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Girl, 8, only survivor of bus crash that kills 45 Easter pilgrims on South Africa's deadly roads
An 8-year-old girl was the lone survivor after a bus full of pilgrims making their way to a popular Easter festival in rural South Africa slammed into a bridge on a mountain pass and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames, killing all 45 others onboard.
It was a tragic reminder of how deadly South Africa's roads become during the Easter period, when millions crisscross the country during the long holiday weekend. Authorities repeatedly warn motorists of the danger and had issued multiple messages urging caution just a day before Thursday's horrific crash.
The girl somehow survived after the bus carrying worshippers from neighboring Botswana careened off the bridge, fell more than 150 feet (50 meters) and caught fire as it hit the rocks below, according to authorities.
Bus plunges off bridge in South Africa killing 45 people
The girl was in a stable condition in the hospital after being admitted with serious injuries and was "in safe hands,” an official with the local health department said Friday. Details of her injuries were not released.
Forensic investigators retrieved what they believed were 34 of the 45 bodies but couldn't be certain of the exact number, reflecting the gruesome nature of the crash. Many of the victims trapped inside the bus were burned beyond recognition, authorities said.
Dr. Phophi Ramathuba, an official with the Limpopo provincial health department, said only nine of the bodies recovered were likely to be identifiable.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the victims, who appeared to all be from Botswana, were on their way to the rustic town of Moria in Limpopo province for the Easter weekend pilgrimage that attracts hundreds of thousands of followers of the Zion Christian Church.
The church has its headquarters in Moria and it was the first time the full pilgrimage was being held since the COVID-19 pandemic. Worshippers flocked to the small town which features a giant star — the church’s emblem — and the words “Zion City Moria” painted in white on a hillside.
The church was formed in South Africa in the early 1900s as a Christian denomination that also retains some African traditions. It has an estimated 7 million followers across the southern African region.
Ramathuba said South African authorities had asked church leaders from Botswana to come and help identify the victims.
Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays in South Africa and many of its neighbors, when millions travel into, out of and across the nation. For some South Africans, it’s a chance to return to their home towns and villages from jobs in the cities. Migrants also travel back to their home countries to see family. Some, like the pilgrims that died on Thursday, make religious trips.
Road travel can be treacherous; South Africa's Road Traffic Management Corporation reported that 252 people died in road crashes between Holy Thursday and Easter Monday last year.
Authorities said it appeared the bus driver lost control and the vehicle slammed into the barriers along the side of the bridge and then went over the edge. The driver was among the dead.
South African Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga was in Limpopo province attending a road safety campaign when she was informed of the “devastating news” of the crash, according to the national Department of Traffic.
Ramathuba said she had been at an Easter prayer meeting when she was called to the crash scene on the Mmamatlakala bridge near the town of Mokopane, which is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the South African capital, Pretoria.
“I attended the scene of the accident, but now our focus as the health department is on the brave little survivor. She is in safe hands in a hospital with experts looking after her,” Ramathuba told reporters. She declined to give details of the child's injuries, but authorities released a photograph of the child lying in a hospital bed and being examined by a doctor.
Ramathuba also declined to say if the child's parents or other family members were on the bus, saying authorities needed time to trace and inform families of the dead, who were mostly in Botswana.
Meanwhile, forensic investigators worked through the wreckage amid the rocks and steep cliffs. At least 11 bodies were believed still inside what was left of the charred bus, which was almost crushed flat.
“We were at the scene,” said local resident Simone Mayema, who said he was one of the first to arrive after the crash. “We tried to help (but) there was nothing we could do because there was flames.”
Hijab-wearing players in US college basketball hope to inspire others
N.C. State’s Jannah Eissa and UC Irvine’s Diaba Konate are bringing visibility and inspiration to some Muslim women by wearing hjiabs while they play basketball.
They aren’t the first women to do it in NCAA Tournament play, but with record viewership and attendance they are certainly getting noticed.
“Representation really matters,” said Konate, whose team lost in the first round of the tournament to Gonzaga. “Just having people, young Muslim women wearing the hijab, we’re not there yet. Just seeing us play, I think it makes me really happy because I used to have people that I was looking up to. Now having people that look up to me makes me happy.”
