This is the Global News Podcast Happy News Review 2023 from the BBC World Service.

I'm Jackie Leonard and in this edition uploaded on Monday, December the 25th, we'll be reminding you

of some of the more positive stories that made headlines around the world this year.

So any of these ring a bell?

Airlifted to safety from the jungle after a story of survival against the odds.

The rescuers were met with cheers and clapping from the men that were inside.

It will help many children not just mine.

It's gold for Simone Biles.

She takes the all-around title in the style of the champion that she is.

So we have extraordinary rescues, an excellent solution to an ongoing injustice,

medical brilliance, some very fortunate macaques, some good news on Blue Wales,

and this year's favored unit of measurement.

Also in this podcast we celebrate musical records, broken, the adrenaline rush of some

magnificent sport and an Italian man who just popped out to buy bread and made a life-saving catch.

And we begin with a rescue that had people around the world absolutely gripped.

Back in August a cable car in Pakistan's mountainous northern region was left dangling hundreds

of meters above the ground when two wires snapped. On board

were seven school pupils and a teacher. It took military helicopters, locals using

floodlights and zip wires and some steely nerve to rescue them all.

Here's our Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davis. Through the darkness and forest the sight the crowds had been hoping

waiting and praying for strapped to the cable the final rescue, waiting arms and shouts of God is great.

15 hours earlier the children were taking the cable car to school when a cable snapped.

...