Search ends for survivors from sunken Spanish fishing vessel

MADRID (AP) — Canadian rescuers called off the search for 12 missing crew members from a Spanish fishing vessel that sank in rough seas off Newfoundland.The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax, Canada, announced late Wednesday it was suspending the “exhaustive search” by aircraft and vessels that retrieved nine bodies from the water and rescued three survivors found in a lifeboat. The 50-meter (164-foot) Villa de Pitanxo sank in the dark early Tuesday. The vessel operated out of northeast Spain’s Galicia region, where Spanish Fisheries Minister Luis Planas was due to meet with families of the dead on Thursday. Planas called the sinking the “worst tragedy for our fishing fleet in 38 years.”