BRUSSELS: The vast majority of some 22,000 swimming beaches in the EU are clean and safe, the European Environment Agency said yesterday.
The EEA annual report for 2012 showed the water met the minimum standards required for bathing at 94 percent of all swimming beaches in the EU.
At 78 percent of the beaches, the quality of the water was found to be excellent, the top rating, with Cyprus leading the way as all of its 112 swimming beaches got the best review.
Cyprus, a popular holiday destination, was followed by Malta, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Finland and Spain, the report said. The full report can be consulted at: http://www.eea.europa.eu/fr/publications/qualite-des-eaux-de-baignade-4
Malawi auctions
off president’s jet
BLANTYRE: Malawi’s presidential jet has been auctioned off to a Virgin Islands company for $15m, after the cash-strapped government disposed of it to raise funds, an official said yesterday.
Bohnox Enterprise Ltd beat three other bidders for the 14-passenger aircraft used by president Bingu wa Mutharika, who died last year.
“We have accepted their offer and we are waiting to hear from them,” cabinet clerk Ernest Katchetche said in a statement. The 15-year-old Dassault Falcon 900-EX had been described as being in “perfect flying condition”.
Mutharika’s successor, President Joyce Banda, decided to sell the aircraft and a fleet of luxury cars used by the big-spending leader.
6.0 quake strikes
off Russia’s coast
MOSCOW: A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula early yesterday followed by a series of strong after-shocks, the US Geological Survey said.
The first quake struck at a depth of 33km at 0155 GMT, 136 kilometres east-southeast of the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the USGS reported.
It was followed by three after-shocks, the strongest of which measured 5.9 magnitude at a depth of 44 kilometres, it added.
Five drown trying
to reach Spain
RABAT: At least five illegal migrants drowned off the coast of northern Morocco as they were attempting to reach Spain, the Moroccan authorities said.
The rescue services were alerted to the presence of a “polyester boat with a group of illegal immigrants on board that was in difficulty off the Marchica lagoon, in Nador province,” local authorities were quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency.
They arrived at the scene and recovered five bodies, all male, while managing to save seven of the passengers, including four women, who were taken to hospital in Nador for treatment. Agencies
