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Posted at 4:03 p.m., Friday, August 10, 2007

National & world news highlights

Associated Press

UTAH MINE RESCUERS COME UP EMPTY-HANDED

HUNTINGTON, Utah— The effort to find six coal miners caught in a cave-in took a disheartening turn Friday when a narrow hole drilled more than 1,800 feet down into the earth yielded no sounds of life and barely any oxygen.

Rescuers refused to give up, clinging to the possibility that the drill they used to try to penetrate the cavity where the men were believed trapped in Monday's collapse may have missed its mark and punched into a neighboring chamber.

"Now there's no reason to lose hope. There are certainly possibilities that these miners are still alive," Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said at a briefing distinct from earlier news conferences in its brevity.

The mother of missing miner Don Erickson refused to be discouraged.

"We keep getting these other bits and pieces that are encouraging, so we're going to hold onto that for now," said the 69-year-old woman, who asked that her name not be used because she did not want to receive calls.

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BUSH PLANS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

WASHINGTON — A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing.

Two Cabinet secretaries — Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff and Commerce's Carlos Gutierrez — said they hoped to have new tools to combat illegal immigration before moving further to cope with the problem. But Congress could not agree on comprehensive legislation.

The officials said they'll rely instead on tools already in their arsenal, some of which are already under way, including a plan to administratively sanction employers who hire illegal immigrants.

At a joint news conference, Chertoff and Gutierrez put the onus on Congress for any consequences that may be suffered by employers as result of the stepped-up enforcement effort.

"Our hope is that key elements of the Senate bill will see the light of day someday, but until Congress chooses to act, we are going to be taking some energetic steps of our own," Chertoff said. The steps will "significantly strengthen our hand with respect to immigration enforcement."

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REPRIMANDS IN TILLMAN CASE ONLY MILDLY CRITICAL

SAN FRANCISCO — Official reprimands issued to three high-ranking Army officers are only mildly critical of their mistakes after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman and at times praise the officers.

The Army also said it would not include the reprimands in the officers' military records, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Tillman's direct superiors knew within hours of his April 2004 death in Afghanistan that the former football star had been killed by fellow Army Rangers, but the truth was kept from the public and Tillman's family for five weeks — in direct violation of Army regulations.

"You should not consider this as an adverse action," letters to the officers say. "This document will not be filed in any system of records maintained by the Army."

Tillman's death attracted widespread attention because he had turned down an NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the military after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Subsequent investigations into his death and congressional hearings raised questions both about the circumstances of his death and the immediate follow-up.

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GIULIANI SEEKS TO CLARIFY GROUND ZERO REMARKS

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at ground zero exposed to the same health risks as workers combing the site after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I think I could have said it better," he told nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher. "You know, what I was saying was, 'I'm there with you."'

The former New York mayor upset some firefighters and police officers when he said Thursday in Cincinnati that he was at ground zero "as often, if not more, than most of the workers."

"I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them," he told reporters at a Los Angeles Dodgers-Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

Fire and police officials responded angrily, saying Giuliani did not do the same work as those involved in the rescue, recovery and cleanup from the 2001 terrorist attacks, which left many workers sick and injured.

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BUSH'S BIOLOGICAL DETECTION PROGRAM DELAYED

WASHINGTON — President Bush's program to rapidly detect biological attacks and disease outbreaks has been anything but speedy in getting started, the victim of bureaucratic bungling, a federal watchdog says.

Administration officials acknowledge problems but say the system has begun operating — 21 months after Bush announced the surveillance initiative and three years after he ordered the effort in a presidential directive.

The program kept bouncing between sections of the Homeland Security Department. Managers were not hired. The approach to the surveillance kept changing. And the necessary technology wasn't operating, the Homeland Security inspector general says in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

Underscoring the importance of the issue, the report comes as Britain is struggling with an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, a threat to farm economies and tourism.

The Homeland Security Department's chief spokesman, Russ Knocke, did not dispute the findings but said Friday the problems are being addressed and the program is operating — though not fully.

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3 KILLED AS GROUP FALLS 500 FEET IN COAL MINE

PRINCETON, Ind. — A group of people being carried in a construction bucket plunged 500 feet down an air shaft at a coal mine Friday, killing three men, authorities said.

All other people at the site have been accounted for, said George Zugel, director of safety and health for Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc., which is building the 550-foot vertical ventilation shaft at the Gibson County Coal mine in southern Indiana.

Crews were working to remove the bodies after the late-morning accident, Sgt. Jay Riley said.

The "sinking bucket" can hold six to 10 people and is about 6 feet high, worker John Ervin said. Authorities did not say whether anyone other than the three victims was in the bucket, and it wasn't clear whether they fell out of the bucket or the bucket itself fell.

"I don't understand how this could have happened," Ervin said.

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PERSEID METEOR SHOWER PEAKS THIS WEEKEND

LOS ANGELES — Summer's annual meteor shower promises to put on a dazzling show when it peaks this weekend — provided you're far from city lights. With no moon in sight to interfere with the Perseid meteor shower, skygazers can expect to spot streaking fireballs late Sunday into dawn Monday regardless of time zone. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors per hour could flit across the sky at the shower's peak.

This year's sky show comes with an added bonus: Mars will be visible as a bright red dot in the northeastern sky.

"We have front-row seats this year," said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.

Last year's Perseid shower was somewhat of a dud because the moon's glare washed out many of the faint meteors. This weekend's meteor shower coincides with a new moon, which means the skies will be dark and perfect for viewing meteors.

Experts offer some tips to get the most out of nature's fireworks: Since Perseid meteors can be seen from any direction in the sky, viewers should pick out a dark patch of sky free of light pollution and wait for the meteors to appear.

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50 CENT THREATENS TO QUIT MUSIC

NEW YORK — 50 Cent believes his new album will outsell Kanye West's upcoming disc, and he's betting his solo career on it. Both 50 Cent and West have albums due out Sept. 11. 50 Cent, who has sold better than West, has been riled by forecasts that sales of West's "Graduation" could rival those for his "Curtis" CD.

"Let's raise the stakes," the 31-year-old rapper told hip-hop Web site SOHH.com in an interview posted Friday. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music. I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums."

An e-mail sent to West's publicist wasn't immediately returned Friday.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson, has been publicly disparaging of West before. In 2005, he suggested the 29-year-old rapper's popularity was only possible because of 50's own success.

But they recently collaborated in the studio. Their work, though, isn't scheduled to appear on either new album.