le 15 columbus off the coast of libya. the count down to rio 2016 begins. olympic officials say everything is on track ahead of the world greatest sporting event, but major concerns persist about dirty water and rampant crime.

french investigators say they strongly believe a piece of wreckage found last week does indeed belong to missing malaysian airlines flight 370. the wing part was discovered on the french island of reunion nearly 4000 kilometers from where the plane is believed to have crashed into the indian ocean in march of last year with 239 people on board. so far, this is the biggest breakthrough in terms of finding out what happened to them. here is the chief prosecutor speaking earlier. >> this strong evidence will be looked at further by analysts tomorrow morning and the specialists' laboratory. i'm not able to tell you tonight when the results from this analysis will be released. the experts will do their work quickly and competently in order

to provide complete and accurate information as fast as possible to the families of victims who are in our thoughts tonight. laura: in the aftermath of the flight's disappearance, the malaysian government was criticized over its handling of communications with victims' families. before french investigators made the announcement earlier today religious prime minister announced he was certain the wing belonged to the missing flight. >> today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that i must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on reunion island is indeed from mh370. laura: earlier, i spoke with our

aviation expert in toulouse, and he told me that despite today's breakthrough, there still remain an awful lot of unanswered questions as to what happened to missing flight mh370. >> we still have a very long way to go, i think, before we know what happened to this aircraft. the conspiracy theories can go away, if it landed other survivors -- those have gone away. now we concentrate on finding out if it did go down and women did. early on, they had suspicions it might have been i hijacking of some sort. it's way too early to tell if that is still a genuine possibility, but anyway, they found debris, and they can actually start working on something concrete. laura: as flight parts go, how

much information can be gleaned from the wing? obviously, it's not as revealing as would be the black rocks recording equipment -- as would be the black box recording equipment. chris: the same investigators, the same place that the wreckage was taken to, and they managed to go through that with a fine come, and there were thousands of pieces of wreckage. they can look at impact, and they can look at angles, but they can look at dna sampling many years on with a body, even though the seawater may have corroded some of that wing element, they may have been able to find traces of something. one thing is they do have a microscope, which they say is 10,000 times more powerful than the naked eye, so they can

really, really look for anything there. they may not get that much, but again, it is a start. they have the suitcase and many are convinced that other debris will start washing up elsewhere soon. laura: in terms of geography, i'm wondering if it might lead investigators to narrow the search in the indian ocean. australian and malaysian investigators have been searching a vast swathe of the indian ocean. will this help them at all? chris: definitely. remember, when they were looking for the black boxes on the air france flight, they looked in the wrong place for the wrong time -- for a long time. scientists can make mistakes as well. when they realized they had made a mistake, they found them pretty quickly. now, they've got this significant recovery and the marine tides, they've got a good

chance. remember when the fukushima tsunami win over japan? a few months later, you saw a lot of debris ending up on the west coast of the united states and canada, refrigerators stoves, and that was tidal currents. another got this, they noticed ron that lane, so they will be following this currents there is significantly -- they know it's from that plane. laura: boats carrying over 600 migrants have capsized off the coast of libya. over 200 people have -- are feared to have drowned. it was sent cap -- it sent out a distress signal, which was picked up by the coast in sicily. two ships were immediately dispatched to the area, and 400 people are said to have been rescued. this is the latest disaster involving migrants trying to reach europe from africa. yesterday, the international organization for migration said 2000 people have drowned trying to make the crossing this year

alone. let's listen to the united nations head of communications in the migration department speaking earlier. >> apparently, this vote sent out a signal, made some phone calls. they were only 15 miles away from libya, so probably at the beginning of their journey. when they spotted a rescue boat panic, moved to the side, and the boat capsized their he tragically. we are hearing also worrying report that the boat contained as many as 600 or 700 people that, of course, packed onto the boat. no migrant refugee boat can carry that many people safely. laura: the european union meanwhile, has released 20 million euros and eight to help france cope with the volume of refugees arriving in the port city of calais. migrants attempt daily to cross into calais, and that has been a source of tension between the two countries.

