An explosion at a mine in the Ukraine's eastern Lugansk region has left at least 16 people dead, the emergencies ministry says.A further 10 people were unaccounted for, and two miners were being treated in hospital, reports said.
The explosion took place at 01:57 local time (22:57 GMT).
A lack of equipment and safety standards make Ukrainian coal mines among the most dangerous in the world, and accidents are common.
Researchers measured skulls from the 1800s Humans living at high latitude have bigger eyes and bigger brains to cope with poor light during long winters and cloudy days, UK scientists have said.The Oxford University team said bigger brains did not make people smarter.
Larger vision processing areas fill the extra capacity, they write in the Royal Society's Biology Letters journal.
The scientists measured the eye sockets and brain volumes of 55 skulls from 12 populations across the world, and plotted the results against latitude.
Lead author Eiluned Pearce told BBC News: "We found a positive relationship between absolute latitude and both eye socket size and cranial capacity."
The team, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, used skulls dating from the 1800s kept at museums in Oxford and Cambridge.
The skulls were from indigenous populations ranging from Scandinavia to Australia, Micronesia and North America.
Largest brain cavitiesThe largest brain cavities came from Scandinavia, while the smallest were from Micronesia.
Eiluned Pearce said: "Both the amount of light hitting the Earth's surface and winter day-lengths get shorter as you go further north or south from the equator.
"We found that as light levels decrease, humans are getting bigger eye sockets, which suggests that their eyeballs are getting bigger.
Barn owls are nocturnal hunters "They are also getting bigger brains, because we found this increase in cranial capacity as well.
"In the paper, we argue that having bigger brains doesn't mean that high-latitude humans are necessarily smarter. It's just they need bigger eyes and brains to be able to see well where they live."
The work indicates that humans are subject to the same evolutionary trends that give relatively large eyes to birds that sing first during the dawn chorus, or species such as owls that forage at night.
Co author Prof Robin Dunbar said: "Humans have only lived at high latitudes in Europe and Asia for a few tens of thousands of years, yet they seem to have adapted their visual systems surprisingly rapidly to the cloudy skies, dull weather and long winters we experience at these latitudes."
The team took into account the overall body size of each individual by measuring the foramen magnum - the hole in the base of the skull that attaches to the spinal column.
They also controlled for the possibility that the larger eye sockets were needed for extra fat around the eyeball to insulate them from freezing temperatures.
The team intends to do more work on establishing a firm link between eyeball size and enhanced visual processing areas in the brain, and to replicate the link found in the 55 original skulls with further study on specimens from other museums.
PM Zapatero has presided over a series of unpopular austerity measures Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called a general election for November, four months earlier than expected. He said this would enable a new government to confront Spain's economic problems from January.
Hours earlier, a credit rating agency warned it might downgrade Spain's rating due to weak growth prospects.
The opposition has demanded an early vote since May, when Mr Zapatero's Socialist Party lost in local polls.
"Early elections are what the majority of the electorate wanted, so this is good news," said Mariano Rajoy, the candidate of the main opposition Popular Party.
Continue reading the main storyI want a new government to take control of the economy from 1 January next year... fresh from the balloting”End Quote Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero It argues that a change of government is the only way to recover market confidence in the country.
Mr Zapatero will not be seeking a third term as prime minister, and opinion polls suggest his Socialist Party - led by former Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba - will lose.
Economic recovery?The government's borrowing costs have risen in recent weeks, despite agreement on a second EU bailout package for Greece, reflecting the fact that investors still worry about the weak state of Spain's economy, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid.
Mr Zapatero said he was calling an early election - now set for 20 November - in order to "project political and economic certainty" over the months to come.
"I want a new government to take control of the economy from 1 January next year... fresh from the balloting."
He made his announcement after a speech in which he stressed that the economy was on the road to recovery, citing seven consecutive quarters of growth, and a recent decline in unemployment.
But 46% of young Spaniards remain out of work - and the overall unemployment rate is twice the European average.
There is concern too over the level of debt in Spain's regions, and the health of the banking sector, our correspondent says.
The international ratings agency, Moody's, has just warned that it is putting Spanish government debt on review, for a possible downgrade from Aa2 to Aa3.
Seven of the 17 people on board were saved, officials say A pleasure boat has sunk on the Moscow river in Russia's capital, drowning five people and leaving five more missing, the emergency ministry has said.Seven of the 17 people on board have been rescued, it said.
Reports say the boat, the Swallow, collided with a barge at 0058 on Sunday (2058 GMT Saturday).
The accident comes three weeks after a tourist boat sank on the Volga river in Tatarstan, killing more than 100.
Rules breachedA spokesman for Moscow's emergency ministry told Agence France-Presse the "bodies of five passengers have been pulled out" and that the rescue operation was continuing.
The accident took place close to the city's Luzhniki sports stadium.
Yury Besedin, an emergency ministry official, told local television the accident was "provisionally believed to have taken place because of breaches of shipping rules".
Three weeks ago the 80m (260ft) Bulgaria - a double-decker river cruiser built in 1955 - listed during a thunderstorm on the Volga river and sank in minutes, trapping many passengers inside.
About 80 people were rescued.
Officials said the boat was designed for 140 passengers and crew but it had been carrying 208 people. It also lacked the correct licences and one of its engines was not working, prosecutors said.
