June 24 Photo Brief: Nik Wallenda’s high wire walk over Arizona gorge, missing red panda found, 2013 supermoon
Nik Wallenda completes tightrope walk over Arizona gorge, missing red panda at the National Zoo found, the 2013 supermoon and more in today’s daily brief. | Warning: Visual coverage of death and/or injury may be depicted.
- Daredevil Nik Wallenda walks on a two-inch (5-cm) diameter steel cable rigged 1,400 feet (426.7 metres) across more than a quarter-mile deep remote section of the Grand Canyon near Little Colorado River, Arizona June 23, 2013. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
- A supermoon rises next to the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, some 65 kilometers south of Athens, on June 23, 2013. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
- The statue of Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade on Copacabana beach is decorated with a Guy Fawkes mask during a protest for better public services in Rio de Janeiro on June 23, 2013. The protests come as Brazil hosts a dry run for the World Cup, called the Confederations Cup. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
- A horse rears in a crowd during a horse parade of the traditional San Juan (Saint John) festival in the town of Ciutadella, on the Balearic Island of Menorca on June 23, 2013, on the eve of Saint John’s day. (Jaime Reina/AFP/Getty Images)
- Bahraini Shiite Muslim men celebrate the annual festival of Shaabaniya marking the birth of Imam al-Mahdi in the village of Sanabis on June 23, 2013. Mahdi is the 12th Imam who disappeared in the ninth century. Shiites believe that he will appear before the end of time to establish justice and true Islam in the world. (Mohammed al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images)
- A woman cries in pain she is carried by soldiers from an army helicopter during a rescue operation at Joshimath in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand June 24, 2013. Flash floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains have killed at least 560 people in Uttarakhand and left tens of thousands missing, officials said on Saturday, with the death toll expected to rise significantly. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
- Doma Sherpa (R), the wife of Nepalese climber Sona Sherpa, who was killed by Taliban militants at Nanga Parbat base camp in Pakistan, holds her children at their home in Kathmandu on June 24, 2013. Pakistan suspended expeditions to its second-highest peak, evacuating climbers from Nanga Parbat after 10 foreign tourists were shot dead by Islamist gunmen at the base camp. (Prakash Mathe/AFP/Getty Images)
- Young Alexandra’s residents play near a panting of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela in Soweto, where Mandela once lived, on June 24, 2013. A statement issued by the South African government reported that former South African president Nelson Mandela’s health was in a critical stage after his condition in hospital worsened over the course of 24 hours. Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)
- Newly trained Somali military recruits take part in a passing out parade in Mogadishu June 24, 2013. (Feisal Omar/Reuters)
- Bhutanese school teenagers practice before a cultural event to celebrate the birth date of Bhutan’s fourth king in Thimphu on June 2, 2013. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
- A North Korean soldier stands in front of a window along the banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, June 24, 2013. (Jacky Chen/Reuters)
- People appear dangling at a large-scale installation art piece by Leandro Erlich, named “Dalston House” on June 24, 2013 in London, England. Part of the “Beyond Barbican” summer series, the interactive installation is a full facade of a late nineteenth-century Victorian terraced house built on the ground with a large mirror above it to reflect people as to appear dangling from the structure. (Dan Dennison/Getty Images)
- The Bloodhound Super Sonic Car is displayed at Downing Street on June 24, 2013 in London, England. Wing Commander Andy Green will be driving the Bloodhound SSC during a land speed record attempt in South Africa next year. (Dan Dennison/Getty Images)
- A surfer rides a large wave at Tamarama Bay near Sydney on June 24, 2013. Expected extreme weather did not arrive in Sydney but a large trough sitting off the coast has generated large damaging surf and king tides. (Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images)
- This photo courtesy of the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC shows Rusty, a red panda who went missing from the National Zoo in Washington on June 23. (Smithsonian National Zoo. via AFP/Getty Images)
- A resident, covered with mud and dried banana leaves, hold candles as he attends a mass celebrating the feast day of the Catholic patron Saint John the Baptist in the village of Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija, north of Manila, June 24, 2013. Hundreds of devotees took part in this annual religious tradition, which has been held in the village since 1945. (Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters)
- Laborers work at a mine believed to contain gold in Minna, Niger State June 23, 2013. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)
- A car drives past fire from burning trees planted for palm oil, during haze at Bangko Pusako district in Rokan Hilir, on Indonesia’s Riau province, June 24, 2013. Malaysia declared a state of emergency in two parts of the southern state of Johor on Sunday as smoke from land-clearing fires in Indonesia pushed air pollution above the level considered hazardous. (Beawiharta/Reuters)
RELATED
Himalayan massacre spells end for Pakistan mountaineering
By: Frank Jack Daniel, Reuters
1:03 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2013
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s once thriving mountaineering industry is reeling from the killing by militants of 10 foreign climbers, a massacre likely to drive away all but the hardiest adventurers from some of the world’s tallest and most pristine peaks.
