7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern Philippines and tsunami warnings are issued
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the southern Philippine coast, prompting many villagers to flee their homes in panic around midnight after Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning.
The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. at a depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said that based on the magnitude and location, it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia. But the center later dropped its tsunami warning.
In Japan, authorities evacuation orders were issued in various parts of Okinawa Prefecture, including for the entire coastal area, affecting thousands of people.
Teresito Bacolcol, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told The Associated Press his agency advised residents along the coast of southern Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move farther inland.
Owners of boats in harbors, estuaries or shallow coastal waters off the two provinces should secure their boats and move away from the waterfront, the quake agency said in its tsunami warning. Boats already at sea should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised, it said.
Based on the quake’s magnitude, Bacolcol said a 1-meter (3.2-foot) tsunami may hit but the wave could be higher in enclosed coves, bays and straits.
Villagers were fleeing their homes to safety around midnight in Hinatuan town and outlying areas in Surigao del Sur province, according to authorities and the government’s disaster-response agency, which said that it could not immediately provide specific details.
More than three hours after the quake hit, Bacolcol said there was no report of a tsunami hitting the coast from his agency’s field offices but added authorities would continue monitoring.
Rescuers inspect a damaged market in the quake-hit town of Padada, Davao Del Sur province, Philippines on Dec. 15, 2019. Photo : Cerilo Ebrano,/EPA-EFE
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
Most of flights cancelled or delayed at Munich airport in Germany following severe snowstorm
BERLIN (DPA/CNBC/AP) -Severe disruptions hit Munich and neighboring regions after a winter storm unleashed heavy snowfall, causing chaos at Munich airport. German DPA news agency reported that 760 flights were scheduled for Saturday (December 2) but were cancelled.
Munich airport was completely shut on Saturday, initially aiming for a noon reopening, but later the shutdown was extended until 6 am on Sunday (December 3). As much as 12-15 inches of snow was expected in places, “a large portion of that within a period of 12 hours overnight into Saturday,” DPA said.
The snowstorm’s impact wasn’t confined to Germany, affecting airports in Zurich, leading to flight delays and cancellations. Germany’s national railway too halted trains to and from Munich’s central station, urging passengers to reconsider or reroute their journeys. Stranded travelers faced an overnight stay on trains due to the suspension, AP reported.
⚠️⚠️Kein Flugverkehr bis morgen, 03.12. 6 Uhr ⚠️⚠️ Aufgrund der anhaltenden starken Schneefälle wird bis voraussichtlich morgen, 03.12. 6 Uhr kein Flugverkehr stattfinden. pic.twitter.com/HRxWLlqY3p
The snowstorm triggered hazard alerts from authorities in Austria and Switzerland that grappled with their own set of challenges. Authorities in western Austria, raised avalanche warnings to the second-highest level.
The region received a substantial 20 inches of snow overnight, heightening concerns about the potential threat of avalanches. This alert underscores the need for heightened vigilance and precautionary measures in response to the changing weather patterns.
Meanwhile, officials said that the weather has caused accidents and incidents across the region. Police in Lower Bavaria, the region northwest of Munich, said they responded to 350 incidents related to snow and ice between Friday night and early Saturday.
Officials for Germany’s Bundesliga also announced that a soccer match between Bayern Munich and Union Berlin, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Munich, was canceled.
A train is parked at the central station after heavy snow fall in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Dec.2,2023. Photo : Matthias Schrader/AP
Police in Lower Bavaria, the region northwest of Munich, said they responded to 350 incidents related to snow and ice between Friday night and early Saturday, some of which led to minor to moderate injuries.
In Austria and Switzerland, the new snowfall led officials to raise the alarm about the danger of avalanches. The provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg in western Austria raised their avalanche warnings to the second-highest level after the region received up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) of snow overnight.
The Austrian railway company OeBB said Saturday afternoon that various stretches of its routes across the country were closed due to the storm.
In the Czech Republic, the major highway and some other roads were blocked for hours, trains and public transportation faced delays and cancellations, and over 15,000 households were without power.
Snow covered trains are parked at the central station after heavy snow fall in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Dec.2,2023. Photo : Matthias Schrader/AP
The key D1 highway that links the capital Prague with the second largest city of Brno was in a standstill for hours after an accident that caused a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) long line of trucks. Traffic jams also hit other parts of the highway as well the D5 that links Prague with Germany.
