Death toll from South Korean sunken ferry rises to 100

The confirmed death toll from South Korea’sworst ferry accident in over 20 years surpassed 100 on Tuesday, but more than 200people remained missing amid stepped-up search operations.The death toll from the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol hit 104 early Tuesday as diversretrieved 17 more bodies as their search focused on decks of the five-story vessel,where most of those unaccounted for are believed to have been trapped. On theprevious day, a total of 28 bodies were recovered from the section, according to(Yonhap) news agency.“Underwater operations will focus on the third and fourth floors, while vessels willsearch waters to prevent bodies from drifting away,” the government disastermanagement team said in a briefing. “Search operations will go smoothly as wavesin the rescue site are forecast to be about 0.5 meter high, and the speed of thecurrents is slow.”The operations have transited from rescue to recovery and identification as hopesof finding any survivors were fading rapidly as none of missing passengers havebeen found alive since the ship sank off the southwestern island of Jindo onWednesday. Of the 476 people on board, only 174 passengers, including the ferry’s captain andmost of its crew, were rescued as the boat listed due to what is believed to havebeen a faster than usual turn.Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to South Korea later this week, thePentagon on Monday said it is sending a salvage ship, USNS Safeguard, toward thepeninsula from Thailand in case it is needed.USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, is already helping with thesearch of survivors.