Firefighters in Greece discover bodies of 18 people
Alexandroupolis, Aug 22: Firefighters found the bodies of 18 people while scouring the area of a major wildfire in northeastern Greece burning out of control for a fourth day Tuesday. Authorities were examining whether the group might have been migrants who entered the country through the nearby border with Turkey. The discovery in the Avanta area of the city of Alexandroupolis came as hundreds of firefighters battled dozens of wildfires breaking out across the country, fanned by gale-force winds. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017. (AP)
8 people trapped mid-air in Pak as chairlift wire snaps
Peshawar, Aug 22: Pakistan Army on Tuesday launched a complicated rescue operation to save six schoolchildren and two other people who were trapped 900 ft mid-air after the wires of their chairlift snapped in a mountainous area in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The children were headed to school when the incident occurred at around 8 am in Battagram district’s Allai tehsil, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. The chairlift was privately run by locals for transportation across the river as there were no roads or bridges in the area, it said. “A chairlift stuck at a height of about 900 ft midway due to breakage in one of its cables in Battagram. Eight persons, including 6 children, (are) stranded,” the Geo News reported citing a statement from the National Disaster Management Authority. Army and Air Force helicopters are participating in the rescue operation, the report said. The rescue mission is complicated due to gusty winds in the area and the fact the helicopter’s rotor blades risk further destabilising the lift, it said. (PTI)
Former Thai PM Thaksin goes to jail
Bangkok, Aug 22: A populist Thai party linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won a vote in parliament to lead the country, hours after the divisive former leader returned from years of self-imposed exile and began an eight-year prison sentence. Real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin’s victory ends months of suspense, legal wrangling and horse trading that followed the May elections. After the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the most votes in the national election, was blocked from taking power by conservative senators, the Pheu Thai Party entered a coalition with military parties linked to the coup that removed it from power in 2014. Many observers say that Thaksin is betting that a friendly government will be able to cut his sentence short, although he has said his decision to return had nothing to do with the party’s bid for power. Thaksin left Thailand 15 years ago, a few years after a 2006 coup that cut short his second term as prime minister and sparked years of upheaval. He was hit with corruption charges, which he dismissed as politically motivated, while in exile, and tried and convicted in absentia. (PTI)