Nine killed in Ukraine mine blast

KIEV: Nine miners were killed after a gas explosion ripped through an underground coal mine in eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Friday.

The blast happened before dawn on Thursday at a depth of 300 metres (1,000 feet), located in the eastern city of Kirovsk, the State Emergency Service said in a statement.

Accidents are a regular feature at Ukrainian mines, most of which are located in the country´s industrial eastern region, where pro-Russian rebels now control over a dozen towns and cities.

Many of them are underfunded and poorly equipped, and safety violations are rife.

In the worst accident of its kind in the country´s post-Soviet history, more than 100 miners were killed in an explosion in 2007 at the Zasyadko mine, one of the three biggest in Ukraine.

Militants among nine killed in NWA, Tank

MIRANSHAH/TANK: Nine people, some of them said to be militants, were killed and two others were wounded in two separate incidents of violence in North Waziristan and Tank district on Wednesday.

In the first incident, unidentified armed men opened fire at a car in the remote, mountainous Shawal Valley in North Waziristan Agency. Tribal sources said four people died on the spot while the assailants escaped. There were reports that those killed were members of a militant organisation.

In another incident that took place in the Kot Khadak area, located around 25 kilometres west of the Tank city, unidentified armed men arrived in a double-cabin pickup truck and opened indiscriminate fire at a makeshift, roadside restaurant. Five people were killed and two others injured in the attack.

Some of the slain men were identified as Naqeebullah, Faqeer Mohammad and Ali Mohammad. They belonged to the Mehsud tribe and were reportedly affiliated with the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Police officials said the slain persons were eating lunch at a restaurant when they came under attack.Two other civilians, including an auto rickshaw driver Atta Khan and Mohammad Zaman, were also killed in the firing.

The injured and bodies of the slain men were later brought to the District Headquarters Hospital in Tank.The Pakistan Army soldiers and the police later went to the area but failed to arrest the attackers.The law and order situation has deteriorated in the Tank district, located on the border with the militancy-stricken South Waziristan.