An anti-rhino-poaching ranger has been horrifically crushed to death by a rampaging hippo when it ambushed his patrol in South Africa.

The armed ranger was with three fellow rangers at the Mkhuze Game Reserve, 180 miles north of Durban, shortly after sunrise where they were protecting a herd of elephants and rhinos.

The group had discovered footprints, after receiving a tip-off that poachers had entered the park after dark – and had split into two groups to encircle the suspected gang.

But experienced patroller Sphamandla Mthembu, 31, surprised a three-ton hippo that was returning to the river and was charged by the beast and opened fire to save himself.

The gunfire alerted his colleagues, who rushed to where the ranger was gripped in the jaws of the hippo.

His coworkers didn’t stop firing their rifles until the hippo was dead – then moved forward to help their injured colleague who was still alive and able to tell them what had happened.

But the ranger died from the crush and bite wounds while waiting for medical assistance.

Father-of-two Mthembu had been a park ranger for eight years.

CEO of Ezemvelo Kwazulu-Natal Wildlife Park, Mr Shie Mkhize said: ‘My heart broke when I heard of the incident and finding the words to speak to his family was so difficult.

‘It was made even more difficult when I was told Mr Mthembu had recently lost a young child and his family were trying to come to term with that when this unfortunate incident happened.

‘Our thoughts are also with his fellow rangers who need space to be able to process what they witnessed.’

Hippos have the biggest teeth of any land mammal – their front teeth are over a foot long and their canines grow up to 18 inches long.

Local media reported the ranger had suffered nine wounds to his body, as local police opened an inquest.

A game reserve worker told a local journalist: ‘It was all very sudden and the hippo came from nowhere and charged and trampled and bit the ranger who had opened fire on it.

‘The others were firing as well but by the time it was dead so was the ranger. They said there was so much blood and they did not know how he was still alive when they reached him.’

Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa, claiming at least 3,000 victims a year – they can grow up to 12 ft long and can run at 20mph.

They will even attack large boats on the river and sink or capsize them and become most agitated if humans get between them and their river or when they have young calves.

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Papau rebels in Indonesia have released a chilling new video, holding guns to their New Zealand hostage’s heads and threatening execution.

Philip Mark Mehrtens, a 37-year-old father from New Zealand, has been held by a rebel group since February but will be killed in two months if their demands are not met.

Mr Mehrtens, a pilot for an Indonesian aviation company, was kidnapped and taken hostage by the West Papua Liberation Army, as they demand the Papua region of Indonesia be freed from Jakarta.

In a new clip released by the fighters, Mr Mehrtens is seen sitting surrounded by men pointing guns at him.

The rebel leader, thought to be a man named Egianus Kogeya, said Mr Mehrtens would be shot dead in two months if his demands weren’t met.

The New Zealand foreign ministry said it was aware of the new video, and said they are continuing to work on Mr Mehrten’s release from the rebels.

Rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom previously wrote on Facebook that Mr Mehrtens will be held hostage for negotiations with Indonesia.

They also prevoiusly said Mr Mehrtens would ‘never be released’ unless Papua was made independent.

Indonesia has continued to stress that Papua will remain a part of Indonesia, despite the group’s demands.

The group seized Mr Mehrtens in February after his plane landed in the remote region, before setting fire to it on the runway.

Onboard were five other Papuan nationals, including the area’s regional governor, who the group let go.

Consular support had been provided to the Mehrtens family as they await further news on Mr Mehrtens.

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The head of an aid group in Gaza has warned the besieged territory faces ‘imminent’ outbreaks water borne diseases.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine (UNWRA), said an increase of skin diseases are also impacting the people of Gaza – which he said was unsurprising considering the unsanitary conditions in the enclave.

He described the situation for most as ‘desperate’ as ‘people are lacking everything’ as Gaza has only received 10% of its required food supplies each day in shipments from Egypt.

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The water system shutdown has left most of the Palestinian population drinking contaminated water.

Dehydration and malnutrition are also growing, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.

Dr Manal Mohammed is a lecturer in infectious diseases and genomics at the University of Westminster.

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He explained: ‘The very poor sanitation services across Gaza during the war and the consumption of sewage contaminated water are raising fears of the spread of waterborne infectious diseases and can cause outbreaks.

‘There are several pathogens that can be transmitted through consumption of contaminated water such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, polio, hepatitis A virus which can cause serious illness and even death.

‘Some bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics such as Salmonella and E. coli can also be transmitted through contaminated water.

‘If people are not killed by rocket attacks, they might die of consuming contaminated water.’

The UN was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza late last week, and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and phone services collapsed due to lack of fuel.

Mr Lazzarini said he was in ‘full admiration’ of the UN staff who have endured terrifying experiences while working with the people living in Gaza.

He reassured the press that ‘UNRWA will stay. UNRWA has stayed. And we will scale up our footprint, scale up our presence, scale up our activities.’

Weeks of devastating Israel airstrikes in Gaza, followed by a ground invasion, have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

It does not differentiate between civilians and militants, though some two-thirds of the dead have been identified as women and minors.

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This is the shocking moment a Ukrainian missile killed a Russian singer at a concert packed with Russian marines in a ‘deliberate revenge attack’.

The HIMARS strike reportedly killed at least 25 of Putin’s troops and left 100 wounded in the occupied Donetsk region.

The concert, which was held in the village of Kumachovo, only 37 miles from the frontline, was to mark Russia’s annual Day of Missile Forces and Artillery.

In video footage, Russian actress and choreographer Polina Menshikh, 40, can be seen playing the guitar and singing for the marines when the deadly two-missile strike hits, and the video blacks out.

A theatre based in St Petersburg associated with Ms Menshikh said an upcoming performance of a play she had previously directed would be dedicated to her memory.

Russia reportedly ordered a news blackout on the troop losses from the US-made HIMARS strike on Sunday.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced a criminal probe into the attack which ‘killed a civilian’.

The Ukrainian military described the strike as a ‘reckoning blow’ after many of its own civilians were murdered in similar strikes.

But at least 25 Russian marines were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the Sunday strike, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The strike has enraged Russian war bloggers, one of whom hit out at the ‘untaught idiots’ – Russia’s commanders – who did not expect the Ukrainians to seek revenge as Russia’s own troops marked their Artillery Forces Day.

The channel raged: ‘The building where the show event was held was located only 60 kilometres [37 miles] from the frontline.

‘The result is predictable – the enemy struck with HIMARS, including Russian actress Polina Menshikh, who was performing at that moment, who died.

‘Almost two years of war and the untaught idiots still do not know what to do and what not to do.’

Commander of Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit Birds of Magyar, Robert Brovdi, said Kyiv’s forces had attacked the 810th separate brigade of the Russian Marines in ‘revenge for the 128th Brigade’.

The 128th Brigade saw at least 20 soldiers killed and more wounded by a Kh059 missile strike on November 4, which marks Ukraine’s Artillery Forces Day.

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President Zelensky branded the November 4 attack as a ‘tragedy that could have been avoided’ and a criminal investigation was launched.

