The US Coast Guard has lost contact with a disabled American cargo ship carrying six people off the Northern Mariana Islands (a US-administered Pacific island chain) following Super Typhoon Sinlaku. The 145-foot vessel Mariana reported engine failure on April 15 and was last known to be around 125 miles north-northwest of Saipan before communication ceased the following afternoon. Search aircraft were forced back to Guam by fierce winds, but rescue operations were set to resume at dawn Saturday as federal agencies including FEMA began ramping up broader disaster relief efforts across the typhoon-battered islands.