A number of high-speed and regional trains had to stop in the southern part of the country as cross-border trains from neighboring Austria and Germany didn’t operate, and some roads were expected to remain closed for the day.
With inputs from agencies | (Edited by : Shasi Kumar. Peter Dzionsko)
Tesla Cybertruck created a stir as soon it arrived
The wild-looking electric pick-up truck will be offered in three trim levels
Texas, USA (DT) – The launch of Tesla Cyber Truck has created a stir in the market, people are searching it on google.
Tesla is known for its electronic vehicles, Tesla has recently launched its truck named Cyber Truck which has become a topic of discussion in the market as soon as it arrives.
Tesla Cybertruck deliveries are finally starting! Today is the day. Just about 4 years after the initial unveiling event, the first buyers will get their electric Bladerunner, apocalypse-ready Tesla Cybertrucks.
Reportedly, the Tesla Cybertruck delivery event that Tesla is going to be livestreaming will include the delivery of 10 trucks. That matches quite closely with what Tesla did in the past with the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y. Additionally, there are rumors that deliveries will also occur today at service and delivery centers around the USA.
This Cybertruck is bullet proof, to prove this, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has also shared a video on his twitter/X handle which we are sharing with you. In this video you can see how a gunman is spraying bullets on a truck but the truck is not getting harmed.
Musk said the Cybertruck’s hard steel body was bulletproof, and that its windows were “rock proof.” He said it could tow over 11,000 pounds, accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds and features a “super-tough” composite bed that is six feet long and four feet wide. He added that the vehicle would “change the look of the roads” and that the “future finally looks like the future.”
let us know a little more about this truck, what are its features and what is its specialties.
As you see this truck its made with special metalic which even a bullet can not penetrate.
Let us know a little about its price and speed
During the latest event in Texas, Tesla announced final pricing for the Cybertruck. The entry-level, single-motor Rear-Wheel Drive model will arrive in 2025 and kicks off in the US at $49,890 (around $10,000 more than expected). It comes with an estimated 250-mile range and the 0-60mph time is 6.5 seconds.
Up next is the All-Wheel Drive costing $68,890. It features a dual-motor set up with 340 miles of range, 600bhp, a 4.1-second 0-62mph time and almost 15,000Nm in towing capacity. The All-Wheel Drive will be delivered from 2024.
Tesla Cybertruck at Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. Photo : Kyle Field.
The range-topping Cyberbeast will also be available in 2024, priced at $96,390. Power is upped to 845bhp here but range decreases over the All-Wheel Drive to 320 miles. A 0-60mph time of 2.5 seconds is claimed by Tesla.
We first saw the Tesla Cybertruck in 2019 and since then the American EV maker has been teasing us through the lengthy development period of its electric truck. Now the teasing is over, because customers have just got their hands on the very first Cybertruck examples.
Tesla Cybertruck, Petersen Automotive Museum. Photo : Kyle Field
An event at the firm’s Giga Texas facility saw around a dozen Cybertrucks were handed over to customers – two years on from when Tesla initially said the truck would be delivered. The electric truck has made numerous headlines since its conspicuous original reveal, with various sightings of it testing on the roads in America, not to mention the mishap surrounding the broken ‘bulletproof glass’ on stage at the first presentation itself.
US Vice President Harris will attend COP28 climate conference in Dubai
BY CHRIS MEGERIAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will join the U.S. delegation to Dubai for the annual United Nations conference on climate change, the White House said Wednesday.
This weekend’s trip for COP28 appears to have been hastily arranged, since her staff recently said she had no plans to attend.
White House officials did not explain the change in plans, but the announcement comes after criticism of Joe Biden’s decision to skip the summit. He’s also no longer expected to make a promised trip to Africa before the end of the year.
The White House said Biden spoke Wednesday with President Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting COP28. According to an official summary of the call, Biden said Harris will “showcase U.S. global leadership on climate at home and abroad” and will “help galvanize increased global ambition at this critical event.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, special envoy John Kerry, climate adviser Ali Zaidi and clean energy adviser John Podesta are going to Dubai as well. The summit is an opportunity for world leaders to assess their progress — or lack thereof — in the fight against global warming.
