Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who flew late on Monday to the site of a western Siberian mine disaster, told miners’ families that investigators are looking into human error as one possible cause of the first methane gas explosion, which was followed four hours later by a second and far more deadly one.The death toll climbed to 44 on Tuesday morning, with little hope remaining for 46 comfortable shoes
** miners who have been trapped inside since Sunday.Russians’ focus swung to the question of how methane gas could have climbed to such dangerous levels in a mine outfitted with cutting-edge detection equipment.An official close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the RIA-Novosti news service, that investigators are looking into two theories — that miners had interfered with safety equipment during coal extraction, or that the equipment malfunctioned. Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s minister of emergency situations, offered another theory: That a sudden burst of methane had mixed with coal dust and simply exploded.On Sunday, while rescue operations were suspended because of the danger of further explosions, the disaster was eclipsed by an elaborate celebration of Victory Day marking the end of World War II. But by Tuesday morning, Moscow had focused its full attention on the Raspadskaya coal mine, whose 250 miles of underground tunnels were filling with water and gas.“I sincerely sympathize with you,” Mr. Putin told miners’ relatives. “I’m not even talking about the formal side of the question. It’s simply that I, and all of us, want you to understand that you are not alone.”Mr. Shoigu told President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday that bodies retrieved from the mine were pump shoes
** so terribly injured that he had “less and less hope of finding anyone alive.” At least 18 of the dead were rescuers who had been trapped in the tunnels between the first and second explosions.Hundreds of workers scrambled out of the mine after the first blast on Saturday night. A larger explosion four hours later wrecked the central ventilation shaft and seared and crumpled multistory buildings on the surface.The magnitude of the mining disaster suggested that it could be Russia’s worst since 2007, when a methane explosion in the same region killed 110.Hundreds of workers scrambled out of the mine after a small blast on Saturday night. A larger explosion four hours later wrecked the central ventilation shaft and sealed stragglers in a 250-mile labyrinth of tunnels. The second blast seared and crumpled multistory buildings on the surface.The 36-year-old Raspadskaya coal mine is 40 percent owned by the steelmaking giant Evraz Group. pump shoes
** Evraz also owned a 50 percent stake in the company that operated the Ulyanovskaya mine, the site of the huge methane blast three years ago. In that case, authorities later said the mine’s management deliberately disabled a methane detector in an attempt to increase production.
Signaling renewed scrutiny over Toyota’s handling of a string of defects in its vehicles, Ray LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, said Monday that U.S. regulators would vigilantly monitor the automaker’s steps to improve its safety record and would consider additional penalties depending on the outcome of a review of documents submitted by Toyota.“These measures are important measures, but the proof is in the pudding,” Mr. LaHood told reporters heels shoes
** following meetings with Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, which the secretary described as “serious and frank,” at the automaker’s headquarters in Toyota City.“It’s fine to have measures in place, but we must make sure they are carried out. We will continue to be vigilant about the safety of drivers in America,” Mr. LaHood said at a joint press conference with Mr. Toyoda. “We will not compromise and we will not sleep. We will work 24/7 to make sure all Toyotas are safe.”Mr. LaHood’s visit to the headquarters comes in the wake of recalls of more than nine million Toyota vehicles worldwide for faulty accelerator pedals that have tarnished the automaker’s reputation for quality.The recalls were the subject of U.S. Congressional hearings earlier this year. The automaker’s handling of reports of sudden acceleration in its vehicles have come under particular scrutiny in the United States.On April 18, Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine imposed by the Transportation Department, which charged that the company hid information about one of the pedal-related recalls. It was the largest penalty ever handed out to an automaker in the United States.Mr. LaHood said his department was investigating 500,000 internal documents submitted by Toyota and would consider additional measures, including penalties, based on the findings. He said, however, that it would be “a while” before its review was complete.“If we find that something is not quite the way it’s supposed to be, we’ll address that,” Mr. LaHood said.Toyota has not admitted fault, blaming problems with internal communications for any delays in issuing recalls and saying the company never deliberately withheld information.But to address harsh criticism in the United States, Toyota appointed a chief quality officer and has vowed to improve communications within the company and with federal safety regulators. It has promised to speed up recall decisions by giving more autonomy to its local offices. The company also set up a quality advisory panel for North America headed by a former U.S. transportation secretary, Rodney Slater, to make sure complaints are relayed back to headquarters more quickly.“As I told Secretary LaHood, Toyota places utmost importance on customer safety,” Mr. Toyoda said. heels shoes
** “I believe we are making strong progress delivering on our commitments. Our entire company has mobilized to ensure that Toyota vehicles remain safe and reliable.”He said the new regional focus on safety would “act as a voice of the customers in North America and work to ensure that customer concerns are swiftly addressed.”