reporter: for the majority of migrants in calais, this is the high point of the day. each night after the sun sets, they attempt to cross the border and start a new life in the u.k. standing in their way -- french authorities who say they are overwhelmed. they have been given some relief though, courtesy of the european commission. brussels will provide france with 20 million euros to aid their efforts on top of an additional 27 million euros granted to the u.k. the money is expected to be put towards improving cooperation between the two countries and to treat asylum requests. the tranche, the first of millions of euros reserved for france, is to be distributed up until 2020. the european commission's held talks with senior french and

british officials on tuesday. for the moment, both countries say they do not require additional assistance. laura: russia says a dispute with france over the sale of two warships has been fully resolved. the kremlin says france refunded in advance paid under the terms of the contract. the warships were valued at 1.2 billion euros, but france cancel the contract in protest at russia's role in the conflict in eastern ukraine. the deal was signed in 2011 and was pegged as the biggest arms sale ever to russia by a member of nato. barack obama has been trying to convince the u.s. congress not to block a recent nuclear deal with iran. the u.s. president compared the agreement to the cold war diplomacy of president john f. kennedy, and he singled out israel is the only country to oppose it. iran has agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, but critics say there

are not enough checks in place to make sure iran keeps up its end of the deal. obama says blocking the agreement would have dangerous consequences for the region. president obama: because more sections will not produce the result the critics want, we have to be honest -- the congressional rejection of this deal leaves in the u.s. administration that is absolutely committed to preventing iran from getting nuclear weapons with one option -- another war in the middle east. fire --laura: firefighters in california are making some progress as they battle to contain more than 20 wildfires raging across the state. tens of thousands of hector's -- hactectares have been destroyed. officials say cooler

temperatures and high winds helped teams overnight. but the latest, we go to our correspondent. how much of this fire is currently under control? >> according to officials, they still say about 20% have been contained, so that is pretty minimal looking at the range of the scope of this fire. i do want to mention this is perhaps one of the largest fires that california has battled across the state. you are talking to veterans who have been 30 to 40-year veterans that are part of the fire department. they have never seen anything like this before. you mentioned some of the temperatures. they had cooler temperatures yesterday, but we are back again in the warmer temperatures. again, facing the weather conditions, they are kind of up against the temperatures and the weather here in battling this fire. laura: this is a historical record in terms of the size and ferocity of the fire, and it comes down to the terrible drought conditions state has had

to endure. reporter: absolutely. that's one of the things they are looking into. they are trying to figure out what caused these fires. there have been thousands of lightning strikes, but the drought has definitely not helped the entire region, so we are definitely in need of that. that has been one of the suspected causes, but again with over 67,000 acres that have burned, 3500 firefighters have been on this job. it's really quite drastic. laura: when it comes to forward planning, either any long-term projects in place to try to cope with these kind of fires better in future? reporter: the fire department has always prepared department, and when you are dealing with nature and things such as lightning and temperatures, they are doing the best to try to contain this. they do not know -- you got dry conditions. of course, we got the drought

so we have limited water as well but they are really the top-notch and always in full gear. i did want to also mention that while many people are saying that the drought has really contributed to this, some people say it has not had a huge spike in the number of fires. it's really the dry conditions that are adding to the intensity. laura: what about all the people who have had to leave homes and are staying in emergency shelters? they must be getting pretty fed up. reporter: what happened is people are running out of money. people were not prepared for this. this fire started on july 29 in clearlake, located in northern california. people probably assumed they would be back in their homes within two or three days, so a lot of people facing frustration. obviously, they want to be safe.

until this point, from what i'm finding out, there have not been any deaths reported, but at the same time, it is taking a toll, and it's difficult for local residents who live in those areas. laura: there is one year to go until the olympic games begin in rio de janeiro, and olympic officials insisted today that preparations are on track for the world's greatest sporting event. two major concerns to emphasize -- one is what a pollution and the other is rampant crime. to deal with the latter, police have been forcibly relocating thousands of people from their homes in the city. reporter: ruins next to a stadium, a tale of two rios. when one year to go before the brazilian city opens its doors to host the world's largest athletic event, construction of new roads world-class sports

venues, and a five-star olympic village is pushing ahead. >> there are works going on throughout rio ahead of the olympic games. it's about turning an already excellent city into an olympic city. reporter: the onward march of progress does not have everyone so enthused. this used to be a busy if impoverished place built on a racetrack. bit by bit, homes here have made way as authorities relocate residents to make way for olympic construction, although not everyone has accepted the offer. >> the olympics and other reason we are getting kicked out, its real estate. we know in the future, once the olympic games are over, this will be a neighborhood with shopping centers and big holdings. it will be a posh area. >> it's really hard because the fight is between a residence

association and capitalism. reporter: authorities claim only 3000 residents have so far suffered losses because every oh 2016 -- because of rio 2016. rights groups disagree. they say thousands of people have lost their homes as a result of the games. laura: for more on the run up to 2016 olympic's, i'm joined by colin harding. thanks for being with us. we had this negativity in the run-up to the brazil world cup didn't we? we had this negativity in the run-up to pretty much every sigel olympics there has been. are they on track? colin: as far as i begins her going, the international community has been reassured by the progress. if you months ago, they were saying it was well behind, but

now they say they are behind where london was at this stage but ahead of where athens was at this stage. one big problem as far as that is concerned as if they are going to be able to deal with water pollution. they are aware. they have a target of 80% of sewage being treated. i think there are real concerns among competitors and officials that this will be a problem. there are four venues widely scattered across the city. it's quite the complex topography. there are new metro lines and express bus ways, and a lot of

