Italy’s coast guard and navy joined forces with tugs and other commercial vessels to rescue migrants in at least 16 boats yesterday, saving hundreds and recovering 10 bodies as smugglers took advantage of calm seas to send packed vessels across the Mediterranean.

Four Italian journalists have been kidnapped and their driver killed, apparently by Libyans loyal to dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, as they travelled towards Tripoli, Italy’s foreign minister said tonight.

MYSTERY surrounds the whereabouts of 10 students from Tripoli, Libya, who were due to take their Leaving Certificate English papers in Malta yesterday.