MILAN (AP) — An injured cave explorer in northern Italy was carried to safety Wednesday, 75 hours after she fell while attempting to map an unexplored branch of the Bueno Fonteno cave, alpine rescuers said.
The last leg of the rescue operation proceeded more smoothly than expected, and workers carrying 32-year-old Ottavia Piana strapped into a stretcher reached the cave’s mouth in the early morning hours. It was her second time in 17 months to be rescued from the cave near Lago d’Iseo northeast of Bergamo.
Piana suffered multiple fractures, including to her face, ribs and knee, when she fell 5 meters (13 feet) while exploring an uncharted part of the cave on Saturday, doctors said. The Bueno Fonteno cave is located some 500 meters (yards) below ground, with the mapped area reaching some 19 kilometers (nearly 12 miles).
Removal through the narrow, uncharted part of the cave was especially harrowing. Video showed her wrapped in blankets and strapped to a stretcher being passed through narrow passageways by a team of helmeted rescuers, which included doctors and nurses on rotation. They stopped every 90 minutes to assess her condition.
By late afternoon on Tuesday, they reached the main tunnel and the final passage went much more quickly than anticipated, arriving at least 12 hours before expected.
Nearly 160 technicians from 13 Italian regions assisted in the round-the-clock rescue launched at midnight Saturday, after being alerted by members of her team that she was injured and trapped deep inside the tunnel.
This image released Monday, Dec. 16, 2024 by the Italian Soccorso Alpino (Alpine Rescue) shows the rescue operation of Ottavia Piana, a caver blocked in a deep inside the Bueno Fonteno cave, near Bergamo, Italy, after falling some 5 meters (16 feet) Saturday evening during an expedition. (Soccorso Alpino via AP)
Emergency cervices attend a rescue operation to free Ottavia Piana, an expert spelunker who was trapped while exploring the cave of Bueno Fonteno, near Bergamo, Italy, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 (Photo by Spada/LaPresse via AP)
This image released Monday, Dec. 16, 2024 by the Italian Soccorso Alpino (Alpine Rescue) shows the rescue operation of Ottavia Piana, a caver blocked in a deep inside the Bueno Fonteno cave, near Bergamo, Italy, after falling some 5 meters (16 feet) Saturday evening during an expedition. (Soccorso Alpino via AP )
LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the U.K. rose to its highest level in eight months during November, official figures showed Wednesday, a development that has cemented market expectations that the Bank of England will opt against cutting borrowing costs this week.
The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation rose by 2.6% in the year to November, up from 2.3% the previous month. It said stubbornly high inflation in the crucial services sector, which accounts for around 80% of the U.K. economy, and an increase in fuel prices was largely behind the overall increase.
The increase, which took inflation further away from the Bank of England's target of 2%, was in line with market expectations.
This is the biggest increase since March, leading economists to rule out any prospect that the Bank of England will cut its main interest rate from 4.75% after its policy meeting on Thursday.
James Smith, research director at the Resolution Foundation economics think tank, said that the “latest data shows the challenge Britain faces in squeezing inflation out of the economy.”
Rate-setters had anticipated a pickup in inflation when the central bank last cut rates in early November as price pressures eased earlier in the year — in September, inflation had fallen to its lowest level since April 2021.
Still, inflation in the U.K. and across the world is far lower than it was a couple of years ago, partly because central banks dramatically increased borrowing costs from near zero during the coronavirus pandemic when prices started to shoot up, first as a result of supply chain issues and then because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy costs.
As inflation rates have fallen from multidecade highs, the central banks have started cutting interest rates, though few, if any, economists think that rates will fall back to the super-low levels that persisted in the years after the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
Recent developments have scaled back expectations of rapid cuts from the Bank of England. Rising wages and stubbornly high inflation in the services sector, the biggest single part of the U.K. economy, have prompted economists to scale back expectations of rapid rate cuts next year.
Critics have argued that the new Labour government's first budget in October will lead to higher inflation than otherwise would have been case. The extra public spending announced in the budget will be largely funded through increased business taxes and borrowing. Economists think that the splurge, coupled with the prospect of businesses cushioning the tax hikes by raising prices, could put upward pressure on prices.
FILE - The Bank of England is pictured in London, on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