John Kerry, U.S.Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, rides in a cart ahead of the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Nov.29,2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo : Peter Dejong/AP
“The urgency of this challenge is clear, but so is our ambition,” Podesta told reporters Wednesday. He said Biden’s agenda was accelerating the spread of clean energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Harris’ participation in the two-week conference will be brief, and she’s scheduled to leave Washington on Friday and return Sunday. She’s expected to speak publicly Saturday.
Her trip will be closely watched for reasons other than climate change. She’s the highest-ranking U.S. leader to visit an Arab nation since the war between Israel and Hamas began almost two months ago.
A White House official said the vice president’s engagement with world leaders at the summit was likely to include conversation on the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss tentative plans.
Biden had originally planned to visit Jordan as well as Israel in October, but the stop was scrapped amid controversy over an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Although the blast was initially blamed on Israel by Hamas authorities, further analysis — including by The Associated Press — indicated that a misfired Palestinian rocket was the cause.
Global leaders pay tribute to Henry Kissinger, but his record also draws criticism
TOKYO (AP) — Global leaders paid tribute to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Thursday, but there was also sharp criticism of the man who remained an influential figure decades after his official service as one of the most powerful diplomats in American history.
Kissinger, who died Wednesday at 100, drew praise as a skilled defender of U.S. interests. On social media, though, he was widely called a war criminal who left lasting damage throughout the world.
#HenryKissinger, one of the country's most important foreign policy thinkers for more than half a century, a controversial Nobel Peace Prize winner and #diplomatic powerhouse whose service under two Presidents left an indelible mark on U.S. foreign policy, died on Wednesday at… pic.twitter.com/vEuqRdN1rc
“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices” on foreign affairs, said former President George W. Bush, striking a tone shared by many high-level officials past and present.
“I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army,” Bush said in a statement. “When he later became Secretary of State, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America’s greatness.”
Kissinger served two presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and dominated foreign policy as the United States withdrew from Vietnam and established ties with China.
Criticism of Kissinger, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam in 1973, was especially strong on social media, where many posted celebratory videos in reaction to his death.
A Rolling Stone magazine headline said, “Henry Kissinger, war criminal beloved by America’s ruling class, finally dies.”
Across South America, Kissinger is remembered as a key figure that helped prop up bloody military dictatorships, claiming they would put the brakes on socialism in the region. Documents have shown Kissinger’s and Nixon’s support for the 1973 coup that deposed Chile’s president. Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship went on to violate human rights, murder opponents, cancel elections, restrict the media, suppress labor unions and disband political parties.
“A man has died whose historical brilliance never managed to conceal his profound moral misery,” Chile’s Ambassador to the United States, Juan Gabriel Valdes, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric retweeted the message.
Kissinger “heedlessly extended and expanded” the war in Vietnam and the bombing of Cambodia came to “symbolize his ruthless hypocrisy when claiming to support American democracy,” according to Elizabeth Becker, who covered Cambodia before the 1975 Khmer Rouge takeover and author of “When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution.”
“And to what end? Ultimately, no dominoes fell to communism. The only country communist Vietnam invaded was communist Cambodia to overthrow Pol Pot,” Becker said.
The head of the independent Documentation Center of Cambodia, Youk Chhang, described Kissinger’s legacy as “controversial” though not widely debated in the country. Well over half of the population was born after the Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979, and even those who lived through the civil war and the group’s brutal rule recall the U.S. involvement and its B-52 bombers, “but not Henry Kissinger,” he said.
“Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians — and set (a) path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge,” Sophal Ear, a scholar at Arizona State University who studies Cambodia’s political economy, wrote on The Conversation.
“The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch continue to destroy the lives of any man, woman or child who happens across them,” Sophal Ear wrote.
Kissinger’s legacy in Africa is pinned for many historians on his official visit to apartheid South Africa in 1976, just a few months after the apartheid regime’s police had killed more than 170 Black protesters, most of them schoolchildren, in the Soweto uprising.
At the time, the United States was allied with apartheid South Africa as a buffer against Soviet influence in Africa during the Cold War. Kissinger saw South Africa as “merely a gambit in the game of the Cold War,” said Prof. John Stremlau, Honorary Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a former vice president for peace programs at The Carter Center.
