Written By Unknown on Kamis, 16 April 2015 | 19.15
Jamal Benomar brokered a Gulf Co-operation Council-backed political transition plan in 2011
The UN's special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, has stepped down from his post amid criticism of his failure to broker an end to the conflict in the country.
The UN said it would name a successor "in due course" and "spare no efforts to relaunch the peace process".
The Moroccan diplomat is believed to have come under pressure to resign from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
A Saudi-led coalition is conducting air strikes against Houthi rebels who forced the president to flee abroad.
The UN says more than 70 people have been killed in escalating violence since 26 March, but officials believe the actual death toll may be far higher.
In 2011, Mr Benomar brokered a Gulf Co-operation Council-backed political transition plan after a popular uprising forced long-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power.
The United Nations says almost half of those killed in recent weeks were civilians
However, the transition gradually unravelled, and a dispute between Mr Saleh's successor, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthis turned into a war.
After the Houthis swept into the capital Sanaa last September, toppling the widely unpopular transitional government, Mr Benomar negotiated a peace accord between the rebels and President Hadi that analysts say neither honoured.
In January, arguments over a draft constitution led to the Houthis taking full control of Sanaa and placing Mr Hadi and the prime minister under house arrest.
The president subsequently took refuge in Aden, but the rebels and allied army units loyal to Mr Saleh reached the southern port city at the end of March, prompting him to flee the country.
Southern militiamen backed by Saudi air strikes have failed to halt the Houthi advance
Western diplomats said Mr Benomar had faced mounting criticism from Saudi Arabia and other members of the GCC for his failure to persuade the warring parties to attend peace talks.
Both the Houthis and President Hadi had also grown impatient with him, Yemeni political sources told the Reuters news agency.
On Wednesday evening, a UN spokesman revealed that Mr Benomar had told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he was interested in "moving to another assignment".
"A successor shall be named in due course. Until that time and beyond, the United Nations will continue to spare no efforts to relaunch the peace process in order to get the political transition back on track," Stephane Dujarric said.
Relatives of those who died want answers from investigators on what happened
The search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be doubled if nothing is found in the current search zone, officials say.
The announcement came from Australian, Malaysian and Chinese ministers meeting to discuss progress.
The plane, flying from the Malaysian capital to Beijing, disappeared on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board.
It is believed to have crashed off Western Australia, but so far no trace has been found.
At the moment teams using sophisticated sonar equipment are scouring a 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) area of seabed far west of the Australian city of Perth. About 40% of this remains to be searched.
If nothing is found, the search will be extended by another 60,000 sq km to "cover the entire highest probability area identified by expert analysis", a joint statement from the ministers said.
The additional search area could take up to a year to complete given adverse weather conditions in the upcoming winter months, the statement said.
Investigators still do not know what happened to the plane.
The search zone has been defined based on analysis of hourly "handshakes" between the plane and a communications satellite.
There is still no explanation as to why it flew so far off course - making finding the plane and its "black box" voice recorders key to understanding its fate.
"We are confident we are searching in the right area,'' Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss told journalists after the meeting.
"We are confident we have the best search equipment... if the plane is in the area we will find it.''
Search vessels are focused on a 60,000 sq km (23,166 sq m) priority zone; more than 60% of the area has been scoured to date
Cost of A$120m (£61m; US$93m) has been jointly funded by Australia and Malaysia
South Korea's president has promised to raise the Sewol ferry, as the nation marks a year since the disaster.
A total of 304 people, mostly school students, were killed when the ship - which was overloaded and illegally redesigned - sank off Jindo island.
The government has faced a day of anger with relatives cancelling at least one memorial service in protest.
Divers have recovered all but nine of the bodies. Relatives say the ship must be raised and their remains found.
The government says salvaging the ship will cost $110m (£74m) and has previously refused to commit to doing so.
But President Park Guen-hye, speaking at a port in Jindo, said she would take "the necessary steps to salvage the ship at the earliest possible date".
