One boat migrant was found dead while 978 survivors were rescued in three operations conducted some 55 kilometers off Libyan shores during the past 24 hours, the Italian Coast Guard said Saturday, according to dpa. Its statement came in the wake of Friday reports by the Times of Malta newspaper and the Maltese army that an estimated 1,500 migrants had launched SOS signals in the central Mediterranean. An Italian navy vessel picked up one body and 221 survivors from one migrant boat and later transferred them on two Italian Coast Guard patrols, authorities said. A second migrant boat carrying 235 people was rescued by a merchant ship. Two more merchant ships helped a third vessel in distress, picking up 93 and 429 migrants respectively.