China’s President Xi Jinping sent President Joe Biden a message of condolence Thursday.
“Henry Kissinger’s strategy and excellence in diplomacy has shaped global politics throughout the 20th century,“ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement posted on X. “His influence and legacy will continue to reverberate well into the 21st century.”
Kissinger initiated the Paris negotiations that ultimately provided a face-saving means to get the United States out of a costly war in Vietnam.
Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said their father and Kissinger enjoyed “a partnership that produced a generation of peace for our nation.”
“Dr. Kissinger played an important role in the historic opening to the People’s Republic of China and in advancing détente with the Soviet Union, bold initiatives which initiated the beginning of the end of the Cold War,” the Nixon daughters said in a statement. “His ‘shuttle diplomacy’ to the Middle East helped to advance the relaxation of tensions in that troubled region of the world.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was “in awe” of Kissinger.
“Of course, like anyone who has confronted the most difficult problems of international politics, he was criticized at times, even denounced,” Blair said. “But I believe he was always motivated not from a coarse ‘realpolitik,’ but from a genuine love of the free world and the need to protect it. He was a problem solver, whether in respect of the Cold War, the Middle East or China and its rise.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said as he met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv that Kissinger “laid the cornerstone of the peace agreement, which (was) later signed with Egypt, and so many other processes around the world I admire.”
Blinken said Kissinger “really set the standard for everyone who followed in this job” and that he was “very privileged to get his counsel many times, including as recently as about a month ago.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message to Kissinger’s wife that he was “a wise and far-sighted statesman” and his name “is inextricably linked with a pragmatic foreign policy line, which at one time made it possible to achieve detente in international tensions and reach the most important Soviet-American agreements that contributed to the strengthening of global security.”
Leaders of Kissinger’s native Germany paid tribute to the former diplomat, a Jew who fled Nazi rule with his family in his teens.
In a message of condolences to Kissinger’s family, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote that “with his détente and disarmament policy, Henry Kissinger laid the foundation for the end of the Cold War and the democratic transition in eastern Europe” which led to Germany’s reunification.
Shane MacGowan, irascible frontman of The Pogues, has died at age 65
BY JILL LAWLESS AND DAVE BRYAN
LONDON (AP) — Shane MacGowan, the boozy, rabble-rousing singer and chief songwriter of The Pogues, who infused traditional Irish music with the energy and spirit of punk, died Thursday, his family said. He was 65.
MacGowan’s songwriting and persona made him an iconic figure in contemporary Irish culture, and some of his compositions have become classics — most notably the bittersweet Christmas ballad “Fairytale of New York,” which Irish President Michael D. Higgins said “will be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.”
“It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling and dearly beloved Shane MacGowan,” his wife Victoria Clarke, his sister Siobhan and father Maurice said in a statement.
The singer died peacefully with his family by his side, the statement added.
The musician had been hospitalized in Dublin for several months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022. He was discharged last week, ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day.
The Pogues melded Irish folk and rock ’n’ roll into a unique, intoxicating blend, though MacGowan became as famous for his sozzled, slurred performances as for his powerful songwriting.
His songs blended the scabrous and the sentimental, ranging from carousing anthems to snapshots of life in the gutter to unexpectedly tender love songs. The Pogues’ most famous song, “Fairytale of New York” is a tale of down-on-their-luck immigrant lovers that opens with the decidedly unfestive words: “It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank.” The duet between the raspy-voiced MacGowan and the velvet tones of the late Kirsty MacColl is by far the most beloved Pogues song in both Ireland and the U.K.
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave called Shane MacGowan “a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation.”
The musician had been hospitalized in Dublin for several months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022. He was discharged last week, ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day.
The Pogues melded Irish folk and rock ’n’ roll into a unique, intoxicating blend, though MacGowan became as famous for his sozzled, slurred performances as for his powerful songwriting.
His songs blended the scabrous and the sentimental, ranging from carousing anthems to snapshots of life in the gutter to unexpectedly tender love songs. The Pogues’ most famous song, “Fairytale of New York” is a tale of down-on-their-luck immigrant lovers that opens with the decidedly unfestive words: “It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank.” The duet between the raspy-voiced MacGowan and the velvet tones of the late Kirsty MacColl is by far the most beloved Pogues song in both Ireland and the U.K.
