>> hello, i'm david eades with "bbc world news." our top stories. the new callous exploitation of migrants. coast guards save a ship of 400 off the coast of italy. the search for wreckage from the missing airasia plane is to move under the water using specialist equipment to scan the sea floor. a new study says most types of cancer are the result of bad luck rather than genes, environment, or lifestyle.

hello. a major rescue operation is under way off the italian coast again. this time to help 400 to 450 people believed to be migrants who are onboard a crewless cargo ship. we've had these images sent from the italian coast guard. this is from the helicopter as they winch down some of their guards to help those onboard. there's no power on this vessel, and as i said, no crew either. they have to tow it into port. the 400 or so migrants have just been drifting helpless in some pretty heavy seas. the boat is said to be about 60 kilometers from capo santo maria. it's the second migrant ship in a week adrift with no crew on choppy seas. james reynolds is our correspondent. he's in the italian coastal city of brindisi.

he gave us an update. >> reporter: here's what we know so far. at night, the italian coast guard found a vessel heading towards the italian coast. it was about 60 to 80 nautical miles, we understand, off the southern tip of italy. and italy asked a nearby icelander patrol ship to go and investigate, because iceland is taking part in a new eu border force, which replaced a previous italian operation. we understand that that icelandic ship investigated, but couldn't board because of heavy weather. so then italy's coast guard sent several of its own forces on to the ship. we understand from the navy that those forces are half a dozen people have got onboard, and are in the process of securing the ship, and with the help, we understand, from the navy, of the icelandic boat and its tug, they will now head towards a southern italian port arriving later in the day. and of course, the first priority for the italian coast guard will be to assess the health of those onboard. we don't know exactly how many

people may be onboard that ship and what kind of conditions they may be living in. the initial reports we have suggests that there might be several hundred people on board. and once it gets to port and once those people are taken to either local schools or gymnasiums or even hospitals, the authorities will try to establish what happened to the crew and what happened to the people traffickers, are the crew and the traffickers essentially one in the same. there will be many questions the italians will have to ask. and of course, italy as a whole will be looking at what's happened this week and seeing the huge amount of operations that its forces are having to conduct, or here on the adriatic coast and wondering how much migration is coming here in these waters in the adriatic. >> there are plenty of migrants coming. let's speak to william spindler. he joins us on the line from geneva. thanks very much indeed. it just is beginning to look like a problem that only gets bigger, and now with new tactics, very callous ones, by the traffickers.

>> it seems to be a new trend where hundreds of migrants and refugees are crammed into cargo ships and sent without a crew in the direction of italy. there were conditions in which these people travel are appalling. men, women, some of them pregnant, children. many of them are refugees from the war in syria. and these people who have already lost so much, they have lost their homes, in some cases members of their families, are now in danger of losing their lives because of the way in which they put their hands -- their lives into the hands of smugglers simply to find protection in europe. >> do you know how much they expected to pay up? i mean, when they're brought in, presumably, they're questioned about this. how much are they paying to get

what they think is some sort of safe passage out of wherever they're coming from? >> this is a very well-organized operation by people smugglers. and we have seen different reports in the media on how much they are charging. but the sums involved are considerable and they could be as high as 7,000 or 8,000 u.s. dollars. when you're talking about hundreds of people on these ships, the figures involved are very important. and this, of course, just feeds into this illegal trafficking of human beings. so this needs to be combatted, but at the same time, the victims who are the refugees, they need to be protected and saved. >> we've seen the italians have said look, we cannot fund this

whole patrolling exercise on our own anymore. frontex, the european system has to come center stage. but it doesn't seem to have the effect that the italians could have, does it? >> well, people who are desperate and fleeing for their lives will always find a way to find safety. if they can't come through the door, they will try to come through the window. so what needs to be done is to find safe, legal ways for refugees to come to europe, either through resettlement programs, through humanitarian admission programs, through family reunification or other ways. they don't need to risk their lives in this way. >> that's not going to happen, though, is it, in the numbers required if you're going to accommodate this extraordinary influx of refugees. >> well, we have asked for europe to take 130,000 syrian refugees this year. so far, many european countries

