the captain of a capsized ship on which 800 migrants died is arrested upon his arrival in italy. ♪ you are watching al jazeera live from london i'm david foster. also in the next 30 minutes, egypt's former president given 20 years in prison for the torture of protesters. more explosions in yemen's capitol as the saudi-lead coalition continues its air campaign. ♪ each day a new set of

figures. now we learn that more than 400 migrants have been rescued off of the coast of italy. found by a fishing boat about 100 kilometers south. just the latest in a seriesover distressing stories of refugees and other migrants trying to cross the mediterranean. a tunisian ship captain was arrested on manslaughter charges after the vessel carrying more than 800 people sank off of the libyan coast on sunday. on monday a ship skashed on the rocks off of the greek island of rode. three people died there. two syrian men have been charged with trafficking. the italian and maltese coast guard scrambled to respond to distress calls. and migrants rescued by spanish emergency services. barnaby phillips has the latest now from catania, that's on the southern italian island of

sicily. >> reporter: and still they keep on coming no matter how dangerous the journey. 446 people their wooden boat leaking. all they can do is appeal for help in the seas. they were lucky, an italian fishing boat found them just in time. in sicily meanwhile, the authorities are helping the few frightened men who survived the sinking of an overcrowded boat off of the libyan coast on early sunday morning. >> we have now interviewed most of the survivors of the boat tragedy in the mediterranean. according to them the boat departed from tripoli in libya on saturday morning. it had some 850 people on board. many were children. among those on board were some 350 eritreans, as well as people from syria, somalia, sierra

leone, mali and ethiopia. italian prosecutors say this man was the captain of the boat. he has been taken into custody, charged with reckless homicide and causing a shipwreck. another suspected member of the crew has also been arrested. he is on the right, from libya, accused of assisting illegal immigration. and more details are emerging as to how so many people died. >> translator: migrants were crushed inside the fishing boat. a few hundred migrants were forced into the hull at the lowest level and locked and prevented from coming out. another several hundred were closed into the second level. while on top, under a krovr, there were another hundred migrants. >> reporter: here in silly and across europe there's lots of sympathy for the victims of this

disaster and there's widespread outrage at the activities of the ruthless smuggling gangs, but european governments have disagreed for years on ways to prevent these disasters at sea, and on ways to prevent more people from risking their perilous journey across the mediterranean. and the problem goes far beyond italian waters. further west off of the coast of spain, 44 africans rescued by coast guards that come from morocco on a wooden boat. some too exhausted to walk ashore. some so young they may not remember how they arrived here to start a new life. >> and barnaby as we cross to you alive in catania, there are some who didn't make it at all. finding themselves on those islands left in the ground at the end of the day. and the distressing scenes just continue and continue.

what is the latest where you are? >> reporter: well humanitarian grourps have spent the day with just a handful of survivors from that catastrophe over the weekend. only some 26 people in a detention camp here. they have been given food. they have been given medical attention, and the aid groups that we have been talking to, say that they really are very shocked, very exhausted after their journey. not surprising at all. there's all sorts of alarming projections coming out about what could happen this year david, if things carry on at this rate. the international organization of migration, the very respected organization, it's projection is if we carry on at this rate in 2015 as many as 30,000 people could drown trying to reach

europe. and that's a chilling prospect. of course it's only a projection. but it is an indication of how much alarm there is both in the humanitarian community, and across european governments of what has been happening over the past five or six days. >> reporter: the mediterranean is a vast see. it's almost impossible to know where these people are. so rather than going after the boats, once they have set off, they have decided to go for the problem at its source. is that right? >> reporter: well i think there's certainly a determination to do whatever can be done to crack down on these smuggling gangs. and it seems that the captain of the boat that overturned on -- in the early hours of sunday morning, the tunisian man who i was talking about in my report there, there is a determination it would appear from the italian prosecutors to

