Briefly

SPAIN

Search called off for African migrants

MADRID — Spain has called off the two-day search for some 50 African migrants whose crowded boat capsized in rough seas off the Canary Islands, officials said yesterday.

Search planes stopped looking for the migrants on Friday evening, and two rescue ships were called back yesterday morning, said a spokesman for the Spanish Interior Ministry’s office in the archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa.

The accident happened before dawn Thursday about 90 miles south of the Canary Island of Tenerife, when a wave capsized the boat as a Spanish rescue vessel was preparing to take the Africans off it.

BRITAIN

Thousands stranded by floods in England

LONDON — More than 2,000 people woke up yesterday in make-shift shelters in southern and west-central England after abandoning their cars on flooded highways or leaving trains disrupted by torrential rains.

Flooding provoked by exceptionally heavy rains on Friday forced dozens of people to climb to rooftops and wait to be rescued by helicopter, deprived hundreds of homes of electricity and caused flight cancellations.

Three Royal Air Force helicopters have rescued more than 40 people but still had to evacuate another dozen, including a man clinging to a lamppost in flood water and people stuck on roofs, emergency services said.

GERMANY

OFFICIAL SEES AL QAEDA THREAT

BERLIN — GERMAN AUTHORITIES THINK AL QAEDA IS TARGETING GERMANY FOR ATTACKS AND THAT GERMAN ISLAMISTS HAVE BEEN TRAVELING TO PAKISTAN FOR “TERRORIST TRAINING,” A TOP SECURITY OFFICIAL TOLD A NEWSPAPER.

IN A PREVIEW OF AN ARTICLE APPEARING TODAY IN FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE SONNTAGSZEITUNG, DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER AUGUST HANNING SAID: “THE DANGER THAT THERE COULD BE TERRORIST ATTACKS HERE IS VERY REAL. … WE HAVE MANY INDICATIONS THAT AL QAEDA IS TARGETING GERMANY AND GERMAN INSTALLATIONS ABROAD, SUCH AS EMBASSIES.”

LAST MONTH INTERIOR MINISTER WOLFGANG SCHAEUBLE SAID AUTHORITIES NEEDED TO INCREASE VIGILANCE DUE TO THE POSSIBILITY THAT MILITANTS MIGHT CARRY OUT SUICIDE ATTACKS ON GERMAN SOIL.

IN APRIL THE U.S. EMBASSY IN BERLIN ANNOUNCED IT WAS BOOSTING SECURITY AT ITS FACILITIES IN GERMANY IN RESPONSE TO WHAT IT DESCRIBED AS AN INCREASED THREAT OF TERRORISM.”TERRORIST TRAINING,” A TOP SECURITY OFFICIAL TOLD A NEWSPAPER.

BRITAIN

RESERVES SHORTAGE WORRIES ARMY HEAD

LONDON — BRITAIN HAS ALMOST NO RESERVE TROOPS TO SUPPORT OPERATIONS IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN OR MEET UNEXPECTED EMERGENCIES, THE HEAD OF THE BRITISH ARMY SAID, ACCORDING TO A NEWSPAPER REPORT YESTERDAY.

WITH 5,500 TROOPS BASED IN SOUTHERN IRAQ AND 7,100 FIGHTING THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN, BRITAIN HAS JUST 500 TROOPS — CALLED THE SPEARHEAD LEAD ELEMENT — AVAILABLE FOR EMERGENCY DEPLOYMENT.

“OUR RESERVES TO MEET THE UNEXPECTED (AS WELL AS FOR CURRENT OPERATIONS) ARE NOW ALMOST NON-EXISTENT,” GEN. RICHARD DANNATT SAID IN A LEAKED MEMO OBTAINED BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.

SPAIN

DE POLANCO, PRESS MOGUL, DIES AT 77

MADRID — JESUS DE POLANCO, A PRESS GIANT CREDITED WITH HELPING RESTORE SPAIN’S INDEPENDENT PRESS AFTER THE DEATH OF DICTATOR GEN. FRANCISCO FRANCO IN THE 1970S, DIED YESTERDAY AT AGE 77, HIS FLAGSHIP NEWSPAPER EL PAIS ANNOUNCED.

MR. DE POLANCO, THE BILLIONAIRE CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERFUL SPANISH MEDIA CONGLOMERATE GRUPO PRISA AND ONE OF SPAIN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE, DIED OF AN UNSPECIFIED RHEUMATIC DISEASE.

EL PAIS, WHICH WAS STARTED IN 1976, NEAR THE END OF FRANCO’S DICTATORSHIP, QUICKLY BECAME SPAIN’S MOST-READ NEWSPAPER AS THE COUNTRY RETURNED TO DEMOCRACY. IT REMAINS ITS TOP-SELLING DAILY.

FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS