ATHENS: The Greek coastguard yesterday mounted an operation including a helicopter to rescue a Spanish family of five stranded on a yacht amid gale-force winds in the Aegean Sea, the merchant marine ministry said.
“We received a distress call from a Spanish woman on board a yacht with three children, who said her husband was on a life raft,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
The woman and children were picked up by a speedboat. Her husband was later retrieved on the raft by a Super Puma helicopter as passengers from a Greek ferry looked on.
“We do not know exactly what happened because the lady was not very cooperative, possibly because her English was not very good,” the spokeswoman said.
“We hope to know more when they give their report to the coastguard,” she said.
The family will be reunited at the nearest Athens port, she added.
The incident took place west of the Cycladic island of Kythnos, some 52 nautical miles (96km) from the port of Piraeus.
Zimbabwe PM regrets lack of reforms
MARONDERA, Zimbabwe: There have been “no reforms” to guarantee that upcoming July 31 polls in Zimbabwe would be free and fair, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday.
“There are no reforms in the media, and other reforms to ensure free and fair elections have not been achieved,” said Tsvangirai in launching his campaign against archrival President Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabweans go to the polls in just over three weeks in a vote to end the unity government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who were forced to share power after deadly clashes in the 2008 elections.
The southern African nation approved a new constitution that limits presidential powers in a referendum in March.
But Mugabe unilaterally declared an early election date which the Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld despite pressure from regional mediators.
Agencies