Konate admires Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who made NCAA history by being the first to wear a hijab in college basketball when she played for Memphis a decade ago. Abdul-Qaadir was instrumental in getting FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, to overturn its own ban on headgear in 2017.
Former UConn player Batouly Camara, who was one of the first to wear a hijab in Spain’s LF1 league, has enjoyed seeing Eissa and Konate represent their religion.
“It’s truly inspiring to witness these two Muslim athletes competing at the highest level. This tournament serves as a significant moment, shining a spotlight on the best teams simultaneously with their faith,” said Camara, who founded the non-profit organization Women And Kids Empowerment (WAKE) in 2017. “It sends a powerful message to girls worldwide, affirming that they belong on the sports field, regardless of economic class, race, culture and more.”
Konate started 31 of 32 games for UC Irvine, averaging 7.5 points and nearly four assists. She moved to the U.S. from France after receiving a scholarship from Idaho State. She transferred to UC Irvine as a junior.
She’d like a chance to play in a hijab at home in France, where she won two medals playing on their youth teams. But currently, the French Federation of Basketball prohibits the wearing of “any equipment with a religious or political connotation.”
“Being French and hosting the Olympics, it really hurts to not be able to be ourselves,” said Konate, who first started wearing the hijab in 2020. “Hopefully, it changes.”
Eissa and Konate have never met, but are aware of each other.
“I just know there’s another woman wearing a hijab,” Eissa said. “I just saw a post about two days ago. I was so happy there are other people.”
Eissa, who turned 18 in February, was a walk-on at N.C. State. She joined the team after trying out in September. She didn’t play much this season — appearing in 11 games and hitting one 3-pointer.
Earlier this season, a group of young Muslim girls came to her game. They also showed up a few more times to support her.
“I’d love to say I was a role model to them. Never thought I could be a role model for someone I didn’t know,” said Eissa, who grew up in Cairo before coming to N.C. State. “Never knew one person could make such an impact. They were so young girls and girls my age looking up to me and I was so happy.”
Eissa chose N.C. State because her father got his PhD there and her two older sisters attend the university.
She said when having a bad day or an off day, she’d remember her young fans and it would bring a smile.
“If they see someone giving them hope, I’m happy that I’m the person to give it to them,” Eissa said. “I want to make it as far as I can for the image of women in hijabs.”
Hainan to have world's best free trade port by 2035: Chinese academic
Hainan, China’s largest economic special zone is going to be the next best free trade port hub in the world by 2035, said Professor of Law School of Hainan University and Deputy Director of Hainan South China Sea Policy and Law Research Center Zhang Liangfu.
He said this in a programme 'Introduction to Hainan Free Trade Port' at the Sanya city of Hainan province where 31 journalists from 25 countries including staff correspondent of United News of Bangladesh from Bangladesh attended. The professor also answered the questions of the journalists.
He said the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to build Hainan Island into a free trade pilot zone, supporting Hainan’s gradual exploration and steady advancement of the construction of a Chinese-style free trade port, and establishing a policy and institutional system for free trade ports in stages and steps in April 2018.
Saying that the free trade port is hailed as the most advanced form of openness in the world today, he said the construction of a free trade port in Hainan represents China’s strategic choice to explore and promote a higher level of opening up, demonstrating China’s unwavering determination and confidence in advancing opening up.
He informed that the initial establishment of a policy and institutional system for free trade ports focused on trade liberalization and investment facilitation will be finalized by 2025.
"The institutional system and operational model of the free trade port will be more mature by 2035," he also said.
Israeli airstrikes near Syria’s Aleppo kill 42 people
The Syrian army says Israeli airstrikes early Friday near the northern city of Aleppo killed or wounded “a number of” people and caused damage. An opposition war monitor said the strikes killed 42, most of them Syrian troops.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Israeli strikes hit missile depots for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group in Aleppo’s southern suburb of Jibreen, near the Aleppo International Airport, and the nearby town of Safira, home to a sprawling military facility.
