FirstUp: Uttarakhand rescue, Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage release: The big news today

Thank God It’s Friday, right? For the 41 men trapped in the Uttarakhand tunnel for the past 12 days, Friday is set to be a day of many thanks indeed as their rescue finally imminent. The hour that the ceasefire will finally begin between Israel and Hamas is drawing near. As is the moment when some Israeli hostages, taken hostage by Hamas during the 7 October attack, will return to their families. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court is set to hear sentencing arguments in the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case. And the judicial custody of AAP’s Sanjay Singh in the Delhi Excise policy money laundering case ends today. Let’s take a closer look at today’s big-ticket items: Workers set to be rescued The workers in Uttarakhand’ Silkyara tunnel are set to be rescued today. Thursday saw the quest to save the workers in the Silkyara tunnel resume after an overnight hurdle delayed the drilling by several hours. Former advisor to the prime minister’s office Bhaskar Khulbe, who was at the site, said an iron mesh which had come in the path of the drilling machine that is creating an escape path for the workers was removed in the morning. This held up the drilling through the 57-metre stretch of the rubble of the collapsed section of the tunnel by six hours, dampening somewhat the previous evening’s enthusiasm over an imminent rescue. Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage release The war-weary people of Gaza need not wait much longer. The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is set to begin today at 7 am local time, as per NDTV. Meanwhile, the families of the hostages will also be patiently waiting for the hostages to be released.

Hamas will return at least 13 hostages today by 4 pm local time.

The deal was negotiated by the foreign ministry of Qatar, which played a key role in mediating with Hamas, as well as the United States and Egypt. [caption id=“attachment_13423382” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Palestinians evacuate survivors after an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, on 23 Novemeber. AP[/caption] It was originally set to go into effect on Thursday morning, but it was delayed by a last-minute snag. The truce agreement had raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, which has levelled vast swaths of Gaza, fuelled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank, and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across West Asia. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against Hamas after the truce expires. Delhi HC hears sentencing arguments The Delhi High Court will hear arguments on the quantum of punishment against five men convicted in the killing of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan in 2008. The court had on 18 October convicted four men – Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik, and Ajay Kumar– of the murder of the television journalist. The fifth, Ajay Sethi, was found guilty of helping the others four. It noted that the confessional statement of the main accused was an “admissible piece of evidence” under the provision of the Maharastra Control of Organised Crime Act. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) is a special law for prevention and control of criminal activity by organised crime syndicates or gangs. Vishwanathan, who was working with a leading English news channel, was shot dead in the early hours of 30 September,  2008, on south Delhi’s Nelson Mandela Marg while she was returning home from work. Police claimed the motive was robbery. Sanjay Singh’s judicial custody ends AAP leader Sanjay Singh, arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, is set to be released from judicial custody today. Singh was arrested on 4 October by the anti-money laundering agency. The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Singh played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy, which benefited certain liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. Special Judge M K Nagpal has ordered authorities to produce Singh before a court in Punjab after it was informed that a production warrant had been received from a court in Amritsar. On this day…. On 24 November, 1859,Charles Darwin published his seminal work On the Origin of Species. Darwin, the British naturalist, was nearly a decade removed from the death of his daughter Annie – she had succumbed to typhoid – and had long-since thrown off his adherence to Christianity. The book, which proposed that biological species change over time through the acquisition of traits that favour survival and reproduction, provoked a firestorm – and caused a revolution in scientific thought. [caption id=“attachment_13424532” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species on this day in 1859.[/caption] On 24 November, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was killed in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Oswald, who had been taken into custody for the murder of then president John F Kennedy two days earlier had cried “I’m just a patsy.”

Ruby, on extremely friendly terms with the police, was said to be out for revenge for the killing of his hero JFK.

He burst forth from a gaggle of news reporters and shot Oswald – who was being moved to another location – leaving onlookers momentarily stunned. By the time police officers wrestled Ruby to the floor it was all too late. Oswald was rushed to the hospital where he was declared dead. The death of Oswald launched ten thousand conspiracies and unending chatter about the murder of JFK which continues to this day. With inputs from agencies