Italy: Court keeps ship captain under house arrest

ROME — An Italian court has refused to lift an order of house arrest for Francesco Schettino, the captain of Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off a Tuscan island last month.

A court in Florence, in issuing its decision Tuesday, rejected a request from prosecutors to revoke house arrest and jail Schettino, and another from Schettino himself to be freed.

Schettino commanded the ship with 4,200 people that ran aground off the island of Giglio on Jan. 13.

He is being investigated for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship before all passengers were evacuated. Seventeen people are confirmed killed in the Jan. 13 shipwreck, with 15 more still missing.