S Korea looks to wrap up ferry recovery effort

[SEOUL] Recovery teams should try to wrap up their search for bodies from South Korea's ferry disaster by the weekend, Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won said yesterday, three weeks after the ship sank with hundreds of schoolchildren on board.

With 33 bodies yet to be recovered, the moment is fast arriving when the authorities will have to make a call on stopping the underwater search in order to raise the ferry, which was carrying 476 people when it capsized on April 16.

The conditions the recovery teams are working in are extremely challenging, and the death of a diver on Tuesday is likely to fuel debate as to how long the search should continue.