A tour company present during the attack said gunmen dressed as police ordered tourists out of tents at the 4,200-meter (13,860-foot) base camp of Nanga Parbat, the country’s second highest peak, late on Saturday night, then shot them and a Pakistani guide.
The attack on the last peak over 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) in the western Himalayas has been claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and a smaller radical Islamist group.
The foreign victims included two citizens from China, one from Lithuania, one from Nepal, two from Slovakia, three Ukrainians, and one person with joint U.S.-Chinese citizenship.
Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said at least 40 foreigners including citizens from Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and the United States, among several other nationalities, were evacuated from a higher camp.
A group of Romanians is believed to be scaling the mountain from another side. Some other groups booked for climbs this summer have already cancelled, one company said.
Hussain said the attack was a “fatal blow” for his efforts to attract more climbers to the Hindu Khush, Karakoram and western Himalayan ranges, home to many unexplored summits.
“We are still in shock, we’ve had to apologize to so many mountaineers across the world,” said Hussain, who described the attack as appalling and said he was devastated.
Geographically, Pakistan is a climbers paradise. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks over 7,000 meters and is home to the world’s second tallest mountain, K2, and three more that are among the world’s 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters.
In more peaceful times, northern Pakistan’s unspoilt beauty would be a major tourist draw, bringing sorely needed dollars to a nation that suffers repeated balance of payments crises.
Mountaineers, many from China, Russia and Eastern Europe, are among the last foreigners who regularly visit Pakistan for leisure. Tourism has been devastated since 2007 by militant attacks and fighting between the Taliban and the army in once popular tribal valleys such as Swat in the northwest.
The number of expeditions had also dwindled, but before the attack some 50 groups were expected this year in the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region, a stopover on the historic Silk Road.
That has changed following Sunday’s massacre, which sparked protests on Monday in Chilas, the closest town to the base camp, which depends on climbing for income in the summer.
“I haven’t slept since yesterday, it’s a very sad situation,” said Ghulam Muhammed, whose company Blue Sky Treks and Tours guided five of the climbers killed at the base camp.
Blue Sky is based in the town of Skardu, which is heavily reliant on the income brought by outsiders.
“I am very worried, now business is finished, today two or three have cancelled, it is difficult now,” said Muhammed, who was in the capital Islamabad to speak to embassies and family members of the victims. “In Gilgit-Baltistan, a lot of the economy is from tourism – the money goes to transporters, hotels, markets, porters guides and cooks.”
HIPPY TRAIL
In reality, the tourist industry last thrived in the 1970s, when the “hippy trail” brought Western travelers through the apricot and walnut orchards of the Swat Valley and Kashmir on their way to India and Nepal.
Years of war in Afghanistan helped end the overland route to Asia, and Pakistan’s tourism never really recovered.
While the attack on foreign climbers was a first, it did not come entirely out of the blue. Gilgit-Baltistan’s Shi’ite Muslim population has suffered a number of sectarian killings by radical Sunni groups over the past year, including one that claimed responsibility for killing the climbers.
“We have been warning the government,” Hussain said. “Security was beefed up, and there were checks on the road, but we wanted security parties for the mountaineers as well.”
The Pakistan Taliban later said it had carried out the attack, in retaliation for the death of its second in command in a U.S. drone strike in May. Since then, Pakistan’s new government has been tested by a succession of major attacks on targets ranging from female students to a funeral procession.
Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the disputed region of Kashmir. It is connected to China by a highway crossing the Karakoram range, home to K2. The attack was acutely embarrassing for Pakistan, which nurtures a close friendship with China in a drawn-out struggle with India over territory.
In 1995, a group of foreign tourists was kidnapped in the part of Kashmir administered by India. One escaped, one was beheaded and four have never been found.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)