Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Death toll hits 107 in Russian mine blast

By TIMES WIRES
Published March 21, 2007

NOVOKUZNETSK, RUSSIA

Rescuers pulled more bodies from a Siberian coal mine Tuesday as investigators tried to pinpoint what sparked a methane gas explosion that killed 107 miners, Russia's deadliest mining disaster in a decade. Among those killed were 20 top mine staff, including its chief engineer, who had been inside checking a British-made hazard monitoring system, said regional Gov. Aman Tuleyev. A British citizen, identified as Ian Robertson, and his interpreter were also killed. About 200 workers were in the Ulyanovskaya mine when the blast occurred early Monday nearly 900 feet underground. Three people remained missing; 93 had been rescued.

CONAKRY, GUINEA

65 are killed as truck overturns

An overloaded truck overturned while crossing a bridge, sending people, bags of cement and sacks of rice into the river below and killing as many as 65 people, state radio reported Tuesday. The truck was ferrying merchandise and passengers back from a local market near the southeastern town of Gueckedou when the accident occurred Sunday, state-run RTG radio reported.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS

DNA test ordered on Smith's baby

A Bahamian judge ordered a DNA test Tuesday on Anna Nicole Smith's infant daughter to identify the girl's father, an attorney for the baby's grandmother said, in what could signal an end to a bitter custody feud sparked by the death of the former reality TV star last month. "It's been a good day in court for me," said Larry Birkhead, an ex-boyfriend of the Playboy playmate who asked the judge to order the test on 6-month-old Dannielynn.

HAVANA

Prison wives' protest is stymied

Government supporters broke up a protest Tuesday by prisoners' wives as they marched through a neighborhood in the capital to mark a crackdown that put their loved ones behind bars. More than 40 government supporters shouted down the smaller "Ladies in White" group with cries of "Long Live Fidel!" There were no physical confrontations between the two groups, and it was not known if there were any arrests.

Elsewhere

Jerusalem: Israel's largest trade union announced that it was launching a general strike at daybreak today that would shut down the country's international airport, but said it would allow one incoming flight - the plane bringing England's soccer team for a match against Israel. The Histadrut labor union said it was protesting the failure of local authorities to pay the salaries of thousands of workers. No exception was made for flights bringing fans.

Jerusalem: The United States made its first contact with the new Hamas-Fatah coalition, ending a yearlong diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian government. Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul in Jerusalem, set the precedent with a 6-mile drive to Ramallah, where he met Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad.

London: Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster bombs that lack self-destruct mechanisms, in a decision intended to prevent the weapons - used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq war - from harming civilians. Defense Secretary Des Browne said the weapons would be withdrawn immediately from Britain's arsenal.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 02:08:43]