Foreign News
UK tech tycoon among six missing after yacht sinks
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among the six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 56m (183ft) vessel was carrying 22 people including British, American and Canadian nationals. Fifteen people were rescued, including a one-year-old British girl, and authorities are continuing their search into the night.
Local media reported the yacht, named Bayesian, capsized at about 05:00 local time after encountering a heavy storm overnight that caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air, to appear over the sea.
Mr Lynch, known by some as “the British Bill Gates”, co-founded software company Autonomy, which was later bought by tech giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn).
Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that the Bayesian’s anchor was down when the storm struck, causing the mast to break and the ship to lose its balance and sink off the coast of village Porticello, near Sicilian capital Palermo.
A waterspout is similar to a tornado and can form over oceans, seas or large lakes.
Divers have identified a wreckage 50m below the water’s surface and are searching for those missing.
The director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, told the BBC that Mr Lynch, his daughter Hannah Lynch and the yacht’s chef were among the missing.
He said the search, involving caving and rescue diving teams, would continue overnight.
The body of one man was found outside of the wreckage. His nationality has not been confirmed.
BBC Verify looked at corporate records and found the Bayesian’s ownership is tied to Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares. Sources close to the matter have confirmed to the BBC Ms Bacares has been rescued.
Fifteen people managed to get to safety after the storm hit.
Ansa news agency reported a 35-year-old mother held her one year old daughter in her arms in the sea.
The woman, named as locally as Charlotte Golunski, said: “For two seconds I lost the little girl in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amidst the fury of the waves. “I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming. “Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”
The baby is fine and the mother was treated with stitches, the agency said.
She added she had been on the boat with her husband, who is also safe, and colleagues from a London company.
A doctor based at the Di Cristina Hospital in Palermo, where some of the survivors were taken, said they were “very tired” and “constantly asking about the missing people”.
Dr Domenico Cipolla told Reuters news agency: “We have given the survivors this information, but they are talking and crying all the time because they have realised that there is little hope of finding their friends alive.”
Survivors said the trip has been organised by Mr Lynch for his work colleagues.
In the initial aftermath, a nearby Dutch-flagged vessel rescued survivors from the waves, tending to them until emergency services arrived.
Captain Karsten Borner said after the storm had passed, the crew noticed that the yacht that had been behind them had disappeared.
“We saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position, and we found this life raft drifting,” he told Reuters. That life raft was carrying 15 survivors, three of whom were “heavily injured”, he said.
A local fisherman told Reuters news agency he had seen people being rescued by an inflatable boat dispatched from another yacht.
The captain of a local fishing trawler said he saw debris, including cushions from the deck, floating in the sea.
Footage from the wreckage site showed helicopters circling over several coastguard vessels as divers wearing bright orange descended into the water.
Eight of those rescued are receiving treatment in hospital, the Italian coastguard said.
The western half of the Mediterranean has experienced severe storms since the middle of last week. Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, a clutch of bad weather passed by the north coast of Sicily.
BBC Weather forecaster Matt Taylor said: “A waterspout is a tornado that has occurred over water rather than land. “They can form during intense storms, on the base of cumulonimbus/thunder clouds. “Turbulence, and the wind blowing in slightly different directions around the cloud, can cause rotation under the base of the cloud and the spout to form.
“Like tornadoes, they bring powerful winds, but instead of picking up dust and debris they cause a water mist around the column of rotating air.”
The UK Foreign Office said it is supporting a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Sicily. Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch is also sending a team of inspectors to conduct a “preliminary assessment” into the sinking of the UK registered-boat.
The Bayesian’s registered owner is listed as Revtom Ltd. The superyacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites.
The yacht’s name is understood to be based on the Bayesian theory, which Mr Lynch’s PhD thesis was based on.
Mr Lynch’s wife Ms Bacares is named as the sole legal owner of Revtom registered in the Isle of Man.
A spokesperson for Camper and Nicholsons International, the firm that manages the 2008-built boat, told BBC Verify: “Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew.”
Mr Lynch sold his company Autonomy to American computing giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).
But an intense legal battle following the high-profile acquisition loomed over Mr Lynch for over a decade. He was acquitted in the US in June on multiple fraud charges, for which he had been facing two decades in jail.
The sinking of the yacht came on the same day that Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain, was confirmed by his lawyer as having died after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
[BBC]
Air India Flight AI171 travelling from India to London crashed within moments of take-off on Thursday, killing 241 passengers and crew, and more people on the ground.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which took off from the city of Ahmedabad, in western India, ploughed into a residential area, hitting a hospital complex and medical student hostel.
One passenger survived the disaster – a British national, who was sitting in seat 11A and who later told family he had no idea how he walked away.
It is not yet clear what caused the crash, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as “heartbreaking beyond words”.
Officials warned the death toll could rise in what was quickly described as one of the deadliest aviation disasters in India’s history.
Air India Flight AI171 departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT), and was due to touch-down at London’s Gatwick Airport at 18:25 BST.
There were 230 passengers on board, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens, one Canadian and 12 crew members.
The local police chief told the BBC that 204 bodies had been recovered so far – but it is not known how many of those victims were on the plane or were on the ground.
Images from the scene show debris scattered across a large crash zone, with parts of the aircraft embedded in buildings.
The extraordinary news that one person had survived the disaster quickly made international headlines, as the British national, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, was filmed limping towards an ambulance, with smoke billowing in the background.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise… it all happened so quickly,” he told local media from hospital.
His cousin, Ajay Valgi, said Ramesh called his family to say he was “fine”, but he does not know the whereabouts of his brother, also called Ajay, who was on the plane with him.
Thursday’s incident was the first fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner, first introduced in 2011.
Boeing said in a statement that it “stands ready” to support the investigation, which is being led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” the bureau said.