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The Observatory said 36 Syrian troops and six Hezbollah fighters died, and dozens of people were wounded, calling it the deadliest such attack in years.
There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes.
Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in its northern neighbor, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them.
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On Thursday, Syrian state media reported airstrikes near the capital, Damascus, saying they wounded two civilians.
Hezbollah has had an armed presence in Syria since it joined the country’s conflict fighting alongside government forces.
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Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday's strike did not affect the airport.
The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Bus plunges off bridge in South Africa killing 45 people
A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
The only survivor of the crash was an 8-year-old child, who was receiving medical attention, according to authorities in the northern province of Limpopo. They said the child was seriously injured.
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The Limpopo provincial government said the bus veered off the Mmamatlakala bridge and plunged 50 meters (164 feet) into a ravine before busting into flames.
Search operations were ongoing, the provincial government said, but many bodies were burned beyond recognition and still trapped inside the vehicle.
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Authorities said they believe the bus was traveling from the neighboring country of Botswana to the town of Moria, which hosts a popular Easter pilgrimage. They said it appeared that the driver lost control and was one of the dead.
Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga was in Limpopo province for a road safety campaign and changed plans to visit the crash scene, the national Department of Transport said. She said there was an investigation underway into the cause of the crash and offered her condolences to the families of the victims.
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The South African government often warns of the danger of road accidents during the Easter holidays, which is a particularly busy and dangerous time for road travel. More than 200 people died in road crashes during the Easter weekend last year.
The Zionist Christian Church has its headquarters in Moria and its Easter pilgrimage attracts hundreds of thousands of people from across South Africa and neighboring countries. This year is the first time the Easter pilgrimage to Moria is set to go ahead since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hezbollah fires heavy rockets at northern Israel after deadliest day of Israeli strikes on Lebanon
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time Thursday in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine, including what the group said were several paramedics.
There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said. The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack.
Israel vows to target Lebanon's Hezbollah even if cease-fire reached with Hamas in Gaza
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, concerns have grown that near-daily clashes along the border between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into a full-scale war. Airstrikes and rocket fire Wednesday killed 16 Lebanese and one Israeli, making it the deadliest day of the current conflict.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel had killed 30 Hezbollah militants in the past week and had destroyed dozens of Hezbollah military sites in an effort to push the Iran-backed group away from the border.
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The recent increase in violence has raised alarm in Washington and at the United Nations.
“Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden and for the administration," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, saying the U.S. is closely monitoring developments. “We’ve also been very, very clear: We do not support a war in Lebanon.”
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Kirby said the U.S. is working to halt the fighting through diplomatic efforts. This needs to be a top priority for Israel and Lebanon, he said, and would allow displaced civilians to return home. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled the fighting.
At around sunset Thursday, a barrage of Katyusha and Burkan rockets was fired toward the Israeli village of Goren and Shlomi, a statement from Hezbollah said. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the group had not previously fired Burkan rockets at civilian targets, but was now responding to the recent spate of Israeli airstrikes.
Lebanon’s state media reported that 10 paramedics were among those killed Wednesday. The Israeli military said it struck targets for Hezbollah and an allied Sunni Muslim group.
Hezbollah has frequently used Russian-made portable anti-tank Kornet missiles in recent months. More rarely, it has launched Burkan rockets which, according to the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, can carry a warhead that weighs between 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).
Hezbollah says its attacks aim to keep some Israeli divisions busy and away from Gaza, and Nasrallah says attacks on the border will only stop when Israel halts its offensive in Gaza.
Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday he has discussed with Israeli counterparts that Israel doesn’t need “to have a northern front that they have to deal with as they’re dealing with Gaza.” And he said he spoke with Lebanon’s chief of defense also, in an effort to do what the U.S. can to “help bring down the temperature.”
The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Thursday it was imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”
“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL said. It added that the peacekeeping force remains ready to support that process in any way it can.
The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. More than 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians have died in Lebanon.
UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings for aid into Gaza
The top United Nations court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave.
