French and French Polynesian authorities have held an urgent meeting as plans are being drawn up to rescue a large cargo ship stuck on a reef of Raroia in the Tuamotus.

It has been revealed that the Philippines-registered vessel is carrying 20,000 tonnes of zinc and was on a trip from the United States to Australia when it developed engine problems last week.

The 132-metre long ship made no appeal for help and was discovered by locals after it hit the reef.

There is no sign of any marine pollution.

Eighteen people who are reportedly on the ship, Thorco Lineage, will for the time being remain on board.

Reports say the ship's owner and the insurance company are likely to dispatch a powerful tug from California to try to dislodge the ship.

It is expected that it will take about ten days to reach Raroia. </s> Seven survivors from a ferry which disappeared more than a week ago have been found by search and rescue teams in the Pacific Ocean.

The boat was found drifting in the search area on Sunday morning, eight days after the MV Buitraoi ferry, carrying around 50 people, went missing off the coast of Kiribati.

But 43 people are feared dead with the ferry still missing and more than half of the search area already covered.

The crew of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion plane located the boat two hours into the search on Sunday morning for the MV Butiraoi, a 17.5 metre wooden catamaran.

The New Zealand Defence Force confirmed the seven people found were on board the vessel after an air force plane spotted the small boat.

Authorities believe it was one of two boats carried on the side of the ferry.

All the people who were on board the ferry are thought to be locals.

Efforts are now being coordinated with a fishing vessel 92km away to pick up the survivors.

The FV Lomalo is expected to rendezvous with the survivors on Sunday afternoon, Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the Air Component Commander for the NZDF said.

'The Orion will continue to search the area, making every effort to locate any more survivors, while awaiting the rendezvous with the fishing vessel,' Air Commodore Webb added.

The missing ferry, which had 50 passengers on board, was due to arrive in Betio, the country's captial, on January 20 after departing Nonouiti Island.

“The group seem very relieved to have been found when the NZ Airforce Orion dropped supplies, including water and a radio, to them about 10am today,” said John Ashby, senior search and rescue officer of the Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand.

Local authorities said the boat ran aground and underwent repairs to its propeller shaft before it left Nonouti Island.

It has a high frequency radio but it is not known whether it has enough fuel and emergency supplies on board.

The 240km inter-island voyage was due to take two days to complete.

Seven people are on board the small five metre boat and teams from the NZ Orion aircraft have dropped emergency aid including a radio into the water.

A spokesman from the New Zealand Defence Force said they could not confirm whether the people are from the missing ferry.

Crews have attempted to reach communication with the boat but say they have not been able to ascertain its origin.

Rescue efforts are being co-ordinated between New Zealand, Fiji and Kiribati authorities.

The ferry is described as having a dark blue hull and yellow cabin fixed on top.

The Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand (RCCNZ) has so far scoured more than half of the possible search area - estimated to be the size of New Zealand.

Radio transmissions have been broadcast along the coastline and contact has been made with each island for sightings.

John Ashby, a senior search and rescue officer with the RCCNZ, said earlier: 'We are doing everything we can to locate this ferry and its passengers.

'We understand the vessel underwent repairs to its propeller shaft just before it departed. This may have contributed to problems navigating the journey.'

Kiribati is a collection of 33 islands with a population of 110,000 people, with the largest group located 1,500km north of Fiji. </s> French authorities are rushing to stop an oil spill from reaching the country's west coast after an Italian-registered cargo ship sank in the Bay of Biscay.

 

 Although the government's initial statement only said there had been "dangerous materials" on board the ill-fated Grande America, local officials told French news agency Agence France-Presse that the vessel was leaking oil.

The ship had been en route from Hamburg to Casablanca, carrying 2,000 vehicles and 2,200 tons of fuel, when a fire broke out late Sunday. The 26 crew members and single passenger were forced to abandon ship when it caught fire, and were rescued by Britain's Royal Navy.

The lifeboat was "bobbing around like a cork in a bathtub," HMS Argyll officer Lieutenant Commander Dave Tetchner was quoted as saying in news story on the Royal Navy's website.

"The conditions were horrendous — the vessels were rolling at 30 degrees which made it extremely hairy getting the sailors safely on board," he said.

The drifting ship, still in flames, finally sank on Tuesday about 180 nautical miles (333 kilometers) west of France.

Vice-Admiral Jean-Louis Lozier, France's maritime prefect for the Atlantic, said the Italian shipping company Grimaldi Group had been ordered to ensure that no toxic materials reached the French mainland.

