Pregnant Syrians among those rescued off Italy

The Italian coastguard has intercepted a boat off the island of Sicily with 100 Syrian migrants on bord, including 10 women, one whom was heavily pregnant. A police vessel accompanied the migrant boat into the port at Syracuse on Sicily's eastern coast, where medical checks were carried out on the migrants, who were all said to be in good health. An aerial patrol by police located the migrants. Police had received information that a boat had set sail from Egypt for Sicily. Hundreds of migrants are currently trying to reach southern Europe each week amid a recent surge in illegal migration in the Mediterranean as sea conditions improve during the summer months. North Africa is the most common departure point for the boats that transport the migrants, although there are other routes.