his -- he was furious and wanted to reassign brennan to siberia somewhere. and he had to be prevailed on that this would not be good, brennan was a very good guy and they couldn't do this and so forth. so that's what that was about. but, in fact, there was no question of there not being interest in me. it was just specifically lewis marx that hoover was inclined not to have interviewed, mistakenly, and the stepmother was interviewed by the way the stepmother-in-law. they were all interviewed except for lewis marx and he was envious. he wanted to be interviewed. but remember -- the people i'm talking to don't know. the fbi knew who put out the pentagon papers because they had owned it since early 1970. they had been told by my -- now, this is my former wife's mother-in-law, her father's wife -- not her mother. second wife. the stepmother had told -- i think i've got the wrong relationship here. mother-in-law. >> no it's your mother-in-law. >> stepmother-in-law. >> i'm very bad on the relations. her stepmother, correct? her father's second wife is her stepmoth

i'm working hard on that. >> well, let's talk to paul brennan, who is live in catania on the southern italian island of sicily. we're going to hear from the summit of leaders who have met to figure this out. what can we expect? >> well, the they had met in brussels to come up with some kind of plan that will tack this will phenomenon that we've seen for the last three years. but i think it's going to be very difficult for them to find a way of bridging the gap between fine words and effective action. there have been several plans put forward several proposals a ten-point plan has come up by e.u. foreign ministers who met earlier this week. it clued things of fingerprinting migrants, trying to set um, some sort of refugee camps in north africa. also the perhaps achievable idea of increasing the number of patrols out there in the mediterranean to try to save more lives. but other ideas just for example, seeking to identify and put out of action migrants trafficker's boats before they can put to sea is a huge question mark if that's even legal. and a draft communique which has been leake

is alive. >> as it turns out brennan was pulled over by police just an hour before the crash. >> brennanohol inside the car, trace amount of marijuana with him and also a device that was used as a pipe. >> a sobriety test shows brennan is not under the influence but he receives a summons. less than an hour later he ends up here. after the accident eden's license is suspended for two years for reckless driving. all involved agree, eden is lucky to get a second chance. >> based on the manner that he was ejected and the distance and the circumstances, he should not be alive today. >>> it's january 10th, 2009, and state trooper ian henry is patrolling interstate 90 outside albany, new york. in the westbound lane he spots a speeding taxi and takes off after it. eventually the trooper catches up and pulls over the cab. >> first thing he noticed was out of state cab, which is unusual to have somebody come all the way from connecticut. pretty expensive cab ride. >> the trooper talks to the driver and then focuses his attention on the passenger in the backseat who has two duffel bags with him. on

paul brennan,age sisly. >> could make a difference, others are bizarre. latest gadgets and gizmos are now on display and phil raffle reportsphil lavellehas the story. >> everyone loves a duck on wheels right? or fish. >> you are can take it if it's sick if you want to take a stag on it, it's here. if it plietsz it's here, several eaz lover out there that prints threed of your self toive pats them around? is there a ploorp motel of people having models of themselves. >> it's increasing. >> people actually want motels of themselves,. >> yes many judge there are 750 exhibitors from all over the world. some of these you can really see having a positive impact on people's lives. >> from using plan owe technology which is to help patients with glaucoma. >> we play see how the disease works because every is different. >> like the inconvenienters of the wheel chait wul while. >> from a mechanical poiive it's really reallys unique. you seen the tank will asking that can go upstairs, from cleaning hands to cleaning the house, the goal here to make life's anchors an

those words straight from the head of the cia, john brennan.y school of government critics should not rip apart a solid deal. he said it is impossible to expect iran to dismantle everything. brennan did say, though he understands why some could have reservations. >>> big oil getting bigger this morning. the biggest oil merger in 20 years. that's next. ♪ ♪ when you're living with diabetes steady is exciting. only glucerna has carbsteady clinically proven to help minimize blood sugar spikes. i'm a bull rider make it part of your daily diabetes plan. so you stay steady ahead. >>> let's get an early start on your money. wednesday edition. another big merger. the biggest oil merger in perhaps 20 years. that has european and asian shares mostly higher. a big morning for hong kong. u.s. stock futures are up as well. shell paying $70 billion for british gas producer bg group. oil stocks soaring. the first super merger in oil in at least a decade. crashing oil prices making tie-ups more attractive. these companies can cut costs dramatically when they ti