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Apparently, not even the fire bursting out of a rocket nuzzle is enough to keep Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, toasty and warm.

Yesterday, North Korea launched its first spy satellite into orbit from the Sohae satellite launch facility in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province.

The Chollima-1 rocket threw the ‘reconnaissance satellite’ Malligyong-1 out into space at 10.42pm, according to North Korea’s KCNA state news agency.

The agency said North Korea has a fair few reasons to do this. ‘Strengthening its self-defensive capabilities’ and ‘defiantly ramping up war preparedness’ in the face of ‘the enemies’ dangerous military moves’ being among them.

Kim ‘oversaw the launch warmly congratulated all the cadres, scientists and technicians’ of the country’s space agency, NATA, the report added.

Photographs released by KCNA showed Kim casually watching the ‘successful’ rocket liftoff that came after two failed attempts to launch spy satellites this year.

The rocket passed over Okinawa, Japan and fell into the sea east of the Philippines, the Japanese Kyodo News agency reported.

Neither Japan nor the US have been able to confirm whether the payload entered space.

Japanese leaders condemned Pyongyang for violating UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from using ballistic missile technology.

The country’s emergency warning system, J-Alert, was triggered at 10.55pm, urging residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa to take shelter.

A person from Ishigaki City, Okinawa, said according to the Tawainese station FTV News: ‘We did not expect to launch in the middle of the night.

‘This is an unprecedented situation and we did not expect it.’

The projectile split off into multiple parts, with one flung into the East China Sea, about 220 miles off the Korean Peninsula, at around 10.50pm. A second ended up in the Pacific Ocean around 745 miles southwest of Japan’s southernmost Okinotori Island at around 10.57pm.

No damage was recorded due to the missile, Tokyo’s top government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, said.

North Korea had warned Japan it would send up a satellite within a nine-day window from today to December 1 before doing so the night before.

South Korea was startled, to say the least, by the launch too. Military officials said their shady neighbours launched an assumed military satellite in a southward direction from Tongchang-ri in North Korea’s northwest.

The country’s Ministry of National Defence in response said it intends to partially suspend an inter-Korean agreement and will restart front-line aerial surveillance of North Korea, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The 2018 deal saw buffer and no-fly zones set up around the heavily fortified border between the North and South. Neither side can survey the other or conduct live-firing exercises.

Agreeing with Japan, Heo Tae-keun, South Korea’s deputy minister of national defence policy, said the North’s satellite launch was a clear violation of UN resolutions and ‘a grave provocation that threatens our national security’.

Seoul and Washington, he added, are ready to ‘promptly and strongly punish’ North Korea.

The Pentagon said it was ‘still assessing the success of the launch’.

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A Satanist who murdered and ate two children has been freed by Vladimir Putin after fighting in Ukraine.

Nikolay Ogolobyak, 33, has been hailed a hero by the Russian president. 

He was the oldest among a sect of Satanists in Yaroslavl and in all four were convicted of grotesque crimes. 

The Satanists killed three girls and one boy aged between 16 and 17 after engaging in animal sacrifices and digging up human graves. 

Each of the teenagers were drugged and stabbed 666 times with daggers, dismembered and then cooked on a bonfire in a revolting Satanist ritual conducted over two nights.

The criminals including Ogolobyak recited a Satanist text found on the Internet. 

Their limbs, hearts, scalps, breasts and genitals were cut off and were recovered in a pit along with the body of a small rodent crucified on an upside-down cross.

Anna Gorokhova, 16, Olga Pukhova, 15, Vavara Kuzmina, 16 and Andrei Sorokin, 16, went missing in June 2008 and their bodies were only found in the middle of August.

They were declared victims of ‘brutal ritualist child murders’ by a Russian court after a mammoth two year criminal investigation. 

Ogolobyak was found guilty of murdering two people, and of desecration of the bodies and burial places of the dead.

He was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony.

He was due to be released in 2028 at the age of 39 but he signed up for Putin’s war in Ukraine – knowing if he served six months and avoided death, he would be a free man. 

A convict can only be pardoned and released with Putin’s personal signature. 

Ogolobyak’s father admitted his son was wounded in the war and was now free.

‘It’s true,’ he said. 

‘He served there for six months in Storm Z…. After being wounded [he is] disabled. 

‘He can walk, but the wound was serious It is unlikely that they will take him to the [war] again. He returned on November 2.’

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The other Satanists were under 18 and given lesser sentences. 

Konstantin Baranov and Alexander Voronov were locked up for ten years in a general regime colony,  Alexey Solovyov and Alexey Chistyakov for nine years, and  Ksenia Kovalyova for eight years. 

Sergei Karpenko was sentenced to two years in a penal colony and Anton Makovkin was diagnosed with schizophrenia and prescribed compulsory psychiatric treatment.

Satanist Ogolobyak – who received the longest jail term – is now living with his mother. 

Details of his war service and wounding have not been disclosed. 

The release of rapists and murderers  after fighting for Putin is causing rising alarm in regions across Russia. 

Already, more than 30 people have been killed by pardoned returnee convicts freed from jail to fight in the war.

Of the convicts who died, Putin said: ‘They gave their lives for their Motherland and atoned for their guilt.’

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The Israeli government has approved a ceasefire deal with Hamas which would bring a temporary halt to the devastating siege that has stretched on for over six weeks.

Hamas will release dozens of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

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Under the deal, Hamas is to free 50 of the roughly 240 hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip over a four-day period, the Israeli government said on Wednesday.

It said it would extend the lull by an additional day for every 10 hostages released.

The government said the first hostages to be released would be women and children.

A statement released by Qatar, who have acted as mediators with Hamas, said on Wednesday morning that the deal includes ‘the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons, the number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement,’ and that it would allow additional humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The Israeli statement made no mention of either of these elements.

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The statement from Qatar’s foreign ministry described the talks that produced the agreement as a mediation by Egypt, the US and Qatar for a ‘humanitarian pause,’ adding that the start time of the truce will be announced within the next day.

Ahead of Wednesday morning’s cabinet vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would resume its offensive against Hamas after the ceasefire expires.

It was not immediately clear when the truce would go into effect.

Mr Netanyahu convened his Cabinet for the vote late on Tuesday.

The meeting stretched well into the early hours on Wednesday, underscoring the sensitivity of a proposal that would suspend an Israeli offensive against Hamas before it has reached its goals.

Ahead of the vote, Mr Netanyahu sought to assure the government ministers that the break was only tactical, vowing to resume the offensive after the truce expires. Top security officials also attended the meeting.

‘We are at war, and we will continue the war,’ Mr Netanyahu said. ‘We will continue until we achieve all our goals.’

Israel has vowed to continue the war until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns all hostages.

Mr Netanyahu said intelligence efforts will be maintained during the lull, allowing the army time to prepare for the next stages of battle. He said the battle would continue until ‘Gaza will not threaten Israel.’

The announcement came as Israeli troops battled Palestinian militants in an urban refugee camp in northern Gaza and around hospitals overcrowded with patients and sheltering families.