make an example of him. and show people like that cannot operate outside of the law, and also the proposals that european leaders will look at on thursday includes specifically recommending or expanding the powers of what is called operation triton to destroy the boats of these smuggling gangs. but we have got to be honest when we talk at source invariably in this part of the mediterranean, the source is libya itself. and that is pretty much lawless territory. it's an area where european governments would not feel safe trying to send, you know their police forces their detective forces so yes, you can deal with the problem to a certain extent out at sea, but you are not really going to you know -- grab the problem at source because that is where the gangs are based. >> okay. thank you, barnaby phillips there in sicily. ♪

egypt's deposed leader mohammed morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. he was the country's first democratically elected president but was toppled in a military coup in 2013. tuesday's verdict is the first morsi has received since he was ousted. he still faces other trials. >> reporter: mohammed morsi escaped the death penalty. he has been sentenced to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole for what the prosecution says was his role in the arrest and torture of protesters in 2012. three protesters were killed. he can still appeal this conviction but he also faces several other charges including an attempt at a prison break in

2011 where some prison officers were killed a verdict on this is expected next month. spying. he's accused of conspiring to commit terrorist acts in egypt with hamas. leaking state secrets and endangering egypt's national security. fraud in connection with the muslim brotherhood's economic and social program. he is also charged with insulting the judishciaryjudiciary. muslim brotherhood leader along with several other defendants were also sentenced to 20 years. it was a long road to egyptian democracy. mubarak was kicked out of office then in a divisive election in 2012, morsi became the first democratically elected president, but the celebrations wouldn't last long. he angered many by issuing an order that prevented any court from overturning his decisions. that lead to violence on the streets with opponents

denouncing president morsi has a deck tear for. he stacked the head of the armed forces escalating a power struggle between the military and the president. >> i guess a decision has been taken by the military before running these elections, the first democratic election fair elections, that at a certain point the military will intervene and -- and take over. >> reporter: on june 30th, 2013 millions of people rallied across egypt, calling for his resignation. three days later the man who morsi appointed as the defense minister lead a coup that removed him from power. although the defendants in this first trial were acquitted of intent to murder any sentence against egypt's first democratically elected president is seen as a big blow to the muslim brotherhood and its supporters. saudi arabia has ordered its

national guard to reinforce the border with yemen. the saudi-lead campaign inside yemen continues. on monday massive blast flattened buildings. saudi arabia and its allies have been targeting the houthi rebel group for almost month. let's go to mohamed vall inside saudi arabia. we're talking here about standing army of -- well let's say roughly a quarter of a million people although i don't believe anybody knows for sure. on top of that they are mobilizing their own people. their national guard. in that says that they are thinking that the possibility of cross-border incursions artillery strikes must be pretty high. >> reporter: yes, david the saudis have never given official

figures of the numbers of their troops in the armed forces but we know that the national guard, which has been summoned today by the king to go to the border is estimated at 100,000 troops and it is one of the best-trained parts of the saudi military and it has also been distinguished from the other come knowns of the armed forces of saudi arabia. it has its own ministry which used to be lead by the late king himself for many years when he was crown prince and even before that. so this is like the best thing saudi arabia can produce in this war by way of defending itself and by way also if there is any decision for a ground invasion. we can link this to the latest developments on the border. we have been hearing reports of escalations there, particularly

near the area where there has been fighting over the night. fighting also today, and eyewitnesss talking about ambulances going to the border so it's a very tense situation there, and it's the most dangerous development for the saudis, because yemen is something that saudi arabia is certainly something else. it is a priority. the security of the border and the security of the saudi citizens, and one of the objectives of this war in yemen is to make sure that saudi arabia is not impacted negatively by the conflict in yemen. it is wanted to be protected. however, there have been reports of houthis moving some of their weapons and fighters towards the border, and that's why probably the king wanted to make sure that saudi arabia can defend itself. >> thank you mohamed vall. and there will be more from the conflict in yemen a little bit later in this program, when the saad di-lead coalition holds its daily briefing. as you can see cameras at the

ready for that. japanese engineers test a new high high high speed, high-tech train that is breaking speed records floating on air. ♪