paul brennan, al jazeera sicily. >>> we'll at tell you why they enjoy their traditional laws plus. >> war of independence more than two years ago. ago. >> "faultlines". al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today they will be arrested. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning investigative series. water for coal. monday, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> part of al jazeera america's >> special month long evironmental focus fragile plan >> hello again, welcome back, top stories in al jazeera. car bomb attacks have killed at least 30 people in iraq, including a car bomb attack in baghdad. >>> south africa is calling for diplomatic support from neighboring nations to end xenophobic attacks. >> the u.n. has launched an aid appeal for $274 million for those affected in yemen. and saudi coalition has asked for all to honor the humanitarian aid workers. >>> corruption and immunity are high and prosecution he are low. some indigenous communities are convinced that their traditional law is the answer. al jazeera's david mercer has more

paul brennan, al jazeera pisallo, sicily. >> she was the jewel of the french navy, lemoyne that sailed to the united states to assist. jonah hull reports from the french atlantic coast. >> reporter: some volunteer crew members have little sailing experience. enthusiasm got them aboard and a taste for adventure. they're about to set sail on a replica 18th century warship bound for the shores of north america. not just nis warship. lemoine was among the sleekest sailing ships of the day. >> she represents a very important part of french maritime history doesn't she? >> sure. this ship is one of the four of a series that was first of all one of the very best that the french navy ever built. >> built to take on the english? >> to take on the english sure, but also due to the fact it carried the marquis du lafayette to washington. carrying to washington the news that the king of france had accepted to go again at war against the british. that was the key of it. >> when she was built in 1779, the original lemoy isne, when she set off to help america beat the english in the war of independenc

we return to paul brennan in sicily, understanding why so journey. >> when i first arrived wednesday, the whole kee said was our own. there was no one else here. the world's media opened up to the importance of the story and the issue of the migration. it's not just about the numbers, it's about two central questions. the two things for me is the difference between raw data, quoted by the coast guard and the navy, and the real people behind the raw data, we talked about people who fled hardship from war to make this gruelling journey from north africa to syria, across the sea to europe. the other thing this is not reflected adequately is the difference in attitude between people in sicily, and people who are compassionate to the flight of the migrants. and the attitude elsewhere in non-europe, where there's huge reluctance to accept the burden, offering asylum, for example. >> the coast card this is the one that brought in survivors. 27 people off a boat that could have had more than 800 on board. you can see how awful the loss of life has been in several days. the more time i spent h

paul brennan al jazeera. sicily. >> still to come on al jazeera, new footage which suggests farc rebels attacked colombian soldiers as they slept. >> and why there is worry over the state of the coffee market. inspiring. entertaining. talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america. >> welcome back. let's update you on the top stories. a car bomb has gone off outside of the u.s. consulate in erbil the capital of kurdistan region where these sorts of attacks are rare. and in baghdad 27 people have been killed in bomb attacks. several shops and cars have been burnt in downtown johannesburg as fighting continues between i am brands and locals in south africa. and the u.n. said that it needs $275 million to meet humanitarian needs in yemen over the next three months. well in other news ukraine wants the international criminal court to investigate alleged war crimes in crimea and. the u.n. says over the past year fighting in the country has killed more than 6,000 people. rory challands has more on the reaction to t

