World briefs 2/20/06

Explosion traps 66 miners in northern Mexico

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico -- A gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in northern Mexico trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones, officials said. The trapped miners had a limited supply of oxygen and their lives were in extreme danger, said Ruben Escudero Chavez, director of the Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico, a private company which owns the pit. The explosion occurred before dawn at the mine near the town of Sabinas, 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass on the Mexico-U.S. border, Escudero said. The mine is about 985 feet below ground, he said. It was not immediately clear whether the mine had airtight chambers, such as those that saved 72 potash miners trapped last month after fire broke out in a Canadian mine. Daniel Romo of Coahuila state's emergency services said the injured miners were being treated for burns and broken bones. "Their lives are not in danger," he said. Romo said they did not know how long it would take to reach the miners trapped underground.

Kurdish official: wreckage of German plane found

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq -- Search teams found the wreckage of a missing German private plane Sunday and the five Germans and an Iraqi on board were killed, a Kurdish official said. The plane was en route to Iraq from Azerbaijan carrying employees of a Bavarian construction company when it went missing Thursday night over the rugged area near the border between Iran and Iraq.

10 U.S. troops killed in chopper crash off Djibouti

Ten U.S. service members died when a pair of Marine Corps helicopters from a unit based in North Carolina crashed off the coast of Africa, U.S. military officials confirmed Sunday. The two CH-53E choppers, carrying a dozen crew and troops from a U.S. counterterrorism force, went down during a training flight Friday in the Gulf of Aden, near the northern coastal town of Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. Two crew members who were rescued were taken in stable condition to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The aircraft and eight Marines were from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464, based at Marine Corps Air Station New River. The other two that were killed were Air Force airmen from bases in Washington state and Virginia.

India begins slaughter of thousands of fowl

NAVAPUR, India -- Health officials and farm workers in protective clothing began slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens in western India on Sunday, hoping to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. Europe stepped up its battle against bird flu as the European Union's top poultry producer, France, grappled with its first reported case of the lethal virus. European poultry farmers said consumption has fallen and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Germany ordered some birds killed on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen. The number of deadly flu cases in Italy rose to 16. Indian officials reported a 27-year-old poultry farm owner had died of bird-flu-like symptoms, though tests had yet to determine what killed him.

Russia to hold talks on Iran nuclear program

MOSCOW -- The spotlight on Tehran's nuclear program shifts today to Moscow, where Iranian officials are to hold talks on a proposal to move their uranium enrichment to Russia in a bid to ease fears the Islamic republic will develop atomic weapons. Iran said Sunday it will consider Moscow's proposal if certain provisions are met, giving new hope for what is seen as an eleventh-hour chance to avert confrontation ahead of a crucial meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which could start a process leading to sanctions. "At the moment there's only one diplomatic door left open, and it's open a crack," said Rose Gottemoeller, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. "So I think this set of talks [today] is very important for the future of the diplomatic approach."

-- From wire reports