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Cyprus Rescues 60 Syrian Migrants from Boat that Departed Lebanon

Migrants from Syria seat inside a bus transferring them from Ayia Napa to the Pournara migrant reception center in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)
Migrants from Syria seat inside a bus transferring them from Ayia Napa to the Pournara migrant reception center in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)
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Cyprus Rescues 60 Syrian Migrants from Boat that Departed Lebanon

Migrants from Syria seat inside a bus transferring them from Ayia Napa to the Pournara migrant reception center in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)
Migrants from Syria seat inside a bus transferring them from Ayia Napa to the Pournara migrant reception center in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. (AP)

Sixty Syrian migrants were rescued from a small boat off Cyprus on Wednesday after being stranded at sea for days, including three children and a man who were found unconscious on board, Cypriot authorities said.

Authorities scrambled rescue helicopters and patrol vessels after a merchant vessel reported seeing a small wooden fishing boat about 30 nautical miles off Cape Greco, Cyprus' most southeasterly point.

Cyprus' Joint Rescue Coordination Center said all the migrants were taken to hospital, including the four found unconscious and three who had lower limb fractures. They were all dehydrated, officials said.

Officials said the occupants of the boat, all Syrians, had sailed from Lebanon on Jan. 18.

Cypriot officials said the incident highlighted the unnecessary risks people took with smuggling networks, and said it would raise the issue again at an informal EU meeting of justice and home affairs ministers this week.

Alarm Phone, an advocacy group which issues alerts for migrants in distress, had reported on Sunday that concerned relatives had contacted them on losing contact with a vessel carrying between 50-60 people and which had left Lebanon on Jan. 18.

Cyprus lies about 100 miles (185 km) west of Lebanon and Syria. In recent months it has seen arrivals increase from both countries, fanning concerns in Nicosia of a surge of migration if the tensions in the Middle East engulf the broader region.

"This is unfortunately proof of what we have repeatedly said on the dangers faced by people falling victim to traffickers," Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said in a statement.

He said he would reiterate to his EU counterparts Cyprus' position that the bloc should consider declaring parts of Syria safe, which would allow authorities to repatriate people arriving from there.

In calm seas, it can take a small fishing boat 18-20 hours to get from Lebanon to Cyprus, crossing waters that can run up to 3 km deep and in conditions known for changeable winds and sudden swells.

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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.