“We are giving our local regions a greater role in making safety decisions and are sharing information across regions on a more timely basis,” Mr. Toyoda said. “This is contributing to quicker action.”He pointed to the company’s swift handling of recalls of the Lexus GS 460 luxury SUV, issued last month over problems with the cars’ electronic stability control systems. Mr. LaHood praised Toyota for its response, Mr. Toyoda said.Mr. Toyoda pledged to cooperate fully with federal investigations.“I hope you understand that we have never hidden anything, and we have never misled,” he said.Though Toyota has been the main target of criticism over its recent recalls, U.S. regulators have also come under fire for reacting too slowly to potential problems at Toyota. Because federally required recalls are a lengthy and cumbersome process, virtually all recalls are voluntary actions by the carmakers.Last week, Congress took the first steps toward a comprehensive auto safety bill that would require devices like black boxes and brake override systems in cars sold in the United States and strengthen federal regulators’ enforcement powers.The bill is Congress’s first serious look at auto safety in a decade since reforms passed after fatal accidents involving Firestone tires on the Ford Explorer.The recalls have come as a blow to Toyota as it is recovering from the global economic crisis, which drove down auto sales worldwide.Toyota posted an annual loss for the first time in decades in the year to March 2009, losing sf
** $4.4 billion. Last month, Moody’s downgraded Toyota’s credit rating, warning that recall woes and a still-sluggish economy would weigh on the automaker’s bottom line for some time.But Toyota’s sales have been making a rebound. In March, global sales jumped 26 percent from the previous year, while global production surged 80 percent. Toyota is due on Tuesday to release earnings for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Aviation authorities closed airspace over Ireland, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland on Tuesday as a new cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland revived memories of the devastating shutdown of Europe’s skies last month.Initially, at least, the closure seemed far more limited than the six-day disruption that pump shoes
** spread chaos across the globe, with flights canceled from Sydney to New York, as a layer of fine, high-altitude ash forced the closure of many of Europe’s busiest airports including London,, Paris and Frankfurt.Around 100,000 flights were canceled and the shutdown cost airlines between $2 billion and $3 billion in losses.On Tuesday, by comparison, the Irish aviation authority said flights would resume at 1 p.m. local time.The British Civil Aviation Authority said no-fly zones, declared late on Monday, were in force over Scotland’s remote Outer Hebrides. The airspace over Northern Ireland was closed from 0600 GMT on Tuesday because concentrations of volcanic ash exceeded the levels that airplane engine manufacturers regard as safe, the authority said.Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said flights over mainland Scotland were not immediately affected.Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based agency charged with coordinating air traffic management across the region, said that it did not expect any significant flight disruptions on Tuesday, with roughly 28,000 flights scheduled in Europe — in line with a normal weekday.Experts in Iceland told the BBC that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano had started spewing larger amounts of ash four days ago and a changing wind had blown it south. But the plume was not as big as last month’s. The particulate ash is dangerous for airplanes because it can damage jet engines with potentially catastrophic consequences. Airports in Belfast and Derry will be closed in Northern Ireland while the Irish Aviation Authority said the decision to halt flights was “based on the safety risks to crews and passengers as a result of the drift south of the volcanic ash cloud.”.The ash was said to be at a low enough level to permit continued overflights by planes crossing Irish airspace at higher altitudes from the Atlantic to and from mainland Britain and continental Europe.But while the flight ban was in force, thousands of passengers were stranded as airlines including Aer pump shoes
** Lingus and low-cost Ryanair canceled flights.The disruption on Tuesday spilled into Britain’s national election campaign, the BBC reported, upsetting plans by David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservatives, to fly to Northern Ireland.Amsterdam’s main airport listed flights to Dublin as canceled for most of Tuesday. In Germany, aviation authorities said there were no immediate plans to close German airspace.The latest closures coincided with a scheduled meeting in Brussels of European transport ministers to discuss closer coordination after last month’s travel chaos. The continent’s halting response to that crisis drew widespread criticism that European nations had been slow to address a situation that once again showed cohesion in the European Union to be more of an aspiration than a reality.On Tuesday, the concern among aviation specialists was that last month’s shutdown had begun with what initially seemed isolated reports of airports closing in northern Scotland. But the situation rapidly worsened as the cloud of ash spread across Europe.Airlines soon began to insist that aviation authorities had been too quick to close 最新私服
** airspace and too slow to reopen it. But the authorities insisted that their caution was prompted by concerns for passenger safety.In Iceland, meteorologist Ole Arneson said the Eyjafjallajokull volcano was emitting a slightly higher level of ash Monday than on previous days The Associated Press reported.