Greek navy vessel, cargo hauler collide
ATHENS, Greece -- A Greek navy minesweeper and a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship collided Tuesday outside Greece's main port of Piraeus, leaving two navy crewmen slightly injured and prompting the evacuation of the severely damaged military vessel.
It was not immediately clear why the navy ship Kallisto and the Maersk Launceston container vessel, which had been heading to Turkey with 22 crewmen on board, collided.
The coast guard said a rescue operation was underway with three coast guard patrol boats, a coast guard special forces unit, a navy ship and helicopter and four tugboats. All 27 navy crew members were rescued from the minesweeper, which sustained damage and was taking on water.
The container ship's managers, J.T. Essberger, said the ship's crew participated in the rescue operation. In a statement, the company said there were no injuries on board the cargo ship, and an initial assessment did not indicate any damage.
The Kallisto, listing to one side and with severe damage on its stern, much of which appeared to be missing, was towed to a naval base on the nearby island of Salamina.
American abducted for ransom in Niger
NIAMEY, Niger -- Gunmen kidnapped an American citizen in the West African nation of Niger early Tuesday and demanded a ransom from his relatives, a government official said.
Philipe Nathan Walton was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger at 1:45 a.m., Ibrahim Abba Lele, a prefect in Birni-N'Konni town, told The Associated Press.
The kidnappers called and demanded ransom from Walton's father, who lives about half a mile away from his son's farm, said the official. The attack has not yet been claimed and police are investigating, he said.
A spokesperson for the State Department said it is aware that an American was abducted in Niger and is providing support to the family and working with authorities to carry out a search.
Niger has faced a growing number of attacks by extremists linked to both the Islamic State group and to al-Qaida. The kidnapping takes place two months after Islamic State-linked militants killed six French aid workers and their Niger guide while they were visiting a wildlife park east of the capital.
Tuesday's kidnapping brings to seven the number of foreign hostages believed to be held by extremist groups in Niger.
Capsizing off France fatal to 4 migrants
PARIS -- At least four people, including two young children, died Tuesday when a boat carrying at least 19 migrants capsized off France while trying to cross the English Channel to Britain, French authorities said.
Fifteen migrants have been saved so far and search-and-rescue operations were still underway, according to the regional administration for the Nord region. It said in a statement that the dead were a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, a woman and a man, and stressed that the toll so far is provisional pending further searches.
Aid groups decried the deaths and called for more government help for struggling migrants, while British and French authorities expressed their condolences.
Such crossings have become increasingly common in recent years, despite political uproar in Britain and stepped-up police efforts to stop them, but deaths are rare. French authorities reported four migrant deaths in total in small boats crossing the Channel in 2019.
On Tuesday, a sailboat alerted authorities to a migrant boat in distress off the coast of Dunkirk, and France mobilized five vessels and a Belgian helicopter nearby to help with the rescue, according to the regional French maritime agency.
The Dunkirk prosecutor is investigating the cause of the sinking, which occurred on a day when both British and French weather authorities had warned of gusty winds in the area.
Egypt shark attack injures tourists, guide
CAIRO -- A young Ukrainian tourist lost an arm and an Egyptian guide a leg in a rare shark attack over the weekend off Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, officials said Tuesday.
The attack took place Sunday when two tourists -- a mother and her son --and their tour guide were snorkeling in Ras Mohammed National Park, the Environment Ministry said in a statement.
The injured were taken to a hospital and an initial investigation showed that the attack involved a 6-foot-long oceanic whitetip shark, the ministry said.
The ministry did not release details of the injuries, but a statement by Ukraine's tourism agency said Monday that the 12-year-old boy was in intensive care, and that surgery had failed to save his arm.
An Egyptian health official said that the family's guide had lost a leg, and the mother suffered light injuries. The health official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Officials have closed the area of Ras Mohammed National Park where the attack took place.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports