News In Brief

American oil search ship hunted in South China Sea

US and Chinese planes searched the stormy South China Sea Thursday for an American oil exploration ship missing since Wednesday. About 74 people are reported on board, including some Americans.

An official from the Atlantic Richfield Company, which contracted the ship, said it was possible it had been seized by Vietnam. But Hanoi was informed of the search for the 5,930-ton Glomar Java Sea and registered no objections, Western diplomatic sources said. US Navy officials in Manila said a tugboat had reached the last known position of the vessel, reported by shipping sources in Singapore to have been blown into the Gulf of Tonkin.