Chin Wui Kin, 48, was airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment in the morning after rescuers brought him down to a lower camp in a risky operation close to the summit of Mount Annapurna.

“His heart rate and temperature were both very low when we received him. He is suffering from severe hypothermia and has frostbite on his hands and feet,” Sanij Singh, emergency physician at Mediciti Hospital, told AFP

“His condition is critical… we are doing what we can.”

Chin, 48, reached the top of the 8,100-metre (26,500-foot) Himalayan mountain on Tuesday but failed to return to the nearest camp, one kilometre below the peak, with the rest of his group.

Frantic efforts began to find him after his guide stumbled to the camp and raised the alert.

A rescue helicopter spotted him waving from the snowy slopes at an elevation of around 7,500 metres (24,500 feet) early Thursday, Seven Summit Treks, his expedition organisers, said.

Four experienced Sherpas were then dropped at another camp at 6,500 metres (21,300 feet) and after four hours of searching and climbing found Chin in a semi-conscious state.

“It is amazing. We were very happy to find him alive… it was a tough and risky operation,” said rescuer Nirmal Purja.

Purja said that the only words Chin spoke were “Can I have hot water?”

Climbing experts said it was a “miracle” that Chin survived the freezing conditions on Mount Annapurna for so long.

Hundreds of people from around the world travel to the Himalayas each year for the spring climbing season, when conditions are best.

Chin had returned to Nepal after summiting Everest last year.

Annapurna is avalanche-prone, technically difficult and has a higher death rate than Everest, the world’s highest peak.

Nine South Korean climbers were killed last October after a snowstorm swept them off a cliff on Mount Gurja, west of Annapurna.

The country’s president announced Friday that Hashim led and died in the attack on the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo — one of three hotels and three churches hit by bombers wearing explosive backpacks.

The round-faced preacher headed the extremist Muslim group blamed for the bombings which left more than 250 dead. He featured in a video released by the Islamic State group when it claimed responsibility.

Heavy security surrounded the main mosque in the Muslim-majority town of Kattankudy, where religious leaders say they sounded the alarm about Hashim years ago, beginning with his expulsion from a seminary during his teens.

    “It was the first time a student has been expelled for being a hardliner,” said Mohammed Buhary Mohammed Fahim, a senior official at the Jamiathul Falah seminary who was a younger contemporary of Hashim’s at the school.

“When he arrived here at the age of 12, he was clearly very intelligent, very studious, and asked lots of questions. He was popular and sociable,” Fahim told AFP.

– ‘Very violent people’ –

But things began to change as Hashim grew older, with Fahim blaming his exposure to books and CDs extolling a fundamentalist vision of Islam.

“He basically went off-course… We teach moderate Islam here but he was a hardliner.”

When Hashim sought to influence his fellow students, parents complained to the seminary chiefs and the school asked him to leave.

After a few years away he returned to Kattankudy, founded the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group, and worked with some former classmates to build a mosque where he could preach and share his rabble-rousing sermons.

“He was a good orator… he would pick and choose words from the Koran and twist and misuse them”, one official at a local mosque told AFP. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was terrified of reprisals from Hashim’s followers.

“These are very violent people. If they know who I am, they can just shoot me in the street,” he said.

Hashim’s violent streak attracted police attention three years ago when he brandished a sword during clashes with members of another Muslim organisation, the official said.

But just as the net seemed to be closing in, he went into hiding with some followers, operating what appeared to be an NTJ breakaway group that was linked to vandalism attacks on Buddhist statues in Sri Lanka in December.

– ‘Big mistake’ –

According to Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, Hashim shifted base to southern India.

“All his videos have been uploaded from India. He uses boats of smugglers to travel back and forth from southern India,” he told AFP.

India warned Sri Lanka that suicide attacks were possible weeks before the bombers walked into three churches and three hotels on Easter Sunday.

India’s warning was based on videos and other Islamic State-influenced material seized from raids in southern Tamil Nadu state in 2018.

At the largely deserted NTJ mosque in Kattankudy, adherents brushed off any suggestion of continuing ties with Hashim.

“Because of Zahran the mosque has got a bad name now. We have had no contact with him for two years… We have no connection to him, he is not a member of the NTJ,” said chief cleric Mohammed Yoousuf Mohammed Thoufeek.

Thoufeek said he has been questioned by police several times since the attacks.

Despite the link to Hashim, the mosque appeared to be functioning normally on Thursday evening, though only about a dozen worshippers attended prayers.

“When the attacks happened, even we couldn’t imagine that he would do something like this,” said the unnamed mosque official.

