National News
French prosecutors have launched an inquiry into the sinking of the Senegalese Joola ferry off the coast of Gambia.
More than 1,800 people died last September in the accident - more than three times the number of passengers legally permitted on the vessel.
The ferry was sailing between southern Senegal and the capital, Dakar, in the north.
Two French magistrates were mandated this month to investigate how the ferry came to be so overloaded.
Thirty Europeans, including some French nationals, were among those who died.
There were only 64 survivors.
A report published last November concluded that the accident had been caused by overloading and negligence on the part of the boat's operators, the Senegalese navy and rescue services.
Restrictions ignored
The marine consultants who supervised the construction of the ferry, Ingo Schlueter, in Germany, told BBC News Online that as a coastal ferry, the Joola was allowed to travel as far as 20 nautical miles (37 km) off the coast.
More importantly, it had to be no more than six hours away from the coast.
According to a diver who took part in the rescue efforts, the Joola was 35 km off the Gambian coast when it capsized but it was about 11 hours away from the coast.
At the time of the accident, the Joola had only recently resumed service after undergoing repairs.
The ferry, which normally travelled between Dakar and Ziguinchor twice a week, was doing just one voyage per week as one of the engines had been repaired and needed to be run in.
The director general of the company which managed the Joola for five years after its launch in 1990, Simon Boissy, told BBC News Online that, in his opinion, the accident was the result of poor maintenance.
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