Musician Shane MacGowan watches as U2 perform at Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland, with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke by his side, July 22, 2017. Photo : CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave called Shane MacGowan “a true friend and the greatest songwriter of his generation.”
Higgins, the Irish president, said “his songs capture within them, as Shane would put it, the measure of our dreams.”
“His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways,” Higgins said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said MacGowan’s songs “beautifully captured the Irish experience, especially the experience of being Irish abroad.”
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said: “Nobody told the Irish story like Shane — stories of emigration, heartache, dislocation, redemption, love and joy.”
Born on Christmas Day 1957 in England to Irish parents, MacGowan spent his early years in rural Ireland before the family moved back to London. Ireland remained the lifelong center of his imagination and his yearning. He grew up steeped in Irish music absorbed from family and neighbors, along with the sounds of rock, Motown, reggae and jazz.
He attended the elite Westminster School in London, from which he was expelled, and spent time in a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown in his teens.
MacGowan embraced the punk scene that exploded in Britain in the mid-1970s. He joined a band called the Nipple Erectors, performing under the name Shane O’Hooligan, before forming The Pogues alongside musicians including Jem Finer and Spider Stacey.
The Pogues — shortened from the original name Pogue Mahone, a rude Irish phrase — fused punk’s furious energy with traditional Irish melodies and instruments including banjo, tin whistle and accordion.
Shane MacGowan of London Irish group The Pogues performs on stage at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park in central London, July 5, 2014. Photo : LEON NEAL/AFP/GETTY
“It never occurred to me that you could play Irish music to a rock audience,” MacGowan recalled in “A Drink with Shane MacGowan,” a 2001 memoir co-authored with Clarke. “Then it finally clicked. Start a London Irish band playing Irish music with a rock and roll beat. The original idea was just to rock up old ones but then I started writing.”
The band’s first album, “Red Roses for Me,” was released in 1984 and featured raucous versions of Irish folk songs alongside originals including “Boys from the County Hell,” “Dark Streets of London” and “Streams of Whisky.”
Playing pubs and clubs in London and beyond, the band earned a loyal following and praise from music critics and fellow musicians from Bono to Bob Dylan.
MacGowan wrote many of the songs on the next two albums, “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” (1985) and “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” (1988), ranging from rollicking rousers like the latter album’s title track to ballads like “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and “The Broad Majestic Shannon.”
The band also released a 1986 EP, “Poguetry in Motion,” which contained two of MacGowan’s finest songs, “A Rainy Night in Soho” and “The Body of an American.” The latter featured prominently in early-2000s TV series “The Wire,” sung at the wakes of Baltimore police officers.
“I wanted to make pure music that could be from any time, to make time irrelevant, to make generations and decades irrelevant,” he recalled in his memoir.
Shane MacGowan live onstage in 1988, courtesy of the documentary film Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan. Photo : Andrew Catlin/Magnolia
The Pogues were briefly on top of the world, with sold-out tours and appearances on U.S. television, but the band’s output and appearances grew more erratic, due in part to MacGowan’s struggles with alcohol and drugs. He was fired by the other band members in 1991 after they became fed up with a string of no-shows, including when The Pogues were opening for Dylan. The band briefly replaced MacGowan with Clash frontman Joe Strummer before breaking up.
MacGowan performed with a new band, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, with whom he put out two albums: “The Snake” in 1995 and “The Crock Of Gold” in 1997. He reunited with The Pogues in 2001 for a series of concerts and tours, despite his well-documented problems with drinking and performances that regularly included slurred lyrics and at least one fall on stage.
MacGowan had years of health problems and used a wheelchair after breaking his pelvis a decade ago. He was long famous for his broken, rotten teeth until receiving a full set of implants in 2015 from a dental surgeon who described the procedure as “the Everest of dentistry.”
MacGowan received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish president on his 60th birthday. The occasion was marked with a celebratory concert at the National Concert Hall in Dublin with performers including Bono, Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor and Johnny Depp.
Clarke wrote on Instagram that “there’s no way to describe the loss that I am feeling and the longing for just one more of his smiles that lit up my world.”