The deal does not mean an end to the war, which erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel and killed at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped some 240 others.

In weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and minors, and more than 2,700 others are missing and believed to be buried under rubble, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry says it has been unable to update its count since November 11 because of the health sector’s collapse.

Gaza health officials say the toll has risen sharply since, and hospitals continue to report deaths from daily strikes, often dozens at a time.

United States President Joe Biden said in a statement late on Tuesday that he welcomes the agreement to release at least 50 hostages being held in Gaza and stressed that ‘it is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented.’

‘I am extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls, who have endured weeks of captivity and an unspeakable ordeal, will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented,’ Mr Biden said.

He said the agreement should release some American hostages, and added, ‘I will not stop until they are all released.’

Mr Biden emphasised that Mr Netanyahu has committed to supporting an ‘extended pause’ to make sure not only all hostages are released but that humanitarian assistance can be sent to Palestinians in Gaza.

‘Today’s deal is a testament to the tireless diplomacy and determination of many dedicated individuals across the United States Government to bring Americans home,’ Mr Biden said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Biden said a deal on releasing some hostages was ‘very close.’

Izzat Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said on Tuesday that an agreement could be reached ‘in the coming hours.’

Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was a ‘crucial step’.

Lord Cameron said: ‘This agreement is a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

‘I urge all parties to ensure the agreement is delivered in full. Of course, we want to see all hostages released immediately and families affected by the horrors of the October 7th terror attack reunited.

‘This pause provides an important opportunity to ensure much greater volumes of food, fuel and other life-saving aid can reach Gaza on a sustained basis.

‘We have already doubled our aid commitment to Palestinians this year and will work closely with the UN to ensure it reaches those who need it.

‘The UK will continue to work with all partners in the region to secure the release of all hostages, restore security and reach a long-term political solution which enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.’

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A British woman and two Spanish men have been arrested in connection with the shooting of a right-wing politician in Madrid earlier this month.

Head of Spain’s far-right Vox Party, Alejandro Vidal-Quadras, 78, was shot in the face in broad daylight on November 9.

The gunshot hit the former MEP in the jaw and health officials in Madrid say it left an entry and exit hole, according to La Vanguardia.

Spanish national police have now announced that two Spaniards were also arrested in Lanjaron, southern Spain, and another in Fuengirola.

But Spain’s state news agency and other media outlets said none of the three are suspected of having fired the shot that hit Mr Vidal-Quadras.

EFE said the two people arrested in Lanjaron were a Spanish man and his partner, a British woman.

Another man detained in Fuengirola, also a Spaniard, was reportedly arrested in connection with a motorbike used in the shooting, as the National Court continues to investigate the shooting as a possible terrorist attack.

Police said earlier this month that Mr Vidal-Quadras had raised the possibility he was targeted because of his ties with Iran’s political opposition.

Investigators were exploring a potential Iranian link but so far have no found evidence of one.

Mr Vidal-Quadras has been aligned for decades with the Iranian opposition in exile.

In January, Iran’s Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions on him and others with ties to the exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, accusing them of ‘supporting terrorism and terrorist groups’.

Mr Vidal-Quadras was previously the head of the People’s Party in Catalonia from 1991-1996 and vice-president of the European Parliament from 2009-2014.

He has not been active in politics for several years but maintained a public role as a media commentator and columnist.

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A high-ranking Russian official has suggested a scheme to ‘free prisoners if they get pregnant’ to address Russia’s population problem.

Valery Seleznev, a deputy in the Duma, proposed the odd solution to help bring up Russia’s birth rate after its population shrank by one million in just a year.

He said of Russia’s some 45,000 female prisoners: ‘The highest goal and destiny of a woman is to create a family and give birth to children.

‘Many of these women are capable of giving birth to children. The state can offer them a kind of deal, in which a woman’s sentence is terminated and in case she gives birth during such a “vacation”, the rest of the term is cancelled.

‘We gave the opportunity to men, leaving prison early, to fight against the terrible enemy in the Northern Military District [military wing] based on the same principle of the highest atonement.

‘Why do we deprive women of the opportunity to atone? We don’t need women to give their lives to [the war].’

Russia is currently home to around 144million people – a drop from 148 million in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

But Seleznev’s remarks have sparked fierce opposition from within and outside of Russia.

Human rights campaigner Eva Merkacheva referred to the proposed plan as ‘insane’, and was infuriated that women were being pushed to find someone ‘like an animal, without love, affection and long-term prospects’.

She said: ‘It seems to me that the idea of releasing women who have committed minor crimes would be more correct. Help them socialise, and they themselves will find the person they love and start a family themselves.’

Another deputy in the Duma, Sultan Khamzaev, proposed offering financial incentives to women who want an abortion to give birth and let their babies be ‘raised by the state’.

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A Spanish court has heard how a young British tourist was allegedly gang-raped by three men after being spiked on a family holiday.

The victim told the court in Alicante that she had left a bar to smoke on October 1, 2016, and was snatched by three men who took her to a field and raped her.

The court heard how the victim last recalled stepping outside before ‘waking up face down in the backseat of a car’ with her ‘clothes unbuttoned and feeling pain in her legs and sexual organs’.

Local media reported the victim saw ‘three or four men’ in the car with her – one of whom reportedly apologised to her after she left the car.

She returned by taxi to her hotel, where she called the police with her mother and filed a complaint to police.

Local media reported the accused are three men, a Spaniard and ‘two North Africans’ who have pleaded innocent.

One of the defendants claimed the act was consensual, and another admitted his DNA had ben found on her clothing after he ‘pulled her out of the car while she was very drunk’.

If convicted, the men could face 12 years in prison for sexual assault and the alleged robbery of a watch and ring the victim was wearing.

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A 14-year-old boy collapsed and died after playing a football match in 35°C heat.

It happened in San Martin, Yerba Buena city, Argentina, at around 11.15am on Saturday.

The boy named as Lisandro Agustin Lazarte was taken to hospital via private car where he was declared dead and witnesses at the scene of the football match said there were no medics on site to help.

Lazarte was playing for the Argentinos Juniors team against Club Atletico San Martin in a Tucuman football league match at the Natalio Mirkin Complex.

He played less than five minutes into the first half when he collapsed while running on the pitch.

Football teams, including Argentinos Juniors and Club Atletico San Martin, have expressed their condolences for Lazarte’s death.

Viviana Castillo, director of the Caps San Jose hospital where Lazarte was treated said: ‘Lizarte was admitted at 11.30am with cardiorespiratory arrest; cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed and he did not respond, then the relevant procedure was carried out with the police.’

His body was moved to the morgue for autopsy at around 5pm the same day.

Parents had complained about the match schedule and demanded the games took place when temperatures were lower.

The relevant authorities have been urged by local media to enforce health protections for athletes, especially during periods of intense heat in Argentina between 11am and 6pm.

Investigations are ongoing and there is no official cause of death yet.

Neighbouring South American country Brazil is experiencing a record-breaking heatwave and a two-year-old boy was left to die inside a school bus during it.

