Social and Behavioral Sciences - Essay Example

In a phone interview with the CNN Turk news television the mayor of Manisa town, Cengiz Ergun, said that the blast had caused a fire that had blocked the exits of the mine trapping the workers within. The area has some of the largest coal reserves in the world. Since the tragedy occurred in the midafternoon as the workers were changing shifts it has been challenging for the officials in charge of the rescue efforts to determine the number of miners that were trapped underground. According to local authorities, the mine could have trapped more than 250 miners up to 2000 feet below the surface.

According to the energy minister, out of the 787 miners registered at the site, only 363 of them had been rescued. Sixty rescue teams comprising more than 400 members had worked through the night in search of the trapped miners. More than 80 mineworkers were harmed in the tragedy according to Mr. Ergun. Families and friends flocked the Manisa State Hospital where the injured miners were taken. Many people questioned the safety conditions of the mine but the labor ministry in a written statement maintained that the mine had been subject to regular inspection and complied with occupational health and safety regulations.

A federal appeals court in Huntsville, Texas on Tuesday halted the execution for a convicted murderer just hours before he was scheduled to be put to death. The court granted the stay to review a claim presented by the lawyers of the defendant saying he was mentally retarded and that state agencies had for a long time known and concealed this fact. Robert James Campbell, 41, had been set to be the first death row inmate to be executed in America after a botched execution in Oklahoma that drew attention to the methods and drugs used and the secrecy surrounding lethal injections. The U. S.

Court of Appeals in New Orleans conceded the stay ask for by Campbells attorneys. The court was initially reluctant