“I am blessed beyond words to have met him and to have loved him and to have been so endlessly and unconditionally loved by him and to have had so many years of life and love and joy and fun and laughter and so many adventures,” she wrote.
41 rescued workers emerge dazed and smiling after 17 days trapped in collapsed road tunnel in India
UTTARKASHI, India (AP) — Forty-one construction workers emerged dazed and smiling late Tuesday from a collapsed tunnel where they had been stranded the last 17 days — a happy ending to an ordeal that had gripped India and involved a massive rescue operation that overcame several setbacks.
Locals, relatives and government officials erupted in joy, set off firecrackers and shouted “Bharat Mata ki Jai” — Hindi for “Long live mother India” — as happy workers walked out after receiving a brief checkup by doctors. Officials hung garlands around their necks as the crowd cheered.
Nitin Gadkari, the country’s minister of road transport and highways, said in a video posted on the social media platform X that he was “completely relieved and happy” that all of the workers were rescued from the Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarkashi, a town in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand.
“This was a well-coordinated effort by multiple agencies, marking one of the most significant rescue operations in recent years,” Gadkari said.
No one was seriously injured or killed when a landslide caused a section of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) tunnel about 200 meters (220 yards) from the entrance to collapse early on the morning of Nov. 12. The workers were finishing their shifts and many were likely looking forward to celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, that day.
An ambulance waits to carry workers from the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, India, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. Officials in India said Tuesday they were on the verge of rescuing the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country’s north, after rescuers drilled their way through debris to reach them. (AP Photo)
The workers had light in the collapsed tunnel, and since early in their ordeal, they were provided with food, water and oxygen through pipes. More than a dozen doctors, including psychiatrists, were also at the site monitoring their health.
Officials said all 41 workers made it through the ordeal in good health. Before emerging to the cameras and crowds and being whisked away in ambulances, each was given a checkup at a makeshift medical camp in the tunnel entrance.
The rescue was expected to be straightforward and last only a few days, but a series of setbacks led to its expansion and to the workers being trapped for more than two weeks.
During the final stretch, about a dozen rescuers took turns digging through rocks and debris overnight Monday into Tuesday using hand-held drilling tools, said Kirti Panwar, a state government spokesperson.
Rescuers resorted to digging by hand after the machine they had been using broke down Friday. The machine had bored through about 47 meters (51 yards) of the roughly 57-60 meters (62-66 yards) needed to reach the workers.
The workers were extracted one by one on a wheeled stretcher that was pulled through a roughly meter-wide (yard-wide) tunnel of welded pipes that crews had pushed through the dug-out space.
People watch rescue operations at the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, India, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. Officials in India said Tuesday they were on the verge of rescuing the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country’s north, after rescuers drilled their way through debris to reach them. (AP Photo)
Devender, a rescuer who only gave his first name, told the New Delhi Television channel that “the trapped workers were overjoyed when they spotted us in the tunnel. Some rushed toward me and hugged me.”
Most of the workers were migrant laborers from throughout the country, and many of their families traveled to the site and camped out for days in hopes of seeing them rescued.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to some of the rescued workers over the phone and asked about their wellbeing, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. He said their courage and patience were an inspiration to everyone, and he wished them good health.
He also praised the many people who took part in the rescue.
“Everyone involved in the mission has created an amazing example of humanity and teamwork,” Modi said.
Ambulances wait to carry workers from the site of an under-construction road tunnel that collapsed in Silkyara in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, India, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. Officials in India said Tuesday they were on the verge of rescuing the 41 construction workers trapped in a collapsed mountain tunnel for over two weeks in the country’s north, after rescuers drilled their way through debris to reach them. (AP Photo)
The tunnel the workers were building was designed as part of the Chardham all-weather road, which will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites. Some experts say the project, a flagship initiative of the federal government, will exacerbate fragile conditions in the upper Himalayas, where several towns are built atop landslide debris.
Large numbers of pilgrims and tourists visit Uttarakhand’s many Hindu temples, with the number increasing over the years because of the continued construction of buildings and roadways.
After Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, Now Malaysia announced Visa Free for Indian
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia will grant visa-free entry to citizens of China and India for stays of up to 30 days starting on Dec. 1, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.
