Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday

Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday
In this photo taken Oct. 4, 2025 and released by Lingsuiye, villagers with their oxen and horses ascend the mountain during rescue efforts to reach hundreds of hikers trapped by heavy snow at tourist campsites on a slope of Mount Everest in Tibet on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP)
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Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday

Snowstorm traps hundreds of hikers on Mount Everest during China’s national holiday
  • The snowstorm struck during a weeklong national holiday in China, when many travel at home and abroad

BEIJING: Rescuers were helping hundreds of hikers trapped by heavy snow at tourist campsites on a slope of Mount Everest in Tibet, Chinese state media said.
About 350 hikers had reached a meeting point in Tingri country and rescuers were in contact with another 200, state broadcaster CCTV said late Sunday. There was no immediate update on rescue efforts on Monday.
The hikers were trapped at an elevation of more than 4,900 meters (16,000 feet), according to an earlier report from Jimu News, a Chinese online site. Mount Everest is about 8,850 meters (29,000 feet) tall.
A hiker who rushed to descend before snow blocked the way told Jimu News that others still on the mountain told him the snow was 1 meter (3 feet) deep and had crushed tents.
Hundreds of rescuers headed up the mountain Sunday to clear paths so that trapped people could come down, the Jimu report said. A video shot by a villager showed a long line of people with horses and oxen moving up a winding path in the snow.
The snowstorm struck during a weeklong national holiday in China, when many travel at home and abroad.
In another mountainous region in western China, one hiker died of hypothermia and altitude sickness and 137 others were evacuated in the north part of Qinghai province, CCTV said Monday.
The search in an area in Menyuan county with an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) was complicated by the terrain, unpredictable weather and continuous snowfall, a CCTV online report said.
Mount Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Chinese, straddles the border between China and Nepal, where recent heavy rains have left more than 40 people dead.
Climbers attempt to scale the world’s tallest peak from base camps in both countries. The base camp for climbers is separate from the tourist camp where hikers were trapped by the snowfall.
A strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in the same area in January.
The Chinese side of Everest is in Tibet, a remote western region where the government has cracked down harshly on dissent and poured in funds for economic development including roads and tourism.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, fled during a failed uprising in 1959 and lives in India, where some Tibetans have set up a government in exile.


French Prime Minister resigns after less than a month in office

French Prime Minister resigns after less than a month in office
Updated 7 sec ago

French Prime Minister resigns after less than a month in office

French Prime Minister resigns after less than a month in office
  • The French presidency announced Monday that President Emmanuel Macron accepted his resignation. Lecornu’s choice of ministers faced criticism across the political spectrum
  • His decision to bring back former finance minister Bruno Le Maire to serve at the defense ministry was particularly controversial
PARIS: France’s new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned just a day after naming his government and after less than a month in office, plunging the country into a deep political crisis.
The French presidency said in a statement Monday that President Emmanuel Macron has accepted his resignation. Lecornu had replaced his predecessor François Bayrou to become France’s fourth prime minister in barely a year.
Macron’s opponents immediately tried to capitalize on the shocking resignation, with far-right National Rally calling on him to either call for new snap elections or resign. On the far left, France Unbowed also asked for Macron’s departure.
The resignation rattled investors, sending the CAC-40 index of leading French companies plunging. The index was down by nearly 2 percent on its Friday close.
Ministers appointed just the previous night found themselves in the bizarre situation of becoming caretaker ministers — kept in place only to manage day-to-day affairs until a new government is formed — before some of them had even been formally installed in office.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the newly reappointed minister for ecology, posted on X: “I despair of this circus.”
Lecornu’s choice of ministers has been criticized across the political spectrum, particularly his decision to bring back former finance minister Bruno Le Maire to serve at the defense ministry, with critics saying that under his watch France’s public deficit soared.
Other key positions remained largely unchanged from the previous cabinet, with conservative Bruno Retailleau staying on as interior minister, in charge of policing and internal security, Jean-Noël Barrot remaining as foreign minister, and Gérald Darmanin keeping the justice ministry.
French politics have been in disarray since Macron called snap elections last year that produced a deeply fragmented legislature. Far-right and left-wing lawmakers hold over 320 seats at the National Assembly, while the centrists and allied conservatives hold 210.
Seeking consensus at the National Assembly, Lecornu consulted with all political forces and trade unions before forming his Cabinet. He also vowed that he would not employ a special constitutional power his predecessors had used to force budgets through parliament without a vote and would instead seek compromise with lawmakers from the left and the right.