Apollo Gabriel Rodrigues was allegedly forgotten about by the driver and his wife as temperatures soared to 37°C last Tuesday.

The driver, named locally as Flavio Robson Benes, 45, discovered the toddler unconscious on the back of the seat at around 4pm.

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North Korea appears to have launched a ballistic missile, sparking an emergency alert in Japan.

The Japanese government issued a warning on Tuesday for residents in the south to take cover from the possible threat of a North Korean missile.

Japan said over its J-Alert broadcasting system that North Korea appeared to have fired a missile, sending out the warning to residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa.

North Korea had earlier in the day notified Japan that it plans to launch a satellite, in what Tokyo and Seoul said could be a third attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Any attempts by North Korea to use ballistic rocket technology have been banned by the UN, even for non-military purposes.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida previously told his government to attempt to talk Pyongyang into scrapping the plan, in cooperation with the United States and South Korea.

‘If (North Korea) uses ballistic missile technology, that will constitute a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions even if it is aimed at launching a satellite,’ Kishida told reporters.

Japan’s NHK broadcaster has said it believes the rocket is likely to be a satellite.

Further reports suggest that the missile appears to have headed towards the Pacific Ocean, and the alert has since been lifted.

Japan’s coastguard did not take any steps to destroy the missile, its defence ministry has announced.

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For the first time since they became trapped in a Himalayan road tunnel, the faces of the 41 labourers have been captured on video.

The workers became stranded last Sunday about 500 feet from the Silkyara tunnel’s entrance after landslides caused a partial collapse in Uttarakhand, India.

Poking their heads through a pipeline that burst through the debris to grab a camera inside, rescuers made direct contact with the men last night.

In the clip, an emergency official asks the men to stand in front of the camera and smile and wave as they told them: ‘We will reach you all soon, don’t worry.’

The men, many migrant workers from far-flung states, form a semi-circle around the camera and can be seen wearing helmets and construction worker jackets inside the brightly lit three-mile-long tunnel.

One labourer was able to record a message to his loved ones, the Asian News Network reported.

‘Mother, do not worry about me, I am fine. Please, and father, eat your meals on time,’ said Jaydev, the worker.

The video, released by the state’s Department of Information and Public Relations, was filmed using a medical endoscopic camera tied to a flexible cable lowered into a six-inch pipe.

‘All workers inside the tunnel are safe,’ the department said on X.

In a press note, state officials said rescuers are providing steady supplies of ‘oxygen, nutritious food and water’, including dried fruit and the rice and lentil dish khichdi. Wi-Fi will also be installed.

Rescuers have now been working around the clock to rescue the men, sending supplies down pipelines and using drills and even robots to remove debris.

The workers were building a part of a road leading to four Hindu shrines, a plan plagued by environmental concerns and landslide fears that became a reality.

Steel pipes are now Indian officials’ silver bullet to get the workers out, with the plan for the men to crawl through the pipe to bypass the debris.

Rescuers and relatives are chatting with the workers on walkie-talkies (with one man being seen holding the two-way device in the clip) as state leaders say they are on ‘war footing’.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, said on X that the central government is assisting the government’s emergency response agency, the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and state administrators in the rescue effort.

‘We are working on a war footing to evacuate all the workers safely,’ he added.

Dhami told reporters today that an investigation into why the tunnel caved in will happen but only after the workers are rescued.

Karan Mehra, the head of Uttarakhand’s branch of the Indian National Congress (INC), a national political party also called Congress, led a ritual yesterday praying for their safe return.

The party officials came together in the Panchayathi Mandir temple in Dehradun to perform the Hindu ceremony known as a homa, in which offerings are burnt in a hearth-altar.

New Delhi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Goel also performed the rite, sometimes called havan, in the Hanuman Temple.

Sunita Hembrom, the sister-in-law of Surendra Kisko, one of the low-wage workers, managed to get a hold of Kisko.

‘He said, “Take care of yourselves, the children and parents,”‘ she told reporters, according to Reuters. ‘”Just tell us what they are doing to get us out of here.”‘

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Iceland is still bracing for a possible Fagradalsfjall volcano eruption, with adverse weather and waves of snow now hampering earthquake monitoring efforts.

Yellow weather warnings are in place for large swathes of the island, including the Reykjanes Peninsula where the volcano is located.

It comes a day after a senior police official told people living in Grindavik, a small village of a few thousand near the Blue Lagoon, that they likely won’t return home for ‘months’.

Director of the country’s civil defence police unit Víðir Reynisson told reporters the volcano could blow ‘within days, not months’.

And Icelanders wouldn’t be given much of a warning. The volcanic system may shoot lava out from the earth with just ’30 minutes’ notice’.

Earthquakes act as constant reminders of the imminent eruption, with over 1,000 tremors in the last 24 hours.

Underground magma is causing the ground to ‘rapidly’ swell around Svartsengi, as officials race to build walls to protect it from lava.

Travel advice from the UK Foreign Office remains unchanged, with tourists urged to check official advice over whether it is safe to travel to the area.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have attended a National Hockey League (NHL) game in Vancouver, Canada.

Harry was pictured dropping the puck for Tomas Hertl from the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes during a ceremonial face-off ahead of the whistle.

The duke joined his wife in the stands as they watched the Canucks win 3-1 over the Californian team.

The Invictus Games, the international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick armed forces personnel, which the duke founded in 2014, will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in 2025.

The couple appeared in public together for the first time at the Toronto Invictus Games in 2017.

Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, made the ceremonial puck drop at a 2002 match, also between the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks, during her two-week Golden Jubilee tour of Canada.

It was the first NHL game the Queen had attended since 1951 when, still a princess, she and Prince Philip watched the Montreal Canadiens take on the New York Rangers.

The Sussexes’ sporting outing comes a few days after Meghan’s surprise arrival at the Variety Power Of Women event in Los Angeles to celebrate the accomplishments of women in entertainment.

The former Suits actress said she was ‘thrilled’ to have returned to the entertainment industry with Archewell Productions and is ‘really proud’ of the projects they have has created so far, including docu-series Harry & Meghan and Heart Of Invictus.

She also teased future projects, saying: ‘We have so many exciting things on the slate… I can’t wait until we can announce them, but I’m just really proud of what we’re creating.

‘My husband is loving it too which is really fun.’

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Volodymyr Zelensky says he has survived at least five attempts on his life ordered by Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with the Sun, the Ukrainian president said there have been ‘five or six’ assassination plots foiled by his intelligence agents since the start of the Russian invasion last year. He described the first one as ‘very interesting’, but says over time they have become a matter of routine, ‘like Covid’.

‘The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,’ , he told the publication.

‘First of all, people don’t know what to do with it and it’s looking very scary.

‘And then after that, it is just intelligence sharing with you – detail that one more group came to Ukraine to (attempt) this.’

The initial attempt happened on the first day of Russia’s invasion on February 24 last year, when Russian special forces parachuted into Kyiv in an attempted decapitation strike on the Ukrainian capital.

But Zelensky says his bodyguards thwarted the plot by sealing off his office with makeshift barricades and issuing his aides with body armour and rifles.