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>> weeknights on al jazeera america. >> join me as we bring you an in-depth look at the most important issues of the day. breaking it down. getting you the facts. it's the only place you'll find... the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights, 11:30 eastern. on al jazeera america. ♪ good to have you with us on al jazeera. i'm david foster and these are the global headlineses. another 400 migrants have been rescued off of the coast of italy. egypt's deposed leader

mohammed morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. he was the country's first democratically elected president but was toppled in a military coup in 2013. and the air strikes continue over yemen's capitol sana'a. carried out by saudi-lead forces. saudi arabia has ordered its national guard now to reinforce its board we are yemen. the eastern australian state of new south whales has been hit by the fiercest storm it has seen in a decade. dozens very left stranded as heavy rain and wind lead to flash floods. >> reporter: the severity of these storms took australia's southeast by surprise. more than 30 centimeters of rain dumped in a few hours. >> we had to swim for it and we

were getting sucked towards the bridge then we got in behind the toilets, and hung on. >> reporter: even telephone poles struggled to resist high winds. trees also toppled, leading to narrow escapes. >> i was looking at some other trees up there. it looks like a lot smaller tree than that one has deflected it just enough so it didn't come through the bedroom. >> reporter: sydney's famous beach the waves were much less welcoming than normal damaging properties along the coastline. the harbor well above its usual level, some were warned they might have to evacuate. >> there's no doubt this is a very severe storm event. it is probably more severe than anticipated, so clearly the

consequences are quite significant across new south whales, and it's clear we're in the midst of very challenging weather. >> reporter: more than 200,000 homes were left without power. the worst of the storm might not be over with more flooding expected. 93 year old man has gone on trial in germany for his alleged role in the killing of 300,000 people during the second world war. he was a nazi guard in auschwitz. he says he didn't commit any crimes but admitted he feels morally guilty. if convicted he faces up to 15 years in prison. there are 11 orn going investigations against auschwitz guards. >>off va is a survivor of aush wet and she attended the trial and met him face-to-face.

>> he's [ inaudible ] physically and emotionally. so i think that in one respect maybe [ inaudible ] or functioning at that level, he is doing his very best. it's a very long day. >> reporter: south africa says it is going to be sending troops to durban and johannesberg after attacks of immigrants there. at least seven have died in violence against foreigners. south africa's government criticized for not protecting them. here is charles stratford. >> reporter: i'm here at one of two camps in durban where migrant workers have come having fleed the violence they have been subjected to. we'll told there is around a thousand people here. we're not allowed to go inside the camp.

we're here on a day when the ministry of defense has ordered the deployment of troops in areas where migrants have suffered violence across the province and it comes after the murder of two zimbabweans last night in johannesberg in an area where the violence has been particularly bad. there was a gruesome murder of a man being stabbed to death two nights ago. the people we have spoken to inside the camp the vast majority of them want to go home. it doesn't matter that the zulu king is calling for calm and protection of migrant workers here. these people are basically intent on leaving south africa. at least 11 people died because of a car bomb in

somali's capitol. a vehicle ramming into a busy restaurant and then being detonated. somali soldiers among those who died. it was near the city's central hotel which was stormed by al-shabab two months ago. 20 people died in that attack. a court in argentina has thrown out a case against the president. the late prosecutor albert toe nisman has been investigating allegations that the president tried to cover up iran's involvement at a bombing at a jewish center nearly 20 years ago. nisman was found dead with a bullet wound the day before he was supposed to deaf. didn't yell schreiber has more. >> reporter: this is the third time that the alberto nisman accusations that the government was trying to cover iranian

involvement in that 1994 bomb attack on the jewish center in ben -- buenos aires, a judge and two courts have now said there was no involvement. the country, argentina, is still very much split down the middle. those who believe that mr. nisman had a case and those supporters of the government who believe it was all a plot to try to hurt the government. there is a case outstanding, that being how he died. he was found dead in his bath with a bullet wound to the head the day before he was supposed to testify. those who support the government believe he committed suicide in general, those who oppose the government believe in general that somehow or other somebody loyal to the government had him