Russian police arrested the director of the company that rented the boat and a ship registrar who certified it.
US troops and other peacekeepers from Nato's Kosovo force have been deployed near the border Nato has deployed peacekeepers in the north of Kosovo after a border post with Serbia was burnt down and a Kosovo policeman killed.Serbian nationalists in Kosovo attacked the post on Wednesday after Kosovo's government sent police to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia.
Border posts in the area, which rejects Kosovan independence from Serbia, had been staffed by ethnic Serb police.
Kosovo's government suspected them of turning a blind eye to banned imports.
Nato officials said only small vehicles were being allowed through two border posts at the centre of the dispute, and that they were being checked for weapons.
Serbia has also reinforced police on its side of the border, to prevent "extremists from Serbia going to Kosovo", Serbian police chief Milorad Veljovic told Reuters news agency.
Wednesday's violence was the worst in several months, according to the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade, Serbia.
It began when a group of about 200 Serbian nationalists approached the Jarinje crossing, throwing firebombs.
They forced the Kosovan police and customs officers, and the EU police assisting them, to flee across the border into Serbia.
Serbs set fire to the the border crossing at Jarinje in northern KosovoThe post was burnt down and bulldozed.
One of the Kosovan police officers was killed and several others wounded when they were shot at.
The move by Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to reassert Pristina's control over the region has been criticised by the EU and the US as provocative.
The region has not accepted the mandate of the Pristina government since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Serbia itself has also refused to recognise its former territory's independence.
Padraig Harrington won the Irish Open at Adare Manor in 2007 Padraig Harrington is optimistic that recent work with golf guru Bob Rotella will help him return to form at this week's Irish Open.Former world number three Harrington has now slipped to 64th in the rankings after missing the cut at the Open.
But the Irishman believes a recent session with Rotella could cure putting woes which have dogged him this season.
"We talked about it again, did some work and I believe that we hit the nail on the head," said Harrington.
"I have been struggling with my putting for the last few weeks and just couldn't put my finger on the problem.
"We worked on it before the tournament (Open Championship) started and I thought we had figured it out, but it still wasn't working.
"Ultimately it came down to the fact that I hadn't fully committed to my preparation and so I was still trying to figure out what I was doing over the ball.
"I wasn't trusting my reads and so when I stood over the ball I was still trying to figure out where I was going to hit it.
"It was very disappointing to miss the cut, but I feel that the work I got done over the weekend will pay big dividends in the coming weeks," added the 2007 Irish Open winner.
Darren Clarke pinpointed Rotella's input as crucial to his recent Open Championship triumph at Sandwich.
With the prize fund for the Irish Open being halved to ?1.32m following the loss of previous main sponsor 3, Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are the only members of the world's top 50 in action at Killarney this week.
Clarke and McIlroy have been named honorary life members of the European Tour after their major triumphs this summer.
The pair were presented with their lifetime badges in Killarney on Wednesday morning by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
Ross Fisher pipped Harrington to win last year at Killarney and the Englishman, who has slipped to 63rd in the world rankings, is back to defend his title.
The field also includes Simon Dyson, David Horsey, Gregory Bourdy and 2008 winner Richard Finch.
Knox is serving a 26-year sentence for Miss Kercher's murder Italian prosecutors have rejected claims that evidence used to convict Amanda Knox of the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher was unreliable.Knox, 24, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito, 26, are appealing against their convictions for killing the Surrey student in Perugia in 2007.
On Monday, experts told the court the DNA evidence which helped convict the American could have been contaminated.
But the scientific police director has defended the original forensic work.
In a letter read out to the court, Piero Angeloni described the technology used as being world-class and said the officers were highly experienced.
"Never before" has there been such criticism of his agency, he said.
Patrizia Stefanoni, the police forensic scientist who originally found the DNA on the knife and Miss Kercher's torn bra clasp, has said she will fight the appeal trial experts' accusation that basic errors were made.
'Not reliable'During proceedings in Perugia, prosecutor Manuela Comodi sought to undermine the independent experts' conclusions and show that the forensic evidence used to convict Knox could stand.
The experts - appointed by the court to review the evidence and procedures used to obtain it - maintain that the original investigation was marked by some glaring errors, the Associated Press reports.
Much of the debate centred on a kitchen knife the prosecutors believe to be the murder weapon.
In the first trial, prosecutors maintained that Knox's DNA was found on the knife's handle and Miss Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. They also said Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp of Miss Kercher's bra.But the appeals court heard that the collection of evidence fell below international standards.
Carla Vecchiotti, a forensic specialist from La Sapienza university, Rome, said it was impossible to say whether the British student's DNA was found on the knife.
"There is a complete genetic profile, but it's not reliable," she said.
"We don't know if Meredith's DNA was on it or not."
Ms Comodi insisted that the genetic profile found on the blade should not be thrown out.
Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student, was living in Italy as part of a year of study abroad when she died.
Knox is serving a 26-year sentence for Miss Kercher's murder while Sollecito, an Italian, was sentenced to 25 years.
Both deny any wrongdoing.
Rudy Guede, 21, was also convicted of Miss Kercher's murder in a separate trial and is serving a 16-year term.
The hearing was adjourned until September.