The Sewol ferry disaster left 304 people - mostly teenage students - dead or missing
South Korea's National Assembly adopted a resolution saying a speedy recovery of the ferry would help heal "the minds of the victims, survivors and bereaved families... as well as those of all the citizens".
But relatives of the missing students had said there were not convinced that the Sewol would definitely be raised, the BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul reports.
They remain wary of the plan, and called Ms Park's announcement vague and politically motivated.
Lee Keum-hui's daughter Eun-hwa died trapped in the ferry. Her body has not been found.
Steve Evans, BBC News, Seoul:
Even as President Park gave the bereaved families what they had been asking for, she must have felt their wrath and their grief.
Dressed in the black of mourning, she stood on a windy breakwater near where the Sewol sank and announced that the vessel would be raised - just as the families had demanded.
"I have a heavy heart and my heart aches to think how painful it is," she says.
But bereaved families had left the port before she arrived, a gesture the South Korean media interpreted as a protest against what the families allege is her previous inaction over both the raising of the Sewol and fulfilling the promise of an independent enquiry.
Demands for answers go on
The ship listed and sank on 16 April 2014, capsizing over a three-hour period Relatives blocked PM Lee Wan-koo from a memorial hall, amid ongoing anger at the government
Memorial ceremonies are being held across the country on Thursday.
But relatives cancelled a planned service in the city of Ansan in protest against Ms Park's absence from the event.
In the morning, Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo was prevented from entering the venue by relatives of those who died.
On Wednesday relatives of those who died paid their respects at the site of the disaster This classroom at Danwon High School has been left as a memorial to the children who died
Investigators say the ferry sank after an inexperienced crew member made too fast a turn. The combination of an illegal redesign and overload meant the ship was unstable.
But some relatives say they want an independent and more thorough inquiry into the disaster, which sparked countrywide debate about regulatory failings and official incompetence.
Most of the crew of the Sewol survived.
The captain and three senior crew members have since been given long jail terms for failing to protect passengers.
Eleven other crew members were imprisoned, as was the captain of the a coast guard vessel involved in the botched rescue effort.
Separate trials were held for employees of the ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Its owner, Yoo Byung-eun, disappeared after the disaster and was eventually found dead.
325 students aged between 16 and 17 from Danwon High School, south of Seoul, were on a school trip to the holiday island of Jeju when the ferry sank
Only about 70 survived - many had obeyed orders to stay put as the ferry listed
Several texted their family members goodbye and to tell them "I love you". One also filmed what turned out to be his last moments on his mobile phone inside the ship. The texts and footage were retrieved by parents and later broadcast on national television
Some of the survivors later testified that they had to float out of cabins and most of the crew members did not attempt to help them
At least three crew members died trying to evacuate passengers. They included an engaged couple, Jung Hyun-seon and Kim Ki-Woong, and the youngest crew member Park Ji-young, who gave her lifejacket to a passenger. All three have been named "martyrs" by the government
Previous anti-xenophobia marches have not ended the violence
South Africa is holding a huge protest march against xenophobia in the coastal city of Durban following a wave of attacks on foreigners.
Organisers said about 10,000 people were expected. At least five people have been killed and foreign-owned shops looted in recent weeks.
The Zulu king has been accused of fuelling the violence. He denies this.
Many jobless South Africans accuse foreigners of taking jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is 24%.
President Jacob Zuma has condemned the violence and is expected to address parliament about the issue later on.
For the latest news, views and analysis see the BBC Africa Live page.
On Wednesday, Malawi said it would evacuate its nationals from South Africa while Mozambique has set up transit camps near its border with South Africa to cope with the exodus of its citizens.
Tens of thousands of foreigners, mostly from other African states and Asia, have moved to South Africa since white-minority rule ended in 1994.
At least 62 people died in xenophobic attacks that swept South Africa in 2008.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane has vowed to provide strong security for the march, and anyone trying to disrupt it would be "dealt with".
The government-backed South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has told the BBC that it is investigating two complaints of hate speech made against Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
He was widely quoted as saying last month that foreigners should "go back to their countries". However, he said that his comments had been distorted.
