BEIJING — A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northern China today, killing 11 people and trapping another 128, central government authorities say. Another 389 people at the Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang province managed to escape after the explosion, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement.
China’s mines are the world’s deadliest, with unregulated operations accounting for almost 80 percent of the country’s 16,000 mines. The closing of many small, dangerous mines halved the average number of miners killed to about six a day in the first half of this year, the government has said. Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of required ventilation or fire control equipment. A blast at the Tunlan coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province killed 77 people in February, China’s worst industrial accident in a year.
The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents today. The shooting in busy Nisoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad. It touched off a string of investigations that ultimately led the State Department to cancel the company’s lucrative contract to guard diplomats in Iraq.
Iraqis have said they’re watching closely to see how the U.S. judicial system handles the five men accused of unleashing an unprovoked attack on civilians with machine guns and grenades. Prosecutors filed the request in a way that allows them to file new charges against Slatten later.
A student at Augsburg College in Minneapolis is hospitalized with a case of bacterial meningitis. The college says the freshman female has been admitted to North Memorial Medical Center. The school is working with the Minnesota Department of Health and is notifying the residents on the same dormitory floor, as well as faculty members who have instructed the student. They’ve been advised about taking antibiotics.
Bacterial meningitis is spread by sharing food, drinks, a toothbrush or kissing. College students in Minnesota are not required to have received a meningitis vaccine before enrolling.
If you like snow on the ground for Thanksgiving, you might get it this year — though I wouldn’t hold my breath.
There’s a chance of snow on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week (Thanksgiving is on Thursday). But the chances are 40 percent or lower in all three cases, and the temps will at times reach the high 30s and possibly low 40s, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, we’re looking at partly sunny skies Saturday and a 30 percent chance of rain Sunday, with temps in the low 50s.
Balmy November to take last hurrah this weekend
Associated Press
ST. PAUL — Lawyers for the Minnesota House spell out in a 34-page brief why they believe Gov. Tim Pawlenty misused a state law to enact budget cuts without legislative consent.
The brief filed Friday supports a lawsuit challenging some of the $2.7 billion in cuts made by Pawlenty. Specifically, six plaintiffs want a court to restore money for food assistance and property tax credits for the poor.
House lawyers tell court Pawlenty abused budget law
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s government says the economy grew 2.93 pct in 3rd quarter, marking and end to the recession.
Mexico has suffered a severe economic crisis for more than a year, but the new figures released Friday confirm what officials have been saying in recent weeks: the rebound has begun.
The gross domestic product was 6.2 percent lower for July through September 2009 than it was for the same period in 2008.
Mexico’s leaders approved a $244 billion budget for 2010 on Tuesday, a slight increase from 2009.
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in head, neck and torso in the mountains east of San Diego.
Christian Daniel Castro Alvarez admitted entering the United States illegally to rob a Border Patrol agent, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Alvarez said he lured Agent Robert Rosas out of his car on the night of July 23 and struggled with him over a firearm.
Rosas, 30, was shot four times in the head, once in the neck and three times in the torso. He was found near Campo, Calif., without a pulse. His Border-Patrol issued gun was missing.
Police were called to John Marshall High School at about 7:40 this morning on a report of a large fight in the cafeteria.
The disturbance was quickly controlled. There were no initial reports of weapons or injuries.
Two Rochester restaurants have received calls in recent days from people who say that employees of theirs are in jail, and that they need to wire money to post bail. Rochester police Lt. Dan Muyres said one of the businesses contacted police. The other business wired $800 as requested. Police say that this is a scam, and to report such incidents to police.
CHICAGO — “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” an iconic broadcast that grew over two decades into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey’s production company said tonight. Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc. said, bringing an end to what has been television’s top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the U.S. alone.
Oprah Winfrey to announce Friday show will end in 2011
