Morning Links: Egg Recall Now Massive; Miners Trapped Underground in Chile Are Alive; Gator Sighting in Astoria

• Half a billion eggs are now being recalled in 17 states (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin) due to a salmonella outbreak traced back to two Iowa egg producers, Hillandale Farms and Wright County Egg. [CNN]

• 17 days after 33 miners became trapped underground in a copper mine in Chile, rescuers made contact with the men. It will take at least four months to rescue them by drilling a hole wide enough to bring them to the surface; during that time, they'll be sent narrow plastic tubes of food, hydration gels, and equipment to let them communicate with relatives. [BBC]

• A former Filipino police officer -- Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, dismissed from the force this year for extorting money from a chef and making him swallow drugs -- is holding 15 Hong Kong tourists hostage inside a bus in Manila because he wants his job back, apparently. [NPR]

• An 18-inch baby alligator emerged from a storm drain in Astoria yesterday. Police spokesman James Duffy said, "It could have been dumped from a car -- or it could have come out of a sewer." The reptile will be housed at a reptile sanctuary. [NYP]

• Nightlife-related crime in Lower Manhattan is up. [WSJ]

• A man was shot twice on the corner of East 5th Street and Second Avenue at around 4 a.m. on Sunday, leaving him in critical condition. [DNAInfo]

• A walk down memory lane, circa the '90s, in the East Village [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]