Afghan, U.S. troops start new hunt for bin Laden

Afghan, U.S. troops startnew hunt for bin Laden
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Hundreds of Afghan and American soldiers are engaged in a new hunt for Osama bin Laden and other terror suspects in a mountainous region bordering Pakistan, the Afghan military said.
The operation began Friday in Spera, a border district in Khost province, 90 miles south of Kabul, Afghan military commander Zakim Khan said. No arrests or clashes were reported.
The 700 troops, including 100 American soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters, blocked off a potential escape route for militants who could be hiding on the Pakistani side of the frontier, Khan said.
"We have reports that this was a route used by both Taliban and Al-Qaida," Khan said. "I don't know how many came and went here, but now they have one option less."
Khan, the commander of the Afghan 822nd border battalion, said caves in the region were used during the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s.
The area is across from Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region, long considered a possible hide-out for bin Laden and Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Nuclear inspectors in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran -- Five U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran to try to confirm whether the country has stopped suspicious nuclear activities -- including the building of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
Mohammad Saeedi, a top Iranian nuclear official, told The Associated Press the inspectors from the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency arrived today for a series of meetings and inspections.
The United States and other nations accuse Iran of having a covert nuclear weapons program and are pushing the United Nations to impose sanctions. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are peaceful and for the purpose of generating electricity.
Saeedi said Iran stopped building and assembling centrifuges Friday, as it promised during a one-day visit last week by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
It was the second such promise: Iran said March 29 that it had already stopped building centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
ElBaradei had welcomed the centrifuge announcement and said the inspectors who arrived today would try to verify that all uranium-enrichment activities have stopped.
During ElBaradei's visit, Iran also committed to meeting deadlines on disclosing the source of traces of weapons-grade uranium found here and answering questions on its recently discovered program to make advanced P-2 centrifuges to enrich uranium, possibly to weapons grade.
Mine blast investigation
NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia -- A small earthquake or shifting coal plates may have caused the blast that killed at least 44 Siberian coal miners, investigators said.
Three miners remained missing in the latest disaster to strike Russia's hardscrabble coal country; rescue workers held out little hope of finding them alive.
The blast occurred early Saturday about 1,840 feet down in the Taizhina mine in Osinniki, a sprawling community of ramshackle homes and derelict buildings set amid barren hills in western Siberia.
Of 53 men in the mine at the time, only six were rescued, said Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry.
All 44 bodies found have been brought to the surface, Beltsov said today. Funerals for some of the victims were expected Tuesday.
Deputy Prosecutor General Valentin Simuchenkov said the blast happened after the concentration of methane gas in the mine increased by roughly tenfold in a short period of time.
Investigators were trying to determine what made the methane level increase so quickly, he said, adding that an earthquake or a shifting of coal plates was among the potential causes.
Plowing ahead for record
COOTAMUNDRA, Australia -- For a moment, there were furrowed brows when organizers of an assault on the world plowing record realized they did not have enough tractors.
But farmers in and around the Outback town of Cootamundra, 220 miles west of Sydney, quickly mustered the necessary vehicles Sunday and claimed a new world record for the largest number of tractors to plow a 500-yard stretch simultaneously.
Organizer Vic Muscat said 1,862 tractors took part and said that number broke the previous record of 1,833 tractors held by a group in Ireland.
At the set time for the great plow, Muscat was 200 tractors short, but within two hours, farmers had enough horsepower on hand to break the record.
"It was bloody brilliant the way people worked together. We had about 150 trucks leave here in 15 minutes to get those tractors, and they came back with them," Muscat said.
Associated Press