Efforts are continuing to try to rescue an American trapped 1,000 metres underground in a cave in southern Turkey, the Turkish Caving Federation has said.
Nearly 150 rescuers are involved in the complex operation to save Mark Dickey, 40, who was part of a research team in Morca Valley, near Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, the federation said.
On Sunday, Mr Dickey developed internal bleeding while exploring Morca cave and was given an infusion of blood delivered by rescuers and medics.
His condition is deteriorating, said the federation.
“In the Morca Sinkhole, the third deepest cave in Turkey with a depth of 1,276 metres, during an exploration mission involving local and international teams, American caver Mark Dickey fell ill at a depth of 1,120 metres and was placed under observation at the cave base camp located at 1,040 metres,” the federation said on X, formerly Twitter.
Mr Dickey went on the expedition with a number of other explorers, including three other Americans.
While rescuers, including a Hungarian doctor, have reached and treated Mr Dickey, it could be days and possibly weeks before they are able to get him out of the cave, which is too narrow in places for a stretcher to pass through.
In a video message from inside the cave made available on Thursday, Mr Dickey thanked the caving community and the Turkish government for their efforts.
“The caving world is a really tight-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded on the surface,” he said.
“I do know that the quick response of the Turkish government to get the medical supplies that I need, in my opinion, saved my life. I was very close to the edge.”
Mr Dickey, who is seen standing and moving around in the video, said that although he was alert and talking, he was not “healed on the inside”, and would need a lot of help to get out of the cave.
Doctors will decide whether he will need to leave the cave on a stretcher or if he can leave on foot.
Mr Dickey, who had been bleeding and losing fluid from his stomach, has stopped vomiting and has eaten for the first time in days, according to a New Jersey-based cave rescue group he is affiliated with.
It is unclear what caused his medical issue.
Communication with him takes about five to seven hours and is carried out by runners, who go from Mr Dickey to the camp below the surface where a telephone line to speak with the surface has been set up.
Experts said it will be a challenge to rescue him.
Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation of Turkey said one of the most difficult tasks of rescue operation was widening the narrow cave passages to allow a stretcher to pass.
Stretcher lines are labour intensive and require experienced cave rescuers working long hours, Mr Ogrenecek said.
Other factors range from navigating through mud and water at low temperatures to the psychological toll of staying inside a cave for a long period, he said.
Marton Kovacs of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service said that the cave was being prepared for Mr Dickey's extraction. Passages are being widened and the danger of falling rocks is also being addressed.
Turkish disaster relief agency Afad and rescue team UMKE are working with Turkish and international cavers on the plan to hoist Mr Dickey out of the cave system, the European Cave Rescue Association said.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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