Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Explosion traps at least 65 coal miners in Mexico

By wire services
Published February 20, 2006

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico - A gas buildup in a northern Mexico coal mine triggered a predawn explosion Sunday, trapping at least 65 coal miners underground with a limited supply of oxygen.

At least eight miners who had been near the exit when the explosion occurred were rescued. They suffered burns and broken bones.

The trapped miners were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero, director of Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, which owns the mine. The company is a subsidiary of mining giant Grupo Mexico.

A statement by the National Miners' Union said 65 people were trapped below the surface, but Escudero said there were 66 miners still underground.

The explosion occurred at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, Escudero said.

Juan Rebolledo, Grupo Mexico's vice president of international relations, said safety conditions at the mine met Mexican government requirements as well as international standards.

Grupo Mexico is also the world's third-largest copper producer, with operations in Mexico, Peru and the United States.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi political parties have run into major obstacles in talks on a new national unity government, officials said Sunday.

Leaders from Iraq's Shiite majority oppose a Kurdish proposal to set up a council to oversee government operations, the officials said.

Shiites also reject a Kurdish proposal for major government decisions to be made by consensus among the major parties rather than a majority vote in the Cabinet.

Shiites believe the Kurdish proposals would dilute the power that Shiites feel they earned by winning the biggest number of seats in Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. But while Shiite parties control 130 of the 275 seats, that is not enough to govern without partners.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off the capital and used gunfire and tear gas Sunday to quell protests against caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.

Pakistan had banned protests after riots killed five people in two cities last week.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world on Sunday, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul and complained about negative Western perceptions of Islam.

BEIJING - A chemical spill in a southern China river has cut water supplies to 20,000 people in Guanyin town for at least four days, an official Chinese newspaper said today. China Daily reported that the Yuexi River was polluted with fluoride, nitrogen and phenol. An unidentified power plant in Sichuan province was blamed, but the date of the spill was not given.

[Last modified February 20, 2006, 04:01:08]