"The king is saddened by what is happening. He never thought something of this nature could happen," his spokesman Prince Thulani Zulu told AFP news agency.
The SAHRC has the power to censure the monarch, if it finds him guilty.
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Iraq's military has sent reinforcements to Ramadi, but they have been unable to halt IS attacks
Islamic State (IS) has stepped up its assault on the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, launching a series of suicide bomb attacks on a government compound.
Anbar provincial council member Athal al-Fahdawi told the BBC the compound was within range of IS weapons and that it and the city were "in great danger".
Military reinforcements sent to Ramadi were not sufficient to repel the jihadist militants' attacks, he warned.
On Wednesday, IS captured three villages on the outskirts of the city.
Nine people were also reportedly killed by militants in Albu Ghanim, to the north-east, from where hundreds of civilians fled after security forces withdrew.
The Kurdish website Rudaw said four of the victims were police officers.
IS launched an offensive on Ramadi last week after the government announced it had started a large-scale operation to drive out the group from Anbar province.
Leading pro-Russian journalist Oles Buzyna shot dead in Ukrainian capital Kiev
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It was a rare occasion for Mr Putin to speak to a huge audience of Russians directly
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine's government is "cutting off" defiant rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine through an economic blockade.
He was addressing a huge Russian audience in a live televised phone-in.
He also insisted "there are no Russian troops in Ukraine". Moscow denies Western charges that it is directly arming and reinforcing the rebels.
Later he said those who had ordered the murder of Boris Nemtsov - one of his leading critics - might never be found.
Mr Nemtsov, a prominent opposition politician, was shot dead on 27 February near the Kremlin.
Five suspects, all of them Chechens, are in custody. Mr Putin condemned the murder as "disgraceful".
Ukraine 'blockade'
It is Mr Putin's 13th such annual phone-in with the Russian public - and usually they last about four hours.
Mr Putin denied reports that Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko had offered to let Russia have the rebel-held areas in the Donbas region.
The rebels reject Kiev's rule and are getting humanitarian aid from Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea region last year.
"There are many problems there and we do not see the current Kiev authorities wanting to restore the social sphere, or the economy of Donbas," Mr Putin said.
"We see a total blockade of Donbas. One can say that the current Ukrainian authorities are cutting off Donbas by their own hand. That is the problem and tragedy."
Russian journalists also explored some key issues with Mr Putin
Tough economic times
Mr Putin said he had told business leaders that he did not expect EU-US sanctions - imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine - to be lifted soon.
"We need to use the situation to reach a new level of development," he said.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says the event is highly choreographed but does reveal Russians' concerns. Russians' real incomes have fallen this year for the first time since Mr Putin came to power.
Mr Putin said the Russian economy would take about two years to bounce back from recession, or less as the rouble's value was rising again.
He said there were encouraging signs that Russian agriculture was growing and replacing imports of Western food.
However, a dairy farmer introduced as "John - a Russian citizen" grilled Mr Putin over the hardship faced by farmers.
"You say everything is going well - sorry, that's not true," the farmer said. "I have five children... I need some assurance about their future in Russia. Do you believe the statistics or are they lying?" he asked in English-accented Russian.
The farmer is reportedly John Kopiski, originally from the UK, who has lived in Vladimir region for about 15 years.
Mr Putin admitted that farmers faced difficulties over low dairy retail prices and that cheap imports of powdered milk from Belarus were part of the problem.
"I don't have reason to disbelieve the statistics," he said, adding that the government would have to increase subsidies for farmers.
Missiles for Iran
Later in the phone-in Mr Putin was asked about Russia's controversial plan to export S-300 air defence missiles to Iran.
He insisted that the missiles were not on the UN list of banned exports under the UN sanctions linked to Iran's nuclear programme.
He said he made the move because Iran had shown "a desire to reach compromise". The S-300 "doesn't threaten Israel at all, it's exclusively a defensive weapon", he added.
