Year missing from coins

Year missing from coins

LONDON — Next time you’re in Britain, check your change.

The Royal Mint admits it’s made a rare error, producing coins without a date on them for the first time in centuries.

The mint said Monday that at least 100,000 of the year-less 20-pence coins, normally worth 33 U.S. cents at face value, slipped into circulation at the end of last year. If found, one coin would garner hundreds of times more on the collectors’ market.

Numismatists say the last time the Royal Mint accidentally left out the year on a coin was in 1672.

Iran vote declared valid

Iran’s election oversight body on Monday declared the hotly disputed presidential vote to be valid after a partial recount, rejecting opposition allegations of fraud and further silencing calls for a new vote.

State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister after a recount of what was described as a randomly selected 10 percent of the almost 40 million ballots cast June 12.

The “meticulous and comprehensive examination” revealed only “slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention,” Guardian Council head Ahmed Jannati said in a letter, according to the state TV channel IRIB.

Train explodes; 6 dead

ROME — A freight train derailed just outside a station in an Italian town and two cars filled with gas exploded, killing at least six people and injuring dozens, officials and news reports said Tuesday.

The ANSA news agency reported the explosion and resulting fire engulfed several homes in the Tuscan town of Viareggio, collapsing two buildings, killing at least two and injuring at least 50 people.

The incident in the seaside resort occurred shortly before midnight Monday just after the 14-car convoy coming from La Spezia and headed for Pisa has passed through the station, ANSA said.

Alarmed by gay-club raid

FORT WORTH, Texas — Two city officials are seeking an investigation into a police raid at a gay nightclub that ended with the arrests of several patrons and the hospitalization of a man with a head injury.

“I’ve asked for as thorough a report as possible ... to reassure folks that the police are not singling out any group,” Councilman Joel Burns said Monday.

He said he was particularly disappointed that the raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of New York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn. That 1969 raid touched off a riot and subsequent demonstrations that fueled the gay-rights movement in the U.S.

Burns said Fort Worth police were unaware of the anniversary.

Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks, also calling for an investigation, said she was “very concerned” after hearing from patrons and others in the community about the early Sunday raid at the Rainbow Lounge.

O.J. to get bond hearing

LAS VEGAS — A state Supreme Court panel will hear oral arguments on O.J. Simpson’s bid to get out of a Nevada prison pending his appeal to overturn a conviction in an armed hotel-room heist, officials said Monday.

A three-member panel of the state’s only appellate court will hear 30 minutes of arguments in Las Vegas from Simpson’s lawyers seeking his release on bond and prosecutors opposing the request, court spokesman Bill Gang said. The hearing was scheduled for Aug. 3, he said.

Pollution-standard plan

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday proposed to strengthen a key air pollution health standard to better protect children and people with respiratory illnesses.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it wants to tighten the air-quality requirement for nitrogen dioxide that is released from motor vehicles, coal-burning power plants and factories.

The pollutant is among those the EPA is required to examine periodically to determine that concentrations are at a level to ensure healthful air. Nitrogen dioxide can cause respiratory problems and is of special danger to children and people suffering from asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Seeking border volunteers

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military’s counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

Combined dispatches