Rescuers search for eight trapped in India tunnel collapse

Rescuers search for eight trapped in India tunnel collapse
Police sit at the entrance of the under construction Silkyara tunnel in the Uttarkashi district of India's Uttarakhand state on November 29, 2023, a day after rescue teams safely brought out all the workers from the collapsed Himalayan road tunnel. (AFP/File)
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Updated 23 February 2025
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Rescuers search for eight trapped in India tunnel collapse

Rescuers search for eight trapped in India tunnel collapse
  • Irrigation tunnel collapsed in India’s Telangana state during construction on Saturday
  • Coordinated search and rescue effort underway, says India’s Irrigation Minister Reddy 

MUMBAI: Search teams in southern India were working Sunday to rescue eight workers believed to be trapped in an irrigation tunnel that collapsed during construction, officials said.

The accident occurred Saturday in the state of Telangana after a sudden inflow of water and soil caused a part of the tunnel to cave in.

Workers positioned near a boring machine managed to escape but another eight engineers and laborers near the entrance were believed to be stuck inside, the state’s ruling Congress party said in a statement on X.

“This is an unfortunate incident, but we are committed to bringing them out safely,” state irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters, adding that a coordinated search and rescue effort was underway.

India’s national disaster response force joined rescue efforts on Saturday night, with reports saying the tunnel’s ventilation system remained functional, which ensured the supply of oxygen to the trapped workers.

Media reports said that water needed to be pumped out and debris cleared before rescue teams could help locate and evacuate the trapped workers.

Accidents on large infrastructure construction sites are common in India.

In 2023, 41 Indian workers were rescued after a marathon 17-day engineering rescue operation helped pull them out of a partly collapsed Himalayan road tunnel in the northern state of Uttarakhand.


Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52

Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52
Updated 20 sec ago
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Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52

Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52
  • A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added
  • Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble. Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land
KYIV: Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least six people including a 6-year-old boy, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 52 other people were injured in the attacks, and that the number was likely to rise.
A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added. Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
“Missile strike. Directly on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All services are on site,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his official Telegram.
Images from the scene showed plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.

South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again

South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again
Updated 5 min 53 sec ago
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South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again

South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again
  • Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3, sending troops to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law

SEOUL: A South Korean court on Thursday issued a fresh arrest warrant for former president Yoon Suk Yeol, enabling prosecutors to forcibly bring him in for questioning after he refused to appear at his summons multiple times.

The special counsel investigating Yoon and his wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, said in a statement that “an arrest warrant has been issued today for former president Yoon Suk Yeol.”

Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3, sending troops to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law.

He became the first sitting president in the country to be taken into custody when he was detained in January after resisting arrest for weeks, using his presidential security detail to thwart investigators.

He was released on procedural grounds in March while his insurrection trial continued, but was detained again early July over concerns he might destroy evidence related to the case.

Prosecutors investigating allegations of parliamentary election tampering summoned Yoon for questioning — but he failed to appear, with his lawyers citing health issues.

On Wednesday, they filed a renewed request for a detention warrant.

Now that the warrant has been issued, prosecutors are authorized to enter Yoon’s current detention facility and compel him to appear for questioning.

Legal troubles are also mounting for Yoon and his wife in cases unrelated to his martial law attempt.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that a shaman, Jeon Seong-bae, received a diamond necklace and a luxury designer handbag from a senior official of the Unification Church and passed them on to Kim.


‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave

‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave
Updated 54 min 18 sec ago
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‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave

‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave
  • The burial site has forced Ireland and the Catholic Church to reckon with a legacy of having shunned unmarried mothers and separated them from their children left at the mercy of a cruel system

TUAM: Only one stone wall remains of the old mother and baby home in this town, but it has cast a shadow over all of Ireland.

A mass grave that could hold up to nearly 800 infants and young children — some of it in a defunct septic tank — is being excavated on the grounds of the former home run by the Bon Secours Sisters, an order of nuns.

The burial site has forced Ireland and the Catholic Church — long central to its identity — to reckon with a legacy of having shunned unmarried mothers and separated them from their children left at the mercy of a cruel system.

The grave was accidentally discovered by two boys a half century ago. But the true horror of the place was not known until a local historian began digging into the home’s history.

Catherine Corless revealed that the site was atop a septic tank and that 796 deceased infants were unaccounted for. Her findings caused a scandal when the international news media wrote about her work in 2014.

When test excavations later confirmed an untold number of tiny skeletons were in the sewage pit, then-Prime Minister Enda Kenny called it a “chamber of horrors.”

Pope Francis later apologized for the church’s “crimes” that included forced separations of unwed mothers and children. The nuns apologized for not living up to their Christianity.

A cold, cramped and deadly place

The homes were not unique to Ireland and followed a Victorian-era practice of institutionalizing the poor, troubled and neglected children, and unmarried mothers.

The Tuam home was cold, crowded and deadly. Mothers worked there for up to a year before being cast out — almost always without their children.

Corless’ report led to a government investigation that found 9,000 children, or 15 percent, died in mother and baby homes in the 20th century. The Tuam home — open from 1925 to 1961 — had the highest death rate.

Corless said she was driven to expose the story “the more I realized how those poor, unfortunate, vulnerable kids, through no fault of their own, had to go through this life.”

Discovering deeply held secrets

Corless’ work brought together survivors of the homes and children who discovered their own mothers had given birth to long-lost relatives who died there.

Annette McKay said there’s still a level of denial about the abuse, rape and incest that led some women to the homes while fathers were not held accountable.