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office
Updated 39 min 22 sec ago

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

French Prime Minister resigns after only 2 weeks in office

PARIS: France’s new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned Monday, just a day after naming his government and after only two weeks in office.
The French presidency said in a statement that President Emmanuel Macron has accepted his resignation.


Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports
Updated 06 October 2025

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports

Drone sighting temporarily disrupts flights at Norway’s Oslo airport, NTB reports
  • Several arriving flights were delayed or diverted after police received a report around midnight that a Norwegian Air pilot thought he saw three to five drones

STOCKHOLM: Norway’s Oslo airport temporarily paused landings early on Monday after a report of a drone sighting near the airport, news agency NTB reported.
Several arriving flights were delayed or diverted after police received a report around midnight that a Norwegian Air pilot thought he saw three to five drones during an approach to the airport, the Norwegian news outlet reported, citing police.
NTB reported that the observation remained unverified and that all operations had resumed at the airport.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen, Oslo and Munich.


Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say
Updated 06 October 2025

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say

Hospital fire kills at least six patients in India’s Jaipur, officials say
  • Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said an investigation by the forensic science laboratory would determine the exact cause of the fire

NEW DELHI: At least six patients were killed after a fire broke out in the trauma center of the main government-run hospital in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, officials said on Monday.

The blaze, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, started in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sawai Man Singh Hospital and quickly spread to a nearby ward at the sprawling medical complex, “releasing toxic gases,” hospital official Anurag Dhakad told ANI news agency.

“Five patients are still critical,” he said, while 13 others have been safely evacuated from the two wards at the largest government-run medical facility in Rajasthan, which serves as a major referral center for patients from across the state.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph said an investigation by the forensic science laboratory would determine the exact cause of the fire.
The government of Rajasthan state, where Jaipur is located, has also formed a committee to probe the causes of the fire, ANI reported.
The subjects of investigation will include the hospital management’s response to the blaze, the firefighting arrangements at the hospital, and the measures in place to prevent the same situation in future, the agency said.
India has seen similar fires at hospitals in the past, some of which have been blamed on short circuits in electronic equipment. Ten newborn babies died from burns and suffocation after a fire broke out at a neonatal intensive care unit in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in November. Six newborn babies similarly died in a fire at a baby care hospital in New Delhi last May.


Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting
Updated 06 October 2025

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting

Over a dozen wounded in rare Sydney mass shooting
  • A large contingent of police swarmed the area and locked down the street, before entering the property above a business and arresting the man

SYDNEY: A 60-year-old man was in custody in Australia Monday after police said he shot up to 50 bullets into a busy Sydney street, wounding more than a dozen people.
Police were called on Sunday evening to the city’s Inner West, where the alleged gunman was firing from his property at random at passing cars and police.
A large contingent of police swarmed the area and locked down the street, before entering the property above a business and arresting the man. They seized a rifle from the scene.
Office worker Joe Azar said he was working across the road when he heard what he thought were fireworks or rocks being thrown at the windows.
“Some guy’s windshield blew up, then the bus stop glass shattered,” Azar told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
“The surreal feeling kicked in like, ‘Oh, this is what’s happening’,” he said.
“It was frantic. It all happened so quick, so I couldn’t comprehend what was going on,” he added.
Police had initially said up to a hundred bullets were fired and 20 people were wounded.
But on Monday, New South Wales Police Acting Superintendent Stephen Parry revised the number of shots to around 50 and the toll of wounded to 16.
“In my 35 years in the police, there’s been very few incidents of this nature where somebody is randomly targeting people in the street,” he added.
The accused shooter was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries to the area around his eyes sustained during his arrest.
No charges have been laid against the alleged gunman yet. A police investigation is ongoing.
One man self-presented to hospital with a gunshot wound following the incident, but would likely survive, police said.
The remaining people were treated by ambulance staff for minor injuries, including shattered glass as bullets hit their car windows.

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New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Monday described the shooting as “serious and terrifying.”
The gunman’s motive was unclear but there were “no known links to terrorism activity or any gang activity,” he told local radio station 2GB.
One witness who gave his name as Tadgh told the national broadcaster ABC he had been watching rugby when he first heard the gunshots.
“It was very loud and ‘bang, bang, bang’ and flash-bangs and sparks and smoke and the whole works. It was something out of a movie, really,” he said.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Australia.
A ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons has been in place since 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
In August, alleged gunman Dezi Freeman went on the run in the bush after being accused of killing two police officers. He remains at large.
And in 2022, six people including two police officers were killed in a shooting near the small Queensland town of Wieambilla.