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Turkey sentences 8 people to prison terms in deadly 2024 cable car accident

ISTANBUL (AP) — A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024 cable car accident in the coastal resort of Antalya that killed one passenger and injured seven.

Four of the defendants were convicted of causing death and injury through negligence and were sentenced to 7½ years each, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The other four were sentenced to between three years and four months and five years for the same offense.

In the April 12, 2024 accident, one of the cable car gondolas hit a pole and burst open, sending its passengers plummeting to the rocks below. The cable car system then shut down, leaving 174 people stranded in their gondolas high above ground — some for nearly 23 hours — before they were rescued.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-meter (2,010-foot) Tunektepe peak. The accident happened during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Most of the defendants in the case were employees were employees of ANET, a subsidiary of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality that operates the cable car in the Mediterranean city.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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