A rock burst at a coal mine in China's Henan province has killed a total of 10 miners. The explosion happened just after a minor 2.9-magnitude earthquake occurred nearby, and 45 workers were rescued after 36 hours underground - although two of those workers later died of their injuries.
Last month, a gas explosion at a coal mine in Hunan provice killed 29 miners, while six survived. (29 was also the death toll from the 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster in West Virginia.) CCTV reported that the mine had lost its operating license earlier this year after failing to ventilate sufficiently, but continued operating without permission. Earlier in October, 13 miners were killed by an explosion in Congqing, and 11 died in an explosion in the Shaanxi province. In 2010, a reported total of 2,433 people were killed by mine disasters - down from nearly 7,000 in 2002 but still appalling.
In other news:
Read the rest of this post... At the pump handle