Severe weather kills 21 cross-country runners in China
Beijing: Twenty-one people were killed in northwest China as extreme weather struck participants in a 100-km cross-country mountain marathon race, officials said on Sunday.
High winds and freezing rain hit participants in the race in the Yellow River Stone Forest, a tourist site in Gansu province, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
A total of 172 people took part in the mountain marathon. As of 9.30 Sunday morning, the death toll rose to 21, the official media reported.
Other 151 mountain marathon participants were confirmed safe, of which eight with minor injuries were treated in the hospital.
According to the rescue headquarters, at about 1 pm on Saturday, hails, freezing rain and gales hit the area of the race's high-altitude stage between 20 to 31 km.
Participants suffered from physical discomfort due to the sudden drop in air temperature.
The race was halted when some runners went missing.
Local governments initiated an emergency response and gathered over 1,200 well-equipped rescuers to search for the missing persons, said Zhang Xuchen, mayor of Baiyin City, at the press briefing.
The temperature dropped again during the night due to the area's complex terrain and topography, making the search and rescue more difficult, the report said.
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Trump tells Fox News he's no longer sending Witkoff, Kushner to Pakistan for Iran talks
Islamabad (AP): President Donald Trump says he told top US envoys not to travel to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran, telling Fox News that "they can call us anytime they want.”
In a brief phone interview Saturday, Trump told Fox News that he told US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner “you're not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
Trump also said of the US side “we have all the cards.”
His comments came after the White House said Friday that Witkoff and Kushner would be heading to Pakistan for another round of negotiations with Iran.
