Dozens Missing, Likely Dead From Capsized Tongan Ferry

Summary

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NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga -- Giving women and children the comfort of cabins while men stayed on deck may have doomed them to be trapped inside an overnight ferry that capsized in heavy seas off Tonga, officials said Thursday. Dozens are missing and feared dead.

Police say the ferry operator listed 96 people aboard the Princess Ashika when it went down around midnight Wednesday, about 55 miles northeast of the South Pacific island nation's capital, Nuku'alofa. Some 53 people have been rescued so far -- all of them men.

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Dozens Missing, Likely Dead From Capsized Tongan Ferry

"No women or children made it," passenger Siaosi Lavaka was quoted as saying by the Matangi Tonga Web site after he was brought ashore with the other male survivors who managed to cram aboa...

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