British and US officials offered the president a way out of the capital shortly afterwards, fearing the regime would fall in a matter of hours.

However, Zelensky responded by telling them ‘I need ammo, not a ride’ and posted a defiant selfie in the streets of Kyiv, signalling an intention to stay and fight.

Almost two years later, the Ukrainian president says Putin still ‘wants very much’ to topple him from power and replace him with a pro-Russian puppet leader.

He says the operation is codenamed ‘Maidan 3’ – a reference to the Euromaidan revolution of 2014 which sparked the Russian annexation of Crimea and led to the outbreak of war.

‘[The operation] is meant to change the president. It’s bye bye,’ Zelensky said.

‘Maybe it’s not by killing. I mean it’s changing. They will use any instruments they have.

‘So that’s the idea, to the end of the year. They have even named the operation. But you see we can live with it.’

In August, Ukraine’s intelligence services (The SBU) said they foiled another attempt to kill Zelensky during an airstrike on the southern city of Mykolaiv.

SBU sources said they arrested a woman in connection with the incident who passed on secret details of the president’s trip to Mykolaiv over to Russia.

But when asked if Ukraine had responded by carrying out its own assassination attempts, Zelensky refused to comment.

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He said: ‘I can’t discuss with you any special operations of Ukrainian intelligence or Secret Service or of some special forces. There are some moments which we are not discussing. Not only inside Russia, there are things we are not discussing on our temporarily occupied territories.’

Elsewhere in the interview, Zelensky acknowledged the slow progress made by Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive, but said the incremental gains made on land had been offset by a number of major victories in the Black Sea.

His remarks come after the US Congress  recently rejected plans for an additional $60billion in military aid, amid claims in the Republican party the conflict has become a ‘forever war’.

Zelensky snapped back by claiming the ongoing conflict is ‘not a movie’ and told US lawmakers ‘we rely on your support’.

Despite this, a senior US defence official told journalists: ‘We continue to believe that Congress will provide that support and we are planning based on that conviction.’ 

Zelensky added: ‘Ukraine today [is] in the centre of these global risks of this Third World War. And I really think that Russia will push until the United States and China together will tell them very, very seriously to go out of [our] territory.’

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Two of Vladimir Putin’s senior security officials have suffered serious injuries after a car bombing.

Deputy interior minister Lt-Col Oleg Shumilov and criminal investigations chief Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko are both fighting for their lives following the blast.

The incident happened in the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, which is under Russian occupation.

Footage from the scene shows an inferno raging from the UAZ Patriot vehicle after it blew up.

Both of Putin’s officials escaped from the burning car but are in hospital with severe shrapnel wounds, according to local reports.

A criminal probe has been launched into what is being considered as an attempted assassination.

The SUV was reportedly being driven by Lt Col Pakholenko, who previously worked for the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.

He later switched his allegiance to the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), which is led by Russia, in 2014.

It is the latest in a string of sabotage operations inside Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia.

On November 8, the former head of the LPR police, Mykhailo Filipenko, was also killed by a car bomb in Luhansk, according to news outlet Astra.

The attack will also serve as yet another blow to the Russian president with several key positions coming under attack in recent weeks.

On Thursday, a ‘kamikaze drone strike’ destroyed a missile base just days after Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian gunpowder factory and missile plant.

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The President of South Korea has warned that the world is facing a ‘polycrisis’ made up of multiple conflicts and threats.

On the eve of his state visit to the UK, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for deeper security ties with Britain amidst an unstable world.

Due to two major wars – in Ukraine and Israel – as well as increasing tension with Russia and North Korea, and in the South China Sea, the president is seeking support from the West.

Mr Yoon’s arrival in the UK on Monday will mark the first state visit since King Charles III’s coronation.

He is due to meet the king on Tuesday and Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, when it’s likely the two leaders will discuss defence cooperation.

The president told The Telegraph: ‘If the international community is to build peace and achieve sustainable prosperity, it must safeguard and strengthen the rules-based international order above all else.

‘We are currently facing a polycrisis that includes pandemics, climate change, the war in Ukraine and the armed conflict between Israel-Hamas.’

He also talked about other crises and threats, including Russia supplying North Korea with nuclear weapons technology. He added that he believes China is wary of aligning too closely with Moscow and Pyongyang.

South Korea is also grappling with a clash over Taiwan and disputes in the South China Sea.

Mr Yoon is now calling for greater trade links with the UK after Brexit.

Facing these multiple threats, the president has led South Korea to strengthen its links with Nato and have ‘very close security cooperation’ with the members of Aukus, which is the trilateral defence pact forged with the UK, US and Australia.

Mr Yoon will meet company executives at Mansion House in London on Wednesday to talk about future opportunities around deepening defence as well as business and investment.

He will then meet Mr Sunak in at 10 Downing Street in the afternoon, where it’s likely the pair will discuss the strengthening collaboration between Russia and North Korea.

For the last few months South Korean and US intelligence has warned that North Korea is supplying weapons to Russia as it continues waging war in Ukraine.

And this is, according to intelligence, possibly in exchange for help with Pyongyang’s increasing nuclear missile programme.

Mr Yoon continued: ‘North Korea’s provision of weapons to Russia will only prolong the war in Ukraine and increase the number of casualties.

‘In addition, if Russia offers military technologies to North Korea in return, it would threaten the security of the Republic of Korea and regional peace.’

The president has warned that both wars in Ukraine and the Middle East could spark more instability in the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Yoon added: ‘My upcoming state visit will serve as a catalyst for Korea to emerge as one of the United Kingdom’s global strategic partners.’

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More than 200 people connected to one of Italy’s biggest crime syndicates have been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.

An Italian tribunal sentenced 207 people to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in the ’ndrangheta family.

The mafia group is one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

It took over an hour and 40 minutes to read aloud the court’s lengthy verdict, including the acquittal of 131 other defendants.

The drama unfolded in a bunker-stye courtroom in the southern Calabria region, where the mob organization was originally based.

The ’ndrangheta quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence and now holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe, according to prosecutors.

The organization also has bases in North and South America and is active in Africa, Italian prosecutors claimed.

Figures connected to the group have also been arrested in recent years around Europe and in Brazil and Lebanon.

The defendants had been charged with crimes that include drug and arms trafficking, extortion and mafia association – a term in Italy’s penal code for members of organised crime groups.

Others were charged with acting in complicity with the ’ndrangheta without actually being a member.

The charges grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted ‘ndrangheta boss.

The central figure, Luigi Mancuso, served 19 years in an Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators allege is one of the ‘ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.

Vincenzo Capomolla, deputy chief prosecutor of Catanzaro, said prosecutors’ overall case held up with the convictions and confirmed the stranglehold the ‘ndrangheta held on Vibo Valentia.

‘The infiltration of the criminal organization in the province of Vibo Valentia was so deep-rooted and so widespread, so alarming, so disturbing that I think it can be noted that there was no aspect of the life of the social economic fabric of the province that was not conditioned by the capacity of the force of intimidation of this so dangerous criminal organization,’ he said.

