POKHARA, Nepal: A plane making a 27-minute flight to a Nepal tourist town crashed into a gorge Sunday while attempting to land at a newly opened airport, killing at least 68 of the 72 people. At least one witness reported hearing cries for help from the fiery wreck. It’s the country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades.
Hours after dark, scores of onlookers crowded around the crash site near the airport in the resort town of Pokhara as rescue workers combed the wreckage on the edge of the cliff and in the ravine below. Officials suspended the search for the four missing people overnight and planned to resume looking Monday.
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti River to help search for bodies, said the rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire.
“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said.
A witness said he saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air after it began landing, watching from the terrace of his house. Finally, Gaurav Gurung said, the plane fell nose-first toward its left and crashed into the gorge.
The aviation authority said the aircraft last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. before crashing.
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was flying from the capital, Katmandu, to Pokhara, located 200 kilometers (125 miles) west. It was carrying 68 passengers including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site, about 1.6 kilometers (nearly a mile) away from Pokhara International Airport. The aircraft’s fuselage was split into multiple parts that were scattered down the gorge.
Firefighters carried bodies, some burned beyond recognition, to hospitals where grief-stricken relatives had assembled. At Katmandu airport, family members appeared distraught as they were escorted in and at times exchanged heated words with officials as they waited for information.
Tek Bahadur K. C., a senior administrative officer in the Kaski district, said he expected rescue workers to find more bodies at the bottom of the gorge.
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers, Nepali soldiers, and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft to find survivors. The aircraft’s fuselage was split into multiple parts that were scattered down the gorge.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who rushed to Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu after the crash, set up a panel to investigate the accident.
”The incident was tragic. The full force of the Nepali army, police has been deployed for rescue,” he said.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it’s still trying to confirm the fate of two South Korean passengers and has sent staff to the scene. The Russian Ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the death of four Russian citizens who were on board the plane.
Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas. The city’s new international airport began operations only two weeks ago.
The type of plane involved, the ATR 72, has been used by airlines around the world for short regional flights. Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the aircraft model has been involved in several deadly accidents over the years.
In Taiwan two earlier accidents involving ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircrafts happened just months apart.
In July 2014, a TransAsia ATR 72-500 flight crashed while trying to land on the scenic Penghu archipelago between Taiwan and China, killing 48 people onboard. An ATR 72-600 operated by the same Taiwanese airline crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei in February 2015 after one of its engines failed and the second was shut down, apparently by mistake.
The 2015 crash, captured in dramatic footage that showed the plane striking a taxi as it hurtled out of control, killed 43, and prompted authorities to ground all Taiwanese-registered ATR 72s for some time. TransAsia ceased all flights in 2016 and later went out of business.
ATR identified the plane involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” It was previously flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air before Yeti took it over in 2019, according to records on Airfleets.net.
Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, company spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, has a history of air crashes. According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Katmandu.
The European Union has banned airlines from Nepal from flying into the 27-nation bloc since 2013, citing weak safety standards. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization cited improvements in Nepal’s aviation sector, but the EU continues to demand administrative reforms.
68 dead, 4 missing after Nepal’s worst air crash in 30 years
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68 dead, 4 missing after Nepal’s worst air crash in 30 years
- A witness said he saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air after it began landing, watching from the terrace of his house
- The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was flying from the capital, Katmandu, to Pokhara
Trump says he will pardon ‘a lot’ of people charged in Jan. 6 attack
- More than 1,580 people have been criminally charged with participating in the riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to block the congressional certification of the 2020 election
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Monday he will pardon “a lot” of people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, moving to deliver on a promise often voiced on the campaign trail.
Speaking to supporters at Washington’s Capital One Arena, Trump did not specify how many people he planned to pardon.
A source familiar with his plans said earlier on Monday that Trump intends to cut short sentences for some people who attacked police and issue full pardons to people who did not commit violence.
More than 1,580 people have been criminally charged with participating in the riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to block the congressional certification of the 2020 election.
Leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organizations are among those serving time in federal prison for their roles in the violence. More than 600 people have been charged with assaulting or obstructing police during the riot, according to US Justice Department figures.
Trump vowed during his 2024 campaign to pardon many of those charged, arguing they had been treated unfairly by the legal system.
‘Extremely critical’ risk as winds whip fire-weary Los Angeles
Firefighters continued to make progress snuffing out fires that ravaged 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) in the Los Angeles area, after erupting on January 7 and killing at least 27 people.
But a return of the hurricane-force winds responsible for spreading those initial fires threatened more danger.
Winds gusting up to 88 miles (142 kilometers) an hour have been recorded in some spots, where forecasters said they could combine with exceedingly dry conditions to create the potential for a fast-spreading fire.
“We’re expecting this to continue to create extremely critical fire weather conditions across the region,” Ariel Cohen, of the National Weather Service, (NWS) told AFP.
“Any fires that form could grow explosively. And so this is a particularly dangerous situation.”
