In brief: 2 Marines dead, 2 injured in hybrid aircraft crash

Rabat, Morocco – Two U.S. Marines were killed and two severely injured in the crash of a hybrid aircraft in Morocco on Wednesday, officials said.

The Marines were taking part in joint U.S.-Moroccan military excercises located in the south of the country based in Agadir.

A Marine spokesman, confirmed that the aircraft involved was an MV-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane.

While the General Accounting Office questioned the Osprey’s performance in a report last year, the Marine Corps has called it effective. An Air Force version of the aircraft crashed in Afghanistan in April 2010, killing three service members and one civilian contractor.

Copper miners emerge after being trapped for six days

Yauca del Rosario, Peru – Peruvian miners trapped for six days in an abandoned copper mine prayed and wept during moments of intense anguish, then told each other jokes and even danced to hold onto hope before they finally walked free Wednesday.

The miners, ranging in age from 23 to 58, walked out without assistance about an hour after dawn from a reinforced tunnel that rescuers had built.

The miners wore sunglasses and were covered with blankets when they walked free. President Ollanta Humala was there to greet them after spending the night at the mine 150 miles southeast of the capital of Lima.

The miners were trapped by a cave-in triggered by an explosion they themselves had set.

They had communicated with rescuers through a hose, in place before the collapse, by which they also received food and medicine during their ordeal in a horizontal shaft dug into a mountainside.