Giuseppe Di Renzo, defense attorney for several of the defendants, however, noted that more than a third of the original defendants were fully acquitted, while others were found not guilty of some charges.

He criticized the disparate and large number of defendants, saying they showed there was no cohesive thread to the prosecutors’ case.

But Catanzaro’s former chief prosecutor who launched the investigation, Nicola Gratteri, said mafia trials often have to cast wide nets because of the very nature of how the criminal syndicates operate, infiltrating across wide swathes of society.

Several dozen informants in the case came from the ‘ndrangheta, while others formerly belonged to Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.

Awash in cocaine trafficking revenues, the ’ndrangheta has gobbled up hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses throughout Italy, especially in Rome and the country’s affluent north.

The buying spree spread across Europe as the syndicate sought to launder illicit revenues but also to make ‘clean’ money by running legitimate businesses, including in the tourism and hospitality sectors, investigators alleged.

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A teenage boy was allegedly murdered by a group of his friends after playing with a Ouija board that ‘told them to kill him’.

Jose Mauricio Ospina, 17, was found dead, naked and wrapped face down in a sheet after playing the game with his three best friends in a house in the town of Patio Bonito, Colombia, in April last year.

The game involves using a pointer that is slid around a seance board comprising the letters of the alphabet, and the numbers 0 to 9, supposedly to contact the spirits of the dead.

His death is still being investigated – but one of the participants allegedly said that the ‘board told them to do it’.

Jose’s distraught mother, Claudia Velasquez, is demanding answers as the investigation fails to move forward.

Mum Claudia said that Jose Mauricio had been doing his high school homework on the computer the last time she saw him.

She added: ‘I went out to run an errand and he stayed at home, but he told me that he was going to go to a school friend’s to do some homework.

‘That friend who he went to see, I know him, my son had even stayed there several times to sleep.’

When Claudia returned home around eight, he was not there, and she called him again around 11pm.

She added: ‘I fell asleep and at 4:30am, I woke up anxious because he had not come home yet.’

When Claudia called him once more, police picked up and said that they had the phone in their possession because they were responding to an emergency.

The teen’s autopsy report confirmed that he had been strangled to death and had bruises on his head, and also said that the body was moved after he died.

Local media reported that one of the young people playing the game allegedly said that the board told them to murder someone and that it ‘chose’ Jose.

Another of his friends stated that they had taken LSD before playing the game, but toxicology reports revealed Jose did not have the drug in his system.

The friend, who has not been named, told the authorities: ‘I saw colourful figures; then, my classmates hitting the wall, and then Mauricio on the floor covered in blood. I knew that all of that was a dream.’

Claudia said of her son: ‘He was very judicious, dedicated to his studies, he had good grades, when he didn’t have school he had to go to McDonald’s to work.

‘They took my life from me and I don’t know what happened, I deserve to know the truth.’

Jose’s death is still being investigated.

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Vladimir Putin is set to give the world’s biggest ballistic missile a trial run by launching it over the South Pole, according to Russian state media.

Named Satan 2, the ‘unstoppable’ 15,880mph doomsday weapon weighs 208 tonnes and is the size of a 14-storey tower block. 

And the Russian president is set to put the first regiment to be armed with the intercontinental nuclear missile on ‘combat duty’ next month.

That’s despite an astonishing admission that the apocalyptic projectile – known as Sarmat in Russia – has not yet been properly tested.

The shocking plan was revealed by Putin’s own Russian state media in a report which was rapidly censored shortly after it went live.

TASS news agency reported that ‘even a truncated LCI [flight development tests], and assuming all launches are successful, would require several more launches, including via the South Pole’.

Claims over the South Pole being used as a testing ground were hastily censored from the report – but still remain in cached versions.

Clearly determined to flex his nuclear muscle to the West, the report is likely to trigger alarm across the rest of Europe as Putin prepares to deploy a rocket designed to be his ultimate weapon against NATO countries.

The fact the nuclear missile has so far only had one successful flight test across Russia will be of particular concern. 

‘The first Sarmat regiment, consisting of a command post and several silo launchers will go on combat duty as part of the Uzhur missile formation of the Strategic Missile Forces in December of this year,’ a defence source also told TASS in part of the story that was not redacted.

The regiment is already on ‘experimental combat duty’ in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, said another source.

Yet the first source admitted tests of the Putin fifth generation missile are behind schedule and ‘have not yet been completed’.

Only one fully confirmed successful test is known to have been carried out in April 2022.

Now ‘development tests of the missile will continue’ even as its command post and launch silos are put on ‘combat duty’ in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.

TASS reported: ‘The Sarmat flight tests are currently being carried out from the Plesetsk spaceport to the Kura training ground in Kamchatka.’

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But ultimately Putin will need to test his new nuclear toy by flying it over the South Pole, the story suggested before it was censored.

The monster hypersonic missile is designed to strike the West by flying over the North or South Poles, making it impossible to strike down by air defences.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu said last month that the Makeyev missile design bureau in Miass was ‘solving the task of equipping the first missile regiment with the Sarmat complex at the main facility of the Strategic Missile Forces’.

He inspected the production line.

Putin last month insisted that his designers had ‘finished work’ on the Sarmat ‘super heavy missile’.

Already more than a year behind schedule, Putin said: ‘We just need to finish some of the procedures in a purely administrative and bureaucratic way, and move on to mass production and put them on combat duty. And we will do this in the near future.’

Eleven months ago he said much the same.

‘In the near future, Sarmat ICBMs will be put on combat duty for the first time,’ he said at the time. ‘We know there will be a certain delay in time but this does not change our plans.’

The Sarmat-Satan-2 complex is due to replace the Voevoda – or Satan – missile which has been in service since the 1980s.

R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times in the Cold War before it was put on combat duty.

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He has been likened to horror doll Chucky and Marvel superhero Wolverine.

But Javier Milei is not a new character at Comic Con – he was last night elected president of Argentina in what has been dubbed the country’s most important election in decades.

Milei has drawn comparisons with Boris Johnson and Donald Trump – who said he was ‘proud’ of Buenos Aires’ new premier and, adopting his MAGA slogan, insisted he would ‘Make Argentina Great Again!’.

The far-right outsider stormed to victory after an outlandish campaign including a rally featuring Batman and the Joker, a man in a full lion costume and another supporter whose head and arms were replaced by chainsaws.

Milei has been nicknamed the ‘chainsaw president’ after appearing on stage at rallies holding the power tool while pledging to slash public spending.

And his life was equally colourful before he entered the political arena.

Like former US president Trump, the 53-year-old television pundit and economist has no previous governing experience – and is said to seek advice from his dead dog, using telepathy.

His CV includes working as a tantric sex coach, which saw him go up to three months without having an orgasm.

The life-long bachelor, who has also revealed his penchant for threesomes, previously vowed to make his sister, Karina Milei, the First Lady if he was elected to office.

When a political opponent branded him a ‘dishevelled panellist who screams on stage and sleeps with eight dogs and his sister’, Milei simply replied: ‘I don’t have eight dogs’.

