Foreign News
All eight passengers trapped in cable car rescued
All eight people who were stuck in a cable car dangling hundreds of metres above a ravine in Pakistan’s north-west for many hours have now been rescued.
In a slow and dangerous operation, a military helicopter rescued one child, while teams on the ground recovered the rest of the group after dark. They were helped to safety along a zip line, with a huge crowd on top of the hillside celebrating their rescue.
The group were on their way to school when one of the car’s cables snapped. It was left hanging precariously across 274m (900ft) above the ground and in high winds.
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, said he was relieved, and thanked all of those who were involved in the rescue. Pakistan’s army said the rescue mission had been “extremely difficult and dangerous”.
The incident happened at about 07:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday near the city of Battagram in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Six children, aged between 10 and 16 years old, were trapped, along with two adults.
One of the children, a teenage boy, has a heart condition and was unconscious for several hours, an adult on board named Gulfaraz told local media. A child also fainted due to “heat and fear”, a rescue worker told Reuters news agency, although it was unclear if that was the same child.
Known by locals as “Dolly”, the cable car links the village of Jangri to Batangi, where the school is located. The car is a popular and cheap mode of transport to get across the Allai valley – cutting a two-hour road journey through mountainous terrain to just four minutes. When the cable suddenly snapped, Dolly was making its fifth trip of the day.
Residents used loudspeakers to alert officials to the crisis, but it took at least four hours for the first rescue helicopter to arrive at the remote location, local media outlet Dawn reported.
Anxious crowds, including relatives of those trapped, quickly gathered along the ravine, watching on as military helicopters battled against the strong winds to lower commandos to the stranded car.
Several early attempts to reach them failed, however some food and water was successfully delivered.
In addition to gusty winds, there were concerns that the helicopter’s rotor blades could further destabilise the cable car, and as night set in the operation was suspended. But rescuers continued their efforts with the help of zip line experts and local people on the ground.
Allai is a mountainous area, located at an altitude of 2000m above sea level. Settlements are spread far and wide and there is little infrastructure like roads and basic facilities. In most of the area, makeshift chairlifts and cable cars are used regularly for transportation from one mountain to another. The one involved in this incident is believed to be privately operated by residents, local media reported.
Police said they checked the lift every month, however BBC News has been unable to independently verify this.
Anwaar ul Haq Kakar says he has ordered all privately-operated lifts to be inspected for safety.
(BBC)
A court in Malta has acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of masterminding the murder of prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Fenech, 44, was acquitted on Wednesday at the end of a jury trial. He had been tried on charges of complicity to murder and for the lesser charge of criminal association to commit murder.
If found guilty, Fenech could have faced life in prison.
Caruana Galizia’s family were seen weeping in the packed courtroom in Valletta after the businessman was cleared of both counts by an 8-1 margin following eight hours of deliberation by the jury.
“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed,” the slain reporter’s family said in a statement.
“Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again. Our country failed to protect Daphne’s life. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”
Fenech’s family members were seen celebrating the jury’s decision.
The killing of Caruana Galizia in October 2017 shocked Europe’s journalist community and set off a political firestorm in Malta, focusing international attention on its police and judiciary.
Dubbed a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, Caruana Galizia had exposed corruption at the highest level in the Mediterranean island country, shining a spotlight on links between Malta’s business and political elites. She was 53 when she was killed.
Prosecutors argued that Fenech had wanted Caruana Galizia killed because she was about to reveal information about him.
Fenech has denied the accusations. His defence instead pointed fingers at his one-time friend Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a target of Caruana Galizia’s blogs.
Muscat, who was never linked to the murder, stepped down in January 2020 due to the political fallout from the assassination.
Police told the court that Schembri had never been a suspect. He has denied any role in the murder.
An independent inquiry in 2021 found that officials in Malta had failed to protect Caruana Galizia from threats to her life before her death.
[Aljazeera]
A head teacher’s quick decision to evacuate his school saved 900 pupils from deadly flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border
Rajendra Dawadi tells the BBC he was tipped off about incoming flood waters and moved students to higher ground with just minutes to spare. One pupil says she and her friends survived by just 10 seconds and watched as a nearby bazaar was swept away
Wednesday’s disaster has killed at least 794 people and more than 2,500 people are missing in Nepal, local officials say
In Tibet, the official death toll is 16, with 546 reported to be missing, according to Chinese state media –
[BBC]
A ferry carrying around 260 people has capsized off the coast of northern Cyprus with a search underway for survivors, according to local media.
The catamaran-style boat was travelling from the port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, and started sinking a few kilometres off the coast of the island state on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
[Aljazeera]
India to host inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy in February
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Afternoon thundershowers in the Northern, North-central, Eastern and Uva provinces in next few days, starting from today (03).
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