“The police made a big mistake. If they had arrested him in the beginning they could have stopped this. All this could have been avoided.”

AFP photo : An image grab taken from a press release issued on April 23, 2019 by the Islamic State (IS) group’s propaganda agency Amaq, allegedly shows eight men it said carried out a string of deadly suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, lined up at an undisclosed location. The man in the centre is believed to be Zahran Hashim, who was identified by the Sri Lankan police as the leader of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group, which Colombo has blamed for the attacks. – The Islamic State group claimed a series of bombings on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on April 21, and released the photo of the men it said were behind the “blessed attack”, describing them as “fighters” from the terror network. The massive casualty toll would make the Easter attacks the deadliest overseas operation claimed by IS since the group proclaimed its worldwide caliphate in mid-2014. ;

Seventeen neighborhoods across the capital were submerged after the Ciliwung River overflowed due to heavy rainfall. More than 1,500 people have evacuated the areas so far.

Meanwhile, in Tangerang, Banten, overflow from the Cisadane River inundated residential areas, school buildings, offices and vehicles in 1-meter-deep water across Panunggangan Barat subdistrict.

Motorcycles are submerged in flood water in front of Panunggangan Barat subdistrict office in Tangerang, Banten, on April 26. (Warta Kota/Istimewa)

According to the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), floods mostly struck areas in South and East Jakarta, namely in community units (RW) located in Lenteng Agung, Pengadegan, Srengseng Sawah and Rajawati in South Jakarta, as well as Cawang, Bidara Cina, Balekambang and Kampung Melayu in the east.

At least 450 people have fled their homes in Cawang and 1,147 in the neighboring area of Cililitan, kompas.com reported.

Floods have also caused severe congestion around Jl. Raya Kalibata in South Jakarta, where flood victims crowded the shoulder of the road and parked their cars there.

Flooding in the Kalibata area also triggered severe traffic on Jl. Dewi Sartika, Jl. Raya Condet and Jl. Raya Bogor.

“It’s insane. It took me up to two hours to get from Depok to PGC in Cililitan. Normally, traffic is not that bad,” said Bima, a resident of Depok, West Java.

Police personnel were deployed at certain crossroads to help manage the flow of traffic.

“Road users who want to go to Kalibata Raya are urged to avoid Jl. Dewi Sartika due to the traffic jam caused by floods,” BPBD Jakarta said via its Twitter account @BPBDJakarta.

Meanwhile, a number of settlements on the banks of Ciliwung River in Depok were also inundated, including Pasir Gunung Selatan in Cimanggis subdistrict.

Asep Suwandi, a resident of Pasir Gunung Selatan, said that at least 15 families had been affected by the overflowing Ciliwung River.

He added that flooding started at around 1 a.m. in the area, with water levels reaching between 50 and 100 centimeters deep. The flood receded at around 6 a.m.

Some residents were able to save a few of their belongings before leaving the area.

“I was only able to save a few items because BPBD Jakarta was telling us to go,” he said.

Moon was also working on wooing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un to attend the South Korea-Asean commemorative summit this November.

Speaking to editors from Asia News Network (ANN), Moon said the failure of the second summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un was a great disappointment the world over.

“But because Chairman Kim and President Trump have been expressing their willingness to continue the dialogue for a third US-North Korea summit take place, and to be a successful one, I’m also looking forward to seeing Chairman Kim, and will do my best [to facilitate] further dialogue between the US and North Korea,” Moon said.

While Trump and Kim failed at the Hanoi summit in late February to reach a deal on the denuclearisation in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, their “friendly walk-away” from the meeting avoided shutting the door on a future summit.

Moon was hailed for achieving a breakthrough when his first inter-Korean summit with Kim in Panmunjom on April 27 last year significantly reduced military tensions in the Korean Peninsula and paved the way for the first Kim-Trump summit in Singapore two months later.

Since the two inter-Korea summits and two US-North Korea summits, Pyongyang has not launched any nuclear or missile tests over the past 18 months, Moon noted.

“The momentum of seeking resolution to this problem through dialogue and diplomacy has been ongoing, and so the positive trends and progress will continue in the future,” he said. The meeting between Kim and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin yesterday was also a positive trend for the Korean Peninsula, he said.

Asked if Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s idea to invite North Korea’s Kim to the Asean-South Korea commemorative summit in November would come to fruition, Moon said he was working on it.

There would be more consultations between Seoul and Asean and any change in circumstances on the Korean Peninsula in the coming months would also be taken into consideration, he said.

