BBC News Online: World: Europe

Albanians drown trying to reach Italy

. Italian coastguards have recovered the bodies of five Albanians who drowned when their dinghy sank about eleven kilometres north of Brindisi off Italy's southern coast.

At least one more is still missing, while fourteen have been rescued.

Rough seas appear to have caused the boat -- carrying would-be immigrants sailing from Vlora in southern Albania -- to fill with water and sink.

The search for possible survivors is continuing.

Hundreds of Albanians, Kurds and other would-be immigrants have sailed to Italy in the past year.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service