PAMPLONA, Spain

Two Britons, American gored during running of the bulls

Additional Photos

Revelers get out of the way of a bull during the third day of the running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, on Monday. The Associated Press

Two Britons and an American were gored Monday on the third day of Spain’s famed running of the bulls through the cobblestoned streets of Pamplona, the most gorings for one run so far this year.

Thousands of daredevil runners charged ahead of six fighting bulls let loose for the annual San Fermin festival in northern Spain, and the three were gored by one that broke free from the pack just before entering the city’s bullring, a Navarre regional government statement said.

Aryeh Deutsch, a 38-year-old who has participated in dozens of bull runs at Pamplona, said he tripped and fell amid a crowd of runners as he dashed ahead of the black bull and saw the animal heading toward him as he lay on the ground.

“The next thing I know I am underneath him, I can see his belly and I was trying to roll out of the way to get under the fence and yeah he got me, he got me in the right calf,” said Deutsch, an engineer from Cherry Hill, N.J.

The regional government said one of the Britons, age 20, was gored in the right leg while the other, age 29, was gored in the left leg.

None of those gored was seriously injured, and Deutsch was released within hours.

DENVER

Firefighters seek federal health insurance coverage

They work the front lines of the nation’s most explosive wildfires, navigating treacherous terrain, dense walls of smoke and tall curtains of flame. Yet thousands of the nation’s seasonal firefighters have no health insurance for themselves or their families.

Many firefighters are now asking to buy into a federal government health plan, largely out of anger over a colleague who was left with a $70,000 hospital bill after his son was born prematurely.

Their request has been bolstered by more than 125,000 signatures gathered in an online petition during this year’s historic fire season in the West and the ongoing national debate over health care.

“You pray you don’t get sick,” said firefighter John Lauer, a member of the Tatanka Hotshots crew based in Custer, S.D., who recently worked the massive High Park Fire in northern Colorado and started the petition.

Firefighters do get workers’ compensation if they are hurt on the job, but that doesn’t cover them in the offseason.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates firefighting efforts nationwide, says 15,000 wildland firefighters are on the federal payroll this year. Of that number, some 8,000 are classified as temporary seasonal employees, who work on a season-to-season basis with no guarantee of a job the next year and no access to federal benefits.

BEIRUT

U.N. envoy courts Iran’s help in resolving Syrian conflict

International envoy Kofi Annan tried to rescue his peace plan for Syria by seeking help Monday from Iran, a staunch ally and military backer of President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Before flying to Tehran, Annan said he had agreed on a new approach with Assad to stop the violence, which activists say has killed more than 17,000 people since the conflict began in March 2011.

Annan did not spell out the agreement or say what kind of involvement he saw for Iran in resolving the crisis. Anti-regime fighters dismissed any role for Iran in a plan they and some experts say has little hope of succeeding.

The United States has rejected Iranian participation in international meetings on the crisis in Syria.

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