we'll have more on the uplan in aeu planin a minute but first paul brennan has more from catania theicilian city. >> migrants leaving north africa for tajt italian waters, this child was saved three people are already confirmed dead, including another youngster it's not known how many are still missing. on malta bodies from saturday night's drowning catastrophe are being brought ashore. just 24 corpse ves courses have been course corpse 24 corpses have been recovered. survivors are on their way to the sicilian port of catania. this is a deadly period for migrants trying to cross into europe. some 11,000 people have been rescued in the past ten days. the capacity with which the italians regard these migrants, with this memorial is a monument for those who don't make it. 15 graves of adults, two are children. the words on them are the words of the poet laureate from nigeria, and the hope is, that the rest of europe now can show a similar degree of empathy as is shown here. there will be a european summit meeting on thursday. how many more migrants will have died by then? paul brennan,

paul brennan reports. >> reporter: the sheer numbers involved in the current mediterranean migrant crisisdowing the physical crisis they try to endure but aid groups say the situation is becoming worse and worse. aid workers describe the injuries as the worst they have ever seen. >> we have seen severe burns before but they are usually due to the conditions on board the boat usually due to the fact that they are sitting in fuel and salty water for a few days so they come in and they are burnt. >>> the operation took over responsibility for patrolling the mediterranean borders. proactive rescue patrols were dramatically reduced. but hundreds more migrants were brought to shore on friday. operation triton may have meant a scaling back of the search and rescue operation but that doesn't mean it was stopped all together. this boat behind me was just 40 miles from the libyan coast when it picked up more than 300 survivors. the citizens of the ports have shown extraordinary compassion to the migrants. this port received 30,000 last year. the mayor says sympathy is the only reaction to such suff

paul brennan has this exclusive report. >> it looks like a normal youth club. these teenageers are a lucky few who have endured hardships that few in europe can imagine. the latest to arrive here are the luckiest of all to protect his identity we're calling him jamal, he was one of just 28 survivors from last weekend's deadly sinking in the mediterranean. he told me there is no happiness, only al-shabab. if what he experienced at the hands of libya's people traffickers was even worse. >> the problem we face in libya was mainly around the fact that we had our money taken and we were beaten up very badly. some individuals we know died of starvation. we weren't given any food and we were constantly beaten. one time the trafficking rings was uncovered and the boss man blamed it on a woman who he beat severely. she cam back to us. she was crying. >> jamal was herded on the trafficker's boat for a journey that would turn into disaster. he said that the boat was so crowded that at one point he fell overboard and had to be dragged back in. >> when we were on the ship w

more on this from paul brennan, in kat annia on the italian island of sicily. what more do we know? >> well we are firming up details. an hour ago we werery tributing it to maltese media, now we've had the opportunity to the operations room in rome, and they gave us figures, that i can relate to you. as of 15 minutes ago they said 28 confirmed dead. their figure as far as how much were aboard were between 700-800 people. 18 ships are in the search and rescue area and there is one plane and two rescue helicopters on patrol out there, searching for survivors, and that the incident happened some 73 miles from the libyan coast. i can say that on social media we are seeing things. the prime minister of malta, his twitter account talking about a rescue account involving the navy and merchant ships. the numbers on the boat was 650 according to his figures. what is clear is that there is a major catastrophe involving a boat which is trying to make it out of libya and make it to mainland europe. the reasons we are not sure. we are not sheer, it may have capsized. the rescue boats came into v

it's a polarizing debate. >> paul brennan from sicily >>> in south africa thousands of foreigners are seeking shelter in police stations and refugee camps in johannesburg. the south african ruling a.n.c. party condemn the zenno fobing attacks against immigrant shopkeepers, six have been killed and thousands forced from their homes, attackers tell them to get out of the country. our correspondent spoke to some victims of the violence in durban. >> reporter: these migrant workers in south africa say they'll do anything to protect themselves and families. >> we are sick and tired of this xenophobia. they kill us lots. we didn't kill maybe one person. >> there has been a wave of fighting between immigrants and locals. here in durban four people have been killed. thousands fled their homes. gloria is from mozambique. >> here in a sports field she came to south africa 20 years ago, but the men that chased her and her nine-year-old out of her home insisted that she doesn't belong here. >> translation: they say we know you are not from south africa, can you get out. you must go, because when

