Day: January 3, 2006

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12:25 AM PST 01/04/06 – UPDATE – REPORTS OF SURVIVAL ARE RUMOR – 12 COAL MINERS ARE IN FACT, DEAD. ONLY ONE SURVIVES.
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(Earlier)

This is a bona fide miracle. 12 of the 13 trapped coal miners are alive. (VIDEO)

Tonight, there’s joy in the Mountaineer State!

• Miners had been trapped for nearly 40 hours
• Church bells ring as families told the good news
• Loved ones’ distress turns into “pure joy”
• One miner found dead before other 12 discovered

Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said.

Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation.

Relatives were yelling “They’re alive!”

One miner was found dead earlier Tuesday, the mine’s owner, International Coal Group Inc. said.

Neither the company nor the govenor’s office immediately confirmed the news.

There were hugs and tears among the crowd outside the Sago Baptist Church locacted near the mine, about 100 miles northeast of Charleston.

Unreal. After following the story today, it seemed extremely unlikely that anyone would be found alive. Yet tonight, twelve are alive.

About the 13th miner who was found dead earlier today – He’s been identified as Fire Boss Terry Helms, 50, of Newburg, West Virginia. FOX News is saying that Helms could have died when the actual explosion occurred and not after. That hasn’t been confirmed yet. Earlier – Video report confirming death of one of the miners.

— Graphic: The Rescue Effort
— Photos of Celebration

OTHERS: Reuters | NPR (Audio) | MSNBC | VOA | 580 CFRA Canada | WSFA Alabama | Radio New Zealand | ABC News | WESH-TV 2 | News.com.au Australia | KMBC-TV Kansas City | Washington Post | New York Times | BBC | USAToday | KXLY News 4 |

RELATED: Mines safer, but still deadly | Video report – Safety questions raised | Cause of blast remains unknown | Safety a concern for owners of stricken mine |

Ah, those wacky Canadians!

TORONTO (Reuters) – Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day — a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. — in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

They didn’t get in trouble because they couldn’t steady themselves long enough to take two steps!

“Once we give a ‘small amount’ of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before,” said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

“The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases… It’s about improving the quality of life.”

Baiting with alcohol to employ medical experimentation. Priceless.

Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

Oh, well, then, that’s OK I guess.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.

Three hots and a cot – I’d expect them to be clean as a whistle (internally and externally).

The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.

“We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route,” he said. “But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care.”

Uh, yeah – that’s some kind of provided care. Beam me up Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here.

As an international team continues reviewing hundreds of complaints registered over Iraq’s parliamentary elections, the publication of voting results are now predicted to be more than two weeks out.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has completed its investigation of almost 2,000 election complaints and will announce the findings Wednesday, commission member Hussein Hindawi told The Associated Press.

But the commission won’t announce final election results until an international team finishes its work, meaning they might not be ready for two weeks, said commission member Safwat Rashid. Officials previously said final results of the Dec. 15 vote would be announced in early January.

This is a far cry from the days when Saddam was elected with a 100% ‘Yes’ vote.

It’s easy to be upset about the delay, but the fact is, the results of this election must be legitimate. It’s important that officials take as long as necessary to be sure that any reported irregularities are investigated thoroughly. Future elections will be held to the same standard, so this process must be executed correctly.

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint Monday night by grocery carrying youths.

Barry, who wasn’t injured in the Monday night robbery, said he gave the youths a couple of dollars for helping unload groceries from his car and they left. They returned, however, and after Barry let them into his Southeast apartment, they pointed a gun at his head and took his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, Barry told WRC-TV.

“Obviously, I’m traumatized. To have a pistol cocked in your face is not something you cannot feel emotional about,” Barry said.

Riiiight Barry. Just an innocent old man asking a few well meaning kids to help him with his groceries. Does anyone else really believe this? I can’t wait to hear the “rest of the story”, like who had the crack, who offered to sell it and who was buying. Stuff like that.