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Ship With 500 Aboard Missing in Indonesia
An overloaded ship carrying almost 500 people, many of whom were fleeing sectarian violence in the Maluku islands, was missing and presumed sunken Thursday in remote eastern Indonesia. The National Search and Rescue Agency said the wooden-hulled Cahaya Bahari made a distress call in stormy weather, which was now hampering search efforts. Radio contact was lost after the captain said the vessel was taking on water in heavy seas, a naval officer said. The state-run Antara news agency and several port officials reported that the vessel had gone down. Rescue ships were reported to have reached the search area about 40 miles west of Siau island and about 1,440 miles northeast of the capital, Jakarta.
A separate report says that rescuers are picking up some survivors from the sinking ship.
A radio message from one of the rescue vessels indicates some passengers are alive but there is no confirmation of how many.
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