Chile prepares to free miners

Rescuers will start evacuating 33 trapped miners late on Tuesday and have successfully tested a capsule to hoist them to the surface to end their two-month ordeal, officials said on Monday.

The specially designed bullet-shaped cage was lowered almost the entire length of the escape shaft without a hitch, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters. Once the evacuations start, it will take 48 hours to hoist the men up from inside the caved-in mine half a mile underground, he said.

(Rueters)