BEIJING, China

Rescuers expected to save more than 90 from mine

Additional Photos

A boy takes a picture of his parents on the 124th-floor observation deck of the world’s tallest skyscraper Sunday in Dubai. The deck was shut in February after an elevator malfunction. The Associated Press

Dozens of miners have been pulled alive from a flooded coal mine in northern China more than a week after 153 workers were trapped.

State television says a total of 86 people are expected to be pulled from the mine, in addition to the first nine soaked miners who were rescued early today. The state-run Xinhua News Agency says more than 90 survivors are expected.

A live broadcast showed miners wrapped in blankets being carried to ambulances. Before rescuers heard tapping noises from below Friday, they feared this would be China’s deadliest mine disaster in two years.

BANGKOK

Anti-government protesters plan to spread out in city

Thousands of defiant anti-government demonstrators vowed today to expand their protests to other parts of Thailand’s unnerved capital after ignoring police orders to end their occupation of Bangkok’s paralyzed commercial district.

The protesters, mostly farmers from impoverished provincial areas, have sworn not to let up their pressure until the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva steps down and new elections are called.

Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader, said Sunday night that the demonstrators would branch out to an undisclosed location, but also maintain bases within both Bangkok’s commercial heart and the separate historic quarter of the city where they began to encamp March 12.

The weekend protests forced the closure of more than six upscale shopping malls and tough security measures at nearby five-star hotels, with economic losses estimated at up to $15 million a day.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Viewing deck reopens on world’s tallest skyscraper

The observation deck of the world’s tallest skyscraper reopened Sunday in Dubai, two months after an elevator malfunction left visitors trapped more than 120 stories above the ground and forced it to close.

Dozens of tourists were lining up Sunday for tickets to take an elevator to the 124th-floor observation deck of the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa.

The deck was shut in February after an elevator packed with visitors got stuck between floors for 45 minutes before rescuers dropped a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. It’s still unclear what caused the elevator to fail.

The accident proved a major embarrassment for Dubai, whose rulers hoped the Burj Khalifa, which opened in January, would be a tourist draw and buoy the Gulf city-state as it struggles amid questions about its financial health.

At 2,717 feet, the tower ranks as not only the world’s highest skyscraper, but also the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

MEXICO CITY

Fugitive drug lord pledges he’d kill himself if caught

One of Mexico’s most famous reputed drug lords said in a rare interview published Sunday that he lives in fear of getting caught and believes the military has closed in on him four times.

“I’m terrified of being incarcerated,” Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada told the Mexican newsmagazine, Proceso, adding that he would even contemplate suicide if he was about to be caught.

Zambada and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who allegedly control the Sinaloa cartel, are Mexico’s two most notorious fugitives, with a $2 million reward offered for information on their whereabouts.

Zambada offered to meet with Proceso founder Julio Scherer, saying he always wanted to meet the journalist.

It is almost unheard-of for Mexican drug suspects to speak to the media while still free.

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