Cruise ship captain under house arrest
GIGLIO, Italy, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The Costa Concordia's captain was under house arrest in Italy after apparently having ignored orders to return to the cruise ship he abandoned, officials say.
Britain's Sky News reported transcripts of taped telephone conversations reveal Capt. Francesco Schettino of Naples ignored the orders from the Italian coast guard after the ship capsized Friday off the Tuscan island of Giglio.
Italian divers found five more bodies submerged in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia, raising the death toll to 11, officials said.
The grim discovery was made after crews blew holes into the hull of the capsized ship to try to locate 23 people still missing, ANSA reported.
Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, abandoning ship and causing a shipwreck. He denies all the charges.
Telephone transcripts released by authorities hinted Schettino was evasive when ordered by a port official to supervise the rescue, Sky News said. Prosecutors said they suspect Schettino and his first officer left the ship up to 3 hours before all passengers and crew were evacuated.
Excerpts of the exchange indicate Schettino received instructions from a port official to return to the ship.
"Now you go to the bow, you climb up the emergency ladder and co-ordinate the evacuation," the official reportedly tells him. "You must tell us how many people, children, women and passengers are there and the exact number of each category."
"What are you doing? Are you abandoning the rescue? Captain, this is an order, I am the one in charge now," the official said. "You have declared abandoning ship. There are already bodies."
"How many?" Schettino responded.
"That is for you to tell me," the official said. "What are you doing? Do you want to go home?"
In an earlier phone conversation, Schettino told port authorities, "[We] cannot get on board because the rear of the ship is keeling over."
Italian coast guard Warrant Petty Officer Massimo Macaroni said crews also were trying to retrieve a second "black-box" recorder found in the wreckage, ABC News reported.
The device, along with another already located recorder, will be analyzed and provide authorities with "a complete picture of how the disaster unfolded," CNN reported.
Obama, Jordan's Abdullah meet
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama met with Jordanian King Abdullah in the White House Tuesday and said afterward the king has shown "great leadership" in the Middle East.
Obama told reporters Jordan is among the United States' best friends and partners in the world, and pointed out "the fact that they are in such a difficult neighborhood makes the relationship between our two countries that much more important."
Obama praised Abdullah for encouraging "peace and prosperity" in the region.
Obama said the two leaders spent a "great deal of time" in their meeting going over "key subjects," including the importance of continuing to consult closely to encourage the Palestinians and Israelis to resume direct talks aimed at arriving at a two-state peace solution.
"We talked about the importance of us continuing to consult closely together to encourage the Palestinians and the Israelis to come back to the table and negotiate in a serious fashion a peaceful way forward," Obama said. "And the Jordanians have taken great leadership on this issue, and we very much appreciate their direction on this issue."
Abdullah said the outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian talks remains unclear.
"Although this is still in the early stages we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we can bring the Israelis and Palestinians out of the impasse," the king said.
The president ignored a question shouted aloud about efforts by the Quartet -- the United States, Russia, United Nations and the European Union -- to help shape a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Iran, Iraq and Syria also were on the leaders' talking points agenda.
Obama gave the king high grades for being the first leader to call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down in the face of ongoing deadly government violence against Syria's people, and complimented the Jordanian leader for "guiding political reform inside of Jordan."
"I think his majesty has been ahead of the curve in trying to respond to the legitimate concerns and aspirations, both politically and economically, of the Jordanian population," he said.
Web opposition to SOPA growing
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Hundreds of Web sites say they'll go dark late Tuesday to protest anti-piracy bills currently making their way through Congress.
Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and even IcanHazCheezburger are among the sites shutting down in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"This is an extraordinary action for our community to take," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement Monday. "While we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
Internet search giant Google said it would join the protest by linking to anti-SOPA information on the firm's United States home page, Ars Technica reported.
Other sites announcing plans to join the protest include Wordpress, TwitPic, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The White House weighed in on the issue last weekend, calling for Congress to go back to the drawing board and saying any new legislation must target specific lawbreakers rather than broadly punishing Internet intermediaries.
Asked about the administration's position, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "It's a serious problem that requires serious legislative responses. But we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative, global Internet."
President meets with jobs council
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness presented U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday with recommendations for expanding employment.
"The Jobs Council has been critical in finding new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness," Obama said. "I'm proud that we've taken action on a majority of the Council's recommendations on issues ranging from insourcing to permitting to clean energy. But we also know there's a lot more work to do, which is why we're committed to continuing to invest in strategies that support job growth."
The council presented a year-end report to the president that includes new recommendations for strategies. Some of them appeared to come from the Republican playbook, including an "all-in" strategy on energy that includes "optimizing use of America's natural resources" like oil and regulatory and tax reform.
Obama pushed his own plan to simplify federal regulations, asking Congress for power to consolidate agencies and rules.