Our correspondent says the questions for Mr Putin were clearly vetted, with nothing too critical or too personal. About two million questions came in before the broadcast.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about 23% of the questions submitted concerned social welfare issues, and the second biggest area of concern was housing and local services.
Almost 10,000 people have been rescued trying to reach the Italian coast in recent days
Italy has called for more help from the European Union in handling the surge in migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean.
Almost 10,000 people have been rescued trying to reach the Italian coast in recent days. Hundreds have died since the start of the year.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said: "We have not had an adequate response from the EU."
An EU spokeswoman said there was no "silver bullet" for the situation.
'Falling on shoulders'
Last year a record 170,000 people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East have made the perilous crossing to Italy.
More than 500 people have died in the first three month of 2015 - 30 times more than in the same period last year.
Another 400 are feared to have died when a migrant boat capsized off Libya on Monday.
Numbers have increased in recent days with improving weather bringing conditions more conducive to making the crossing of at least 500km (310 miles).
But vessels provided by people smugglers are often underpowered and overcrowded.
Speaking to Corriere della Sera newspaper Mr Gentiloni said: "Ninety percent of the cost of the patrol and sea rescue operations are falling on our shoulders, and we have not had an adequate response from the EU."
"And then there is the difficult issue of knowing where to send those rescued at sea. To the nearest port? To the country where their boat came from? The EU has to respond clearly to these questions," Mr Gentiloni added.
"The double risk of an advance of the Islamic State group in Libya and the waves of migrants means we are in a race against the clock," he warned.
'Cannot alone'
He said that the EU was only spending €3m (£2m) a month on its Operation Triton sea patrols.
Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue operation with a budget of two-thirds more began in 2013 as a short-term measure and was scrapped at the end of last year. There were concerns it was encouraging migrant crossings.
The European Commission's migration spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told the BBC: "The EU cannot alone do it all.
"We don't have a silver bullet that will make it [the situation] go away and no amount of finger pointing will change that."
Earlier, a spokeswoman for the European Commission said the EU's patrol operation could not "act as a substitute for Italy's border management responsibilities and nor was that ever the intention".
She added that Italy had been allocated €13.7m in emergency funding.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency also called on the EU "to step up a strong search and rescue mechanism".
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been without a stable government allowing trafficking networks to thrive.
The bill was authored by Republican Senator Bob Corker
The US Congress will have a say on a nuclear deal with Iran, under a new agreement reached with the White House.
President Barack Obama withdrew his opposition to a bipartisan bill that was unanimously passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
However, a Congressional No vote would not be binding and could be vetoed by Mr Obama.
An outline agreement on the future shape of Iran's nuclear programme was reached after marathon talks in April.
The US, Iran, and five other nations have set a deadline of 30 June to finalise a deal which would ease western sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Obama agreed to sign the bill giving Congress the right to reject any forthcoming agreement with Iran.
Some Republicans have argued against the deal, saying Iran has received too many concessions.
They have always insisted they must have a say if any agreement means economic sanctions levied by Congress against Iran will be lifted.
The Israeli government, which has been fiercely critical of the deal with Iran, welcomed the agreement between Mr Obama and Congress.
The interim deal was celebrated wildly in Tehran
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Mr Obama was not "particularly thrilled" with the outcome, but US media have pointed out that in the event of Congress rejecting a deal with Iran, Mr Obama would be able to use his presidential veto.
A two-thirds majority would then be needed for Congress to override the veto, which is viewed as unlikely.
The bill is now likely to clear both houses in the Republican-controlled Congress.
An earlier version of the bill had placed a 60-day halt to any plan by Mr Obama to lift sanctions on Iran.
But that review period has been reduced to 30 days.
Mr Obama will still be able to lift sanctions he himself imposed through executive action but he would be unable to ease those imposed by Congress.
Campaigners had demanded justice for Siti Zainab before her execution
Indonesia's government has summoned Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Jakarta to protest against the execution of an Indonesian domestic worker.
