Also, exploring street food in Fukuoka, Japan.
All passengers were rescued from a cable car in Pakistan
Pakistani security forces said yesterday that they had rescued eight people, including several young students, from a stranded cable car that was left hanging above a mountain valley.
The students, including children ages 10 to 15, were headed to a nearby school in Allai, in the Battagram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, in the morning when two of the car’s wires broke. Panic gripped the passengers and their families, who issued urgent pleas for assistance.
A video clip posted on social media showed one person being lifted to safety by a rope attached to a helicopter. But as darkness fell, helicopter operations were suspended, and a zip-line was used instead to rescue those who were still trapped, according to the Pakistani military.
The cable car is a regular mode of transportation for residents of the mountainous northern region. Around 400 to 500 people use it for commuting every day. But such locally built lifts, typically powered by petrol or diesel engines, are privately owned and tend toward relatively ad hoc construction.
Fear: One of the passengers told a local television news network that he and the others had been stuck for more than six hours without food or water. He said that one child with a heart condition had fainted after panicking. “My mobile phone battery is depleting fast,” he said.A dramatic day in Thailand
After three months of uncertainty, Thailand’s Parliament named Srettha Thavisin as the country’s next prime minister. Srettha, 60, a real estate tycoon, is seen as amenable to royalists and the military-appointed Senate.
His selection wasn’t yesterday’s only big moment, however. Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted former premier who had been living in exile since 2006, returned to Thailand and was taken into custody over an earlier prison sentence. Analysts say his return reflects his confidence in Srettha, a close ally. There is speculation that Thaksin made a deal to have his jail term reduced in exchange for keeping the military and conservative establishment in power.
What’s next: Even with the political deadlock resolved for now, Srettha faces the immense challenge of meeting the demands of an electorate that voted for change and is disillusioned with his party, which once campaigned against the military but is now working with it.