have pledged to receive syrians, syrian refugees through resettlement programs. >> what's the sort of total have you got so far pledged for this year? >> so far we have around 100,000 places for syrians pledged. and we hope that more places will be pledged. and this will send a strong message to people who are finding it really difficult to live as refugees, that they have not been forgotten. >> william spindler, thanks very much indeed. the norman atlantic ferry, that was damaged by fire in the med, it's been towed within sight of brindisi, the same italian port where james reynolds is at the moment. a tug boat pugged it across the adriatic to the italian coast overnight, after setting off on thursday afternoon. the ferry caught fire on sunday. that's 11 people are known to have died, but there's also an unknown number still missing.

the investigation into the airasia crash is now turning to the ocean floor. a french crash investigation team has arrived in the region with specialist equipment to help locate the plane's black box. crucial, of course, to finding out just what caused the jet to plunge into the sea in the first place. the plane was en route from surabaya in indonesia to singapore. 162 people were onboard when it vanished on sunday. 22 bodies have now been recovered. rupert winfield-hayes reports. >> reporter: this is now the operating base for the operation to search and recover debris from flight 8501. you can see behind me there's troops getting ready. they're waiting for another helicopter to come in with bodies onboard it. what we've seen today is a u.s.

helicopter from the u.s. navy, for the uss sampson, and it had four bodies onboard. the crews behind me went on to the runway with stretchers. they brought the bodies off the helicopters, took them away in ambulances. those bodies will be taken to local hospital to be cleaned up. they will be flown to surabaya where they will be formally identified at the hospital there and then eventually handed over to their families. when they first found wreckage on the sea out there, 100 kilometers away on tuesday, there was a real sense of optimism that this investigation was moving forward fast, that they would find the rest of the plane in a matter of days. i have to say, today, there is a much more of a mood of pessimism. now talking about a week or maybe more before they find those black boxes. and the reason for that is the weather. it's been stormy here. the seas are churning. there are large waves. it's just making it really difficult for them to see down into the sea and for divers to get down into the water to search for the plane.

>> rupert winfield-hayes there. now, most cases of cancer are the result of sheer bad luck, rather than unhealthy lifestyles or diet or even inherited genes. those, at least, are the findings that come from a study in the united states. it showed that random mutations that occur in our dna when cells divide are responsible for something like 2/3 of adult cancers across a wide range of tissues. >> reporter: it's generally agreed that avoiding smoking, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough exercise will offer some protection from cancer. but just how much protection has never been entirely clear. the team at johns hopkins university says the answer lies in the way the body regenerates. old, tired cells are constantly being replaced with new ones, made by dividing stem cells. each time a cell divides, there's a danger the letters of its genetic code will become jumbled, leading to an increased cancer risk.

overall, the study found that around 65% of cancers were caused by random mutations that cannot be presented. it's down to biological bad luck. but, the research concluded that a third of cancers, including skin and lung cancer, can still be prevented by lifestyle changes. >> if there's anything wrong with our diets or exercise habits and so on, in order to not increase our risk of cancer, this just says there is a component that is bad luck, that is not our fault, and it just happens. >> reporter: writing in the journal of science, the report authors say that as most cancers can't be prevented, there should be more focus on spotting them early. kate bee, bbc news. >> professor karol sikora is a cancer specialist from the

university of buckingham's medical school and he told me earlier about how this study worked. >> 31 different tissues in our body. what they calculate with the number of times they divide over a life span, and showed that the risk of getting cancer, about 2/3 of the time, was due to random mutations at the point of division. and normally, when cells divide, if there's a mutation, the cell doesn't survive, or you never know it's happened and a cleaning up process is in place. but now and again, you get cancer. the study clearly shows about 2/3 of cancer are due to random mutation. we can do nothing about it. whereas a third are due to factors that we do have control. so the best analogy is driving a car along a busy road. if you drive carefully, you're less likely to have an accident. but if it's snowing and icy, it's an accidental factor you have no control on. it's exactly the same as getting cancer. >> this is a bit like saying every now and again a thunder bolt will hit your car and there's nothing you can do about it. >> absolutely. life is a dangerous disease to be alive. there's only one outcome at the

