LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t credit that at all.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
saying he doesn’t believe a newly revealed North Korean facility is part of a peaceful nuclear energy program Article, 1A
Gas peril halts mine rescuers
GREYMOUTH, New Zealand - Toxic gases after Friday’s explosion that left 29 miners missing in New Zealand kept rescuers from entering the mine near Atarau on South Island today, and evidence of heat underground was concerning officials, who feared there could be another blast.
Fresh air was being pumped down an open air line, but gas levels were still fluctuating wildly, authorities said.
A 6-inch-wide hole is being drilled from the mountain above down 500 feet to the mine to assess air quality and to lower listening devices.
The missing miners have not been heard from since the blast but officials insist the search for them is a rescue operation. The drill was expected to reach the mine wall overnight.
An open phone line to the bottom of the pit rings unanswered after nearly three days.
Police have said the miners, ages 17 to 62, are believed to be about 1.2 miles down the main tunnel.
Officials believe the blast was most likely caused by coal gas igniting. An electricity failure shortly before the explosion may have caused ventilation problems that let gas build up.
Somali fighting
leaves 23 dead
MOGADISHU, Somalia - At least 23 people were killed in fighting in central Somalia and the seaside capital over the weekend, officials and witnesses said Sunday.
Thirteen people were killed in central Somalia when a militia allied with the government attacked a village held by Islamist insurgents on Saturday. The fighting continued into Sunday.
Abdi Fatah Ali, a resident of Wardhumale village, where the fiercest fighting took place, said he saw 10 bodies.
A man in neighboring Elgod village, Abdulkadir, said he saw three dead people.
The residents said the Islamist militia al-Shabab abandoned Wardhumale village, leaving the government-allied Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama militia in charge. Spokesmen for both sides claimed victory.
In the capital of Mogadishu, weekend clashes between Islamist insurgents and government forces supported by African Union peacekeepers killed 10 people and wounded 17, said Ali Musa, the head of Mogadishu ambulance services.
Missile strikes
kill 6 in Pakistan
MIR ALI, Pakistan - Four suspected U.S. missiles slammed into a house in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing six people in an area near the Afghan border teeming with local and foreign militants, intelligence officials said.
The strike, carried out by at least one unmanned aircraft, was part of the Obama administration’s intensified campaign to use drones to target militants who regularly stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The house destroyed in the strike was located in Khaddi village in North Waziristan, part of the semiautonomous tribal region in Pakistan that is almost entirely controlled by militants, the intelligence officials said.
The dead included three militants and three local tribesmen who were harboring them, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/22/2010