Overnight on Wednesday, the French navy reportedly discovered an oil spill several kilometers long. In a statement, Grimaldi has said it was working with French authorities to prevent any damage to the environment.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> Almost 350 migrants are stranded on two boats in the Mediterranean, including a Danish cargo ship, as a standoff between nearby European countries deepened on Sunday.

The boats include German rescue ship, Lifeline, which picked up 234 people and 17 crew members off the coast of Libya on Thursday; and a cargo ship operated by Danish transportation company Maersk, which picked up another 113 migrants off the coast of Libya on Friday morning.

Both boats have been barred from docking at nearby Italy and Malta, as the countries urged other European nations to take in the stranded migrants.

The standoff comes weeks after Italy and Malta refused to accept another rescue ship, the Aquarius, which was carrying over 600 migrants. After two days drifting in the Mediterranean the migrants were accepted by Spain, exposing the tough new policies of Italy’s hardline interior minister and leader of the anti-immigration League party, Matteo Salvini.

‘Dear Salvini, we have no meat on board, just humans’

Salvini doesn’t appear to be backing down on his tough stance anytime soon. Last week he warned the Dutch-flagged ship operated by the German nongovernmental organization Lifeline, currently stranded in the Mediterranean with over 200 migrants on board, not to dock in Italian ports.

“You (Lifeline) did a show of strength by contravening the indications of the Italian and Libyan coast guard. Now, you’ll carry this human load to the Netherlands,” Salvini said in a Facebook live video from his office.

On Sunday, Lifeline responded to Salvini in a Twitter post, saying: “Dear @matteosalvinimi, we have no meat on board, but humans. We cordially invite you to convince yourself that it is people we have saved from drowning. Come here, you are welcome!”

Similarly, Italy has also refused to allow the Maersk cargo ship, which is carrying over 100 migrants and is located south of Sicily, to dock in its ports. That’s despite the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center calling Maersk on Thursday night and asking for it to rescue the migrants, a Maersk spokesman told CNN.

The cargo ship had been traveling between Libya and Malta at the time, the spokesman said, adding that “it is now denied a port of entry and the company is awaiting further instruction from authorities.”

The ship is roughly three sea miles from the port of Pozzallo in Sicily, Italian Coast Guard press officer Commander Cosimo Nicastro told CNN. He added that of the 113 migrants rescued, five have since been brought to shore for medical reasons, including an eight-months pregnant woman and her partner, and a young girl that needed medical assistance with her mother and sister.

Lifeline ship near the coast of Malta

Axel Steier, a spokesman for Lifeline, told CNN Saturday that the ship was around 40 miles south of the Maltese coast.

However Malta has refused to allow the ship to dock, with Prime Miniser Joseph Muscat saying in a government statement that the rescue had taken place in the Libyan rescue zone and that it had been coordinated by the Italian authorities, and later by the Libyan authorities.

Given these circumstances, Malta is under no obligation to take in the ship, he said, even though the vessel is in the Maltese rescue zone.

That said, Malta has twice given food and drink supplies to the stranded ship, the Malta Ambassador to Italy, Vanessa Frazier, told CNN.

Meanwhile, the fiery exchange between Italy and Malta continued over the weekend, with Italian transportation minister Danilo Toninelli calling the Maltese decision not to allow the Lifeline to dock “inhumane” and “absurd” on his Facebook page on Saturday.

Malta’s Minister for Home Affairs and National Security, Michael Farrugia, responded with tweets asking Toninelli to get his facts right and accusing Lifeline of breaking “international rules.”

Immigration continues to be a controversial issue for EU member states. During the recent federal election campaign that led to Italy’s new government — a coalition between the anti-immigrant League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement — Salvini promoted his party with an “Italians first” slogan and pledged to deport half a million migrants.

At an informal EU summit on immigration in Brussels on Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared keen to manage expectations that European leaders could reach a broad agreement on migration, telling journalists that countries will need to work on bilateral and trilateral deals with one another instead of waiting for all 28 EU member countries to come to an agreement.

The Mediterranean remains the world’s deadliest migration route, despite sharp falls in the number of people trying to reach Europe by boat. That drop is partly ascribed to a deal struck between Italy and Libya last year, in which the southern European country pledged to bolster Libya’s coast guard so it could spot departing migrant boats and house migrants attempting to cross.

As of June 6, there had been an estimated 785 deaths on the route this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, with the majority of the 33,400 migrants and refugees arriving through Greece and Italy.
Authorities in France and French Polynesia meet to discuss rescue plans for MV Thorco Lineage, a freighter hauling zinc that is grounded with eighteen people on board on a coral reef near Raroia, Tuamotus.