Siti Zainab was beheaded on Tuesday in Medina after being convicted of stabbing and beating to death her employer, Noura al-Morobei, in 1999.
Neither Indonesian consular officials nor her family were given prior notice, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.
President Joko Widodo and three of his predecessors had appealed for clemency.
Human rights groups had also criticised the sentence, asserting that Ms Zainab had been acting in self-defence and might also have been mentally ill.
On Tuesday, Ms Marsudi was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying she had asked the Saudi government to explain why it "did not give any warning" about the execution.
"We had taken all efforts [to prevent the beheading] including through diplomatic channels, legal avenues and approaching the family of the victim, as well as sending a presidential letter and during my meeting with the Saudi deputy foreign minister in March," she added.
The Saudi ambassador to Indonesia, Mustafa Ibrahim al-Mubarak, said he had been "surprised" to be summoned, but would "check what went wrong".
The Saudi interior ministry said the execution had been delayed for more than 15 years until the youngest of the victim's children was old enough to decide whether or not the family would want to pardon Ms Zainab or demand her execution.
Migrant Care, an NGO that campaigns on behalf of Indonesian expatriate workers, alleged that Ms Zainab had been acting in self-defence against an employer who had abused her. Before her arrest, she had sent two letters in which she said that Ms Morobei and her son had been cruel to her.
Amnesty International said she had made a "confession" during police interrogation but she had had no legal representation or access to a consular representative.
According to reports, the police suspected that she suffered from mental illness at the time of the interrogation, the US-based human rights group added.
Indonesia itself resumed executions in 2013 after a four-year moratorium. There were none during 2014, but six people, including five foreigners, were put to death in January.
Despite this, the Indonesian foreign ministry recently said it was seeking to prevent the execution of at least 229 Indonesian citizens sentenced to death overseas.
In April 2014, the government paid $1.8m (£1m) to secure the commutation of a death sentence against another Indonesian domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, who had been convicted of the murder of her employer. As in Ms Zainab's case, the woman was said to have acted in self-defence.
Salvage crews managed to retrieve many of the remains from the USS Oklahoma
The remains of nearly 400 US servicemen killed at Pearl Harbor are to be exhumed so they may be identified and given individual burials, the US says.
The sailors and Marines were aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma when it was struck by Japanese torpedoes in 1941.
Their remains were buried together in Hawaii. The identification effort will use advances in forensic and DNA testing, US defence officials said.
Japan's attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor drew the US into World War Two.
The Oklahoma was one of several warships targeted by Japanese submarines and aircraft in the surprise assault on 7 December 1941. More than 2,400 people were killed.
US department of defence officials said the identification effort would be aided by advances in forensic science and technology, as well as by genealogical help from family members.
Survivors of the attack return to a new memorial in Hawaii
"While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible," Deputy Secretary of Defence Robert Work said in a statement.
Only the remains of 35 of the 429 sailors and Marines killed aboard the USS Oklahoma have been identified so far.
The rest of the remains - retrieved during salvage operations from 1942 to 1944 - have been buried in caskets, marked as "unknown", at a national cemetery in Hawaii.
Tom Gray told the Associated Press news agency that his family had waited more than 70 years to give a proper burial to the remains of his cousin, Edwin Hopkins, who was killed aboard the Oklahoma.
While it was an honour for his cousin to have been buried at a national cemetery, he said: "I also think a boy gives up his life at 19 years old and ends up in a comingled grave marked as 'unknown' isn't proper."
The Pearl Harbor attack drew the US into World War Two
China's economy has been hit by factory overcapacity, high levels of local debt and a downturn in its once booming property market
China's economic growth slowed further in the three months to March this year, expanding 7% compared to a year earlier, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis in 2009.
The rate was lower than the 7.3% posted for the three months to December.
Last year, China's economy, which is the world's second largest, grew at its slowest pace since 1990.
It expanded by 7.4% in 2014, missing its annual growth target of 7.5% for the first time in 15 years.
Despite the slowdown, the Chinese economy was still one of the world's fastest-growing and analysts have said it was proving to be more resilient than expected.
