missing

At least 109 migrants including 15 children have died and dozens more are still missing after a boat sank off the coast of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.

The boat was travelling from Djibouti to Yemen with 350 people on board, when it capsized near the port town of Obock on Thursday night. Around 80 people were rescued, the IOM said.

IOM’s Djibouti mission chief Alexandre Coissac called the tragedy a “stark reminder” of the dangers migrants face while seeking a new life elsewhere.

Tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa make the perilous journey each year hoping to reach Gulf countries for safety and work, according to the UN agency.

In a statement on Friday, the organisation said 52 men, 42 women, nine girls and six boys were among the bodies recovered.

“This is a devastating loss of life,” Coissac said.

“Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives,” he added.

Local authorities are also arranging burials for those who have died, while the survivors – all Ethiopian nationals – have medical care readily available to them.

Yemen remains engulfed in a devastating civil war which has lasted more than a decade. Despite this conflict – and growing instability across the wider region – migrants still cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Yemen driven by poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change.

Since 10 September, the IOM said its Displacement Tracking Matrix has observed more than 20,000 “movements” from Ethiopia to Djibouti.

Rescuers halt operation off the coast with no survivors found, following a Black Sea attack that also damaged a second vessel.

Bulgarian authorities have ended search operations after confirming no survivors were found following a drone strike that sank a ship off the country’s coast.

Drones hit two commercial vessels early on Tuesday as attacks on Black Sea shipping increase amid an intensifying Russia-Ukraine war. One caught fire, and the other sank.

“There is no trace of the sailors,” Rumen Nikolov, the head of the country’s Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, told reporters on Wednesday.

The search stopped late on Tuesday and would not continue, he added.

Eighteen Turkish and Indian crew members were rescued from the ship that caught fire, but the crew members from the vessel that sank remain missing.

Authorities have not said how many people are missing, but according to the Maritime.bg specialised website, 10 people were on board the ship.

Nikolov said the ⁠incident occurred in a so-called “responsible search and rescue zone” and not in the country’s territorial waters, which extend to 12 nautical miles off the coast.

“What was found from the sunken ship was one overturned boat, three life rafts and debris from the ship’s equipment that was floating on the surface of the sea,” he said.

Asked whether any debris from the drones had been recovered, Nikolov said: “I have no information about drone debris.”

Prime Minister Rumen Radev has described the attack as “absolutely unacceptable”.

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has also condemned the incident.

Bulgarian authorities have said they are not yet able to determine the origin of the drones.

A distress beacon signal from the ship that sank was received at 2:54am on Tuesday (23:54 GMT on Monday), while the distress signal from the other ship was received at 3:23am (00:23 GMT), Nikolov said.

Both commercial ships were managed by Turkiye-based companies, according to the Equasis merchant shipping database.

They were hit about 80 nautical miles (150km) east of the Bulgarian coastal town of Byala.

The strikes came a day after another ship caught fire and sank off the Romanian coast on Monday, killing two people. Ukraine blamed Russia for the drone attack.

The US coastguard says it has dispatched air and surface crews to search for the plane near Nantucket.

An air ambulance has gone missing while carrying six people on a flight from Bermuda to Boston.

The US Federal Aviation Administration told the coastguard early on Saturday that it had lost contact with the plane, a Gulfstream jet, ⁠a coastguard spokesperson told the Reuters news agency by email.

The ⁠coastguard said it dispatched air and surface crews to search for the plane near Nantucket, an island community south of mainland Massachusetts.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the situation on Saturday morning but had no further update to share.

The Canadian-registered air ambulance jet had four crew members and two passengers on board when it departed Bermuda’s LF Wade International airport overnight for the flight to Massachusetts, according to a statement from the Bermuda airport’s operator, Skyport.

Canada’s Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon said in a social media post that four Canadians were on the plane.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and are working with the relevant authorities as search and rescue ‌efforts continue,” MacKinnon wrote.

The aircraft, registered to Latitude Air Ambulance, departed Bermuda at 12:41am local time (03:41 GMT), according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware.

The plane was flying at 24,000 feet (7,300 metres) for much of the flight before descending 13,000ft (3,960 metres) in about two minutes shortly before flight controllers lost contact, data showed.

Last communication

Air traffic control audio posted by LiveATC.net offered a glimpse of the flight’s final communications before it went missing.

“Roger, you said you’re coming in blind. Is that what you said?” a controller can be heard asking the pilot.

The pilot’s transmission could not be heard in the recording. The controller later confirmed the pilot was declaring an emergency just before losing contact with the plane.

The Bermuda government is in contact with US ‌authorities and families of the passengers, Bermuda Premier David Burt wrote in a statement posted on Instagram.

