro-independence community to reject violence as the way to achieve a Basque state.

A court in Madrid convicted Otegi and four others of forming an organization to replace Batasuna and serve as a political tool for ETA. Many Basques reacted angrily, saying the conviction dashed hopes for peace just as momentum toward it seemed to be building.

At the march, protest leaders hailed the decision by the ETA prisoners as setting the stage for a settlement. Many demonstrators waved the red, white and green Basque flag and chanted slogans calling on the government to transfer ETA prisoners scattered around the country to prisons in the Basque region _ a long-standing ETA demand.

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