However, they have also said that slower growth, together with the country's cooling property market - a key economic driver - was likely to mean further easing by China's central bank this year, including further rate cuts among other measures.
In February the People's Bank of China unexpectedly cut interest rates for the second time since last November.
Interest rate cuts together with injections of liquidity are some of the tools Beijing uses to fine tune its economic growth.
Analysts said there was concern around the latest industrial production figures, which fell to 5.9% month-on-month in March
The latest growth numbers were by no means a hard landing - which some had feared - and were in line with the latest government target, analysts said.
"Still, it represents a slowdown from the previous read of 7.3%," Nicholas Teo from CMC Markets told the BBC, "and is one of the weakest numbers reported in quite a few years."
In the first three months of 2009, amid the financial crisis, China's economy expanded 6.6% from a year earlier.
China also released industrial production (IP) figures on Wednesday which fell to 5.9% month-on-month in March, down from forecasts for an expansion of 6.9% and the lowest since 2008.
Analysts said these figures were more glaring than the growth data. Mr Teo described the latest IP numbers as "unfavourable".
"Together with the slower trade numbers reported earlier this week, the industrial production number may just set the tone for a quickening pace with regards further easing measures," he said.
"And this may come in the form of further interest rate cuts."
Evan Lucas from IG Markets told the BBC the IP numbers highlighted "the real issue facing China" as exports declined "and falls in work done were being felt across the board".
Markets were lacklustre following the numbers however, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index up 0.7% and the benchmark Shanghai Composite flat, up just 0.01% at 4,135.91.
The plane skidded before coming to rest on grass beside the runway
Air safety authorities in Japan are investigating how a South Korean Asiana Airlines plane skidded off a runway on landing at Hiroshima airport.
The 74 passengers and seven crew members used emergency chutes to evacuate the Airbus 320 in the incident late on Tuesday.
Local media reported that at least 20 people had minor injuries.
Transport ministry officials said a plane wheel may have clipped a radio facility near the runway on landing.
The structure, known as the localiser, helps aircraft find the landing strip. A fragment was found on the plane's left wheel, Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported.
Images from the scene showed apparent damage to the 6m (18ft) tower, with mangled metal torn down.
An aviation safety official told AFP news agency that the left side of the plane's tail was damaged and the country's transport safety board was investigating.
Investigators inspected the broken localiser structure at Hiroshima Airport on Wednesday
Asiana Airlines apologised for the incident, and said it had set up a response team to cope with the aftermath.
"As to the determination of the cause of the accident, we will co-operate as closely as possible with the relevant authorities," it said.
Passengers told NHK that they heard an explosion after landing, and the cabin was soon filled with smoke and a burning smell. The plane also appeared to be sliding on the runway.
"There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought 'we are going to die'," one woman told Japanese networks on Tuesday night.
Hiroshima airport was closed for several hours after the incident
The plane was flying to Hiroshima from South Korea's Incheon airport, near Seoul.
The airport was closed for several hours.
In July 2013, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Incheon crashed on landing at San Francisco airport after its tail clipped a sea wall.
Three people died in the crash - including one Chinese teenager who was run over by a firefighting vehicle in the chaos.
And two years prior to that, two Asiana pilots were killed when their China-bound cargo flight crashed into the sea off South Korea's Jeju island.
The UN refugee agency says not enough is being done to save the lives of the increased numbers of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
A UNHCR spokesman told the BBC around 400 migrants were still missing after their boat capsized off Libya.
Libya's coastguard says it expects more attempted crossings later this week.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have made the perilous crossing in recent years, fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.
Hundreds more migrants rescued from boats in the Mediterranean are due to arrive in Sicily during the day.
Almost 10,000 migrants have been picked up in recent days, and more boats are heading for the Italian coast.
Italy's interior ministry has instructed officials throughout the country to be prepared to house the new arrivals, many of whom are children.
UN officials say well over 500 people have died since the start of the year, 30 times more than in the same period last year.
