NEW DELHI (AFP) - Rescuers pulled out two more bodies Friday from the rubble of a collapsed coal mine in eastern India, taking the death toll to 10, police said, as many were still feared trapped.
A massive mound of earth caved at the Lalmatia open cast mine in Jharkhand state, burying at least 23 miners and dozens of vehicles as hundreds of workers battled overnight to rescue them.
"Up till now, 10 bodies have been recovered after two more were pulled out. Coal mine authorities believe that there may be 2-3 more dead bodies inside," Jharkhand police spokesman, RK Mallick, told AFP.
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TOKYO (Dispatches) - Japan's hawkish defense minister prayed Thursday at a controversial war shrine in Tokyo the day after accompanying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a symbolic visit of reconciliation to Pearl Harbor, drawing condemnation from China and South Korea.
Yasukuni Shrine honors millions of mostly Japanese war dead, but is contentious for also enshrining senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal.
The indigenous Shinto religious shrine has for decades been a flashpoint for criticism from countries such as South Korea and China, which suffered under Japan's colonialism and military aggression in the first half of the 20th century.
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TEHRAN (Press TV) - Brazilian authorities have questioned a police officer over the disappearance of Greece's ambassador to Brazil and investigated the possibility that the diplomat's wife was involved in the case.
The case is being investigated by Rio de Janeiro state's homicide division on the assumption that the incident was a murder, local media reported on Friday.
An officer in the police force was questioned for several hours regarding Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis. The ambassador’s wife, Francoise, who is Brazilian, was questioned as well.
Reports said detectives had found traces of blood on a couch inside the Rio home of the ambassador.
Police found a burned corpse on Thursday evening inside a car that Amiridis had rented.
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LONDON (Bbc) - Mali has sent back two people who were deported from France on the same planes they arrived on, questioning whether they were even Malian citizens.
The pair were flown to Bamako using European travel permits or "laissez-passez", not passports or other Malian papers, the government said.
The government said it could not accept people "simply assumed to be Malian".
Recent reports of a deal with the EU to repatriate failed Malian asylum seekers have sparked protests.
In a statement, the Malian government condemned the use of the European "laissez-passez" in cases of expulsion, describing it as "against international conventions".
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CARACAS (Dispatches) - Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has once again extended the validity of the country’s most common currency note, citing the need for people not to worry about cash shortages during New Year festivities.
In a televised address on Thursday, Maduro said the 100-bolivar bills can be used until January 20.
The Maduro government has wanted to pull the bills, the highest-denomination notes in the country, out of circulation and replace them with higher-denomination bills for almost a month. The government has said the move is necessary to stop "mafia” from hoarding the bills and smuggling them across the border to Colombia.