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Climber known for daring rescue missions dies on one of Pakistan’s tallest mountains: “A true legend”
A Pakistani climber known for taking part in high-altitude rescue missions died during a descent from one of the country’s tallest mountains, officials said Monday.
Murad Sadpara, 35, died of a wound sustained when a rock hit him on the 8,047-meter (26,400-foot) high Broad Peak in the Karakoram Range, said Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Club.
Haidri said Sadpara began the expedition with a Portuguese climber to scale the mountain last week, but the pair had to turn back when Sadpara’s partner fell ill amid harsh weather. He said the team was returning to base camp when the rock hit Sadpara.
Haidri said a team of rescuers was dispatched to evacuate Sadpara, but he died before medical aid could reach him. His body is being brought down from the mountain, Haidri said.
“His death is a sobering reminder of the extreme risks involved in high-altitude climbing, where the line between life and death is often perilously thin,” Haidri told AFP.
Haidri did not provide details about the Portuguese climber, saying only that she was safe.
Sadpara scaled many mountains during his life, including northern Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, and the Pakistan Alpine Club called him “a true legend in the mountaineering community.”
A little more than a week before his death, Sadpara and four other teammates successfully retrieved the body of Muhammad Hassan Shigri from the extreme altitude of 8,200 meters on K2 in a mission the Alpine Club described as the first of its kind on the world’s second-highest mountain.
“He was instrumental in the recovery of Hassan Shigri’s body, showcasing his bravery and dedication,” the Pakistan Alpine Club said in a post on social media. “Please keep Murad in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”
A year earlier, Sadpara was part of a team that retrieved the body of an Afghan climber from the mountain’s Camp 3, the first time a body was brought back from K2.
Five foreign climbers have fallen to their deaths in separate incidents on Pakistan mountains this summer climbing season.
The death comes about two weeks after two Austrian mountaineers died while attempting to summit a 8,200-foot peak in Italy’s Julian Alps. Officials said their bodies were dangling from their climbing ropes, still partially anchored to the mountainside, when they were found at an altitude of around 2,000 meters.
AFP contributed to this report.
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China school knife attack kills at least 8, wounds 17, days after fatal car attack killed dozens
Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.
The attack took place in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province, police in Yixing said in a statement, confirming the toll.
This was the second incident of fatal violence in China in a matter of days.
Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai. The suspect was discovered in the car with a knife, with wounds to his neck thought to be self-harm injuries, according to the police.
Police said the suspect in the knife attack was a 21-year-old former student at the school who was meant to graduate this year, but failed his exams.
“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.
In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded, and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.
Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks with such a high death toll are relatively rare.
In recent months, there has been a spate of other attacks.
In October in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.
And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
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Oklahoma attorney general says state schools superintendent cannot mandate students watch prayer video
The Oklahoma attorney general’s office responded after the state’s education superintendent sent an email this week to public school administrators requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism. In the video, he prays for President-elect Trump.
Ryan Walters, a Republican, announced the new office on Wednesday and on Thursday sent the email to school superintendents statewide. The new department will be within the state’s Department of Education. Walters said it would “oversee the investigation of abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism.”
“In one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all of Oklahoma schools to play the attached video to all kids that are enrolled,” according to the email. Districts were also told to send the video to all parents of students.
In the video, Walters says religious liberty has been attacked and patriotism mocked “by woke teachers unions,” then prays for the leaders of the United States after saying students do not have to join in the prayer.
Sue Ogrocki / AP
“In particular, I pray for President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country,” Walters said.
The office of state Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a statement Friday saying Walters has no authority under state law to issue such a mandate.
“Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents’ rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights,” said the attorney general’s office spokesperson Phil Bacharach.
Multiple school districts have also said they had no plans to show students the video.
Walters, a former public school teacher elected in 2022, ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms. He already faces two lawsuits over his June mandate that schools incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12. Several school districts have previously stated that they will disregard the mandate.
One of the lawsuits also notes that the initial request for proposal released by the State Department of Education to purchase the Bibles appears to have been tailored to match Bibles endorsed by now President-elect Donald Trump that sell for $59.99 each.
Earlier this week, Walters announced he had purchased more than 500 Bibles to be used in Advanced Placement government classes. The education department that the 500 Bibles are “God Bless the USA Bibles” and were ordered Thursday for about $25,000. They will arrive “in the coming weeks,” the department said.