demolition and the conflict is to do with building new roads and new tracks. with a year to go, it should be on time. laura: the investment in infrastructure and stadiums raises a lot of ethical questions, as it did in the run-up to the world cup. should brazil be spending all this money on sports facilities when an awful lot of evil are living in and checked poverty? -- a lot of people are living in abject poverty? colin: there's a lot of talk in london about the legacy, of how this would improve people's lives and transform people's attitudes. some of that is being said in rio as well, but there are all sorts of big improvements in infrastructure that will

improve people's day-to-day lives, like metro and bus lines and there are real benefits. of course, there are claims being made about employment and increasing jobs, and bringing investment, that is much more dubious, and i think there have been empirical studies that have shown major international events have not created much in the way of jobs. they are hoping that if it all goes well it will help improve brazil's image internationally, and that will help bring investments in but they are undergoing a very difficult economic stage at the moment. they have not been bounding ahead. there are problems with the bank financing and attracting investments. they hope if they show they can

do this really well, it will reassure investors. laura: we lost you right at the end there. apologies for the sound quality at the end of that interview. let's move on to business now. we have all the latest from the world of finance. good to see you. starting in greece, it seems the clock is ticking once again. reporter: that's right. the clock is always ticking for athens, it seems. the greek prime minister says he is close to concluding a third bailout deal, but while those discussions are taking place the country's banks got hammered on the stock market for the third straight day. clare murphy has the latest. clerare: day three of its reopening after a five-day shutdown once more witnessed bankshares bearing the brunt.

the frenetic selloff has prompted the country's financial markets commission to make an urgent call or the listing of capital controls. -- the lifting of capital controls. the ecb confirmed on wednesday it has left its emergency credit lifeline for greece unchanged for the next fortnight at over 90 billion euros. talks are inching or were towards the third bailout deal for athens as the date of a multibillion euro payment due to frankfurt looms. [inaudible] the greek government also says they want the country banks to complete the recapitalization by the end of this year. it is seen as a vital step for

any sustained recovery, but the additional announcement by athens that a snap election is likely for the autumn could herald more unwelcome uncertainty. delano: let's get a check on the markets now. we saw in the united states stocks have been green across the board. the dow jones currently flat at this hour. the nasdaq jumping 1% after shares in apple returned to positive territory. in europe, the asc index in athens traded to the downside for the third day in a row. elsewhere, positive earnings pushed all the main indices higher. gains of over 1.5% on the frankfurt dax and cac 40 in paris, while the ftse ended up one point up in paris. russia says it's problems with france have been fully resolved. the sale of two missile warships were valued at 1.2 billion

euros. the deal was scrapped over russia's alleged involvement in the crisis in ukraine. the contract was pegged as the biggest arms sale ever to russia by a nato member. egypt is set to unveil a major extension of the suez canal. the project, with cost $8.5 billion, was funded without the help of foreign aid. last year, the canal group in revenues of $5 billion. after four years of domestic strike, the government hopes to prove egypt is now back in business. services in london have been suspended for the second time in a month. train drivers say they are unhappy over pay and conditions for the newly planned night service. the strike is set to end friday morning, but unions have already warned more industrial actions could follow. first, the germans, than the french and now the italians. the country plus minister of economic development visited the iranian capital. iran and italy want to double

the current level of bilateral trade, which stands at $1.5 billion. the minister signaled italy's in eagerness to resume commercial ties. take a listen. >> in the long period of the sanctions, some changes were made in our relations towards iran. we have confirmed our friendship again in our desire to start cooperation with each other as fast as possible, and we are focusing mostly on economic cooperation. delano: it is summertime in europe, and a growing number of holidaymakers are opting for a cruise. the number of people boarding crew ships have multiplied tenfold over the last decade. a crew ship docking at a local port is big is this for the local economy, as kathy clifford explains. kathy: no longer a luxury reserved for the elite. with bigger ships and more passengers the crew ship market is improving, now worth 40

billion euros, and european cities are keen to cash in. barcelona is number one for cruise ships in europe. at the olympic games barcelona's port hosted 15 cruise ships, and that allowed us to get to know the needs of cruise ship custody's and to evolve with the industry. some 2.5 million passengers sale than last year, spending 300 million euros. direct international flights for the city in the port receives more in fees. the average passenger brings and 13 euros compared to just three for a stopover port. it's a lucrative market that french city marseilles is hoping to cash in on. expansion work at 35 million euros is set to begin at the

port entrance, currently too small for bigger ships like this one to pass through. >> there's not much space as you can see. the ships have to turn around. we are going to widen the space 50 meters. kathy:

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