At least nine injured in a hot air balloon crash on the edge of the Alps in Austria

The accident to the hot air balloon happened in the Bucklige Welt region known for its hilly landscape. Its location is about 53 miles south of the capital Vienna. Nine people suffered injuries after a hot air balloon crashed on the eastern edge of the Alps in Austria. Emergency services rushed to the scene of the accident. Initial reports mention about serious injuries to two of the passengers. The injured people scattered in different locations. Two were in the rural town of Untereck and five others with minor injuries were about three miles away near Stang. Moreover, a couple of seriously hurt people were airlifted by helicopter to local hospitals. The cause of the crash remains unclear but according to an Austria newspaper, the crash happened as the balloon was about to land on a meadow. Hot air balloon crash in the Austrian Alps leaves nine hurt. It seems the balloon descended at a fast rate and bounced off the ground. That knocked four people including the pilot and co-pilot out of the basket. The momentum dragged four of them along for a distance before the aircraft took off again with the five remaining passengers.

While in the air, the pilot apparently instructed the passengers by phone on how to make an emergency landing by phone. The balloon finally halted in a forest. Incidentally, there have been earlier instances of accidents to hot air balloons. In June last year, five people died after a gust of wind blew the hot air balloon into a power line. This happened in New Mexico, US. The pilot and three passengers were declared dead at the scene of the tragedy and the fifth person died after being rushed to hospital with serious injuries. Later, in July 2020 there was an accident in Germany. It happened in the city of Wesel, 35 miles north of Dusseldorf when a plane collided with the balloon which crashed into an apartment block.

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Prince Harry announced the return of Invictus Games to Canada in 2025 for the first-ever winter sports edition

Just prior to the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games 2022 in the Hague, Prince Harry announced that the Games would return to Canada in 2025 for the first-ever winter sports edition of the competition. Whistler and Vancouver, Canada, would be the venue of the games 2025. This place holds a special meaning to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The reason is simple. It was here in 2019, the royal couple and baby Archie spend their vacation before they announced their decision to step down as senior working royals. During a visit to Canada House in London in early 2020, Meghan recalled - "Just to be able to take in the warmth that we experienced from the people but also just to walk around and just see the beauty of Canada.” incidentally, it was in Canada where the two started secretly dating. Meghan had spent years in Toronto, Canada during the filming of Suits. Subsequently, the two debuted their relationship at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto. Prince Harry Announces the Invictus Games Are Returning to Canada.

The venue for the next Invictus Games will be in Dusseldorf, Germany, next year. Subsequently, the first-ever Winter Hybrid Games will be in Canada in 2025. Prince Harry indicated this in the website of the Invictus Games Foundation. The statement said - "As Invictus continues to adapt and evolve, I am extremely excited to announce that the Invictus Games Foundation has selected Canada to host the first-ever Winter Hybrid Games in 2025.” These Games will offer a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sports. Canada will hold the Games in partnership with the First Nations, in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with indigenous communities.

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Angela Merkel named Person of the Year 2015 by Time magazine

#angelamerkel #timepoy #germany #personoftheyear Angela Merkel (61), the Chancellor of Germany, has been chosen by Time magazine as its Person of the Year for 2015. Her image on the cover of its upcoming issue bestows upon her the title of "Chancellor of the Free World."
She is the first woman to receive the honor by herself in two decades. Her leadership in the refugee crisis, and her help in keeping the Euro afloat were her achievements.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 9 December 2015.

Editor Nancy Gibbs has said that Time chose the world leader "for asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply."
Her strong response to Russian President "Vladimir Putin's creeping theft of Ukraine" also went in her favor.
Incidentally, Angela Merkel is the fourth woman since 1927 to be chosen and the first since opposition leader Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines in 1986. Moreover, she is the first German since Willy Brandt, the West German chancellor named in 1970 for "seeking to bring about a fresh relationship between East and West" during the Cold War.
In 1999, Time picked the German-born Albert Einstein as Person of the Century.
Other finalists for 2015 included Donald Trump, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Caitlyn Jenner, the Black Lives Matter protest movement, Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick.

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With 13000 migrants arriving at Munich in a single day, Germany plans to introduce controls

Germany is faced with a crisis – already more than 13,000 migrants have poured into Munich in a single day and it expects 800,000 migrants to arrive this year. Hence, Germany's vice-chancellor has admitted that it was "at the limit of its capabilities" and it was necessary to reintroduce some form of controls on its border with Austria to tackle the influx of migrants.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 13 September 2015.

However, specific measures proposed to be introduced have not yet been spelt out. As per information released by Germany's Bild newspaper and Austria's Kronen Zeitung, there would probably be controls in place on the Bavaria-Austria border.
Kronen Zeitung hints that Bavarian police could begin to check "to determine immediately who is entitled to asylum" – details have yet to be made public.
The problem of migrants arriving from Syria and also Afghanistan is one that Europe as a whole is facing and struggling to deal with this huge influx of people most of whom are fleeing from violence and poverty. These migrants are travelling from Greece, through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary, to Austria and Germany.
Hungary has plans to complete erecting a 13ft high fence along the border with Serbia by 15 September. Subsequently, tougher measures, including arresting illegal immigrants, would come into force.
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The influx of migrants from Syria and other countries is creating a major problem for the EU as it tries to cope with this problem. This refugee crisis seems to be rivalling the Balkan wars of the 1990s and is seen as Europe`s worst since World War Two. The European Union appears helpless and unable to cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of poor and desperate people.
Hundreds of angry migrants demonstrated outside Budapest`s Eastern Railway Terminus demanding they be allowed to travel on to Germany and the biggest ever influx of migrants into the EU has apparently left its asylum policies in tatters.
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In all probability, Germany could accept the largest share.
In the case of people who are fleeing the Syrian civil war, the EU has put on hold the rule that asylum seekers must apply in the first EU country they reach. However, with migrants arriving in trainloads into Munich and Rosenheim from Austria and Hungary, it urged other EU countries to abide by it.
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Marianne Winkler had found the bottle as she was walking on the beach. Inside the bottle was a postcard from the Marine Biologist Association with a message, written in German, Dutch, and English. It promised a reward of one shilling to the person who returned it.
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#SchlossElmau #Germany #G7Summit #Obama #DavidCameron Based on a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has agreed to send another 125 troops to Iraq to train its Army personnel to battle the Islamic State militants.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 7 June 2015.

This additional deployment would increase the number of British troops in Iraq to 275. The ISIS has seized large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria and the one section of British troops numbering about 100 would train local forces in how to detect and deal with improvised explosive devices. The remaining 25 will focus on logistical challenges such as bridge-building.
Till now, the British mission has concentrated on the Kurdish capital of Irbil, and the fresh batch of troops will be stationed at bases around the country, including the capital Baghdad. They will remain inside the bases and will not be involved in field action.
In the course of his talks in the G7 summit in Germany, Cameron has described the fight against Islamist extremism as the "biggest challenge" facing Britain and the international community.
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