“They say things like the women were incarcerated and enslaved for being pregnant,” McKay said. “Well, how did they get pregnant? Was it like an immaculate conception?”

Her mother ended up in the home after being raped as a teenager by the caretaker of the industrial school where she had been sentenced for “delinquency” after her mother died and father, a British soldier, abdicated responsibility.

Her mother, Margaret “Maggie” O’Connor, only revealed her secret when she was in her 70s, sobbing hysterically when the story finally came out.

Six months after giving birth in Tuam in 1942, O’Connor was hanging laundry at another home where she had been transferred when a nun told her, “the child of your sin is dead.”

She never spoke of it again.

Some 20 years later, a Sunday newspaper headline about a “shock discovery” in Tuam caught McKay’s attention. Among the names was her long-lost sister, Mary Margaret O’Connor, who died in 1943.

Shame’s long shadow

Barbara Buckley was born in the Tuam home in 1957 and was 19 months old when she was adopted by a family in Cork.

She was an adult when a cousin told her she’d been adopted and was later able to find her birth mother through an agency.

Her mother came to visit from London for two days in 2000 and happened to be there on her 43rd birthday, though she didn’t realize it.

“I found it very hard to understand, how did she not know it was my birthday?” Buckley said. “Delving deep into the thoughts of the mothers, you know, they put it so far back. They weren’t dealing with it anymore.”

She said her mother had worked in the laundry and was sent away after a year, despite asking to stay longer. Her lasting memory of the place was only being able to see the sky above the high walls.

At the end of their visit, her mother told her it had been lovely to meet her and her family, but said she’d never see her again.

Buckley was devastated at the rejection and asked why.

“She said, ‘I don’t want anyone finding out about this,’” Buckley said. “Going back to 1957 — and it was still a dark secret.”

Luck of the Irish

Pete Cochran considers himself one of the lucky ones.

He was 16 months old when he got out of the home and was adopted by a family in the US, where he avoided the stigma that would have dogged him as a so-called illegitimate child in his homeland.

During his visit to Tuam before the dig began, a man from town told him at a bar: “I respect you now, but growing up, I used to spit on you because that’s what I was taught.”

Cochran hopes the dig turns up few remains.

“I hope they don’t find 796 bodies,” he said. “That all these children were adopted and had a good life like I did.”

McKay has had the same hope for her sister. But even if they found a thimble full of her remains, she’d like to reunite her with her mom, who died in 2016.

“The headstone hasn’t got my mother’s name on it because I fought everybody to say I refuse to put my mom’s name on until she can have her child with her,” McKay said.


Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies

Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies
Updated 31 July 2025
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Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies

Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies
  • Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days after lawmakers led by Zelensky’s ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies
  • Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday are expected to consider a bill restoring the independence of the country’s two main anti-corruption agencies

KYIV: Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday are expected to consider a bill restoring the independence of the country’s two main anti-corruption agencies, aiming to defuse a political crisis that has shaken faith in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership. Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days in a rare show of discontent after lawmakers led by Zelensky’s ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies.

Zelensky reversed course after the outcry and under pressure from top European officials, who warned Ukraine was jeopardizing its bid for EU membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities. Demonstrations had continued even after he submitted the new bill restoring their independence, with hundreds rallying near the presidential administration in Kyiv late on Wednesday to chants of “Shame!” and “The people are the power!.”

“I really want parliament to vote (for the new measure) just as quickly as it did last time,” said protester Kateryna Kononenko, 36, referring to last week’s fast-tracked approval of the controversial amendments.

Activists also called for demonstrations near parliament ahead of Thursday’s vote in an attempt to pressure lawmakers to approve the new bill.

Eradicating graft and shoring up the rule of law are key requirements for Kyiv to join the EU, which Ukrainians see as critical to their future as they fend off a Russian invasion.

Last week’s amendments had given Zelensky’s hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the anti-graft agencies and reassign prosecutors — a step critics had said was designed to protect allies from prosecution.

While much smaller, the rallies of the past week have sparked comparisons to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, when protesters toppled a president they accused of corruption and heavy-handed rule. More than two-thirds of Ukrainians support the recent protests, according to a recent survey by Ukrainian pollster Gradus Research.

Corruption Fighters 

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have stepped up a closely watched campaign against graft since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

They have produced charges against lawmakers and senior government officials, including a then-deputy prime minister who was accused last month of taking a $345,000 kickback. Speaking to Reuters last Friday, after Zelensky’s reversal, NABU chief Semen Kryvonos said he expected pressure against his agency to continue, fueled by what he described as corrupt forces uninterested in cleaning up Ukraine.

He added that he and other anti-corruption officials felt a greater sense of responsibility following the protests, but also called on the country’s leadership to help their effort.

“This responsibility must be shared with the government, which needs to react and say, ‘Okay, there’s corruption here — let’s destroy it.’“


Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal
Updated 31 July 2025
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Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal
  • Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday it will be difficult to make a trade deal with Canada after the country announced it is backing Palestinian statehood.

Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Carney announced on Wednesday Canada is planning to

recognize

the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September

Canada’s announcement follows France and Britain in recognizing a Palestinian state.

Israel and its closest ally, the US, both rejected Carney’s statements.

Canada and the US are working on negotiating a trade deal by August 1, the date Trump is threatening to impose a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Carney said on Wednesday that

tariff negotiations

with US President Donald Trump’s administration have been constructive, but the talks may not conclude by the deadline.