The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Israel denies it is committing genocide. It says its military campaign is self defense and aimed at Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
Thursday’s order came after South Africa sought more provisional measures, including a cease-fire, citing starvation in Gaza. Israel urged the court not to issue new orders.
In its legally binding order, the court told Israel to take measures “without delay” to ensure “the unhindered provision” of basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
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It also ordered Israel to immediately ensure that its military does not take action that could that could harm Palestinians' rights under the Genocide Convention, including by preventing the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The court told Israel to report back in a month on its implementation of the orders.
Israel declared war in response to a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others were taken hostage. Israel responded with a campaign of airstrikes and a ground offensive that have left over 32,000 Palestinians dead, according to local health authorities. The fighting also displaced over 80% of Gaza's population and caused widespread damage.
The U.N. and international aid agencies say virtually the entire Gaza population is struggling to get enough food, with hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine, especially in hard-hit northern Gaza.
South Africa welcomed Thursday's decision, calling it “significant.”
“The fact that Palestinian deaths are not solely caused by bombardment and ground attacks, but also by disease and starvation, indicates a need to protect the group’s right to exist,” the South African president said in a statement.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the order.
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In a written response earlier this month to South Africa's request for more measures, Israel said the claims by South Africa were “wholly unfounded," “morally repugnant" and "an abuse both of the Genocide Convention and of the Court itself.”
After initially sealing Gaza’s borders in the early days of the war, Israel began to permit entry of humanitarian supplies. It says it places no restrictions on the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to properly organize the deliveries.
The U.N. and international aid groups say deliveries have been impeded by Israeli military restrictions, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.
Israel has been working with international partners on a plan to soon begin deliveries of aid by sea.
Israel has repeatedly feuded with the United Nations, particularly UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and main provider of aid in Gaza. Israel accuses the agency of tolerating and even cooperating with Hamas — a charge UNRWA denies.
The court said in its order that “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine ... but that famine is setting in." It cited a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that said at least 31 people, including 27 children, have already died of malnutrition and dehydration.
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The world court said earlier orders imposed on Israel after landmark hearings in South Africa’s case “do not fully address the consequences arising from the changes in the situation” in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the army said it inspected 258 aid trucks, but only 116 were distributed within Gaza by the U.N.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, has also run pilot programs to inspect the humanitarian aid at Israel’s main checkpoints in the south and then use land crossings in central Gaza to try to bring aid to the devastated northern part of the Strip. The agency had no immediate comment on the ICJ ruling.
Israeli bombardment hits 212 schools in Gaza: UN
The heavy bombardment against Gaza by Israel has resulted in "direct hits" on 212 schools within the enclave, according to analysis partnered with the United Nations released on Wednesday.
Satellite images have shown that at least 53 schools have been "completely destroyed" since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, along with an almost 9-percent rise in attacks on school facilities since mid-February, as reported by the UN children's fund (UNICEF), the Education Cluster, and Save the Children.
The "high trend of attacks on school facilities" has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the report's authors noted, amid "intense Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea across much of the Gaza Strip."
Of the 563 school buildings in Gaza, 165 of the 212 that received a direct hit are in areas designated for evacuation by the Israeli military. Data indicates that 62 schools were directly targeted in southern Khan Younis governorate, 14 in the Middle Area governorate, 94 in Gaza governorate, and 42 in North Gaza governorate -- which is the most severely affected area to date, with 86.2 percent of school buildings either directly hit or damaged.
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More than one in two school premises run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) have also been hit since October last year, according to the report, along with government buildings targeted by Israeli shelling or during the ground operation.
"No education is happening in Gaza at all for nearly six months," UNRWA said on Wednesday upon the publication of the UN-partnered report, noting more than 625,00 students and 22,000 teachers attended school before Oct. 7.
Additional findings derived from the satellite imagery and other sources "provide evidence for military use of schools" by Israeli Security Forces "since the beginning of the escalation."
The report also highlighted that since Oct. 7, over 320 school buildings have been utilized as shelters by displaced individuals. Among these facilities, 188 have experienced direct hits or have been damaged.
The authors of the report stated that once the conflict ends, at least 67 percent of schools in Gaza "will require either complete reconstruction or significant rehabilitation to become functional again."