paul brennan, al jazeera. >> live to mohammed adow where the al shabaab took place last week.aordinary demand by kenya to move that huge refugee camp. what is expected?? >> felicity the kenyan government is under intention pressure to show that it is acting against insecurity that has engulfed the country leading to the deaths of 148 people on thursday last week. in the attack in garissa was the most deadly since the u.s. embassy bombing in nirobi in 1998. the government is being asked very tough questions by members of the public. for example, why did they take so long to respond to the situation of the university and the government has been taking taking a number of steps in which it is trying to appease the public anger against it and this is seen a one of them. whether this is just for public consumption or whether kenya is going to carry out a threat of it actually using forces to move the refugees from the camp remains to be seen. however, u.n. officials have been speaktology al jazeera on condition of anonymity and have been telling us it will be impossible to close the

escape poverty and conflict in home countries and so far europe has not been able to stop it and paul brennants. >> reporter: at the port of augusta the coast guard ship delivers human cargo and 600 migrants rescued from stricken boats from the libya coast from the past few days and guided by shore by officers in protective clothing the men, women and children risked death in hope of a better life such are the numbers involved teams of volunteer doctors work alongside the ship's medical staff, what they have seen pulled from the water in resent weeks is harrowing harrowing. >> sometimes we see if people in the sea, they swallow water and guzzling and it's awful, it's awful. >> reporter: some arrive with a little money for their new life others arrive without shoes to wear and come from syria and so mole yeah and there is no sign of a slow down on unprecedented numbers seen in resent days. the migrants are safe but not everybody makes it this far and reports on thursday says there has been another sinking in the mediterranean with the loss of 40 lives. the european commission admits solutions

morgan brennan has more tonight. >> this week the u.s. department of agriculture confirmed another case of bird flu. in iowa it is sunrise farms owned by a privately held company. they said this farm housed 4 million layer hens that lay eggs and they went to quote, great lengths to prevent them from contracted influenza and now they are under quarentine. and that development is troubling. we have to respond to the challenge with commensurate action and investment. up until now we haven't had to do what i believe we're going to have to do in the future. but the industry adapts and adopts new technology and new techniques. >> this new case is the largest reports by the usda since the outbreak started last year bringing the total numbers affected to 6.5 million. cases reported in a dozen states including minnesota, missouri arkansas and the dakotas n. wisconsin, governor scott walker declared a state of emergency, issuing quarantines and enlisting the national guard to help with clean-up. u.s. and the usda said there is little risk to human

paul brennan reports from the port in sicily. >> reporter: it's not even peak season for migrants yetion associate island is already heaving. 1400 rescued refugees are crammed in a unit intended for just 250. it's to be another long, difficult summer on europe's mediterranean border. at ports all along the southern coast of italy. boats of bringing in hundreds of rescued refugees. at the last it's count, more than 10,000 plucked from the water since last friday alone. but the risks are high. on monday, more than 400 people are believed to have drowned before rescue could arrive. survivors spoke of panic then tragedy. >> we met them yesterday we spoke to them. a group of people mentioned that they departed from libya on the same boat. there were 550 people approximately and only you're 50 were rescued while the others are believed to have a unfortunately died in the mediterranean. >> reporter: the traffickers are becoming bolder and more ruthless. boats are no longer just being abandoned. they are too valuable to lose. >> last monday one of the vesseled deployed to italy within the fra

and as morgan brennan shows us any recovery will look starkly different from the ones that come before. >> the results represented at almost 40% plunge in profit from a year ago. but as oil prices have slacked since last summer that is still less than analyst feared. >> the earnings beat was attributable to proactive cutting of costs in the face of a major downturn in north american drilling and in the international arena as well. >> part of the cost cutting, more layoffs, an additional 11,000 and bringing the total number up to 20,000 or 15% of the global work force. the energy giant offered a cautious outlook, particularly for north koreaamerica. paul gis guard said they believe recovering u.s. land drilling will quote, be pushed out in time as inventory of uncompleted wells drilled and fracking expands. and why they have plunged by 50% since the fall and eog and ante darko and apache have drilled thousands of future wells before idling them. but with crude prices so low they have held off before fracking them that releases the oil and gas from the earth. it is the growing backlog of