“We are praying that all six people will ‌be ‌found safe,” he wrote.

Latitude Air Ambulance is based in Ontario, Canada, and provides medical evacuation services. The company ⁠did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HEARTBROKEN Pete Wicks has urged fans to stop questioning the whereabouts of his dog and opened up about a tough loss. 

The former Towie star, 37, is famously known for his love of dogs and close bond with his own canines companions. 

In December last year Pete – who is in a relationship with Love Island star and documentary-maker Olivia Attwood – told how he was spending Christmas alone after one of his French bulldogs, Peggy, died. 

Now he’s taken to social media to ask fans to stop speculating about another one of his Frenchies, Eric, who he rescued in 2016 – sharing the sad news that he has also passed away. 

He wrote: “In the past year I have lost both of my dogs Eric and Peggy. They were 10 and 13. 

“I haven’t wanted to talk about it… they got me through the past decade and a piece of me has gone with them. 

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“So to those who feel like they need an explanation of where Eric is, please stop. He was my soul dog. He was my best friend. I shouldn’t have to explain my pain.” 

Such is Pete’s love of dogs that he fronted documentary series Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake in 2025 which followed him as he worked behind the scenes at Dogs’ Trust rehoming centres. 

Speaking earlier this year ahead of series three of the UKTV show, he told RadioTimes: “Whatever love you give dogs, you get back tenfold. 

“People are quite cruel. I cannot abide by people who don’t treat animals with respect. 

“I don’t understand why more people who have a bit of a platform don’t give a voice to the voiceless.

“That’s what I try to do in any way I possibly can. It means a lot to me.”

He has not contacted his family in the UK

A dad has vanished in France after losing contact with his family back home in the UK. Andrew Shirlaw, known by his family as Andy, has disappeared whilst travelling through France.

The 65-year-old’s family have been left worried after he failed to contact them for days. His disappearance has been described ‘completely out of character’ by his daughter Gabriella.

Andrew went missing on September 22. Hi s last known location was Paris, France. It is believed that he had planned to travel down to the south before eventually finishing his trip in Toulouse.

Friends of the family who last saw him in Paris are extremely worried about his disappearance. Andrew’s family have described him as around 6ft tall with a slim build.

He often wears glasses and a hearing aid whilst sticking to a style of patterned shirts, shorts and sandals. |He is fluent in French and is known to be very talkative and open to interacting with strangers.

Andrew’s daughter has released a statement after reporting him missing. Gabriella Payne said: “Our dad, Andrew Shirlaw, Andy, aged 65, has been missing since Tuesday, September 22.

“His last known location was Paris, and we believe he was planning to travel south, eventually ending in Toulouse. We are extremely concerned because it is completely out of character for Andy not to maintain contact with us.

‘’Friends who saw him in Paris were also concerned about him before we lost contact. Andy is British but speaks fluent French with an English accent.

“He is very slim, around 6ft tall, often wears clear glasses and sometimes a hearing aid. He is very talkative, eccentric and will often strike up conversations with strangers.

“If you have seen Andy, spoken to him, travelled with him, or have any information at all about where he may be, please DM me or contact the local police. Even if you’re not in France, please share this post — particularly with anyone you know in Paris, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Toulouse or elsewhere in France.

THERE was an on-stage mystery last night as Nicole Scherzinger ‘went missing’ from a Pussycat Dolls song on their tour.

Her bandmates even failed to cover her lyrics when Nicole was nowhere to be seen on the stage in Poland on September 16.

The Pussycat Dolls’ reunion tour was thrown into chaos after lead singer Nicole didn’t appear on stage for their hit Buttons.

The reunion gig fast became rather awkward when the group’s leading lady failed to appear for the first half of the pop hit.

Bandmates Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt were left dancing alone, and failed to provide gig goers with the full song or lyrics in Nicole’s absence.

Instead they offered only backing vocals and ad-libs, as well as elite dance moves with their back up dancers.

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Nicole, who carries pretty much the entire vocal on the 2006 hit, was missing for nearly two minutes before joining the second half of the song.

Fans were quick to react to the rather awkward moment during the concert.

One person said on TikTok: “Could the other girls not just fill in a sing her part.”

“This feel proper awks,” penned a second.

“Why didn’t they just sing her part?” asked a third.

“That was so awkward,” added a fourth.

While a fifth said: “I would ask for a refund haha.”

And a sixth added: “She was missing for half of the song and was visibly p***ed as hell after she came out.”

The PCD Forever Tour marks 20 years since the group’s debut album was released.

The string of gigs feature just three of the group’s original members after most US dates were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

British fans will see the group take to the stage in Birmingham later this month.

There are also further UK dates including London’s O2 weeks later in October.

