Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Thai boys apologise for the fuss Musk apologises for calling rescue diver a paedophile

- New York Times letters@hindustant­imes.com

BANGKOK: Before they were discovered trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand, the 12 members of the Wild Boars youth football team and their coach drained much of their energy trying to dig their way out. Using stones to carve a large hole, they scraped at the chamber’s ceiling, even as they became emaciated from a lack of food.

“I had no strength at all,” said Chanin Wibulroong­reung, 11, at a news conference on Wednesday after t he teammates were released from hospital. “I didn’t think about food because it only made me hungrier.”

The Wild Boars’ discharge from a hospital in the Thai city of Chiang Rai capped a remarkable rescue effort in which thousands of people around the globe joined together to extricate them from the waterlogge­d Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand.

At the news conference on Wednesday, where they first appeared dribbling footballs to cheers from the assembled crowd, the Wild Boars admitted that they had acted like normal boys. And they wanted to say that they were very, very sorry.

They had not told their parents that they would be visiting the cave, they said. Instead, their families were under the impression the teammates were going out to practice football.

One boy said he had not informed his parents that he was going to Tham Luang because he was sure he wouldn’t be given permission. “I would like to apologise to Dad and Mom,” said Phanumas Saengdee, 13, who recounted how he had secretly put a flashlight for a cave adventure in his bag.

Psychiatri­sts screened the questions at the news briefing to prevent the boys from having to relive the stress of their ordeal. For 10 days, the Wild Boars had sheltered in a cramped cave chamber, licking condensati­on off the limestone walls to survive. BANGKOK: Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has apologised for calling a British diver involved in the Thailand cave rescue a paedophile, saying he spoke in anger but was wrong to do so.

There was no immediate public reaction to Musk’s tweets from diver Vern Unsworth, who in colourful language in a TV interview had accused the Tesla founder of orchestrat­ing a “PR stunt” by sending a small submarine to help divers rescue the 12 Thai football players and their coach from a flooded cave.

“My words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths...” Musk tweeted. “Nonetheles­s, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader.”

 ?? AFP ?? The Thai boys and their football coach (front, extreme left).
AFP The Thai boys and their football coach (front, extreme left).

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