300 migrants feared lost at sea

An estimated 300 people died this week when their overcrowded dinghies sank in the Mediterranean during stormy weather as they attempted to reach Italy, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday after speaking to a handful of survivors.

An Italian tugboat rescued nine people who had been on two different boats on Monday and brought them to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday morning.

The survivors were part of a group of more than 200 people who left Libya on Saturday in rubber dinghies, the International Organization for Migration said.