first, paul brennan is in catania on the east coast of sicily. paul first to you. can you tell us what the latest is from where you are? >> reporter: well there hasn't been any substantive update in the last couple of hours. the figures are as they were about 120 minutes ago when we last spoke. it was 49 people had been rescued by that. 24 were confirmed dead. as you say, hundreds of people believed to be missing. it's important to remember these that set out from the north linnian are squalid, undorsey worthy boats. they don't have passenger manifests. it's impossible to know exactly how many people were on board, and so estimates are very much based upon survivors bears'testimony bears'testimony. what the sur ivers of this particular event are saying is that there may have been a minimum of 700 people on a boat that was little more than 20 meters long. if so then it really is a catastrophfee. there is a major search and rescue operation ongoing. the italian coast guard released some pictures from one aircraft, over flying the area which is being searched. it's sh

morgan brennan has more. >> reporter: it's been a rocky road for transport stocks. the dow jones transportation average has fallen 5% this year. on worry that first quarter earnings will disappoint. but analysts say that selloff has created some deals, particularly in trucking. >> right now, we're recommending truck load stocks to investors. truck load stocks benefit from falling oil as do the truck load guys can capture about 85%, almost maybe 87% of their fuel costs. fuel decline helps them on the cost side. >> reporter: diesel more than a double cheaper than a year ago meaning lower expenses but making longer hauls by cost more cost-competitive with rail growth. and capacity remains tight, expected to drive up rates trucking companies charge shippers to move goods and since many companies operations are largely domestic the stronger dollar is likely to have little impact on earnings. in fact it could benefit given the consumer centric goods being moved. plus trucking should also get a boost from the west coast port backlogs since it's the fastest way to get cargo

for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan. >>> john mattingly joins us to talk about the latest jobs report upcoming earnings season what it all means for your money. john always good to see you. >> thank you. >>ve a long sort of series there of packages that lays out a lot of the issues that the economy is facing. do you think we're in just a soft patch, or do you think that we are in a phase where we have to ratchet down our expectations for growth for corporate profits and hence for the stock market? >> no i don't think it's the latter. i think it's a soft patch. i think it's caused by the dollar caused by the oil. those are things that go up and down. i still think the economy is getting better on balance. i think we see that within a couple of quarters. >> let's turn to earnings. a lot of people have dismal outlooks for first quarter earnings even negative numbers in front of earnings growth. in other words e earnings would be down from where they were a year ago. what do you think? >> i think it's a low hurdle rate. we're ve concerned about our news. sometimes we look at e

morgan brennan has the details. >> reporter: the acquisition of tnt express will dramatically expand fedex's reach in europe a market up until now has had little share of. ceo fred smith said there were many reasons to do this deal now. >> the dollar and change ratio was very favorable. the quantitative easing and the lower oil prices mean that the european economy has a better outlook now than it has for some period of time and we thought that the planets lined up perfectly for this move. >> reporter: in recent years, fedex's global reach much more focused on asia where it's a democrat nant player. by acquiring tnt express, has european presence absorbing network and consisting largely of ground operations allowing it to cater to ecommerce customers at a time when diesel is less expensive. analysts say this is a good move for fedex, in competition with two biggest companies, ups and dhl. >> fedex good historically of buying companies. look at runway package services. they expanded and blew into fedex ground. they bought american freightways, vikings and watkins and produced the larg

