In brief: 20 workers die in Chinese mine
BEIJING – A steel cable broke as it was pulling two carriages at a coal mine in northwest China on Tuesday, killing 20 workers in the country’s latest mining accident.
The state-run China News Service said 34 miners were riding in the carriages when the cable broke, overturning the carriages in the mine in Baiyin city in Gansu province. It said 14 miners were rescued.
China has the world’s deadliest coal mine industry, with 1,973 miners killed in accidents last year.
Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but safety rules are often ignored and accidents are still common.
Mexican gunmen attack mourners
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico – Gunmen in northern Mexico attacked mourners at a graveside ceremony Monday for a man apparently killed by a drug cartel, killing seven people and wounding 17.
The mass shooting took place at a cemetery in the city of Torreon, Coahuila, said assistant state prosecutor Fernando Olivas. The area has been the scene of bloody battles between drug gangs.
At least three carloads of gunmen pulled up to the cemetery, located next door to a military base, and opened fire on the mourners with assault rifles.
Some of the mourners, apparently carrying their own guns, returned fire. The attackers then fled.
Investigators then found some guns hidden among the tombs at the cemetery.
Person found dead in California fire
CAMPO, Calif. – Firefighters recovered a body from a burned house Monday as they raced the winds to contain Southern California wildfires that destroyed 20 homes and threatened several hundred more in rural areas.
Crews battled the blaze amid winds gusting up to 20 mph that were expected to continue late Monday in southeastern San Diego County, where a 3-square-mile fire churned slowly through hilly brushlands in a desert area near the U.S.-Mexico border.
It’s too soon to know the gender of the body found just before 2:30 p.m. inside a home on Tierra del Sol Road near Campo, said Cal Fire spokesman Capt. Richard Cordova.
A man described by the San Diego Union-Tribune as an 82-year-old with one leg was living at the home and was reported missing by neighbors.
The 2,000-acre blaze was 10 percent surrounded Monday.
N.Y. high schoolers can get Plan B pill
NEW YORK – The New York City Department of Education is making the morning-after-pill available to high school girls at 13 public schools.
The department says girls as young as 14 will be able to get the Plan B emergency contraception without parental consent.
Parents have been notified about the CATCH pilot program and how their daughters can opt out of it.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she supports the program because high school students are sexually active and getting pregnant.
The city says about 7,000 girls get pregnant by the time they reach the age of 17.
It says more than half choose to get an abortion.
New York City schools already distribute free condoms to students.