After a record two months of being trapped underground in a collapsed Chile mine, on Friday 33 miners appeared just days away from a miraculous rescue with a deep drill shaft set to reach them within hours. Initially they were thought to have all perished. Then after two weeks of silence came an extraordinary note, penned in capitals and written with red ink, that gave Chile the miraculous news that the miners were still alive.

Some were bearing gifts for Vladimir Putin's 58th birthday on Thursday -- others bared their flesh. Several female journalism students from a prestigious Russian university posed in slinky lingerie for a calendar filled with warm -- sometimes steamy -- birthday greetings for the prime minister.