end for us all. and we forget that. >> isn't it the case -- perhaps say, let's say 20 years time, we will look back on today and say that bad luck, actually, now we've worked it out. science moves on. it's not bad luck. there will be an answer, surely. >> there will. and we will understand how to detect the mutations at a much earlier stage. through probably just a pinprick. blood test or a pinprick, and the information you get tells you the chances over the next year, here we are at the beginning of 2015, over 2015 maybe 2020, 2025, the risk of you getting a specific cancer. >> right. so that's the key. i mean, yes, for certain cancers, we know lifestyle does make a difference. if it's smoking, for example. we get all that. but there will be ways of detecting earlier and presumably then dealing with it and saving lives earlier. >> absolutely. the screening tests we have are cumbersome.

unanimous -- all very clumsy. pick up rate. huge cost in dealing, not actually providing the test, but providing the investigations afterwards. because you had a much reliable blood test, that would be the future. >> professor karol sikora there. do stay with us. a lot more news, including the news of footballer steven gerrard. he says he's leaving the grish -- liverpool at the end of the season. the toughest of decision of his life, he says. we'll have more.

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a revolutionary new program that allows you to earn a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university. you're watching "bbc world news" with me, david eades. the latest headlines. coast guards board a cargo ship as it drifts with migrants onboard, but no crew. the operation to find wreckage from the missing airasia plane has moved underwater. specialist equipment being brought in to search the sea floor. to gambia now, where dozens of people have been detained following an attempted coup

earlier in the week. soldiers loyal to president jammeh have been going house to house in search of opponents. they've been arresting civilians and military personnel. earlier, president jammeh blamed terrorist groups of being behind the attack on the capital. >> as far as we are concerned, there isn't any single participation of the armed forces, except in nullifying the attack. so it cannot be called a military coup. there are media saying it was a coup. this wasn't a coup. this was an attack by a terrorist group. some powers that i will not name now. >> well, that's the word from the president. i'm joined now by the africa regional editor, richard hamilton. richard, actually, let's just start on what he was saying there. this was not an attempted coup, was it? >> that's the big question. and three days on, we're still really not sure what to call it. he's calling it a terrorist

attack rather than a coup, because he's saying that his own armed forces were not involved, and they will breathe a sigh of relief because they will feel that they won't be purged now. >> but the house-to-house arrests include military personnel. >> yes, it's quite confusing. the suggestion is that some dissident soldiers, who had maybe been in exile, had come back into the gambia. and we're really not sure whether this was a coup or whether it was a sort of staged thing so that president jammeh can divert attention away from his own economic problems at home. or whether he's said the united states was behind it, because weapons were found, which were american-made weapons. it's all quite confusing. >> relations -- poor relations with the u.s. doesn't help, does it? >> no. and recently, the gambia passed some very draconian anti-homosexuality legislation. which the united states condemned, and the european

union also withdrew millions of dollars in aid because of that. there's also been a row over the appointment of an american ambassador to the gambia, and as a tit for tat measure, the americans are saying they would close the gambian embassy in washington. international relations are at an all-time low and i think president jammeh is using this coup or an attack whatever we want to call it as a chance to lash out on foreign powers. it's a way of distracting attention from his own economic problems, which have been affected indirectly by the ebola situation, because tourism to west africa has declined. thousands of people go to the gambia for its beaches and things. 50,000 british tourists every year. but that's dropped because of the ebola scare, even though gambia wasn't directly affected. >> richard, thanks very much. i'm going to take you back to what is our main story at the moment, and that is the ship, a cargo ship which has been drifting off the italian coast with something like 400, 450

