World Briefs

The first group of rescuers and divers yesterday entered a flooded Chinese mine where 153 workers have been trapped for almost a week, while no further signs of life came from underground since tapping was heard last Friday.

Seven rescuers and four divers entered the mine, the state-run China Central Television reported. The first team is expected to explore conditions underground before more rescuers are sent.

The mine flooded last Sunday afternoon when workers digging tunnels broke into an old shaft filled with water. But experts said it could still take days to reach the miners - and their survival depended on whether they had decent air to breathe and clean water to drink.

US oil refinery safety shock

US oil refineries have a continuing problem with accidents that turn deadly, losing four times as much money from such incidents than refineries in the rest of the world, according to an insurance company report.

The problem is highlighted by a deadly string of explosions, including one that killed four people at a Tesoro Corporation refinery in Washington state last Friday.

Attorney general quits in protest

Pakistan's attorney general has resigned, accusing the government of preventing him from carrying out supreme court orders to reopen old corruption investigations into President Asif Ali Zardari.

Anwar Mansoor's announcement was the latest chapter in a simmering dispute between the judiciary and Mr Zardari that risks destabilising the government just as Washington wants it to focus on the threat posed by Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants close to the Afghan border.

Poland remembers Pope John Paul II

A trumpet in Warsaw sounded a mournful tone at 9.37 p.m., marking the minute five years ago when Poland's revered native son Pope John Paul II died.

Believers held solemn commemorations of the former pope amid Good Friday observances recalling the suffering of Jesus.

A cross was erected at Pilsudski Square, where John Paul, as the newly-elected pope in 1979, delivered a Mass in which he subtly challenged the Communist Party leadership and inspired the movement that eventually helped defeat communism across eastern Europe.

Rock hat history

Oddball rockers Devo have donated one of the red conical hats from the band's hit video Whip It to an Ohio museum.

The Ohio Historical Society says it has received a collection of artefacts from the rock group and its official archivist, including stickers, T-shirts, costumes and a flower pot-style hat worn in the band's memorable 1980 video.

Three of the band's founding members grew up in Akron and met at Kent State University in the 1970s.

So 'endeering'

With wobbly legs but no red nose, the first of 19 expected reindeer calves has been born at an Alaska farm that is the only reindeer research centre in North America.

Workers discovered the 17 lb newborn calf at the University of Alaska Fairbanks research farm. The other 18 pregnant does are expected to give birth within a week.

The newcomers do not yet have names, but that will soon change. The research programme hosts an annual contest to name its new calves, with the winners receiving birth certificates for the reindeer they have named.

US blaze kills six

Six people including three children died after a fire swept through a two-storey building in Minneapolis that included several flats and an Irish pub.

One woman died at a hospital, then the bodies of two men and three children were recovered from the building throughout the day, the fire brigade said.

Firefighters said the blaze began in a second-floor flat at about 6 a.m. and they arrived to find heavy flames and smoke coming out of the building, which housed McMahon's Pub on the first floor and six flats on the second. By the afternoon, the roof had collapsed.