Over 280,000 people entered the EU illegally last year, many fleeing conflict in Syria and repression in Eritrea.
The Italian coast guard rescued 144 people from the capsized boat on Monday and launched an air and sea search operation in hopes of saving others.
Nine bodies have already been recovered, but no more survivors have been found since then.
Migrants in Libyan jail
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville is at a detention centre for would-be migrants in Misrata, Libya - among them this 14-year-old from Eritrea (below). "Is this a jail? Are we refugees?" some of the migrants ask. They say they have been held there for seven months.
Clear skies spell death for migrants
Last year, 170,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean to Italy and as many as 3,500 died while making the journey, officials say.
The Italian government's maritime rescue operation was scaled back, amid concerns that it was encouraging migrant crossings, and a more limited EU border security operation took over.
However, the latest numbers show that the EU's policy of deterring people is not working, the BBC's James Reynolds in Sicily reports.
Shots fired
Meanwhile the EU's Frontex border agency said that people smugglers had fired shots into the air to warn away another coast guard vessel rescuing migrants.
The incident on Monday happened about 60 nautical miles off Libya after an Italian vessel and an Icelandic coast guard ship had rescued most of the 250 migrants on a tugboat.
Frontex says the incident shows that traffickers are running out of boats.
EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told the European Parliament: "The unprecedented influx of migrants at our borders, and in particular refugees, is unfortunately the new norm and we will need to adjust our responses accordingly."
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been without a stable government allowing trafficking networks to thrive.
On Friday, humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres announced it would operate a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean between May and October.
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Foreigners have been arming themselves after coming under attack
Malawi says it will repatriate its nationals from South Africa, following an upsurge in xenophobic violence.
At least five foreigners, including a 14-year-old boy, have been killed in attacks in South Africa's coastal city of Durban since last week.
Some foreign-owned shops in the main city Johannesburg have shut amid fears that the violence could spread.
Zimbabwe has also condemned the attacks, blamed on locals who accuse foreigners of taking their jobs.
Tens of thousands of foreigners, mostly from other African states and Asia, have moved to South Africa since white-minority rule ended in 1994.
At least 62 people died in xenophobic attacks that swept South Africa in 2008.
The government has ordered police to step up efforts to protect foreigners Local gangs accuse of foreigners of taking their jobs Thousands of migrants have fled to camps to escape the violence
Malawi is the only country which has so far decided to repatriate its citizens.
Information Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa said the first group would return at the weekend.
About 420 Malawians are reportedly living in refugee camps in Durban after fleeing the violence, he said.
The BBC's Raphael Tenthani reports from Blantyre that he received a call from a Malawian in Durban who said saw he some Malawians being killed - including a close friend who was burned alive.
Mr Nankhumwa called on the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to intervene to help protect foreigners.
"This is unfortunate coming at a time we are working on regional integration," he said at a press conference.
"We urge the government of South Africa to protect foreigners," he added.
In total, the violence has left about 5,000 foreigners homeless in Durban, local media reports.
Many of them also had their shops looted, and the violence spread on Tuesday night to Verulam, a town about 30km (18 miles) north of Durban.
The government has ordered police to step up patrols to prevent the violence from escalating.
The governing African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement that South Africans should "hang our heads in shame in the face of these misguided and misplaced assaults".
Google's rivals have accused it of unfairly prioritising its own services in its results
The European Union has filed a complaint against Google over its alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
The competition commissioner said she had issued a "statement of objections", stating that the firm's promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its dominance in search.
Margrethe Vestager said Google now had 10 weeks to respond.
The firm said it "strongly disagreed" with the allegations and looked forward to making its case.
Ms Vestager also revealed that she had launched an investigation into whether the way Google bundled apps and services for its Android operating system was unfair.
And the commissioner said the EU would continue to monitor other activities by Google that its rivals had complained about.
The EU has objected to the way Google promotes results from its own shopping service
It follows a five-year investigation into the company and marks the start of a formal legal process that could ultimately lead to billions of euros of fines.