migrants onboard, but no crew. we can speak now to commander andrea tassara, who joins me on the phone from rome. thank you very much indeed for joining us. can you tell me first of all the condition of those migrants on the boat? >> yes. good morning. the condition of migrants onboard are good, but there are about 40, 4-0 children, and onboard there is not food, water, and so on. we are trying to manage the transport of food milk water, and so on onboard the merchant

ship. transport will be made by a helicopter and italian coast guard patrol boat. it's another very difficult day for italian coast guard personnel. but we are sure that the operation will be good in the future, will be finished in a better way. >> yes, you mentioned -- sorry to interrupt. you mentioned that it's putting a lot of demand, a lot of strain on you and your resources. this is the second case this week. realistically, how much can you deal with? >> yes, the second this week. another plenty of resources. helicopter, patrol boat, and so on.

but we are always on watch, 24 hours a day. and the coast guard is always ready. always ready to manage this. no problem for us. >> but what is your view, i have to ask, about the sort of people who will throw 400, 500, up to a thousand migrants on a boat and then abandon the ship as they push it out to sea? >> yes, yes. 450 person, but i beg your pardon. the line is very busy. can you repeat? >> i just wonder what you think about the people who do this who leave these ships stranded in the sea with all these

helpless people onboard. >> yes, yes. i know that the crew of the merchant vessel has left the boat, and left the boat adrift without expert in the navigation. and for this reason, we have put onboard coast guard personnel to assure the governing of the ship. in the way to come back the ship safely in the near port. >> i'm sure they're extremely pleased to see you and your colleagues there. commander tassara, thanks very much indeed. let's change the mood a bit really. steven gerrard, the captain of the english premier league football team liverpool,

longtime captain, has announced he's leaving the club at the end of the season. believed to be considering a move to the united states. now, he's 34 years old. he'll be 35 in may. he's still very much part of the scene. scored two penalties in liverpool's 2-2 draw with leicster on sunday. let's get over to anfield and find out from dan johnson, i wonder how they feel today. >> reporter: yeah, quite a lot of liverpool fans here this morning. this is the big issue that everyone is discussing. steven gerrard, a massive figure at this club. has been for 17 years. he started here as a schoolboy. this announcement that he is going to leave this club at the end of the season hasn't come as any great shock to people here. lots of fans this morning saying that it probably is the right time for him to step down. let's have a chat with matt and his family. do you think this is the right decision for steven gerrard at

this time? >> you know, i feel gutted but it kind of seems like it was inevitable that he'd have to go under. you always hope he'd take on more of a coaching, managerial role at the club. the only sweetener is they're saying he's not going to go to another premiership club, but other than that i feel gutted. >> reporter: you think his best playing days are behind him now? >> seems that way. or not able to play him in a role that suits where he is in his career. he's got the highest passing percentage, you know still at the club and has been at his best the last 18 months. but maybe they can't find the right role or doesn't fit in with what brendan rodgers wants to do. >> reporter: would you like to see them do more to keep him? >> of course. you want him there forever. he's up there with doug leish. he's one of the best. >> reporter: is he? is he the greatest? >> he's one of the greatest. can't say he's the greatest. but he's up there. >> reporter: that is the thing a lot of people are debating,

where steven gerrard will lie in the list of liverpool greats and if he'll return sometime in the future. >> thanks very much indeed. he's going to be irreplaceable. i think that's the sort of reality as steven gerrard departs the scene. you want an advanced degree, but sometimes work can get in the way. now capella university offers flexpath, a revolutionary new program that allows you to earn a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university.

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m so glad we could be here for larry.

hello, i'm david eades with "bbc world news." our top stories. rescuers reach a ship full of migrants left adrift. there are 40 children onboard. the first photo of the vessel now under tow. this is the second time in days that people smugglers have used cargo ships to get migrants to europe's shores. the search for wreckage from the missing airasia plane moves under water using specialist