demand to grow 6.5% this year in aluminum. >> morgan brennan, thank you. see you later. >>> elsewhere, earnings season is a big deal for wall street of course. companies and investors, many pros of a downbeat outlook for the profits right now. so what are the expectations for this first quarter season? dominic chu takes a look tonight. >> reporter: when it comes to the strength of the upcoming earnings season the bar has been set low. very low. a poll of wall street analysts conducted by thompson reuters predicting a nearly 3% decline for s&p 500 companies. if that were to happen it would be the first decline since the third quarter of 2009 as the nation was trying to emerge from the financial crisis. >> we say that every quarter that guidance is important, but guidance could not be more important as we go into this earnings season because of the drawdowns and inestimates. and the weak numbers that by the way the economic data releases that we got in the first quarter. the market needs to be sure and confirmation is needed that we are pulling out of it and

brennan reports from harris iowa. the small town that finds itself at the center of the latest bird flu crisis. >> this is sunrise farms, one of the largest egg producing facilities in iowa. and it is currently under kwau. guarded by local authorities to keep visitors from entering the premises. it is the site of the latest and largest case of influenza with nearly 4 million egg-laying hens compromised. they a making plans to euthanize the entire flock since the strain is highly contagious and lethal to poultry. >> this virus is getting into the facilities and it is very concerning to us because we can't predict where it may pop up again next. >> the usda said it poses little threat to human health and developing a new vaccine but cases are mounting with 6.5 million birds affected at mon 50 cites across multiple states. they are quarantined and depopulated, a pros that's can take weeks and maybe longer and preventing the spread of the virus and comes at a huge cost to the producer despite federal aid. and not just the

let's go now to paul brennan who is live from the sicilian port of catania.t new information are the arrests turning up for paul? >> reporter: yeah, it seems that the captain who we understand to be a tunisian man, and the ships mate, who we understand to be syrian, have now actually been charged. and they have been charged with a couple of things, first of all, reckless -- multiple reckless homicide. this related to the sinking of that ship late on saturday night with the loss -- one estimate of around 800 people on board there. they have also been charged with it's calling favoring illegal immigration i think probably the most accurate english translation would be facilitating or propagating immigration. and they are being held here in catania, separate to the refugees. the migrants who have been taken to a reception center outside of the main town. there are among those migrants who were rescued over the weekend and brought here late last night just after midnight by a coast guard vessel, in fact the coast guard vessel you can see over my shoulder, there w

do more to try to help after an unprecedented number of arrivals and in sicily al jazeera's paul brennan>> reporter: after sicily border of augusta the coast guard ship delivers human cargo on 600 migrants rescued from boats off the libya coast in the past few days and at the shore by coast guard officers in protective clothing men, women and children risked death in the hope of a better life. such are the numbers involved teams of volunteer doctors now work alongside the ship's medical staff, what they have seen pulled from the water in resent weeks is harrowing. >> sometimes we see if people are in the sea. they swallow water and are guzzling and it's awful, it's awful. >> reporter: some arrive with a little money for their new life. others arrive without even shoes to wear. they come from syria and somalia and there is no sign of a slow down in the unprecedented numbers seen in resent days. these migrants are safe but not everybody makes it this far, reports on thursday suggest there has been another sinking in the mediterranean this time with a loss of more than 40 lives, the europea

paul brennan, al jazeera, augusta, sicily. >>> a chinese court sentenced veteran journalist gao-yu ton prison and convicted of leaking state secrets to foreign news organizations. our reporter has more now on the sentencing from beijing. >> reporter: the conviction of a 71-year-old journalist comes as no surprise to those watching here as the state itself also controls china's courts. she was first arrested nearly a year ago for divulging state secrets, the secret in question here is internal party memo known as document number nine in that document it is revealed that the chinese party leadership is concerned over what it sees as the potential infiltration of western ideals such as democracy which could corrupt and eventually lead to the disintegration of china leadership. now, because of this it basically came out that the intended political reform that the chinese president has been talking about is possibly not true that he intends to keep things exactly as they are and the human rights violations that are seen by advocates as being perpetrated against those who are having differe

