Rescuers in China retrieved a note from a group of miners trapped underground following a blast a week ago, saying 12 of the workers are still alive, state media reported on Monday.

Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found.

The US Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer excoriated the Trump administration for carrying out its 13th and final federal execution days before the president leaves office.

In southern Madagascar, “famine-like conditions” have doubled the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance compared with last year, to more than 1.3 million.

By Dera Menra Sijabat & Richard C. Paddock

By Dedo Baranshamaje & Katie Bunten-Wamaru*

“Bye bye family. We’re heading home for now,” Ratih Windania posted on Instagram from Jakarta’s airport with pictures of three laughing children and two emojis blowing kisses.

“I’m very anxious about what we’ll see in the next few weeks,” a 33-year-old intensive care doctor, on a short break from a 24-hour shift at a Beirut hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), said.

In informal tented settlements throughout Irbid governorate in northern Jordan, Syrian refugees are preparing themselves for the tenth winter away from their homeland. The worn-out tents covered with plastic sheets were once a temporary solution. This year, the harsh winter and the COVID-19 pandemic have made their living conditions increasingly challenging and their financial burdens even harder to bear.

A history of vaccine controversies in Japan may cast a long shadow over the coronavirus jab rollout, experts warn, even as the country battles a severe third wave of infections.