DISASTER

Chinese Mine Explosion Kills Dozens

At least 73 dead, scores more trapped underground in collapsed mine.

A gas explosion tore through a mine in China's Shanxi province today, killing at least 73 and leaving many more struggling to free themselves from the destroyed site. "I should have been among them, had I not changed my shift with another miner," one worker told China's Xinhua news service. "He is still underground. I hope he is alive." The Chinese mining industry is known for its notoriously lax safety rules and is also accused of suppressing reports on the number of accidents each year. Today's disaster marks the highest death toll for a mining accident in China since December 2007, when some 105 people were killed in another explosion.