HUNTINGTON, Utah — Six miners were trapped in a coal mine Monday by a cave-in so powerful that authorities initially thought it was a small earthquake.

Hours after the cave-in, searchers had been unable to contact the miners and could not be sure whether they were dead or alive. If they survived, a mine executive said, they could have enough air and water to last several days.

"We're going to get them," said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, a contractor that works at the mine. "There is nothing on my mind right now except getting those miners out."

Murray believes the miners have plenty of air because oxygen naturally leaks into the mine. The mine also is stocked with drinking water.

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Bridge replacement on fast track as recovery efforts go on

MINNEAPOLIS — A plan to replace the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River last week is on the fastest of fast tracks: State officials want the span open by the end of next year, and contractors interested in the job must contact the state by dawn Wednesday.

State officials have an ambitious schedule to award contracts to replace the bridge next month, even as search crews remained stymied in their efforts to recover at least eight missing victims from the depths of the Mississippi River. Five people are confirmed dead.

A brutal winter could throw the state's rapid reconstruction schedule off. But other conditions are favorable — including a construction industry with plenty of available resources to take on such a daunting challenge.

It took only seconds Wednesday night for the eight-lane, 1,900-foot steel truss Interstate 35W bridge, which opened in 1967, to collapse. Three days later, the state had already begun looking for companies interested in erecting a new bridge in just 16 months.

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Iraqi political crisis grows as more Sunnis boycott Cabinet

BAGHDAD — Iraq's political crisis worsened Monday as five more ministers announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings — leaving the embattled prime minister's unity government with no members affiliated with Sunni political factions.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed at least 28 people in a northern city, including 19 children, some playing hopscotch and marbles in front of their homes. And the American military reported five new U.S. deaths: Four soldiers were killed in a combat explosion in restive Diyala province north of the capital Monday, and a soldier was killed and two were wounded during fighting in eastern Baghdad on Sunday.

The new cracks in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government appeared even as U.S. military officials sounded cautious notes of progress on security, citing strides against insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq but also new threats from Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

Despite the new U.S. accusations of Iranian meddling, the U.S. and Iranian ambassadors met Monday for their third round of talks in just over two months. A U.S. embassy spokesman called the talks between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, "frank and serious."

But it was al-Maliki's troubles that seized the most attention.

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Israeli, Palestinian leaders hold talks in Jericho

JERICHO, West Bank — In their first meeting on Palestinian soil, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday he hopes to launch negotiations "soon" on establishing a Palestinian state, his clearest promise yet to tackle a final peace deal.

The trappings of the three-hour session were perhaps as important as the content.

Olmert became the first Israeli leader to visit a Palestinian town after seven years of bloody fighting, and Israeli and Palestinian security forces worked together to protect him, blocking all access to the five-star hotel in the biblical oasis of Jericho where the meeting took place.

Abbas, in turn, gained some stature by hosting Olmert, at least symbolically leveling the uneven relationship of occupier and occupied.

Yet despite the good will, the two sides have very different ideas about what should happen next.

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Bush says good intelligence will lead to al-Qaida in Pakistan

CAMP DAVID, Md. — President Bush said Monday the U.S. and Pakistan, if armed with good intelligence, can track and kill al-Qaida leaders. He stopped short of saying whether he would ask the Pakistani president before dispatching U.S. troops into that nation.

While Bush hails Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as a trusted ally against terrorism, Pakistan has objected to the U.S. taking any unilateral action within its borders.

Bush also said he thinks Iran is playing a destabilizing role in neighboring Afghanistan where the Taliban have staged a comeback.

"I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force," Bush said at the Camp David presidential retreat after a two-day meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Though Karzai says Iran is playing a helpful role in his country, he admits security has deteriorated there during the past two years. Along with other nations' forces, more than 23,500 U.S. troops are fighting against the Taliban, who regrouped after a U.S.-led force toppled their government in 2001.

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Flight delays at worst level in at least 13 years

WASHINGTON — U.S. flight delays are at their highest level in at least 13 years, and analysts say fliers can expect more of the same for the rest of the summer.

The Department of Transportation on Monday said the industry's on-time performance in the first six months of the year was its worst since 1995, the earliest period for which the agency has comparable data. In June, nearly a third of domestic flights on major U.S. airlines were late.

Part of the explanation for the worsening delays is that demand for air travel is rising, both on major airlines and on smaller regional carriers. In addition, the government said weather-related delays in June were up 7 percent from a year ago.

Reports of mishandled baggage and complaints filed with the government also rose.

Airline consultant Robert Mann said U.S. carriers improved their financial health in recent years by relying more on small 40-80 seat jets that are easier to fill up, and can be more profitable because there are fewer empty seats. However, this strategy also leads to more crowded skies and runways in a system "that was already saturated," Mann said.

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American Home Mortgage files for bankruptcy protection

NEW YORK — American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and two other mortgage lenders said they were not accepting new applications, signs that the worst housing crunch in decades could be widening.

American Home Mortgage, based in Melville, N.Y., and once the nation's 10th largest mortgage lender, said it fell victim to "extraordinary disruptions" that effectively cut off the funding it needed to make new loans. Falling home prices and a spike in payment defaults scared investors away from mortgage debt, including bonds and other securities backed by home loans.

Houston-based Aegis Mortgage Corp. said it would not accept any more applications and said it could not meet all of its existing funding obligations. Cleveland-based National City Corp. also stopped taking applications for new loans and lines of credit in its wholesale home equity unit.

"We are in a market now where value is a fleeting concept," JMP Securities analyst Steven C. DeLaney said of the vanishing appetite among investors for the bundles of mortgage debt that had been the funding lifeline for the industry. "The market today has just basically shut down."

As the market for mortgage debt suddenly shrinks, people trying to borrow for home purchases or refinance their existing homes are facing tougher terms and stricter standards — and are much more likely to be turned down than just a few months ago, when the industry was pushing loans even at buyers with bad credit histories.

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Lindsay Lohan's parents struggle to divorce amid paparazzi

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Ah, Long Island — land of Amy and Joey, birthplace of the bellicose Baldwin brothers, where Lizzie Grubman plowed her SUV through a nightclub parking lot and Billy Joel slammed three cars into assorted inanimate objects.

Tabloid fodder, all — but with the Lohans of Merrick, the media mania is multiplied by three.

Daughter Lindsay seems headed for her third rehab stint this year following a California arrest on suspicion of drunken driving and cocaine possession. Back home, "momager" Dina and rehab-prone dad Michael shuttle between Long Island courthouses, trying to end their two-decade marriage as cameras flash and videotape rolls.

Their last court appearance drew more than two dozen paparazzi, camera crews and reporters, all for a divorce case once thought settled two years ago. The Lohans are also battling over visitation issues involving Lindsay's younger siblings.