“Of course, such a meeting is not within [our] complete control,” Moon told ANN’s editors. All the members of Asean would first have to agree to such a meeting, as would Kim.

A meeting between the 10-member bloc and North Korea would be an unprecedented recognition of Pyongyang’s attempts to normalise its foreign policy and a major step forward in Moon’s rapprochement with the North.

The Asean Regional Forum is one of only two forums (the other being the UN), to which Pyongyang annually sends ministerial level representatives.

Several Asean members enjoy good diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, including Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam.

However, recent events including the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s brother in Kuala Lumpur, have soured relations with Malaysia and may present a speed bump for an invitation to Kim to attend a possible meeting.

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

The railway was built for the Japanese during the Second World War using about 200,000 Asian labourers and more than 60,000 allied prisoners of war, among them thousands of Australians, New Zealanders, Dutch, British, Americans and forced labourers from several Asian countries.

Many thousands died from overwork, violence, starvation and disease without proper medical facilities. Australians and New Zealanders remember their war dead at war sites across the world.

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

// EPA-EFE PHOTO

Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of Philippine Red Cross (PRC) confirmed that three passengers have died in the crash.

Investigator Police Corporal Danilo Torres also confirmed to INQUIRER.net in a phone interview that three passengers, including its pilot, have died.

Initially, Police Col. Chito Bersaluna, Bulacan police director, said two died instantly when the helicopter, with body marking RP C8098, crashlanded in Barangay Anilao.

Another male passenger was taken to the nearest hospital due to injuries sustained after the crash, Bersaluna said.

The passenger was later declared dead by its attending physician.

After the Police Regional Office 3 received information about the crash, the Bulacan police dispatched teams to conduct search and rescue operations as there might be other victims who needed help.

It was not immediately known where the helicopter came from and where it was headed.

The Bulacan PNP said police personnel are also responding in the area to investigate the crash. The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said around six passengers were on board the helicopter.

The magazine has released nine photos, taken on a beach in Phuket, Thailand, by fashion photographer Fan Xin, on microblogging platform Weibo. One of the photos is a nod to a photo of Chinese actress Gong Li posing on the beach.

The actress, whose real name is Angela Yeung Wing, started her career as a model at the age of 13. Though some praised the photos for their refreshing take, others were taken aback by the awkward poses and angles.

“Even though I find her pretty, these photos are just too weird,” one social media user said.

“I only feel uncomfortable. I don’t understand these photos. They are scary, strange and make her look like an alien,” says another.

Chris Dodd, 29, spent 10 days in jail in February after he was charged with stealing the phone belonging to a German tourist and remanded in custody by a court

The charge was dropped after his family and friends back home raised ฃ20,000 pounds (Bt 828,690) to pay a fine on his behalf. Dodd has since returned home and continues to protest his innocence.

Photo : BBC

He has also complained in interviews with the local media that he was forced to have his dreadlocks shaved while he was detained and had to sleep in an overcrowded jail where nobody spoke English.

Dodd, a tattoo artist, told the BBC that he found the phone just as he was about to get into the taxi after arriving at the airport.

The broadcaster says he told them he picked it up the phone and while looking for its owner he moved it to a different location, which is considered theft in Thai law.

Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said police at Chiang Mai International Airport had been approached at 8.40pm on February 26 by a German tourist who said she had lost her mobile phone in the terminal.

CCTV footage showed a foreigner with dreadlocks and white cap pick up the phone from the floor of the passengers’ lounge before leaving the airport in a public van.

Police then traced the van to a guesthouse in Tambon Sripoom, Muang district and found the phone in the possession of British backpacker Dodd, who comes from Poole, Dorset.

“The SIM of the phone we confiscated from the British man had been removed, and the password and language changed,” said Krissana. “All the data had been wiped clean.

Police then took him to the Pupingrachaniwet police station to be charged.”

Based on the evidence, police charged him with theft and he was taken to Chiang Mai prison pending trial. He was freed on bail on March 11.

Krissana insisted that the shaving of the dreadlocks had been done in accordance with the regulations.

“We strictly follow the laws with respect to basic human rights,” Krissana added. “We are gathering information from his interviews to consider legal action against him.”

BBC quoted Dodd as saying: “I was stripped naked, sent in, given a blanket. Then, the next thing you know you’re being taken into the cells, where they house massive amounts of people.

“Nobody spoke English. It was really intimidating. You just have to fight for a space on the floor and you have people’s legs all over you.”

Dodd could have faced up to five years in prison had he been convicted but the charges against him were eventually waived so he could return home.