Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) crew members from the German NGO migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 distribute life jackets to migrants in a small wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya. Reuters.
Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) crew members from the German NGO migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 distribute life jackets to migrants in a small wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya. Reuters.
Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) crew members from the German NGO migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 distribute life jackets to migrants in a small wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya. Reuters.
Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) crew members from the German NGO migrant rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 distribute life jackets to migrants in a small wooden boat in international waters off the coast of

More than 700 migrants saved from Mediterranean


Neil Murphy
  • English
  • Arabic

Rescue ships picked up more than 700 people trying to cross the Mediterranean in makeshift vessels this weekend, mainly off the coasts of Libya and Malta, a migrant aid group said Sunday.

The latest figures came as UN migration officials repeated their calls for a fairer mechanism to share out the responsibility of caring for them, rather than leaving it to the Mediterranean countries.

SOS Mediterranee said that its vessel, the Ocean Viking, had carried out six separate operations in international waters since Saturday.

In the last such intervention, it rescued 106 people off the Maltese coastline after being alerted by German aid group Sea-Watch, said the Marseille-based organisation.

"The youngest survivor rescued in this operation is just 3 months old," SOS Mediterranee tweeted.

Overnight Saturday to Sunday, the Ocean Viking joined vessels from Sea Watch and ResQship, another German group, to help 400 people in difficulty in the central Mediterranean, said the group.

They were rescued from a vessel that was taking in water, in what a spokesman for the organisation told AFP was a particularly perilous operation. Those who were rescued were shared out between the Ocean Viking and Sea-Watch3.

Ocean Viking alone has 555 passengers on board from this weekend's operations, including at least 28 women, two of whom are pregnant. The organisation has yet to determine at which safe port they will be able to leave them.

Libya remains one of the main departure points for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing, despite the continuing insecurity in the country. Most of them try to reach the Italian coast, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) away.

Celine Schmitt, the spokesman for the UN refugee organisation's French operation, said last month there was an urgent need for an automatic system to share out the new arrivals between countries, to ensure them a better reception -- and not leave it to Mediterranean countries to assume sole responsibility.

"If we look at the Central Mediterranean, last year, there were fewer than 50,000 people who arrived," she said.

"It is totally manageable for the European population", when you consider there are 82 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes, said Schmitt. IOM spokesman Paul Dillon took a similar position last week.

"By advocating for better migration management practices, better migration governance and greater solidarity from EU member states, we can come up with a clear, safe and humane approach to this issue that begins with saving lives at sea," he said.

The Central Mediterranean crossing, between Libya and Italy or Malta, is by far the deadliest in the world, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Of the 1,113 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean in the first half of this year, 930 of them were recorded there.

Nevertheless, according to the latest IOM figures, increasing numbers of migrants have attempted the crossing this year.

INFO

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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

Company Profile

Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million

Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

THE CLOWN OF GAZA

Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah 

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

Mina Cup winners

Under 12 – Minerva Academy

Under 14 – Unam Pumas

Under 16 – Fursan Hispania

Under 18 – Madenat

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Willian 13'

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Liverpool 0

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5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Sheaar, Szczepan Mazur, Saeed Al Shamsi

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6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (TB) Listed Dh380,000 1,600m | Winner: Forjatt, Chris Hayes, Nicholas Bachalard

7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup for Private Owners Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 1,400m | Winner: Hawafez, Connor Beasley, Ridha ben Attia

7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 80,000 1,600m | Winner: Qader, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roaulle

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES

UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh

UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith

What are the influencer academy modules?
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Director: Joseph Kosinski

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Global Fungi Facts

• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
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Sector: Water technology 
 
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Investment raised: $4 million 
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The five pillars of Islam
Updated: August 01, 2021, 9:59 PM`