Anwar made the announcement late on Sunday during a speech at his People’s Justice Party congress.
In a statement on Monday, Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry said the visa exemptions would last until Dec. 31, 2024.
China and India are Malaysia’s fourth- and fifth-largest largest sources of tourists
Malaysia recorded 9.16 million tourist arrivals between January and June this year, with 498,540 from China and 283,885 from India, according to government data. That compares with 1.5 million arrivals from China and 354,486 from India in the same period of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Other Asian countries have been taking similar measures.
China last week announced visa-free entry from next month for citizens of Malaysia and several European countries, while neighboring Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on the tourism sector, has exempted Chinese and Indian nationals among others.
Japan, Vietnam agree to deepen security cooperation amid China’s rise
TOKYO (Kyodo News) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong agreed Monday to deepen maritime security cooperation between the two nations in the face of China’s growing military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
During their talks at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, Kishida and Thuong confirmed they will continue to prepare for the success of a special summit involving ASEAN leaders, which Japan will host next month to mark 50 years of their friendship and cooperation.
Kishida and Thuong also reaffirmed their commitment to expanding bilateral collaboration on various issues, including the economy and cultural exchanges, as this year also commemorates half a century of the establishment of Japan-Vietnam diplomatic relations.
Japan has been seeking to capitalize on economic growth in Asia by bolstering ties with developing and emerging countries called the “Global South,” such as Vietnam and other ASEAN members while trying to counter China’s increasing influence in the region.
Vietnam, along with other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has overlapping territorial claims with Beijing in the strategically important South China Sea. China claims a significant portion of this region, home to some of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Meanwhile, Japan has been at odds with China over the Tokyo-controlled, Beijing-claimed Senkaku Islands. Chinese coast guard vessels have repeatedly entered Japanese territorial waters around the uninhabited islets, which Beijing calls Diaoyu.
With China apparently in mind, Japan has launched a new program to offer defense equipment to like-minded countries, called official security assistance, or OSA, earmarking 2 billion yen ($13 million) for the fiscal year through March 2024.
On Monday, Kishida and Thuong agreed that Japan and Vietnam will start discussions about the application of the program.
Kishida is slated to host the Japan-ASEAN special summit for three days from Dec. 16. The 10-member ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Thuong is on a four-day trip to Japan through Thursday. It is his first visit to the nation since becoming the president in March.
Indian Cong Party attacks BRS over EC’s withdrawal of permission for giving aid to Telangana farmers
New Delhi (PTI) The Congress on Monday slammed the BRS over the EC’s withdrawal of permission to the Telangana government for disbursements of financial aid to farmers under the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, alleging it was a result of the “irresponsible and self-serving” approach of the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party. The Congress’ attack on the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) came after the Election Commission (EC) withdrew permission given to the Telangana government for disbursements of financial aid to farmers for rabi crops under the Rythu Bandhu Scheme following a state minister’s violation of the model code by making a public announcement about it.
The poll panel had given its nod to the state government to disburse the rabi installment during the model code of conduct period on certain conditions. The state was asked not to publicize the disbursement during the poll code as part of the condition.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary, organization, K C Venugopal said, “Due to the irresponsible and narrow self-serving approach of the BRS and Harish Rao, under the instructions of his boss KCR, the ECI has denied permission for the disbursement of the Rythu Bandhu installments.” The money is the right of the farmers and it is what they deserve for their year-long hard work, he said. “When this money is supposed to be released any time between October and January, it was the BRS’ desperation which compelled them to make such irresponsible statements,” he said.
“Yet another sin committed by the BRS, which will not be forgiven by the farmers of Telangana,” Venugopal said.
Telangana goes to poll on 30 November. The EC letter to the state chief electoral officer (CEO) read, “The Commission has observed that T Harish Rao, Minister of Finance and Heath and Family Welfare, Govt of Telangana has not only violated the provisions of MCC (model code of conduct) but also conditions laid down as above by publicising the release under the scheme, and thereby disturbed the level playing field in the ongoing election process.” The EC informed the state chief electoral officer about its decision to withdraw its permission.
The state finance minister had made a public announcement about the release of disbursements of rabi installments. He had reportedly said, “The disbursement will be made on Monday. Even before the farmers complete their breakfast and tea, the amount will be credited into their account.”
