IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Libya

Up to 240 die in wrecks off coast

The UN refugee agency said survivor accounts indicate as many as 240 people have died in two shipwrecks off Libya. No bodies have been recovered. UNHCR spokeswoman in Italy Carlotta Sami said 31 survivors of two shipwrecks who arrived on Thursday on the Italian island of Lampedusa reported that their boats capsized in heavy seas. In both cases, most of the people on board appeared to have been sub-Saharan Africans.