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Seven Italian climbers missing in Nepal as storms, avalanches leave 9 dead
Seven Italian climbers are missing in Nepal’s Himalayan mountains after heavy snowstorms and avalanches have killed at least nine people in recent days.
Three Italian climbers were among five foreigners and two Nepali guides who were confirmed killed on Monday when a huge avalanche smashed through a base camp near the summit of Mount Yalung Ri in Nepal’s Himalayan range, according to reports.
Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday that local authorities had confirmed the deaths of the three Italian climbers, but there “remains no news of seven other Italian nationals” who have been reported missing.
“In recent days, several areas of the Nepalese Himalayas have been affected by a series of avalanches that have struck numerous mountaineers, including Italian citizens,” the ministry said.
“Communication between local authorities, rescue teams, and the diplomatic missions of the countries involved continues to be extremely challenging,” the ministry added.
Nepal’s Department of Tourism director, Himal Gautam, said there was no immediate information about the fate of the seven people reported missing.
Nepal’s Himalayan Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that the bodies of an Italian and a French climber were recovered from the site of the avalanche that struck a group of 12 people at their base camp on Mount Yalung Ri on Monday.
The seven people killed at the camp included three Italians, two Nepalis, a German and a French climber and, according to the newspaper, five others were rescued, including three Nepalis and two French nationals.
French survivor Isabelle Solange Thaon, 54, who lost her husband, Christian Manfred, in the avalanche on Yalung Ri, told The Associated Press news agency that she was lucky to have survived with another French climber, Didier Armand.
“We were lucky,” Thaon said from her hospital bed in the capital Kathmandu, adding that she had jumped over rocks and swam in the snow of the avalanche until help arrived to pull them out.
“Unfortunately, Christian died because rocks hit his head,” she said of her late husband.
Mount Yalung Ri, located in the Rolwaling Valley of northeastern Nepal, is a 5,600-metre (18,370-foot) peak considered suitable for novice mountaineers.
On Friday, in western Nepal, contact was lost with two Italian climbers, who were later confirmed to have died while attempting to scale the 6,887-metre (22,595-foot) Panbari mountain.
Nepal was hit last week by unseasonal rains and heavy snow due to the impact of Cyclone Montha, which left many trekkers and tourists stranded on popular Himalayan trekking routes.
Nepalese authorities have issued alerts to trekkers and climbers in the country, which is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and which are visited by many foreign and local trekkers and climbers each year.
[Aljazeera]
US President Donald Trump has filed a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida.
The BBC apologised to Trump last month, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any “basis for a defamation claim”.
Trump’s legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech”. The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump told reporters of his plans. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given “the mistaken impression” he had “made a direct call for violent action”, but disagreed that there was basis for a defamation claim.
In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised how the speech was edited, and led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness.
Before Trump filed the lawsuit, lawyers for the BBC had given a lengthy response to the president’s claims.
They said there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, as he was re-elected shortly after it aired.
They also said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama programme on its US channels. While the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.
In his lawsuit, Trump cites agreements the BBC had with other distributors to show content, specifically one with a third-party media corporation that allegedly had licensing rights to the documentary outside the UK. The BBC has not responded to these claims, nor has the corporation with the alleged distribution agreement.
The suit also claims that people in Florida may have accessed the programme using a VPN or by using streaming service BritBox.
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed,” the lawsuit said
(BBC)
The Situation Report issued by the Disaster Management Center at 06:00AM on 16th December 2025 shows that 70,297 persons belonging to 22,338 house holds are still being housed at 731 safety centers established by the government.
The number of deaths due to the recent disastrous weather stands at 643 while 183 persons are missing.
Latest News
Bondi Beach gunmen who killed 15 after targeting Jewish celebration were father and son, police say
New South Wales Police say 15 people, including a 10 year old girl were killed in a shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday – their ages range from 10 to 87
The attack happened while an event was being held to mark the start of Hanukkah – police say they’re treating it as a terror incident
The two gunmen were father and son, police say. The 50-year-old man also died at the scene while the 24-year-old remains in hospital in critical condition
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls the attack “an act of pure evil” that “deliberately targeted” the Jewish community
(BBC)
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