Officials said they had pre-deployed engines and firefighters to areas at risk, after facing criticism that they were unprepared earlier this month.
“I believe that we will be very, very prepared for what the worst possible case scenario (could be) over the next couple of days, and then hopefully we don’t get there at all,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told reporters.
The largest conflagration, the Palisades Fire, was 59 percent contained by Monday, and the area affected by evacuation orders has now shrunk to effectively match the fire’s footprint.
The Eaton Fire, which wrecked a large part of the Altadena area, was 87 percent surrounded.
As Los Angeles grapples with the scale of the devastation, political bickering has intensified.
Donald Trump, who was sworn in as US president on Monday, has said he will be visiting the fire-ravaged areas at the end of the week.
That trip could include an awkward encounter with California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has been the target of Trump’s barbs over his handling of the disaster.
He has falsely claimed that Newsom had blocked the diversion of “excess rain and snow melt from the North.”
In reality, Los Angeles’s water supplies are mainly fed via aqueducts and canals originating from entirely separate river basins further east.
Newsom — a longtime Trump foe, who some believe may have White House ambitions of his own — told US media over the weekend that sniping was detrimental to recovery efforts.
“What’s not helpful or beneficial... is these wild-eyed fantasies... that somehow there’s a magical spigot in northern California that just can be turned on, all of a sudden there will be rain or water flowing everywhere,” said Newsom.
The governor blamed Elon Musk — the Tesla and SpaceX owner poised to play a key role advising the incoming administration — “and others” for “hurricane-force winds of mis- and dis-information that can divide a country.”
Southern California has had no significant rain for around eight months, even though it is well into what is usually the rainy season.
Officials have cautioned that if that rain does materialize, it could create dangerous debris flows in the disaster zone, and spark mudflows and hill collapses.
US Senate confirms Marco Rubio as secretary of state, voting continues
WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Monday confirmed Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk and staunch backer of Israel, as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
A majority of the 100-member Senate backed Rubio as voting continues days after the long-term member of the Senate foreign relations and intelligence committees sailed through his friendly confirmation hearing.
“The national security of the United States is this committee’s primary focus — and it is to the benefit of our country to have steady leadership in place as soon as possible,” they said.
“We believe that Senator Rubio has the skills, knowledge and experience to lead the department.”
Rubio, who would succeed Antony Blinken, would become the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to become the top US diplomat.
He would immediately have the task of executing the diplomacy of Trump, who in an inauguration speech Monday renewed threats to seize the Panama Canal but also pledged to be a “peacemaker.”
Rubio, the working-class son of Cuban immigrants who bitterly opposed Fidel Castro’s communist revolution, is known for his hawkish stance toward Latin American authoritarian states and China.
In his confirmation hearing last week, Rubio accused China of cheating its way to superpower status and called the Asian power “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever faced.”
Rubio was once a political foe of Trump, who belittled him as “Little Marco” when he sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
But Rubio has since rallied behind Trump while remaining well liked by senators across the political divide, with several Democrats on the committee describing him as a friend.
Global tourism recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2024: UN
- “In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrival and especially earnings are already higher than in 2019,” UN Tourism secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili said
MADRID: Global tourism fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2024 with 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide due to “robust” demand from key markets, UN Tourism said Monday.
“A majority of destinations welcomed more international tourists in 2024 than they did before the pandemic, while visitor spending also continued to grow strongly,” the Madrid-based body said in a statement.
The number of international tourist arrivals last year was 11 percent higher than the 1.3 billion recorded in 2023, reaching the level seen in 2019, the year before the pandemic paralyzed travel.
A “robust performance from large source markets and the ongoing recovery of destinations in Asia” drove the results, UN Tourism added.
Receipts from global tourism reached $1.6 trillion in 2024, about 3.0 percent more than the previous year and 4.0 percent more than in 2019 when inflation and currency fluctuations are taken into account.
“In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrival and especially earnings are already higher than in 2019,” UN Tourism secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili said.
“Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations,” he added.
“This recalls our immense responsibility as a sector to accelerate transformation, placing people and planet at the center of the development of tourism.”
The surge in visitor numbers has sparked a backlash in many tourism hotspots, prompting the authorities to take steps to ease the pressure on bursting beaches and gridlocked streets.
Venice, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, is trying to limit the influx of tourists into its historic center by charging day trippers for entry.
Japan has introduced a daily cap on hiker numbers at Mount Fuji while Amsterdam and other port cities have reduced the number of cruise ships allowed to dock.
Europe, the world’s most popular destination region, recorded 747 million international arrivals in 2024, a five-percent increase over the previous year and one percent above 2019 levels.
All European regions surpassed pre-pandemic levels except Central and Eastern Europe “where many destinations are still suffering from the lingering effects of the Russian aggression on Ukraine,” the statement said.
