Bodies of foreign climbers retrieved from Indian mountain, one still missing

1 / 2
Ruth McCance. (Twitter)
Updated 24 June 2019
Follow

Bodies of foreign climbers retrieved from Indian mountain, one still missing

  • Eleven people died on the world’s highest peak, and some of the fatalities were blamed on overcrowding

NEW DELHI: The bodies of seven climbers killed on India’s second-highest mountain were retrieved Sunday, capping a nearly month-long search by mountaineering experts in treacherous Himalayan terrain.
The eight-person group that went missing in late May included four Britons, two Americans, one Indian and one Australian.
They had set out to summit a previously “unclimbed peak” in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand.
A group of mountaineers from the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) found the seven bodies near an unnamed peak on Nanda Devi East.
The search for the last remaining body would continue on Monday, ITBP spokesman Vivek Kumar Pandey told AFP.
Those retrieved have been “taken to a nearby site,” Pandey said, adding: “We have also found some mountaineering equipment and gear.”
The bodies have not yet been identified.
The eight climbers were part of a 12-strong expedition, but four Britons were rescued after breaking away.
The main group, which was led by experienced British mountaineer Martin Moran, had permission only to climb the eastern peak of Nanda Devi.
But a Facebook post by Moran’s firm on May 22 said they planned to attempt “an unclimbed peak” around 6,500 meters (21,300 feet) high.
The missing climbers last communicated on May 26, a day before heavy snow fell and massive avalanches hit the heights.
Indian authorities began a search but operations were affected by bad weather and difficult terrain.
Pandey said it took five hours on Sunday to retrieve the bodies.
“The terrain conditions were extremely difficult due to steep gradient, snow accumulation and wind conditions,” he said.
Aerial searches for the climbers were repeatedly hindered earlier by turbulent winds, the risk of avalanches and the bowl-shaped terrain.

On June 3, a helicopter spotted five bodies and climbing equipment in the snow, at a height of about 5,000 meters but attempts to drop troops by air to retrieve them were aborted due to the risks.
In addition to Moran, the climbers have been named as John McLaren, Rupert Whewell and University of York lecturer Richard Payne from Britain, US nationals Anthony Sudekum and Ronald Beimel, Australian Ruth McCance and Indian guide Chetan Pandey.
Officials earlier told AFP the climbers had risked their lives by taking an untested route for which they did not have permission.
The climbers may have fallen from an ice ridge or an overhanging mass of snow during the avalanches, a military source said.
Hundreds of mountaineers from around the world visit India to scale peaks across the Himalayan chain, and those in Nanda Devi sanctuary are considered among the toughest.
The first successful ascent of Nanda Devi was in 1936.
India has 10 peaks above 7,000 meters, including Kangchenjunga — the world’s third highest — sandwiched between India and Nepal.
The deaths in India followed the deadliest climbing season in years on Nepal’s Mount Everest. Eleven people died on the world’s highest peak, and some of the fatalities were blamed on overcrowding.


Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants

Updated 8 sec ago
Follow

Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants

Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the US
District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison

HOUSTON: The leader of a human smuggling ring convicted of involvement in the deaths of 53 migrants in a sweltering truck in Texas in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the United States between December 2021 and June 2022, according to prosecutors.

He was convicted in March of transporting aliens within the United States resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and placing lives in jeopardy.

District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison on Friday and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Another convicted member of the smuggling ring, Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 55, was sentenced to 83 years in prison for his involvement in the deaths of the 53 migrants.

“These criminals will spend the rest of their lives in prison because of their cruel choice to profit off of human suffering,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “Today’s sentences are a powerful message to human smugglers everywhere: we will not rest until you are behind bars.”

Five other defendants have pleaded guilty to their roles in the fatal smuggling operation and are to be sentenced later this year.

Another alleged member of the smuggling ring, Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 48, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala and is scheduled to go on trial in September.

According to the US authorities, the smugglers charged $12,000 to $15,000 per person to bring the migrants, who mostly hailed from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, into the United States.

At least 64 migrants including eight children and a pregnant woman were loaded into a 53-foot (16-meter) tractor-trailer on or around June 27, 2022 to be moved across the US-Mexico border.

The trailer’s air conditioning was not working properly and the temperature inside the truck soared as it drove north to San Antonio.

Forty-eight people were dead when the trailer reached San Antonio and five more died later in hospital. Six children and the pregnant woman were among the dead.

