A boat carrying more than 650 people believed to have departed from eastern Libya were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday. The rescue brings the total number of people saved to more than 1,000 over the past two days. According to the Italian Coast Guard, 423 people were rescued from an overcrowded fishing boat, over 29km from the coast of Sicily, Wednesday. In a second operation in the early hours of Thursday morning, 671 more migrants were rescued from an overcrowded vessel more than 90km south east from the island.