Reuters World News Summary

The law, which made it illegal to transport migrants through Niger, was passed in May 2015 as the number of people travelling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa reached record highs, creating a political and humanitarian crisis in Europe where governments came under pressure to stop the influx. More Israeli hostages, Palestinians expected to be freed with extended truce An Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza was poised to stretch into a fifth day on Tuesday amid expectations the Islamist group will free more of the hostages it seized on Oct. 7 in return for greater aid flows and Israel's release of imprisoned Palestinians.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

'Rat miners' burrow to rescue 41 men stuck in Indian tunnel

Rescuers on Monday brought in "rat miners" to drill through a narrow pipe and help pull out 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for more than two weeks after high-powered machines failed, officials said. The men, low-wage workers from India's poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km (3 miles) tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on Nov. 12.

North Korea's Kim received photos taken by spy satellite of White House, Pentagon -KCNA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received photos of the White House, Pentagon and U.S. aircraft carriers in the naval base of Norfolk, taken by its recently launched spy satellite, state media KCNA said on Tuesday. North Korea last week successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite, which it has said was designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.

Twenty killed in Sierra Leone attack and nearly 2,000 prisoners escape

Twenty people were killed and nearly 2,000 inmates escaped during Sunday's attack on a military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone, officials said on Monday. The West African country was thrown into panic in the early hours when the assailants sent gunfire ringing across the capital Freetown. The government blamed "renegade soldiers" that it said had been repelled.

Tears and laughter on Gaza beach as children get break from war

Children played on a Gaza beach as displaced families left their cramped shelters for a short break during the truce between Israel and Hamas, but amid the laughter their parents could not forget the hardships of war and homelessness. As children splashed in the shallow water, jumping over small waves, adults in bare feet watched from the shore. Asmaa al-Sultan, a displaced woman from northern Gaza, sat on the sand with her arm around her mother. The older woman was crying quietly.

Niger junta repeals law aimed at slowing migration to Europe

Niger's junta has revoked an anti-migration law that had helped reduce the flow of West Africans to Europe but which was reviled by desert dwellers whose economies had long relied on the traffic, it said on Monday. The law, which made it illegal to transport migrants through Niger, was passed in May 2015 as the number of people travelling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa reached record highs, creating a political and humanitarian crisis in Europe where governments came under pressure to stop the influx.

More Israeli hostages, Palestinians expected to be freed with extended truce

An Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza was poised to stretch into a fifth day on Tuesday amid expectations the Islamist group will free more of the hostages it seized on Oct. 7 in return for greater aid flows and Israel's release of imprisoned Palestinians. After releasing 11 Israelis from the coastal Mediterranean strip on Monday, Hamas has freed 69 of the about 240 hostages it took during an incursion into southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.

Finland plans more measures to stop asylum surge from Russia border

Finland may take more measures to stop an unusually large increase in asylum seekers crossing the border from Russia in what the country and its allies say is an orchestrated move by Moscow, the prime minister said on Monday. Some 900 asylum seekers from nations including Afghanistan, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen have entered Finland from Russia in November, an increase from less than one per day previously, according to the Finnish Border Guard.

In Russia, war and fear trouble one presidential hopeful

Yekaterina Duntsova, who wants to run for president, said the Kremlin should end the conflict in Ukraine, free political prisoners and undertake major reform to halt the slide towards a new era of "barbed wire" division between Russia and the West. Nearly 32 years since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union stoked hopes that Russia would blossom into an open democracy, Duntsova, 40, said she was afraid as she spoke to Reuters in Moscow.

Drones show how Israeli bombs turned Gaza into moonscape

Drone footage shot by Reuters over Gaza before and after the start of Israel's assault on the Palestinian enclave show a busy urban area, with children playing and people going about their chores - then an eerie moonscape of crumpled buildings and mounds of rubble stretching for block after block. The pictures filmed before Oct. 7 show schools, mosques and churches, and the 14th century Barquq Islamic fortress.

Suspect in shooting of Palestinian American students pleads not guilty in Vermont

The suspect in the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont over the weekend pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder on Monday and was ordered by a judge to be held without bond. The suspect, Jason J. Eaton, 48, appeared at an arraignment at the Chittenden County Criminal Court in Burlington via a remote video feed from the county jail, where he has been held since his arrest on Sunday.