Surge in conflicts fuels extreme poverty: World Bank

Updated 4 min 43 sec ago
Follow

Surge in conflicts fuels extreme poverty: World Bank

  • Development lender says 39 economies are classified as facing conflict or instability, including Gaza, West Bank and Iraq
  • Report concludes moves to prevent conflict are far more cost-effective than responding after violence erupts

WASHINGTON: Conflicts and related fatalities have more than tripled since the early 2000s, fueling extreme poverty, the World Bank said Friday.
Economies in fragile and conflict-affected regions have become “the epicenter of global poverty and food insecurity, a situation increasingly shaped by the frequency and intensity of conflict,” the bank added in a new study.
This year, 421 million people get by on less than $3 a day in places hit by conflict or instability — a situation of extreme poverty — and the number is poised to hit 435 million by 2030.
Global attention has been focused on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East for the past three years, said World Bank Group chief economist Indermit Gill.
But “half of the countries facing conflict or instability today have been in such conditions for 15 years or more,” he added.
Currently, 39 economies are classified as facing such conditions, and 21 of them are in active conflict, the Washington-based development lender said.
The list includes Ukraine, Somalia, South Sudan and the West Bank and Gaza.
It also includes Iraq although not Iran.
The report flagged that moves to prevent conflict can bring high returns, with timely interventions being “far more cost-effective than responding after violence erupts.”
It also said that some of these economies have advantages that could be used to reignite growth, noting that places like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo are rich in minerals key to clean tech like electric vehicles and solar panels.
“Economic stagnation — rather than growth — has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability over the past decade and a half,” said Ayhan Kose, World Bank Group deputy chief economist.
The bank’s report noted that high-intensity conflicts, which kill more than 150 per million people, are typically followed by a cumulative fall of around 20 percent in GDP per capita after five years.


Community schools offer hope for Rohingya refugee children as US aid cuts hit education

Updated 27 June 2025
Follow

Community schools offer hope for Rohingya refugee children as US aid cuts hit education

  • Aid cuts are worsening education crisis for 437,000 school-age Rohingya children, HRW said
  • Community schools operate by charging small tuition fees, as they lack donor funding

DHAKA: As US aid cuts have forced the UN’s children agency UNICEF to suspend thousands of learning centers for Rohingya refugee children sheltering in camps in Bangladesh, a small number of community-led schools have now become their only source of education.

The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority, have fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to neighboring Bangladesh for decades to escape persecution, with more than 700,000 arriving in 2017 following a military crackdown that the UN said was a textbook case of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.

Today, more than 1.3 million Rohingya on Bangladesh’s southeast coast are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar — the world’s largest refugee settlement.

The refugees, who are almost completely reliant on humanitarian aid, recently faced another blow, after the US suspended aid funding worldwide in January. Washington has been the largest donor, having contributed $300 million in 2024, or 55 percent of all foreign aid for the Rohingya.

Those and other foreign aid cuts “have worsened the already existing education crisis for 437,000 school-age children in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh,” Human Rights Watch said in a report published this week.

It is only in schools established by the Rohingya community that some children are able to get their education now, the group said, after UNICEF-run learning centers were forced to shut due to a lack of funding.

These schools offer a small glimmer of hope for many young children in the refugee camps.

“School is important for me because it gives me knowledge, enhances my life skills, makes me think for my community, makes me a better person and makes me hopeful for a better future. As a refugee, I don’t have many opportunities, but education can open doors for me and help me build a better life,” Mohammed Shofik, a 15-year-old Rohingya boy enrolled at a community school in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Friday.

His dream is to become a scientist or doctor. At school, he is learning how to experiment and use tools, as well as how to listen and observe carefully, which he thinks are helpful to achieve his goals.

“Education is the only way to reach my dream and help my community,” he said.

But only a small number of Rohingya children are able to enroll in the community-led schools, as they do not receive any charitable support, Arif Salam, a teacher in one such school in the camps, told Arab News.

“Community schools are not funded by any donors and NGOs. Our only funding source is the tuition fees received from the parents of our students. But we can’t provide services to all the children,” he said.

“Only a few students in the camps can afford the learning in the community schools. Most of the students are enrolled with the UNICEF-run learning centers. The children who are enrolled with UNICEF learning centers are now sitting idle as they have nothing to do. It will create an irreparable loss for their education.”

There are about 150 community schools across the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. Each of the schools have about 10 to 15 teachers, who provide education for 150 to 400 students.

Without government support or private donor funding, the schools charge parents monthly tuition fees ranging from around $0.50 for class one up to $6.50 for class 12, a fee that many cannot afford, as the Rohingya are not allowed to work.

“The closure of learning centers brought huge educational losses,” Salam said. “For our Rohingya children, it’s a hopeless situation.”

While the Bangladeshi government has not encouraged any informal system of education, such initiatives should be considered to address the education crisis, said Asif Munir, a renowned Bangladeshi expert on migration and refugees.

“Some kind of education is required for them because otherwise there is a possibility that the younger children, as they grow up, not just uneducated, they might be getting involved in informal work or even sort of risky work as well,” Munir warned.

“With education they can still hope for some kind of proper work where they can use their education in their life. So, in that sense, at least, the government can consider this as a good sort of coping strategy.”

HRW had also urged the Bangladeshi government to “recognize and fund community-led schools to increase their capacity,” and highlighted that recognition could help encourage donor support.

For the young Rohingya whose lives have been plagued with increasing uncertainties, going to school helps them chart a path for the future.

“My dream is to become a motivational speaker. In school, our teachers teach us good listening, delivering strong messages, storytelling, using body language, confidence-building techniques and leadership skills,” 10th-grader Rohul Amin told Arab News. “I think with all these knowledge and skills, I can achieve my dream one day.”

