INDIA
Tunnel rescuers change tack
Rescuers are considering opening a vertical shaft to free 41 men trapped in a collapsed tunnel after drilling at the site was paused over fears of further cave-ins and as efforts stretched into a second week. Excavators have been removing earth, concrete and rubble from the under-construction tunnel in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand since Nov. 12 after a portion of the tunnel the workers were in collapsed. Bhaskar Khulbe, a senior government official involved in the rescue operations, said that teams were considering digging an entirely new shaft, including from above. “We are exploring all options to save the workers,” Khulbe said late on Saturday. He said rescuers were looking at a time frame of “a maximum of four to five days” to free the men, without giving further details.
IRAN
Jailed rapper freed on bail
Authorities have released on bail a popular rapper jailed for more than a year over supporting nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, local media have reported. Toomaj Salehi, 32, was arrested in October last year after backing the wave of demonstrations that erupted a month earlier, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Amini, who had been taken into custody over an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women. In July, Salehi was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of “corruption on Earth” — one of the country’s most serious offenses, which carries a maximum penalty of death. The musician’s lawyer, Amir Raisian, told daily Shargh late on Saturday that upon appeal, the Supreme Court had found “flaws in the initial sentence” and ordered that Salehi be “released from prison today on bail.”
UNITED STATES
Century-overdue book found
A library book that is more than a century overdue was finally returned in St Paul, Minnesota. The tome, Famous Composers, turned up while someone was sorting through a relative’s belongings. The St Paul Public Library checkout slip shows it was last borrowed in 1919, Minnesota Public Radio reported. St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter joked in a tweet on Saturday that there would be no fine. The library, like many across the country, stopped charging late fees in 2019. St Paul Public Library digital library coordinator John Larson said he doubted the book would go back into circulation because of its delicate condition, but expected the library to hang onto it. “It has reached a point where it’s not just an old book, it’s an artifact. It has a little bit of history to it,” he said. Larson said in his 25 years working for the library it was the oldest book he ever saw returned.
BRAZIL
Swift delays show after death
American superstar Taylor Swift on Saturday postponed a show in Rio de Janeiro due to extreme heat, after a fan died at the singer’s concert the previous night. The postponement came after the heat index in the city had risen to as high as 59°C on Friday, when a 23-year-old fan in the crowd of 60,000 died during the first “Eras Tour” show in the country. “The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers and crew has to and always will come first,” she wrote on Instagram in announcing the postponement. The concert was moved to today. “It’s with a shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight,” Swift said in a post on Instagram to her millions of followers earlier Saturday. “I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by this.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home