Google accounts for more than a 90% of EU-based web searches.
'Preferential treatment'
The European Commission has investigated the antitrust allegations - made by Microsoft, Tripadvisor, Streetmap and others - since 2010.
Among their complaints was an objection to Google placing adverts from its Shopping service ahead of others' links in relevant searches.
Ms Vestager said the Commission's preliminary findings supported the claim that Google "systematically" gave prominence to its own ads, which amounted to an abuse of its dominant position in search.
"I'm concerned that Google has artificially boosted its presence in the comparison shopping market with the result that consumers may not necessarily see what's most relevant for them, or that competitors may not get the the commercial opportunity that their innovative services deserve," she told a press conference in Brussels.
Ms Vestager said that she was not seeking a wider redesign of Google's search results or asking it to change its algorithms.
But she added that the case could set a precedent that would determine how the EU handled other complaints about Google favouring its own mapping, hotels and flights services.
Google has rejected the idea its Shopping service distorts the market.
"While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways - and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark," wrote its search chief Amit Singhal on the firm's blog.
Google pitches its shopping service as a "matchmaker" between products and customers
"It's clear that: (a) there's a ton of competition - including from Amazon and eBay, two of the biggest shopping sites in the world and (b) Google's shopping results have not the harmed the competition.
"Any economist would say that you typically do not see a ton of innovation, new entrants or investment in sectors where competition is stagnating - or dominated by one player. Yet that is exactly what's happening in our world."
Many of Google's rivals welcomed the EU's action.
"Google's abuse of dominance distorts European markets, harms consumers, and makes it impossible for Google's rivals to compete on a level playing field," said lobbying group Icomp.
"We see this statement of objection as a crucial first step towards ensuring that European consumers have access to vibrant and competitive online markets."
Google suggests that services including eBay ensure it does not distort the shopping search market
Android inquiry
The EU has also launched a separate investigation into Google's Android operating system, used by smartphones and tablets, which will focus on three topics:
claims that Google requires or incentivises manufacturers to pre-install its own search engine, apps and other services and exclude rival products
allegations that Google unfairly insists its services are bundled, meaning some cannot be pre-installed without including the others
complaints that the firm is hindering manufacturers from developing alternative versions of Android, which is open source. These are commonly known as "forks", with Amazon's Fire OS and Xiaomi's Mi being two examples.
"These issues are distinct from the Google comparison shopping case and the investigations will of course be different," Ms Vestager said.
Google says the way it distributes its apps ensures that Android smartphones offer a "great" experience
In response, Google stressed that Android devices could be offered without its services.
"It's important to remember that [our partner agreements] are voluntary - you can use Android without Google - but provide real benefits to Android users, developers and the broader ecosystem," said lead engineer Hiroshi Lockheimer.
"Our app distribution agreements make sure that people get a great 'out of the box' experience with useful apps right there on the home screen. This also helps manufacturers of Android devices compete with Apple, Microsoft and other mobile ecosystems that come preloaded with similar baseline apps."
Complex subject
Google could ultimately face huge fines and be ordered to reshape its business in Europe because of the shopping complaint.
Some searches cause Google Shopping's ads to be offset to the side of the screen
In recent years, the Commission has imposed antitrust penalties on other tech giants, ordering Intel to pay €1.1bn (£793m; $1.2bn) in 2009, and Microsoft €516m in 2013.
However, Ms Vestager said she was "open" to Google's response, and would listen to its case before deciding how to proceed.
One independent expert said that the matter could take years to resolve.
"I can't see that this will be a fast process given the complexity of the subject matter, what's at stake and the likely level of the fine," said Paul Henty, a lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys who has previously worked for the European Commission.
International inquiries
The EU's investigation is not the only one Google is facing.
Investigators at India's Competition Commission delivered a report last week after carrying out a three-year probe into claims of unfair business practices.
Their counterparts in Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan and Canada have also opened investigations.
However, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its own probe at the start of 2013 after Google made several non-binding commitments.