For Amin, school also helps him learn about his identity as a Rohingya.

“I especially focus on the history subject because history makes me understand our identity. As a Rohingya, I have no identity. I mostly try to remember our land and our identity.”


German lawmakers vote to suspend family reunions for many migrants

Updated 27 June 2025
Follow

German lawmakers vote to suspend family reunions for many migrants

  • The bill approved Friday is the first legislation on migration since Merz took office
  • It will suspend rules dating to 2018 that allowed up to 1,000 close relatives per month to join the migrants granted limited protection

BERLIN: German lawmakers voted Friday to suspend family reunions for many migrants, part of a drive by the new conservative-led government for a tougher approach to migration.

Parliament’s lower house voted 444-135 to suspend the possibility of family reunions for two years for migrants who have “subsidiary protection,” a status that falls short of asylum.

At the end of March, more than 388,000 people living in Germany had the status, which was granted to many people fleeing Syria’s civil war.

New Chancellor Friedrich Merz made tougher migration policy a central plank of his campaign for Germany’s election in February. Just after he took office in early May, the government stationed more police at the border and said some asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe’s biggest economy would be turned away.

The bill approved Friday is the first legislation on migration since Merz took office. It will suspend rules dating to 2018 that allowed up to 1,000 close relatives per month to join the migrants granted limited protection, with authorities making case-by-case decisions on humanitarian grounds rather than granting an automatic right for reunions.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told lawmakers that the change would result in 12,000 fewer people being able to come to Germany each year and “break a business model” for smugglers.

People often know they won’t get full recognition as refugees, “but they set off for Germany because it is known that, even without asylum recognition ... you can have your family follow,” Dobrindt said. “That is a significant pull effect and we are removing this pull effect today.”

Dobrindt said “our country’s capacity for integration simply has a limit.”

Liberal opposition lawmakers decried the government’s approach. Marcel Emmerich, of the Greens, described the legislation as “an attack on the core of every society, on a truly central value — the family.”

“Anyone who wants integration must bring families together,” he said.

The far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany described the move as a very small step in the right direction.

German governments have for years faced pressure to curb migration as shelters across the country filled up. The administration of Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, already had taken some measures including the introduction of checks on all Germany’s borders.

Asylum applications declined from 329,120 in 2023 to 229,751 last year and have continued to fall this year.


Mamdani’s NYC primary win sparks surge in anti-Muslim posts, advocates say

Updated 27 June 2025
Follow

Mamdani’s NYC primary win sparks surge in anti-Muslim posts, advocates say

  • There were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign in the day after polls closed
  • Overall, it noted about 6,200 online posts that mentioned some form of Islamophobic slur

WASHINGTON: Anti-Muslim online posts targeting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have surged since his Democratic primary upset this week, including death threats and comments comparing his candidacy to the September 11, 2001 attacks, advocates said on Friday.

There were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign in the day after polls closed, said CAIR Action, an arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group, which logs such incidents.

That marks a five-fold increase over a daily average of such reports tracked earlier this month, CAIR Action said in a statement.

Overall, it noted about 6,200 online posts that mentioned some form of Islamophobic slur or hostility in that day long time-frame.

Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist and a 33-year-old state lawmaker, declared victory in Tuesday’s primary after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat.

Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if he wins the November general election.

“We call on public officials of every party — including those whose allies are amplifying these smears — to unequivocally condemn Islamophobia,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action.

The advocacy group said its hate monitoring system includes its own scraping and analysis of posts, online submissions by the public and notifications from law enforcement. About 62 percent of the anti-Muslim posts against Mamdani originated on X, CAIR Action said.

People close to Republican President Donald Trump, including one of his sons, are among those spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric, advocates said.

Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son, wrote on X on Wednesday that “New York City has fallen” while sharing a post that said New Yorkers had “voted for” 9/11. Also on Wednesday, Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted an AI-generated picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burqa.

President Trump has pursued domestic policies that rights advocates have described as anti-Muslim, including banning travel from some predominantly Muslim or Arab countries in his first term and attempting to deport pro-Palestinian students in his current term.

The White House, which did not respond to a request for comment, has denied claims of discrimination against Muslims. Trump and his allies have said they oppose Mamdani and others due to what they call the Democrats’ “radical left” ideology.


THREATS
The New York City Police Department said earlier this month its hate crime unit was probing anti-Muslim threats against Mamdani.

Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, which documents hate against Asian Americans, and CAIR said attacks against Mamdani mirrored those endured by other South Asian and Muslim political figures, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Republicans have called Mamdani antisemitic, citing his pro-Palestinian advocacy and his criticism of Israel’s military assault on Gaza after an attack by Hamas militants in October 2023.

Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and has the backing of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish. Lander also ran in the Democratic primary.

Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitism and Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, with fatal US incidents including the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington and the stabbing of a Muslim child in Illinois.

Mamdani and other Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, said their criticism of Israel is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.