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NEW DELHI — At least nine Indian trekkers died in the Himalayas after getting trapped during a blizzard, authorities said on Thursday, as rescue teams airlifted their bodies and five survivors to safety.   The Indian Air Force shared footage on Thursday that showed rescue teams working near a helicopter in the snow-covered mountains.   The group of climbers from the southern state of Karnataka were hit by heavy snowfall in the remote mountains of Uttarakhand state in north India, said Krishna Byre Gowda, a top Karnataka minister.   "Snow intensified into blizzard. By 6 PM, 2 trekkers succumbed to bad weather. Snow and wind made movement impossible. Visibility dropped to nil. They huddled together for the night on the route. Some more succumbed in the night," Gowda wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.   A guide with the group alerted rescuers about the situation on Tuesday evening after trekking for a while to find mobile network connectivity, and teams reached the spot early on Wednesday, the minister added.

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Johannesburg, South Africa — South Africa's ruling ANC party was holding internal talks on Thursday to decide how to form a government, after it failed to win an outright majority in last week's general election.   President Cyril Ramaphosa's African National Congress won 40 percent of the vote — its lowest score ever — and for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994 needs the backing of other parties.    "What are you doing here?" Ramaphosa quipped to reporters, as he arrived at a hotel on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the ANC's decision-making body was meeting. "Are you that worried?"   The party of late anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is divided over who to share power with, analysts say.    It will have only 159 members in the 400-seat National Assembly, down from 230 in 2019.    On Wednesday, ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the top leadership favored forming a broad coalition for a government of national unity.   "We want to bring everybody on board because South Africans want us to work together for their sake," ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula told reporters on Thursday.    But observers say this might be hard to pull off given radical differences between some groups that should be part of it.     "I cannot... see how it can really work," analyst and author Susan Booysen told AFP.    "There is just so much bad blood and ill feeling between different political parties."     Among them are the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 87 seats with a liberal, free-market agenda, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which secured 39 lawmakers and supports land redistribution and the nationalization of key economic sectors.     Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC was in discussions also with the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which will hold 17 seats, and the anti-immigration Patriotic Alliance (PA) that will have nine.    The ANC also "repeatedly" reached out to former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which won 14.6 percent of the vote and 58 seats, but received no response.    Zuma, a former ANC chief, has long been bitter about the way he was ousted under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018.    The MK, which was only established late last year, has rejected the election results and said it would not back an ANC-led government if Ramaphosa remains at the helm.    But the president's party plans to keep him.    'Outcry' Analyst Daniel Silke said the ANC was likely floating the idea of a "broad church" government to appease some members before veering towards a narrower coalition if national unity talks failed.    Many within the party oppose a deal with the DA, which is favored by investors and the business community but has policies at odds with the ANC's left-wing traditions.    Reports suggesting the ANC was considering forming a minority government with external backing from the DA caused a "huge outcry", said Booysen.      Outside the hotel where the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) was meeting, a handful of protesters held signs reading "Not in our name. #NotwiththeDA."     The South African Communist Party, an historic ally of the ANC, also said it was against any arrangement with "the right-wing, DA-led anti-ANC neo-liberal forces."    Together the ANC and the DA hold a comfortable majority in parliament.    Any agreement with the EFF would instead require the support of at least another party.     The new parliament is to meet in less than two weeks and one of its first tasks will be to elect a president to form a new government. 

