While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Nov 29
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Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami (right) embraces a construction worker following his rescue from the collapsed tunnel.
PHOTO: AFP
India tunnel collapse: All 41 workers rescued after 17 days
Indian rescuers have safely brought out all 41 workers from a collapsed Himalayan road tunnel after a marathon 17-day engineering operation to free them, a minister has said.
The evacuation of the men – low-wage workers from some of India’s poorest states – began more than six hours after rescuers broke through the debris in the tunnel in Uttarakhand state, which caved in on Nov 12.
They were pulled out on wheeled stretchers through a 90cm-wide steel pipe, with the entire process being completed in about an hour.
The first to be evacuated, a short man wearing a dark grey winter jacket and a yellow hard hat, was garlanded with marigold flowers and welcomed in traditional Indian style inside the tunnel by state Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and federal Deputy Highways Minister V.K. Singh.
12 hostages released as mediators seek lasting truce
AFP
A new group of hostages were freed on Nov 28 from Gaza captivity in exchange for Palestinian prisoners under an extended truce, as mediators worked for a lasting halt to the seven-week Israel-Hamas war.
Ten Israelis and two Thais were handed over to the Red Cross and were “inside Israeli territory”, the army said.
Israel’s prison services later said 30 Palestinian detainees were released under the truce deal.
‘Horrors’ experienced by French-Israeli hostage, 12
VIA REUTERS
A 12-year-old French-Israeli boy freed by Hamas experienced “horrors” in captivity, his aunt said on Nov 28, including being struck by Palestinian civilians and threatened with weapons.
Eitan Yahalomi “lived through horrors out there,” Ms Deborah Cohen told news channel BFM TV.
While in captivity, “Hamas forced (Eitan) to watch” video of the bloody Oct 7 attacks in which 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians were killed, Ms Cohen said.
Jimmy Carter, 99, leads US presidents at wife’s memorial
Former US president Jimmy Carter, 99, made a rare public appearance on Nov 28 to join two of his successors and all five living first ladies at the memorial service for his wife Rosalynn.
A frail-looking Mr Carter, who has been in hospice care for several months, arrived in a wheelchair at the Glenn Memorial Church in Atlanta for the ceremony for Rosalynn, a humanitarian and mental health advocate who died on Nov 19 aged 96.
Sitting next to Mr Carter in the church were current US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, who watched as Rosalynn Carter’s flower-covered coffin was carried in.
Ukraine suspects Russia poisoned spy chief’s wife
REUTERS
Ukraine said on Nov 28 it believed Russia had poisoned the wife of its military intelligence chief, in an apparent assassination attempt targeting the heart of Kyiv’s leadership.
Marianna Budanova, who is an adviser to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, was hospitalised after a prolonged deterioration in her health, the Babel news outlet reported earlier.
Ukrainian investigators’ “main hypothesis” is that Russia was involved in the poisoning attempt, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov later told AFP.