While international arrivals grew by 33 percent in Asia and the Pacific to reach 316 million in 2024, that represented just 87 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
The Middle East posted the strongest rebound since 2019 with 95 million arrivals last year, a 32-percent jump over pre-pandemic levels but just one percent higher than 2023.
Many countries such as Japan and Morocco have set new tourism records following the pandemic and several destinations reported double-digit growth in international arrivals when compared to 2019.
El Salvador, which has successfully cracked down on violent crime, posted an 81-percent increase in foreign arrivals on 2019 levels.
Saudi Arabia, which only fully opened to tourism in 2019, recorded a 69-percent jump.
The UN body predicts international arrivals will grow three to five percent in 2025 when compared to last year if the rebound in travel in Asia continues, inflation keeps receding and “geopolitical conflicts do not escalate.”
High transportation and accommodation costs, volatile oil prices and staff shortages are among the other key challenges the tourism sector will face this year, it added.
Biden issues preemptive pardons for family and Trump targets Cheney, Milley, Fauci
- Biden’s last pardons included his siblings — James Biden, Frank Biden and Valerie Biden Owens — as well as their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden
WASHINGTON: Outgoing President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons on Monday for several of his immediate family members and people that incoming President Donald Trump has targeted for retaliation, including Republican former lawmaker Liz Cheney and Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The pardons, issued in Biden’s last hours as president, cover the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters, as well as all lawmakers, including Cheney, who served on the congressional committee and police officers who testified before it. They also covered Anthony Fauci, who served as White House chief medical adviser during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just before he handed over the office to Trump on Monday, Biden also pardoned five members of his family, saying he wanted to protect them from politically motivated investigations.
He also commuted the life sentence imposed on Native American activist Leonard Peltier, over the objections of his own law enforcement officials including his FBI director. Peltier will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
Trump, who was sworn in as president at noon, has repeatedly called for the prosecution of his perceived enemies since winning the White House in November.
Biden praised public servants as the “lifeblood of our democracy.” Without mentioning Trump, he expressed alarm that some of them were subjected to threats and intimidation for doing their job.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s last pardons included his siblings — James Biden, Frank Biden and Valerie Biden Owens — as well as their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden said. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
Speaking at the Capitol after his swearing-in, Trump questioned Biden’s pardons of Cheney and Milley, referring to “pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the unselect committee of political thugs.”
“I think it was unfortunate that he did that,” Trump said of Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members.
In December, Biden pardoned his son Hunter after repeatedly saying he would not. Hunter is a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans and pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
Biden commuted the life sentence imposed Peltier, 80, who has been imprisoned for nearly five decades for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. The move came over long-time FBI opposition.
Former FBI director Christopher Wray sent Biden a letter on Jan. 10 expressing his “vehement and steadfast opposition” to the commutation of Peltier’s sentence. “Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law,” Wray said.
The US Constitution gives a president broad pardon powers for federal offenses. While pardons are typically given to people who have been prosecuted, they can cover conduct that has not resulted in legal proceedings.
Trump in December backed a call for the FBI to investigate Cheney over her role in leading Congress’ probe of the Jan. 6 assault.
Cheney and Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s vice chairs, expressed gratitude to Biden for recognizing the threats and harassment they and their families have endured.
“We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law but for upholding it,” they said in a statement.
Fauci often clashed with Trump during the pandemic, and Trump’s supporters have continued to attack the former senior health official.
Fauci told Reuters the White House had reached out about the issue a month ago and he had not sought the pardon. “I appreciate the president reaching out and trying to protect me from baseless accusations,” Fauci said. “I’ve done nothing wrong and this is no admission of any guilt.”
Milley, who was Trump’s top military adviser between 2019 and early 2021, said in a statement he was “deeply grateful” for Biden’s pardon.
‘EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES’
Trump’s rivalry with Milley ran deep.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, Milley called Beijing to reassure China of US stability. Trump, in a social media post, described the phone call as “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
Some of Trump’s supporters, seeing Milley as disloyal, demanded he be called back to active duty and tried for treason.
Milley took a veiled jab at Trump during his 2023 retirement speech, saying US troops take an oath to the US Constitution and not a “wannabe dictator.”
Trump later in the day lashed out at him with a series of insults, calling Milley “slow moving and thinking” and a “moron.”
Milley was quoted in the book “War” by Bob Woodward, published last year, calling Trump “fascist to the core.” Trump’s allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to Trump.
Reuters reported in November that the Trump transition team was drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, citing perceived connections to Milley.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, repeatedly lashed out at Milley in his latest book, using profanities.
Biden praised both Milley and Fauci as longtime dedicated public servants who have defended democracy and saved lives. He said the select committee established to investigate the Jan. 6 attack had fulfilled its mission with integrity.
Without identifying the individuals, he pardoned all members of Congress who served on the panel, their staff and the US Capitol and Washington, D.C., police officers who testified before the committee.
Biden said that those pardoned had done nothing wrong, but that simply being investigated or prosecuted could harm reputations and finances.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” he said. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
