BREAKING NEWS

Boat smashed on Australian cliff; 28 migrants die

Australians on a high cliff watched helplessly Wednesday as a wooden boat smuggling as many as 100 would-be migrants was smashed against the jagged rocks by monstrous waves, dumping screaming men, women and children into the stormy surf. At least 28 people died and 44 were rescued.
The deaths off Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory, underscored the dangers faced by hundreds of refugees who have tried to sail from Indonesia to Australia in recent years — often in cramped, barely seaworthy boats — to start new lives after escaping from poor, war-ravaged countries.