Rain threatens boys in cave

49 missing after boat capsizes

MAE SAI, Thailand, July 5, (Agencies): Thai rescuers on Thursday said they may be prodded into a complex extraction of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave if forecast rains hammer the mountainside and jeopardise the rescue mission.

Thirteen sets of diving equipment have been prepared for the team, who have endured 12 nights underground in the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand, a saga that has transfixed a nation and united Thais in prayers for their safe return.

Water is being pumped out from the deluged cave round-the-clock, reducing the flooding by one centimetre an hour.

But with rain forecast to begin on Friday, the Chiang Rai provincial governor helming the unprecedented rescue effort conceded the mission was now “a race against the water”.

“Our biggest concern is the weather. We are calculating how much time we have if it rains, how many hours and days,” Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, without providing further details.

In a sign of increased urgency, Narongsak said medics and Thai Navy SEAL divers are assessing whether the boys are fit and well enough to be taken out early — apparently softening his instance on Wednesday that “no risk” will be taken with the evacuation.

The prospect of the stranded “Wild Boar” team diving out is fraught with risk.

It takes seasoned cave diving experts around six hours to reach the muddy ledge where the boys are sheltering around four kilometres (2.4 miles) into the cave.

Many of the youngsters — who are aged between 11-16 — are unable to swim and none have diving experience.

Three days after contact was made with the group, Thai Navy SEAL experts

autonomy and is the only Indonesian area to use Islamic law.

The governor had been named a suspect, along with two businessmen and another official, said agency official Basaria Panjaitan. (RTRS)

Vietnam arrests 7 ‘terrorists’:

Police in Vietnam have arrested seven people continued to teach them the basics of diving.

But the areas where diving is still necessary are tight and may require the boys to swim through murky waters unaccompanied.

The looming rains have further tweaked anxiety among relatives of the trapped team, who on Wednesday appeared smiling, wrapped in foil blankets and in good health in video footage circulated by the Thai Navy.

“Yesterday I felt hopeful ... today I heard the rain is coming,” said Sunida Wongsukchan, great aunt of one of the boys Ekkarat Wongsukchan, 14, who goes by the nickname ‘Bew’. “I’m very worried.” Strategy In a two-pronged strategy, rescuers are also hunting for a chimney down to the boys, creating a potential second option for evacuation in the event heavy rains force their hand.

They have enlisted the help of bird’s nest collectors from southern Thailand attuned to finding hidden holes on forested cliffsides.

Authorities still hope they can manage any fresh deluge, with highpowered pumps draining 128 million litres (34 million gallons) of water so far from the cave in a round-the-clock effort.

“We are draining as much as we can,” said Khao Khieupakdi, a Bangkok disaster prevention official, who like scores of other specialists has been seconded to northern Thailand.

Water has been cleared from the entrance to a rescue base camp in “chamber three” inside the cave, but onward sections towards the boys remain impassable without diving, he said.

“I am concerned as the forecast said is for more rain.”

Officials have ruminated on the possibility of the boys remaining in the cave until the monsoon season passes

over the “terrorist” bombing of a police station in Ho Chi Minh City last month that injured three people, police said on Thursday.

The incident, in which two small explosive devices were detonated, followed protests by thousands of people in several cities against government plans to lease new economic zones to foreign

This handout picture taken on July 3, and released on July 5, by Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) shows a rescue team member (center), and fishermen searching for passengers of a ferry after it ran aground off the coast of Selayar island, in South Sulawesi province. Nearly three dozen people have died after a ferry ran aground off the coast of Indonesia, according to an updated official toll on July 4, the latest deadly maritime accident in the

Southeast Asian archipelago. (AFP)

in three or four months.

But that option is a last resort and may have to be taken off the table if flooding worsens.

Concerns for the mental and physical health of the boys are also mounting after a prolonged ordeal in the dark, claustrophobic cave complex.

Experts say the risk of psychological damage is high for youngsters trapped in traumatic conditions, while the lack of light may cause confusion.

British cave divers found the emaciated and dishevelled group on Monday, huddled on a muddy shelf with flood waters lapping ominously below, after nine days missing.

Several Thai Navy divers and medics are staying with them and the video footage showed the group in seemingly good spirits.

“They cannot do anything ... they have to save energy,” said Major General Bancha Duriyaphan.

BANGKOK:

Also:

Forty nine people are missing after a boat carrying 97 people, including Chinese tourists and Thai crew, capsized in rough seas off Thailand’s tourist island of Phuket, the Thai navy said on Thursday.

Thailand is in the middle of its monsoon season which brings with it adverse weather conditions.

“Right now we are still looking for 49 people. We have helped 48 people from the capsized boat. We have sent boats to help,” Rear Admiral Somnuk Prempramote, commander of the Royal Thai Navy Region 3.

“They were all wearing life jackets,” he added.

The boat was one of three to encounter difficulties at sea in the area on Thursday, the navy said. Another two boats, including a yacht carrying 39 people, also capsized but its passengers have been brought to safety.

investors. “This is a terrorist case against the people’s government,” Ho Chi Minh City police said in a statement on their official website.

“The police arrested seven people and seized 10 kg of explosives.”

Four of those arrested face “terrorist” charges, and three have been charged with trading in explosives, they added.

Police seized eight more bombs, they said. Pictures alongside the statement showed confiscated bomb-making materials and ammunition, they added. (RTRS)

Dotcom loses legal bid:

Flamboyant internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his former colleagues have lost their latest bid to avoid extradition to the US to face criminal charges.

New Zealand’s Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld earlier court rulings that found the men were eligible to be handed over to US authorities.

Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken said they were disappointed with the judgment and planned to file an appeal with New Zealand’s Supreme Court.

“As people will know, I am prepared to fight to get justice, whether it is for me or others,” Dotcom said in a statement.

The latest decision comes more than six years after US authorities shut down Dotcom’s file-sharing website Megaupload and filed charges of conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering against the men. If found guilty, they could face decades in prison. (AP)