Victory' in Gaza only 'a few weeks away', Netanyahu tells US Congress members
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of US Congress members that "victory" in Gaza and "getting" Hamas' senior leadership in the enclave are only "a few weeks away."On Wednesday, Netanyahu told a bipartisan group from the US Congress, “We’ve killed many senior leaders [of Hamas], including number four in Hamas, number three in Hamas. We’ll get number two and number one. That’s victory. Victory is within reach. It’s a few weeks away," reports CNN.
Hosting the congressional delegation in Jerusalem, which the Prime Minister's Office claimed was organised by the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Netanyahu said it was "very important to maintain bipartisan support" but "especially in these trying times."
Netanyahu stated that Israel "had no choice" but to enter Rafah because its "very existence is on the line."
Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace: US Senate Majority Leader Chuck SchumerThe prime minister stated that Israel has had a "remarkable alignment" with the Biden administration since the October 7 Hamas attack, but they have fundamentally opposing views on an Israeli incursion into Rafah, the report said.Israel has received international condemnation before of its planned onslaught on the southern Gaza city, where over one million Palestinians are currently taking shelter. Netanyahu had previously stated to the delegation that displaced Palestinians in Gaza could "just move" out of Rafah and "move with their tents."
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Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, pioneer of behavioural economics dead at 90
Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won a Nobel Prize in economics for his insights into how ingrained neurological biases influence decision making, died Wednesday at the age of 90.
Kahneman and his longtime collaborator Amos Tversky reshaped the field of economics, which prior to their work mostly assumed that people were “rational actors” capable of clearly evaluating choices such as which car to buy or which job to take. The pair's research — which Kahneman described for lay audiences in his best-selling 2011 book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” — focused on how much decision-making is shaped by subterranean quirks and mental shortcuts that can distort our thoughts in irrational yet predictable ways.
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Take, for instance, false confidence in predictions. In an excerpt from his book, Kahneman described a “leaderless group” challenge used by the Israeli army's Psychology Branch to assess future leadership potential. Eight candidates, all unknowns to one another, had to cross a six-foot wall together using only a long log — without touching the wall or the ground with the log, or touching the wall themselves.
Observers of the test — including Kahneman himself, who was born in Tel Aviv and did his Israeli national service in the 1950s — confidently identified leaders-in-the-making from these challenges, only to learn later that their assessments bore little relation to how the same soldiers performed at officer training school. The kicker: This fact didn't dent the group's confidence in its own judgments, which seemed intuitively obvious — and yet also continued to fail at predicting leadership potential.
“It was the first cognitive illusion I discovered,” Kahneman later wrote. He coined the phrase “ the illusion of validity ” to describe the phenomenon.
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Kahneman’s partner, Barbara Tversky — the widow of Amos Tversky — confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Tversky, herself a Stanford University emerita professor of psychology, said the family is not disclosing the location or cause of death.
Kahneman's decades-long partnership with Tversky began in 1969 when the two collaborated on a paper analyzing researcher intuitions about statistical methods in their work. “The experience was magical,” Kahneman later wrote in his Nobel autobiography. “Amos was often described by people who knew him as the smartest person they knew. He was also very funny ... and the result was that we could spend hours of solid work in continuous mirth.”
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The two worked together so closely that they flipped a coin to determine which of them would be the lead author on their first paper, and thereafter simply alternated that honor for decades.
“Amos and I shared the wonder of together owning a goose that could lay golden eggs -– a joint mind that was better than our separate minds,” Kahneman wrote.
Kahneman and Tversky began studying decision making in 1974 and quickly hit upon the central insight that people react far more intensely to losses than to equivalent gains. This is the now-common notion of “loss aversion,” which among other things helps explain why many people prefer status quo choices when making decisions. Combined with other findings, the pair developed a theory of risky choice they eventually named “prospect theory.”
Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 for these and other contributions that ended up underpinning the discipline now known as behavioral economics. Economists say Tversky would certainly have shared the prize had he not died in 1996. The Nobel is not awarded posthumously.