ROME: Rescue workers found 10 bodies of suspected migrants below the deck of a wooden boat off Italy’s tiny Lampedusa island on Monday, the German aid group Resqship said, as the Italian coast guard searched for missing people from another vessel shipwrecked off the country's southern coast.
The crew aboard Resqship’s boat, the Nadir, “is currently caring for 51 people. The rescue came too late for 10 people,” the group said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“A total of 61 people were on the wooden boat, which was full of water. Our crew was able to evacuate 51 people, two of whom were unconscious – they had to be cut free with an axe,” it added. “The 10 dead are in the flooded lower deck of the boat.”
The other search and rescue operation off the Calabrian coast started following a Mayday call by a French boat, sailing about 120 miles (193.12 kilometers) from Italian shores, at the limit of the SAR areas under the jurisdiction of Greece and Italy, the Italian Coast Guard said in a statement.
After reporting the presence of the half-sunken boat, rescuers recovered 12 migrants from the vessel. The survivors were brought to the Calabrian port of Roccella Jonica, where they were disembarked and entrusted to the care of medical personnel.
One of the migrants died soon after, the coast guard said. It was not immediately clear the number of missing people from that boat.
The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (IMRCC) of the coast guard in Rome immediately diverted two merchant vessels sailing nearby to the scene of the rescue. Assets from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex also helped.

KATMANDU: Millions of people dependent on Himalayan snowmelt for water face a “very serious” risk of shortages this year after one of the lowest rates of snowfall, scientists warned Monday.

Snowmelt is the source of about a quarter of the total water flow of 12 major river basins that originate high in the region, the report said.

“This is a wake-up call for researchers, policymakers, and downstream communities,” said report author Sher Muhammad, from the Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

“Lower accumulation of snow and fluctuating levels of snow pose a very serious increased risk of water shortages, particularly this year.”

Snow and ice on the Himalayas are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the river valleys below, according to ICIMOD.

While snow levels fluctuate each year, scientists say climate change is driving erratic rainfall and shifting weather patterns.

The report measured “snow persistence” — the time snow remains on the ground — with levels dropping almost a fifth below normal this year across the wider Hindu Kush and Himalaya region.

“This year’s snow persistence (18.5 percent below normal) is the second-lowest in the past 22 years, narrowly trailing the record low of 19 percent set in 2018,” Muhammad told AFP.

As well as Nepal, the inter-governmental ICIMOD organization includes member countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Pakistan.

The report warned that ICIMOD “observations and projections indicate significant changes in the timing and intensity of stream flows,” with snow a key part.

“Snow plays a particularly important role in ensuring seasonal water availability,” it added.

The organization has been monitoring snow in the region for over two decades, noting that 2024 marked a “significant anomaly.”

The Ganges river basin, which flows through India, had the “lowest snow persistence” that ICIMOD has recorded, 17 percent below average, worse than the 15 percent in 2018.

The Helmand river basin in Afghanistan recorded its second-lowest snow persistence levels, 32 percent below normal.

The Indus river basin was down 23 percent below normal levels, while the Brahmaputra river basin, which ends in Bangladesh, had snow persistence “notably below normal” at 15 percent.

Miriam Jackson, senior cryosphere specialist at ICIMOD, urged authorities to “take proactive measures to address possible drought situations.”