And like Boris Johnson, the new Argentinian leader – the former frontman of a Rolling Stones tribute act called Everest – is famed for his wild hair, which he says he never combs.

Only right-wing woman, Lilia Lemoine, his image consultant and professional cosplayer, is allowed to style his mane.

‘[Milei] looks like Wolverine. He acts like Wolverine. He’s like an anti-hero,’ Lemoine said during a recent interview in Buenos Aires, according to the Irish Times.

Lemoine said there are striking similarities between the new president and the Marvel character.

‘[Wolverine] is very loyal and brave… he can get really mad and be aggressive with his enemies, but only when he’s attacked.

‘He will never ever kill or attack someone for no reason.’

Lemoine also does Milei’s make-up, using contouring to conceal his double chin, amid claims he refuses to appear in backlit pictures for fear of showing up unflattering features.

She insists Argentina’s ‘most wanted man’ is ‘adorable’.

However, an unauthorised biography of Milei – the candidate for far-right party La Libertad Avanza – reportedly revealed how he endured years of abuse at the hands of his parents and was bullied mercilessly at school, where fellow pupils cruelly nicknamed him El Loco (The Madman).

Now the new president, renowned for his foul-mouthed outbursts – including branding opposition leftists ‘s**t’ – is both loved and loathed by the Argentinian public.

He won 55.7% of election votes compared to his rival, economy minister Sergio Massa, who garnered just 44.3%, according to Argentina’s electoral authority, in what is the widest margin since the country returned to democracy in 1983.

And his political career is likely to be just as controversial as his character.

Milei, who opposes abortion and sex education in schools, vowed the ‘reconstruction of Argentina begins today’ after he was announced the winner of the election on Sunday.

He has promised a dramatic shake-up to tackle soaring inflation and growing poverty.

Describing Argentina’s situation as ‘critical’, the self-styled anarcho-capitalist said: ‘The changes our country needs are drastic.

‘There is no room for gradualism, no room for lukewarm measures.’

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Up to 20 people are feared dead after violent storms wrecked two large cargo ships off the Turkish coast and flooded towns inland.

The Turkish-flagged Kafkametler sank off the coast of Eregli, northern Turkey, on Sunday, after smashing into a breakwater several times, officials said.

Sea conditions were so dangerous that rescuers could not search for its 12 crew members until Monday morning.

The body of the ship’s cook has been retrieved while the other 11 are missing, according to Turkish transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu.

Meanwhile, the Cameroon-flagged Pallada ran aground after anchoring at Eregli, northern Turkey, to shelter from the storm.

High winds and 16-foot high waves shoved the vessel into concrete walls, breaking it in half.

Its 13 crew members made it safely to shore beforehand.

A private vessel saved another dozen crew members onboard a second Cameroon-flagged cargo ship which drifted out to sea after its mooring ropes broke.

Flooding caused the deaths of four people in Batman Province, in the country’s southeast, three people in Zongulda, and one person in Diyarbakir, authorities added.

The victims included a mother and her two children, while a third child remains missing.

Meanwhile, rising water levels forced officials to evacuate a prison in Eregli and move inmates into surrounding facilities.

Fierce storms also carried into neighbouring Bulgaria, claiming the lives of another two people and causing blackouts.

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A baby elephant endured nearly two hours on a flight so he could be rehomed with an orphaned herd after his mum abandoned him.

Bupe the elephant will now be able to ‘forge new friendships’ with the herd, who will become his ‘siblings and support network’ as he builds a life with his new family.

Game Rangers International led on Bupe’s rescue after he was left alone in Zambia.

He needed round-the-clock care from Game Rangers keeper, Matthews, when he was first found but started to make a good recovery and heal from his traumas quickly.

In a statement, Game Rangers International said: ‘He was consuming all milk bottles and putting back on lost condition, his wounds were healing well, and he had formed a good bond and gained trust in Matthews.’

Following a check from vet Dr Lengwe, the green light was then given for Bupe to be transferred to Lusaka Elephant Nursery to begin his new life.

The decision was made to fly the baby elephant to the nursery as it would be the least stressful way for him to travel.

Global aviation and logistics company ProCharter were chosen to organise Bupe’s flight as they had already flown 12 other elephants previously.

With Matthews by his side, Bupe walked comfortably into the loading crate ready to start his journey.

The crate was then driven to Mfuwe Airport where he would be catching his flight.

The Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust confirmed Dr Lengwe gave Bupe a mild sedation to help reduce any anxiety he might feel on the journey – and he also had Matthews with him at all times to help calm him.

The plane touched down at Kaindu Airstrip after one hour and 45 minutes of flying and then it was all hands on deck to get Bupe off the flight. Bupe plus his crate weighed 350kg.

The elephant was then transferred to a rescue trailer, driven the short distance to the nursery and the door was opened.

The trust said in a statement: ‘After experiencing such a significant journey Bupe was nervous and hesitant to leave the trailer, but a bottle of warm milk was all the encouragement he needed, and he readily stepped out and into this new stable and home.

‘Here at the nursery Bupe will really be able to make progress in his recovery as he forges new friendships with the orphaned herd, who will become his siblings and support network as he embarks on the long journey back to the wild where he belongs.’

Game Rangers International gave thanks to the organisations that helped to make Bupe’s rescue and journey as smooth as possible for the baby elephant.

You can donate to this cause via Game Rangers International.

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A Ukrainian sniper is believed to have broken the world record by killing a Russian soldier from almost 2.5 miles away.

Kyiv’s security service told Ukrainian media on Saturday he made the kill at a distance of 3.8km (2.3 miles).

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) press office said in a statement: ‘The SBU sniper set a world record for a successful shot.

‘He hit a Russian soldier from an incredible distance.

‘SBU snipers are changing the rules of world sniping, demonstrating the ability to work effectively at fantastic distances.’

The previous world record was held by a Canadian special forces sniper at a distance of 3.54km (2.2 miles) in Iraq from 2017.

The Ukrainian sniper beat this by approximately 260m (0.16 miles).

British sniper Craig Harrison previously held the title after he killed a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan in 2009, from a distance of 2.48km (1.54 miles).

Ukrainian media outlets also shared footage apparently showing the record-breaking strike, but this has not yet been independently verified.

The shot was said to be made with a domestically produced rifle dubbed ‘the Lord of the Horizon’.

Around a year ago Ukraine previously almost broke the record when one of its snipers hit a Russian soldier from 2.74km (1.7 miles) away – thought to be the world’s second-longest combat kill.

Ukrainian soldiers have been seen this weekend using high-speed jet-skis to carry out lightning-fast attacks.

The country said its special forces will continue to use them to attempt to weaken Vladimir Putin’s control of invaded Crimea.

And new foreign secretary David Cameron flew out to Kyiv for a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky just four days into his job.

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A hat belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte when he ruled 19th-century France and waged war in Europe has been sold for a record £1.7 million (€1.9 million, $2.1 million) at an auction.