US and British investigators will travel to India, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying it will assist Indian authorities.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft issued a mayday call seconds after take-off.
It lost contact with air traffic control shortly thereafter, crashing just outside the airport’s perimeter.
The crash site lies within a medical campus with 10 specialised centres. The BBC’s Sachin Pithva described scenes of chaos, with rescue workers retrieving the remains of those who perished.
Thick smoke was still billowing from the buildings hours after the crash, and passengers’ passports were strewn around, he reported.
Gujarat’s Additional Chief Secretary for Health confirmed the aircraft struck the students’ hostel and staff quarters of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.
“It crashed into the hostel mess and then bounced off on to one of the hostel buildings,” the hospital’s dean, Dr Meenkashi Parekh, told the BBC.
The crash happened at lunchtime when many students were in the canteen, she added. Photos show a huge part of the plane stuck in one of the hostel buildings, and a dusty, deserted mess hall with plates of uneaten food still on the tables.
“Most of the students escaped… but the building caught fire and the smoke was extremely thick. So, 10 to 12 students were trapped,” the dean said.
She added it was possible that several students had been killed. Officials said dozens were in hospital.
Tata Group, which owns Air India, has said it would give one crore rupee – the equivalent of about £86,000 – to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.
Prime Minister Modi wrote on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Both Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said they are being kept updated as the situation develops, while King Charles expressed his “deepest sympathies” to all those affected by the crash.
Starmer confirmed that a UK team had been dispatched to Gujarat to join the investigation as he urged families and friends of anyone affected to contact the Foreign Office.
[BBC]
The search for schoolchildren swept away in floods in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has resumed after being halted overnight, officials have said.
The children were on their way to school in the town of Mthatha when their bus was carried away in flood waters as it was crossing a bridge on Tuesday morning.
Officials said three students were later rescued, but it was unclear how many pupils were on the bus, which has since been found on a riverbank with no-one inside.
An unconfirmed report by private TV station Newzroom Afrika says the bodies of 10 children and the driver have now been found further downstream.
Public broadcaster SABC reported that the three children who were rescued on Tuesday were found clinging to trees.
On Wednesday morning, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities.
He told Newzroom Afrika that while the situation was a “difficult one”, he was “quite happy” with the response of the emergency services.
South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have officially claimed the lives of 14 people, nine from the floods and five in a road accident.
Nearly 500,000 homes were left without electricity on Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of those who died as he urged citizens to “display caution, care and cooperation as the worst impacts of winter weather take effect across the country”.
The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.
The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.
[BBC]
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has removed all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations.
Announcing the move in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) were responsible for undermining trust in vaccinations.
Kennedy said he wanted to “ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.”
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of a number of vaccines, although in his Senate confirmation hearing he said he is “not going to take them away.”
On Monday he said he was “retiring” all of the Acip panel members. Eight of the 17 panellists were appointed in January 2025, in the last days of President Biden’s term.
Most of the members are practising doctors and experts attached to major university medical centres.
After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves vaccines based on whether the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks, Acip recommends which groups should be given the shots and when, which also determines insurance coverage of the shots.
Noel Brewer, a professor at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health who served on Acip for a year, called Kennedy’s decision “norm-breaking”.
“I was stunned, but not surprised,” he told the BBC. “It was deeply disappointing and more than a bit upsetting.”
Kennedy noted that if he did not remove the committee members, President Trump would not have been able to appoint a majority on the panel until 2028.
“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote.
He claimed that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a “crisis of public trust” that some try to explain “by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes.”
In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist.
“Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Acip members are required to disclose conflicts of interest, which are posted online, and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict.
Dr Brewer said the panel had “one of the most rigorous conflict of interest procedures of any federal committee”.
The members had a wide range of vaccine expertise, and thoroughly reviewed and debated vaccine data to make the best decisions for the public, said Paul Offit, a former Acip member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
In his editorial, Kennedy said that the “problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt”.
“The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,” he claimed.
Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.”
“With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Dr Scott said in a statement.
Kennedy’s move appears contrary to assurances he gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained “without changes.”
On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: “Of course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.
“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”
Public health experts share Cassidy’s concerns that Kennedy may appoint vaccine-sceptics to the board.
Such replacements would mean some vaccines “won’t be recommended at all” and other effective shots could “no longer be reimbursable by insurance companies”, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official.
“As a consequence, we will see still further declines in vaccination rates, and then a resurgence of the diseases that they could have prevented,” he said.
Kennedy did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. The health secretary appears to be calling people himself and asking them to serve on the panel, said Dr Offit, who said he has heard from at least two people Kennedy called.
“His whole notion of radical transparency – this is the opposite of that,” Dr Offit said. “This is one man making a decision behind closed doors.”
Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other illnesses.
Dr Brewer said Acip had some of the “best scientists in the world”, adding that the secretary would have a hard time finding that calibre of experts again on short-term notice.
The BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.
[BBC]
Israel launches ‘major strike’ on Iran’s military, nuclear sites
Former Army Commander General Hamilton Wanasinghe passes away at the age of 91
Air India plane crash claims at least 241 lives as one passenger survives
-
Business6 days agoRegional Ambassador for Wildlife Photography
-
Business6 days agoDialog Enterprise reaffirms commitment to Sri Lankan SMEs as the Title Sponsor of Industry Expo 2025
-
Features4 days agoLTTE and Canadian complicity
-
Business6 days agoThe Evolving Story of Pure Ceylon Tea
-
News4 days agoIranganie celebrates her birthday today
-
Business6 days agoSLIM partners with ministry to produce Sri Lanka’s top Business Advisors
-
Sports5 days agoMathews’ 10,000- run regret
-
News2 days agoUK confirms ongoing war crimes investigation into British mercenaries in Sri Lanka