the vessel and victims on the way to europe but most died when the ship went down and we go to paul brennane sicily port and tell us about the captain. >> reporter: yeah it's the understanding we have at the moment, we have not been able to speak directly to the prosecutor but it has been reported quite widely now the captain who is a tunisia man is charged with reckless multiple homicide and in addition to that they have also been charged with what is called favoring illegal immigration. i suppose the most accurate translation into english would be like facilitating or propagating the allowance of immigration. so it's clear that the authorities have taken two people who were among the 27 brought off that coast guardianship last night and taken them to the police station and have charged them while the other 25 people who were taken to a reception center or in the case of young people or teenagers on board have gone to a separate place for minors. >> so they have been caught but yet there are still a few of the lucky ones paul do we know anything more about what actually happened and how th

paul brennan, al jazerra agusta sicily. >>> the ahead of the i.m.f.iving an extension to greece over its debt repayments. greece has to payback $1.1 billion over the next month. >> my advice is to get on with the work. and the work needs to address both, you know, the short-term and the medium term of the economy and the objective that we all pursue is to actually restore the stability of the greek economy. >> if you look at projections of gdp growth made by the imf and in 2011, and 2012. in reality you realize that seem coldly and dispassionately we are talking about a massive predicted failure. >>> the chinese court has sentenced veteran journalist to seven years in prison. the 71-year-old became famous in china for her hard-hitting reports on political elites. one of her lawyers says she will appeal against a conviction for leaking state secrets to foreign news organizations. joining us now from hong kong is nicholas the east asia director of amnesty international. nicholas good to see you there. what exactly is she accused sharing? >> well, she ha

. >> paul brennan is in catania on the east coast of sicily. paul he did pay tribute to some of the people you have been talking to the rescuers or the coast guard having to deal with the very unpleasant task or sometimes fishing bodies from the dorsey. it has been an ongoing problem for some time now. has not it there? >> well it has. i mean all last year and part of the year before and certainly the start of this year has been particularly bad. the issue is not -- i mean, we have done some number crunching. basically, actually the numbers arriving is actually rather similar to last year. what's changed is the numbers who are... >> we seem to have lost paul brennan there. sorry about that. we will perhaps go back to him a little later on for another update on that operation still try going on to find any further survivors of that ship that's thap sank in the mediterranean. >> now military commander in yemen has reportedly switched sides and is now supporting president hadi. the brigadier is in charge of 15,000 soldiers and is based along a boa

. >> reporter: we will have more from the italian prime minister and first we go to paul brennan on thecoast of the island of sicily in the central med train crayon sea, are you hearing about the possibility of finding more survivors? >> reporter: well as the hours pass the prospects of finding anybody else alive really does start to recede and we are now approaching nearly 24 hours since the 20 meter long vessel with hundreds of people on board capsized. it was obviously dark then. it was late at night on saturday night. the search has been hampered because of the darkness and now the darkness has fallen again approve difficult for search and rescue operation to be scoring those waters and that is the area of sea. so the numbers that have been given by the authorities have remained static through the day and you gave them in the introduction there, 24 people confirmed as dead and some 28 people are confirmed as alive. we've heard one report that a survivor has been brought by helicopter to here at katania and we have spoken with the mayor's office here and unable to confirm that for us

as paul brennan reports from sicily italy is appealing for help to cope with this unprecedented flood. >> reporter: at the a sill vinnie port of agusta the coast guard ship delivers its human cargo, nearly 600 migrants rescued from a variety of the stricken votes off the libyan coast the past few days, guided ashore by coast guard officers in protective clothing. these men women and children have risked death in the hope of a better life. such are the numbers involved. teams of volunteer doctors now work alongside the ship' medical staff. what they have seen pulled from the water in recent weeks is harrow be. >> sometimes -- we see people in the sea. they swallow water and gasoline and it's awful. it's awful. >> reporter: some arrive with a little money for their new life. others arrive without even shoes to wear. they come from syria eritrea somalia and there is no sign i've slow down in the unprecedented numbers seen in recent days. these migrants are now safe, but not everybody makes it this far. reports emerging on thursday suggest that there has been another sinking in the medite