New Zealand Miners

• 29 miners believed dead after second New Zealand blast

  All 29 men missing in a New Zealand mine were presumed dead today after a "horrific" second blast tore through the colliery, plunging the country into mourning.Police said there was now no chance of finding anyone alive, confirming the country's worst mining accident in nearly a century and prompting anguished scenes as distraught relatives wept, s...

• 29 workers feared dead after second blast at New Zealand mine

  All 29 workers missing underground in a New Zealand coal mine are believed to have died after a second explosion, police said.Police superintendent Gary Knowles said the second explosion occurred mid-afternoon Wednesday, almost exactly five days after the first blast in the Pike River mine.Potentially explosive methane gas had been swirling in the ...

• Robot breakdown delays rescue of trapped New Zealand miners

  The bid to rescue 29 New Zealand coal miners trapped underground by a massive gas explosion for nearly five days hit new problems on Tuesday as a mechanical robot broke down inside a tunnel and hard rock layers slowed progress on gas testing.Police superintendent Gary Knowles said the army robot broke down after it was affected by water, "and can n...

• New Zealand: 27 miners trapped underground

  An explosion ripped through one of New Zealand's largest coal mines on Friday while dozens of workers were underground.Five of them, dazed and slightly injured, stumbled to the surface hours later, and 27 were missing, officials said.Police said that shortly before the blast the electricity went out in the mine, which may have caused ventilation pr...