It began about 570 metres (1,900ft) underground in the Ukraina mine at the town of Ukrainsk, in the ageing Donbass coalfield near Donetsk, where 107 miners were working. Firefighters had said they were struggling to reach one area of the pit. They had been pushed back by flames and thick smoke, officials said.The fire started before dawn around a conveyor belt. Even in the early stages of the blaze, officials said there was little hope of finding the miners alive.Ukrainian media said another fire broke out on Saturday night in a coal mine further west, near the town of Krivih Rih. Sixty men working underground were rescued and the fire was put out.As rescuers tried to bring victims at the Ukraina mine to the surface, a government commission led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Oleh Dubyna, headed to the Donetsk region, at the heart of the coalfields, to investigate the fire.More than 3,700 miners have died in Ukraine’s deep and dilapidated coal mines, which are plagued by poor working conditions, lax safety rules and lack of funds for modernisation since independence in 1991. The State Labour Safety Committee reported that 116 miners were killed in industrial accidents in Ukraine from January to June this year.

About 300 miners died last year with 54 being killed in a methane gas explosion at the Zasiadko mine in DonetskUkraine’s coal industry is expensive and dangerous but politicians fear even more the social costs of closing the pits, which employ 450,000 people at 193 sites in areas that have few alternative jobs.. About 2,000 people joined in the world’s most famous running of the bulls yesterday, making a perilous dash through the narrow cobblestone streets of Pamplona while being chased. Six people, including an American woman aged 19, went to hospital after being gored on the early-morning run Paul Staines, 37, from London, was hit in the face. Jose Maria Perez, 32, a Spaniard, was the most seriously hurt, with a thigh wound.

The unusually high number on the course slowed the run to seven minutes 30 seconds, more than twice the normal time, giving the bulls more chance to inflict injury on the revellers. (AP)

About 2,000 people joined in the world’s most famous running of the bulls yesterday, making a perilous dash through the narrow cobblestone streets of Pamplona while being chased. Holidaymakers face more delays this summer because Swiss air traffic controllers are reducing their airspace and the British Government is seeking to extend airport security measures, a move the airlines are opposing. Skyguide, which oversaw the two planes that crashed over southern Germany last week, killing 71 people, said the change had been made because its employees were suffering from excessive stress.The investigation on the collision between a Boeing 757 cargo plane and the Russian Tupolev 154 passenger jet is focusing on the role played by air traffic controllers in Zurich and accident avoidance plans. An automatic warning system alerting controllers that two planes were on a collision course was switched off for routine maintenance. The Russian authorities have claimed that the TU-154 pilot was given less than 50 seconds to avoid the disaster.The decision to reduce capacity is a clear sign that Skyguide has safety concerns.

This weekend is one of the busiest of the year for Zurich airport, with 65,000 passengers and 750 flights expected. And the measure coincides with the start of the summer holiday season across Europe.British Airways said some flights to Italy could be affected. “A couple of Italian flights normally route through that piece of airspace ­ they were just re-routed,” a BA spokesman said. “There are very, very, minor delays of no more than 20 minutes maximum.” He stressed it was a fairly standard procedure in “hot spots” around Europe, adding that the Swiss airspace cut was only in place until 16 July and was confined mainly to the Zurich area. The operational impact on British Airways would be minimal, he added.A spokesman for National Air Traffic Services(Nats) said Swiss airspace was not huge and the impact of the change on airlines flying across Europe was not yet clear. But the central air traffic control authority in Belgium will have to find alternative routes for aircraft that would formerly have flown over Switzerland. “It’s essentially down to the central flow management unit in Brussels who issue slots for the airlines,” said the Nats spokesman, adding: “It is very difficult to make any predictions at the moment.