At least 51 people rescued as search operation continues off the island of Gavnos near Crete.

One person has died, 25 are missing and 51 people have been rescued after a boat carrying migrants sank off a Greek island near Crete, according to the country’s coastguard.

“Fifty-one were picked up by two boats that were in the area,” a coastguard spokesman said on Monday.

He said survivors had reported that 77 people were on board when the boat went down near the island of Gavdos.

Search and rescue efforts were ongoing, with four ships, boats, Frontex aircraft and a coastguard helicopter operating in the area, Greece’s public broadcaster ERT News reported.

The 51 rescued people were due to be brought to Crete, “where the prescribed procedures will be followed”, ERT reported.

After arriving in Crete, undocumented migrants generally face immediate arrest and temporary confinement before being transferred to closed detention camps on the Greek mainland. Under Greek law, individuals are subject to extended administrative detention, severe penalties and fast-track deportation.

Strong winds blowing through the area have been hampering the search operation, ERT said.

Crete and Gavdos, about 320km (200 miles) from the Libyan coast, have become the main point of entry for asylum seekers in Greece.

In late August, Greece’s ANA news agency published figures from the Ministry of Migration and Asylum that indicated that migrant arrivals in the country fell from about 61,000 in the year to August 2025 to 42,000 in the following 12 months – a decline of about 31 percent.

Greece’s conservative government in July suspended all asylum claims for migrants arriving by sea from North Africa for three months, a move it argued helped deter crossings.

The ban passed in parliament amid a surge in asylum seekers reaching Crete and after talks with Libya’s Benghazi-based government to stem the flow were cancelled in July.

The government remains at odds with regional authorities in Crete over a plan to build a permanent transit facility on the island. It is preparing draft legislation that would mandate imprisonment for people whose asylum claims are denied and require ankle monitors during a 30-day compliance period before deportation.

Authorities in Europe have tightened their immigration rules over recent years as far-right, anti-immigrant political parties have won increasing support throughout the continent.

Greece has been in discussions with Germany and several other European Union countries on setting up “return hubs” outside the bloc for processing migrants’ claims.

One person has been confirmed dead and more than 30 remain missing after the MV Matui ferry sank off the coast of Vanuatu, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Jotham Napat. The incident occurred on Sunday, with dozens of crew and passengers on board, the statement said.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing in Vanuatu, a Pacific Island nation located approximately 1,750 km (1,090 miles) east of Australia. The Prime Minister’s office stated on Facebook that 15 individuals have been accounted for alive. The ferry sank in adverse weather conditions on Friday between the islands of Ambae and Santo, according to New Zealand public broadcaster RNZ. The search has shifted from open waters to the south-east coast, where currents may have carried survivors, RNZ reported.

Investigation into causes

The statement from the Prime Minister’s office indicated that strong winds and marine warnings may not have been heeded, and that potential negligence, including overloading of the vessel, is being investigated. Authorities have announced that a formal investigation will be conducted to determine the causes of the incident.

“To the survivors, we pray for your strength and recovery. To the families of those missing and those we have lost, please know that the nation stands with you in this time of grief,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s office said.

Rescue operations and official response

Matai Seremaiah, a representative of the Luganville area in Vanuatu’s Parliament, stated that rescue efforts began after a crew member of the MV Matui swam ashore and raised the alarm. “He alerted us that the ship has capsized, we went out for the search,” Seremaiah said in remarks broadcast by RNZ.

The Vanuatu police, the Vanuatu Maritime Safety Authority, and the ferry’s operator, Tui Shipping Agency, have not yet responded to requests for comment. The search and rescue operation continues as authorities work to locate the missing passengers and crew.

Rescuers continue searching for survivors as the government scales back operations in open waters.

At least one person has died and more than 30 remain missing after a ferry sank off the coast of Vanuatu, Prime Minister Jotham Napat’s office has said in a statement.

The MV Matui, an inter-island ferry, sank in bad weather on Friday while sailing between the islands of Ambae and Santo, in Vanuatu’s north, according to New Zealand’s public broadcaster RNZ.

Of the dozens of crew members and passengers on board, 15 have been accounted for alive, Napat’s office said in a statement posted on Facebook, with search and rescue operations continuing.

The Pacific nation’s government said search efforts “in open waters” were being scaled back “whilst efforts move toward a search along the south-east coast, where currents may have carried survivors”.

It said the sinking “appears to be the result of strong winds and marine warnings not being heeded, and possibly of negligence including overloading of the vessel”, adding that a full investigation would follow to establish the facts and prevent a repeat.

Vanuatu police, the country’s Maritime Safety Authority and the ferry’s operator, Tui Shipping Agency, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the Reuters news agency reported.