The faded and cracked felt bicorne hat was initially estimated to fetch £525,000 to £700,000 (€600,000 to €800,000) when it went under the hammer in Paris.

It beat the €1.8 million paid for another Napoleon hat in 2014. The buyer has not yet gone public.

Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said the hat was one of Napoleon’s trademarks.

He is thought to have owned around 120 throughout his life, although only 20 are believed to remain.

‘People recognised this hat everywhere. When they saw it on the battlefields, they knew Napoleon was there,’ Mr Osenat said.

‘And when in private, he always had it on his head or he had it in his hand, and sometimes he threw it on the ground. That was the image – the symbol of the emperor.’

He described how Napoleon always wore the hat with the corners aligned with his shoulders – known as ‘en bataille’, or ‘in battle’ – while most people at the time wore it with the corners front to back.

The hat on sale was first recovered by Colonel Pierre Baillon, a quartermaster under Napoléon, according to the auctioneers.

It then passed through many hands before industrialist Jean-Louis Noisiez acquired it.

The entrepreneur spent more than a half-century assembling his collection of Napoleonic memorabilia, firearms, swords and coins before his death in 2022.

The sale came days before the release of Ridley Scott’s film ‘Napoleon’ with Joaquin Phoenix, which is rekindling interest in the controversial French ruler.

Hats believed to have been owned by Napoleon regularly appear at auctions.

In October 2021, a newly discovered hat with DNA evidence proving it belonged to Napoleon was auctioned by Bonhams in London. 

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Former US first lady Rosalynn Carter, wife of former president Jimmy Carter, has died at the age of 96.

The devoted mental health campaigner and human rights advocate died after a long battle with dementia and a recent decline in health, only days after entering hospice care alongside her husband.

They had been married for 77 years.

Mrs Carter worked on programs for mental health, human rights, social justice and more.

In 2003, she said at a mental health symposium: ‘Twenty-five years ago, we did not dream that people might someday be able actually to recover from mental illnesses.

‘For one who has worked on mental health issues as long as I have, this is a miraculous development and an answer to my prayers.’

Carter married her husband Jimmy in 1946, and the pair shared four children: Amy, James, Donnel, and Jack.

Her iron will, contrasted with her outwardly shy demeanor and a soft Southern accent, inspired Washington reporters to call her ‘the Steel Magnolia.’

The statement announcing her death said she ‘died peacefully, with family by her side’ at 2.10pm at her home in the rural south Georgia community of Plains.

Jimmy said of his wife: ‘Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it.

‘As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.’

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Officials are considering alternate rescue plans to save the 41 workers still trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India.

Issues with a drilling machine have halted the rescue mission, and officials are now forced to find ‘new angles’ to extract the trapped workers eight days on.

Deepa Gaur, a government spokesperson, said the new methods could include using a new drill from the top of the hill, under which the workers have been trapped inside the collapsed tunnel.

The construction workers have been trapped since November 12, when a landslide caused a portion of the nearly three mile tunnel they were building in Uttarakhand to collapse near the entrance.

The tunnel they were building is meant to be part of the busy Chardham all-weather road, which will connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites across the mountainous state which attracts many pilgrims and tourists.

About 200 disaster relief personnel have been at the site using drilling equipment and excavators in the rescue operation, but drilling stopped on Saturday when experts became concerned the drilling machine’s high-intensity vibrations could cause more debris to fall and hinder efforts.

Experts said drilling vertically from the top of the hill could also cause additional debris, but they will use a unique method which will see less debris falling.

This method, experts hope, would lead to less debris falling.

Vijay Singh, an official at the control room, said the rescue mission has installed a pipe to served the trapped workers nuts, roasted chickpeas, popcorn, and other essential items – including oxygen.

But families are growing frustrated on day eight of the rescue mission, including Maharaj Singh Negi, whose brother Gabbar Singh is trapped.

‘I am losing my patience. The officials have not even briefed us about the future plans,’ he said.

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31 premature babies have been evacuated from Gaza’s largest hospital, the World Health Organisation has confirmed.

They were among 291 patients left Shifa Hospital after a mass evacuation of patients and displaced people from the site.

The babies, as well as six health workers and 10 staff family members, have been evacuated to a hospital in the city of Rafa where they are receiving urgent care, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Read the latest in our Israel-Hamas blog

They will then be moved to Egypt, health officials added.

The confirmation from the United Nations team follows conflicting reports from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service.

The babies are in an ‘extremely critical condition’, and other patients left at Shifa Hospital include trauma patients with infected wounds and people with spinal injuries who are unable to move.

Their plight captured global attention after images showed doctors trying to keep them warm without the help of incubators, due to a lack of power.

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The WHO team said it was able to tour Shifa Hospital for an hour after about 2,500 displaced people, mobile patients, and medical staff left the compound on Saturday morning.

It said 25 medical staff remained along with the almost 300 patients who could not leave, after Israeli troops ordered the hospital evacuation, and described the hospital as a ‘death zone’.

A WHO spokesman said: ‘Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation.’

It’s hoped more teams will try to reach Shifa Hospital in the coming days to evacuate more patients to southern Gaza – however hospitals there are already overwhelmed.

Israel has long alleged that Hamas maintains a sprawling command post inside and under Shifa.

It has portrayed the hospital as a key target in its war to end the militants’ rule in Gaza following their wide-ranging attack into southern Israel on October 7, which triggered the war.

Hamas and hospital staff deny the allegations.

Saturday’s mass departure was portrayed by Israel as voluntary, but the WHO said the military had issued evacuation orders, and some of those who left described it as a forced exodus.

‘We left at gunpoint,’ Mahmoud Abu Auf said after he and his family left the crowded hospital.

‘Tanks and snipers were everywhere inside and outside.’

The Israeli military, which has repeatedly called on Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, said only that its troops were active in the area ‘with the aim of hitting terrorists’.

It rarely comments on individual strikes, saying only that it targets Hamas while trying to minimise civilian harm.

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A promising 13-year-old football talent collapsed and died after colliding with another player during a talent scouting match.

The boy, identified as Ernesto Ricardo Salomon, nicknamed Neto, was playing for the Pumas de Tres Valles youth team A when he collided with the unnamed player during a scouting match to recruit talented footballers.

The tragic incident took place in the community of Papaloapan, in the city of Tierra Blanca, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico on 8th November.

After the collision, he collapsed and lost consciousness and the match was put on hold.

Despite attempts by his parents, who were coaching and refereeing, and other spectators to resuscitate him, he died.

Public ministry and expert services personnel, along with investigators, soon arrived at the scene.

They cordoned off the area while unsuccessfully trying to resuscitate him.

His body was then taken to the Institute of Forensic Sciences for an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.

The investigative bodies have not disclosed the cause at the time of writing, although local media claimed it was due to a sudden heart attack from the collision.

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Ernesto’s body was later taken to Telesecundaria Cuauhtemoc for his school to bid him farewell.

His funeral was subsequently held in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz, with the community surrounding the family during this difficult time.

Several sporting teams in the Tierra Blanca city including Ernesto’s Club sent their condolences.

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