killed so that he couldn't continue with that testimony. so this is election year in argentina, so although one part of this case has now been put to rest legally, politically, it is still very much alive. as i say the country is split very much down the middle. at least three people have died because of an explosion in afghanistan's second biggest city. it was near a police station in kandahar. among those injured, police officers. there has been no claim from any one group of having carried out the attack. still awaiting news the news in that saudi news conference about the conflict in yemen. we'll bring it to you when that happens. it happens every day at a prescribed time. 20 or 15 minutes late at the moment. we'll bring it to you when it happens. in the meantime the former u.s.

assistant secretary of defense, we're delighted to have you with us at anytime. it has slipped again. we can speculate why. when there are suggestions that president hadi is about to make an announcement. let me ask you about a number of different things then. as we await that press conference. the presence of theodore roosevelt brought to that area. what does that say? >> i think it says we're not going to allow iran to take advantage of the chaos there, and begin to rearm the houthis, because the iranians have also sent ships there, so it's a signal that we don't need any more arms going in there, which of course, it will enable the saudis to maybe achieve their objectives if the houthis can't rearm themselves. >> when you see the amount of weaponry that the houthis and their friends people to have on

the ground are you certain they have come from iran or is it possible they have captured them from the elements of the yemeni military? >> i think it's a combination of both. the iranians have admitted that they are providing some arms to them. but the fact of the matter is the houthis have been able to get these from the government for quite a while. people sort of assumed that once you had saleh step down and hadi take over everything was peaceful. it wasn't. this war has been going on for quite a while. >> talk about what this means to iran. i think you believe it is rather overblown. it's not high up on their list of what is going on in yemen. >> no the iranians obviously are more concerned with the nuclear deal the situation in iraq and syria before yemen. that's why the iranian foreign minister has been writing op-eds in american papers asking to settle this thing peacefully.

let's have negotiations. >> lawrence we will leave it there. we will be back with you, i hope as soon as we get news of that saudi coalition press conference. for now, thank you very much indeed. see you in a little while. >> okay. they brought the world the bullet train, and now they have broken the speed record for the second time in a week. our technology editor tarek bazley explains. >> reporter: on a test track west of tokyo, the train hit 603 kilometers an hour. in doing so it breaks the world train speed record. >> translator: this train is set up the same way as we'll use it commercially. the comfort of passen ders has improved. and this should lead to stable commercial use in the future. >> reporter: the test is part of an ambitious plan to build a

$47 billion high-speed line. the 280 kilometers could be traveled in about 40 minutes. >> they do make a lot of noise, so by having them deep underground, at least 40 meters underground. it is thought that they are out of the way. and underground you don't have to worry about navigating around corners, because you can draw a track effectively point to point. >> reporter: you know opposite poles attract and like poles repel each other. and this is the idea. powerful super conducting nag innocence lift it about 10 centimeters off of the ground. then another set push it along, because it's riding on a cushion of air, there's little friction. japan is also hoping to sell the technology to the u.s. last april prime minister took a ride with u.s. ambassador to japan,

it's push is an attempt to recover some of its research and development costs. and also a response to china's efforts to sell high-speed train technology. >> the germans also have a system but it's starting to look as though the japanese may be slightly in the lead and may be slightly superior and i think japan is thinking this is where we can be pushing forward and have an advantage over other countries. >> reporter: but some say it's too expensive, power intensive, and potentially unsafe. they say an earthquake could knock the train off of its line. but japanese engineers say their early warning system can deal with this and the continuing tests will prove the safety and efficiency of this new generation of trains. and later news i will be

talking about why such technology has been around to my knowledge for at least 30 years, and has yet to become main stream. that will be a little bit later. for more right now, you can go to aljazeera.com. all of the headlines, all of the stories, aljazeera.com.