Around the world
FATAL BLAST: A U.S. Marine was killed and two others were injured when a mortar exploded during a training exercise south of Mogadishu, Somalia, the U.S. military said Thursday. The accident occurred Wednesday when troops from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit were firing 81mm mortars at a practice range six miles south of Mogadishu.TIES: Germany established diplomatic relations Thursday with Macedonia, the Foreign Ministry said, a move that is sure to infuriate Greece. A ministry spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said other European Community countries were also expected to establish relations with the former Yugoslav republic. The official did not say which countries.
Across the nationBACK TO WORK: Coal miners, weary of picketing and paltry strike benefit checks, returned to their jobs Thursday in seven states, eager to work after a bitter, seven-month walkout. On Tuesday, the United Mine Workers union ratified a five-year contract with companies belonging to the Bituminous Coal Operators Association. That ended a strike that had left up to 17,500 miners idle in West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia since May 10.
SETTLEMENT: A maker of heart catheters agreed to pay $61 million in fines for using humans as guinea pigs to test faulty, unapproved devices. Two people died as a result of the faulty heart catheters made by C.R. Bard Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J., Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said in Boston.
CRASH: A chartered jet traveling between two Los Angeles suburbs crashed nose-first and burned in a field in a congested industrial area in Santa Ana, Calif., killing all five people aboard but injuring no one on the ground.
In Washington
AIDS: French researchers say swapping antibody-rich blood plasma between AIDS patients appears to significantly slow the advance of the disease. The approach, which doctors call passive immunotherapy, reduced the number of new AIDS symptoms in people already afflicted with advanced disease, they reported Wednesday.