The co-owner of a Utah coal mine where six workers have been buried since an Aug. 6 collapse said on Wednesday that finding life there was "virtually, totally unlikely" and that he would forever seal the mine and never pull coal from it again.
The statement by Robert Murray, chief executive of the Murray Energy Corp, about closing the mine was contrary to statements he made earlier this week suggesting that he would rename the mine, Crandall Canyon, and resume operations in another area. The comments led to outrage in the community.
Murray's new assertions came on a day when a fifth bore hole dug into the mine with the hope of revealing signs of life hit mostly rubble and a small open space, an official with the mine said late on Wednesday. A sixth and final hole is being planned, with drills expected to break through by early tomorrow in an area where the miners were last working.
"This is the last hole," Murray said, tearful and glassy-eyed, at a news conference late on Wednesday near the mouth of the mine.
Murray said his words earlier this week had been misunderstood. He said that he did not intend to reopen the mine but that he might mine coal reserves in different mountains several miles from the Crandall Canyon site.
"I have no plans to ever reopen the mine," Murray said in a telephone interview earlier on Wednesday. "I never had any intention of going back in physically. It's done. It's closed."
Murray said he filed paperwork last week with the federal mining agency to shut down the mine, though the agency said late on Wednesday that it had no record of receiving it.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not