Omaha Beach, France — Western leaders Thursday on the beaches of northern France marked 80 years since the D-Day landings to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, mindful of the over two-year war raging again in Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. leader Joe Biden, King Charles III of the UK and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, representing the Allied powers, paid tribute to the immense sacrifices made by the tens of thousands of troops on the sandy beaches and cliffs of Normandy, often far from their homes, under intense German counter-fire. "We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny," King Charles III said at the British memorial at Ver-sur-Mer that overlooks Gold beach, one of the landing sites for British troops. "Let us pray such sacrifice need never be made again," he said. "Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the world must continue to stand up for democracy. "Democracy is still under threat today. It is threatened by aggressors who want to redraw borders," he said at the Canadian ceremony in nearby Courseulles-Sur-Mer. "Our way of life did not happen by accident, and it won't continue without effort." 'Obligation to remember' With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joining the Western leaders in Normandy for an international ceremony, the events will provide a hugely symbolic backdrop to talks on how Ukraine can gain back ground after Russian advances. No Russian official has been invited, underlining Moscow's pariah status in the West after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 despite the decisive Soviet contribution to defeating Nazism in World War II. The most honored guests are surviving veterans. Around 200 are expected, a number that is dwindling every year with most at least in their late 90s and some older than 100. This may be the final major anniversary where they are present. British veteran Cecil Newton, who spoke to AFP at the British Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, said he was upset that so many young men were killed. "All those who were in action will always be with me, with us. I can see them now," Newton, 100, said. King Charles noted that veterans were becoming ever fewer in number but added: "Our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish." French President Emmanuel Macron, attending the British ceremony, added: "Nobody here in France can forget your sacrifice." 'Shying away' Biden, born in 1942 during World War II, was expected to promote the United States as a defender of democracy and international alliances, contrasting himself against election rival Donald Trump during a state visit that will last until Sunday. He was meeting surviving American veterans one-by-one at the American memorial to its victims. Macron has already sought to break taboos by refusing to rule out sending troops to Ukraine, a position that unsettled some EU allies. But there have been shifts in recent weeks, with the West showing readiness to allow Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike targets in Russia, and France pushing for the deployment of European military instructors in Ukraine. During a meeting with foreign news outlets in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday evening, Putin shrugged off the lack of an invitation for Russia, saying "let them celebrate without us." "They are shying away from inviting Russia, which is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, which has sustained such huge losses," he said, stressing that the Soviet Union lost around 27 million civilians and soldiers in World War II. The landings by Allied forces, backed by airborne operations that parachuted troops directly onto occupied soil, were the biggest naval operation ever in terms of the number of ships deployed and the troops involved. In an operation kept secret from the Germans, the Allies landed on five beaches spread across the Normandy coast: Omaha and Utah for the Americans, Gold and Sword for the British and Juno for the British and Canadians. By the end of what became known as "the longest day", 156,000 Allied troops with 20,000 vehicles had landed in Nazi-occupied northern France despite facing a hail of bullets, artillery and aircraft fire. The landings marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi occupation of Western Europe, though months of intense and bloody fighting still lay ahead before victory over the regime of Adolf Hitler.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action to avert "climate hell." The 80th anniversary of D-Day with a modern-day warning. Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed readiness to use nuclear weapons. And the race to space; a new space capsule launches from Florida and a new place to launch from in New Zealand.

UTAH BEACH, France — As the sun sets on the D-Day generation, it will rise again Thursday over the Normandy beaches where the waves long ago washed away the blood and boot-steps of its soldiers, but where their exploits that helped end Adolf Hitler's tyranny are being remembered by the next generations, seeing war again in Europe, in Ukraine. Ever-dwindling numbers of World War II veterans who have pilgrimaged back to France, and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has dashed hopes that lives and cities wouldn't again be laid to waste in Europe, are making the always poignant anniversaries of the June 6, 1944, Allied landings even more so 80 years on. As now-centenarian veterans revisit old memories and fallen comrades buried in Normandy graves, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's presence at D-Day commemorations with world leaders — including U.S. President Joe Biden — who are supporting his country's fight against Russia's invasion will inevitably fuse together World War II's awful past with the fraught present on Thursday. The break of dawn almost eight decades exactly after Allied troops waded ashore under hails of gunfire on five code-named beaches — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — will kick off a day of remembrance by Allied nations now standing together again behind Ukraine — and with World War II ally Russia not invited by host France. It cited Russia's "war of aggression against Ukraine that has intensified in recent weeks" for the snub. With the dead and wounded on both sides in Ukraine estimated in the hundreds of thousands, commemorations for the more than 4,400 Allied dead on D-Day and many tens of thousands more, including French civilians, killed in the ensuing Battle of Normandy are tinged with concerns that World War II lessons are being lost. "There are things worth fighting for," said World War II veteran Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. "Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other." "We'll learn one of these days, but I won't be around for that," he said. Conscious of the inevitability that major D-Day anniversaries will soon take place without World War II veterans, huge throngs of aficionados in uniforms and riding vehicles of the time, and tourists soaking up the spectacle, have flooded Normandy for the 80th anniversary. The fair-like atmosphere fueled by World War II-era jeeps and trucks tearing down hedge-rowed lanes so deadly for Allied troops who fought dug-in German defenders, and of reenactors playing at war on sands where D-Day soldiers fell, leave open the question of what meaning anniversaries will have once the veterans are gone. But at the 80th, they're the VIPs of commemorations across the Normandy coast where the largest-ever land, sea and air armada punctured Hitler's defenses in Western Europe and helped precipitate his downfall 11 months later. Those who traveled to Normandy include women who were among the millions who built bombers, tanks and other weaponry and played other vital World War II roles that were long overshadowed by the combat exploits of men. "We weren't doing it for honors and awards. We were doing it to save our country. And we ended up helping save the world," said 98-year-old Anna Mae Krier, who worked as a riveter building B-17 and B-29 bombers. Feted wherever they go in wheelchairs and walking with canes, veterans are using their voices to repeat their message they hope will live eternal: Never forget. "To know the amount of people who were killed here, just amazing," 98-year-old Allan Chatwin, who served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, said as he visited Omaha, the deadliest of the Allied beaches on D-Day. He quickly added: "I don't know that amazing is the word."

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