Pair were trapped underground for nine days and pitched a tent to keep themselves warm
Two South Korean miners who were trapped underground for nine days survived on coffee powder, authorities have said, after the pair were brought to safety.
The men walked free from a collapsed zinc mine in the north-eastern county of Bonghwa late on Friday. They had been trapped in a vertical shaft about 190 metres (620ft) underground after the mine collapsed on 26 October.
Continue reading...Law enforcement concedes insufficient planning as president belatedly expresses regret for disaster
Thousands of people gathered near Seoul’s city hall on Saturday to commemorate the 156 people killed in a Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon last weekend.
Christian and Buddhist leaders spoke on stage, demanding President Yoon Suk-yeol step down and asking how the country could mourn without knowing the truth behind the deaths.
Continue reading...Minister says ‘small number’ of drones were sent to Russia months before invasion but denies supply continues
Iran has acknowledged for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.
The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said a “small number” of drones were supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February. He denied Tehran that was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.
Continue reading...Russian troops taking vehicles, art and even religious artefacts from Kherson; UK says Russia struggling to train new recruits. This blog is now closed
About 500 power generators have been sent to Ukraine by 17 EU countries to help with the energy problems caused by Russian attacks.
Counties including Slovenia, Slovakia, Denmark, Germany and Spain sent the pieces of kit through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Continue reading...Spurred by Lula’s election, the three countries, home to half of all tropical forests, will pledge stronger conservation efforts
The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.
The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, has been followed by a flurry of activity to avoid the destruction of the Amazon, which scientists have warned is dangerously close to tipping point after years of deforestation under its far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.
Continue reading...A look at who will – and who may not – be at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh climate summit this month
Delegates arrive for Cop27 on 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and the conference is scheduled to end on 18 November, though it is likely to run later. World leaders will attend on 7 and 8 November, and after they depart the crunch negotiations will be done by their representatives, environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.
Continue reading...Mahathir has offered to become prime minister for a third time, as campaigning in Malaysia’s general election gets under way
Mahathir Mohamad, the 97-year-old elder statesman of Malaysian politics, filed his candidacy on Saturday as campaigning for the upcoming general elections began.
The prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, called for elections 10 months ahead of schedule, hoping to win a stronger mandate for his party and stabilise the rocky political landscape that has plagued the country over the past four years.
Continue reading...Restart of aid imminent after surprise deal earlier this week brought prospect of end to blockade and one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts
Doctors and aid workers in Tigray are racing against time to keep desperately sick or malnourished patients alive as they wait for humanitarian assistance after a surprise peace deal potentially ended the conflict in northern Ethiopia.
In the deal, signed on Wednesday in South Africa, the federal government pledged to end the blockade on Tigray imposed at the beginning of the war two years ago, while the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political movement in power in the region, agreed to disarm its forces.
Continue reading...Putin says Kherson region’s residents must be ‘evacuated’ as round-the-clock curfew imposed on its capital; Letterman travels to Kyiv to interview Zelenskiy
Continue reading...Group of more than 100 including British and American travellers were detained in protest over government response to oil spill
Indigenous protesters have released more than 100 tourists and local people who were held on a boat for more than a day in an attempt to force the Peruvian government to act over oil spills in the Amazon region where they live.
The Indigenous Kukama had held a boatload of Peruvians and foreign tourists – including US and European citizens and at least three British nationals – since Thursday in Peru’s largest Amazon region, Loreto.
Continue reading...Swiss woman, 45, was run over three times after she got out of her car and left the engine running
A woman in Switzerland was seriously injured after she got out of her car with the engine still on only for it to run her over three times, police said on Friday.
The 45-year-old had stepped out of her car in a residential area in St Gallen in northeastern Switzerland, probably in order to get something out of the boot, regional police said, according to the Swiss news agency ATS.
Continue reading...China and Russia, meanwhile, accuse US of inflaming tensions with large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea
The United States has accused Russia and China of providing “blanket protection” to North Korea from further UN Security Council action and said the pair had “bent over backwards” to justify Pyongyang’s ballistic missile launches.
The US, Britain, France, Albania, Ireland and Norway requested that the Security Council meet on Friday after North Korea, formally known as the DPRK, fired multiple missiles, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile.
Continue reading...Opening is latest step by private militia’s owner Yevgeny Prigozhin in taking a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policy
Russia’s Wagner Group – the once-secretive private militia controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin – has opened a military technology centre in St Petersburg, in the latest move by the Putin ally who has criticised the Kremlin’s defence top brass over the Ukraine conflict.
The opening of the “Wagner Centre” on Friday is seen as another step by Prigozhin to publicise his military credentials and take a more public role in shaping Russia’s defence policy.
Continue reading...Veteran leader and his far-right allies win decisive 64 seats in 120-seat Knesset
The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun coalition negotiations on forming a government, after winning a decisive majority in Israel’s fifth election in four years with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties and a new alliance with the far right.
After a year in opposition, and years of political chaos triggered by his ongoing corruption trial, the veteran politician engineered a comeback in Tuesday’s vote. His majority means that the period of electoral deadlock is in all probability over for now, and Netanyahu – already the country’s longest serving prime minister – is set to stay in the job for at least the next four years. Back in office, the 73-year-old’s first priority will be seeking to get his trial dropped. He denies all charges.
Continue reading...Stakes raised on Friday as clashes erupt between police and protesters in cities across Pakistan
Hundreds of police officers equipped with teargas hurriedly took positions near a junction connecting Islamabad with its twin city of Rawalpindi as a group of protesters burned wood and chanted slogans on Friday.
The two groups edged towards each other, and then the protesters hurled stones at the police, who responded with teargas rounds. Not long afterwards, the protesters dispersed, and police reopened the junction to traffic.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Indian firm from which Rishi Sunak’s wife collects £11.5m in annual dividends retains staffed Moscow office
The Indian IT services company Infosys from which the prime minister’s wife collects £11.5m in annual dividends is still operating from Moscow eight months after the company said it was pulling out.
The company retains a staffed office and is paying subcontractors in the Russian capital to carry out IT services for a global client although a spokesperson said they were looking to end that arrangement.
Continue reading...Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week
Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.
According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.
Continue reading...Move comes after Canada’s most populous province fast-tracked bill that fines striking workers C$4,000 a day
More than 55,000 education workers in Ontario have walked off the job, pledging to strike for “as long as it takes” in defiance a “draconian” new law amid a bitter fight with the provincial government over pay.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents custodial staff, early childhood education and education support workers, launched the strike on Friday, despite legislation fast-tracked by the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, that bars it from striking and unilaterally imposes a contract on employees.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can find more of our Ukraine coverage here
Nine Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones were shot down last night, according to the Ukrainian military.
“Our air defence forces shot down 3 ‘Shahed-136’ UAVs,” the latest report from Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces reads.
We have invited the IAEA to check, we have given them full freedom of action at the relevant facilities, and we have clear and irrefutable evidence that no one in Ukraine has created or is creating any dirty bombs,” he said.
The only thing that is dirty in our region now is the heads of those in Moscow who, unfortunately, seized control of the Russian state and are terrorising Ukraine and the whole world.”
Despite relatively low case numbers, there are reportedly about 200 lockdowns across the country
Waves of outrage and frustration over China’s lockdown measures this week have demonstrated widening cracks in the general compliance with the government’s zero-Covid policy.
Rising anger has been driven by the tragic death of a toddler, and highly public problematic lockdowns in the Henan capital, Zhengzhou. Officials were left scrambling to control the narrative, amid swirling rumours of imminent policy shifts and a former government health expert saying on Friday that “substantive changes will happen soon”.
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