Italy takes control of drifting migrant ship

Italian sailors on Jan. 2 managed to take control of a crewless merchant ship as it drifted toward the country's southern shores in rough seas with 450 migrants on board, in the second such incident in two days.
      
Six coastguard officers were lowered from a helicopter onto the deck of the Ezadeen as it floated some 40 kilometers (25 miles) off Crotone on Italy's heel, the navy said.
      
It marked the second such drama in days for Italy, which is struggling with a record wave of migrants making the perilous journey to the south European country from North Africa and Turkey, after the navy on Wednesday stopped another crewless ship with hundreds of migrants on board.
      
Friday's rescue bid involved the 73-meter-long (240-foot-long) Sierra Leone-registered Ezadeen, which was meant to be travelling between Cyprus and the southern French port of Sete.
      
Prior to losing power, the almost 50-year-old ship had been moving at a brisk seven knots and had been spotted by a coastguard plane 80 miles offshore shortly after nightfall.
      
One of the people on board the Ezadeen was able to operate the ship's radio and informed the coastguard that the crew had jumped ship.
      
The coastguard asked for assistance from Icelandic patrol boat Tyr, which was in the area on a mission with Frontex, the European Union's border agency.
      
The Tyr was able to draw alongside the runaway ship, but the weather conditions made boarding impossible.
      
The Icelandic vessel has three doctors on board who are waiting to be winched on to the merchant ship by helicopter to treat any unwell passengers, the air force said.
                      
On Wednesday Italian sailors intercepted a...