By Humeyra Pamuk

SOMA, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 19 people, including mining company executives and personnel, as an investigation into last week's mine disaster got underway and the last of the 301 victims were buried on Sunday.

The detentions were the first of the inquiry and came five days after a fire sent deadly carbon monoxide coursing through the mine in the western Turkish town of Soma, causing the county's worst ever industrial accident.

The disaster has sparked protests across Turkey, directed at mine owners accused of ignoring safety for profit, and at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, seen as too close to industry bosses and insensitive in its response.

Police formed a cordon around the court house in Soma as the crowd of onlookers, journalists and relatives of those detained grew steadily. Inside, prosecutors were questioning company employees, a police official told Reuters.

One woman said her engineer husband was among those detained inside and one man, whose engineer brother was being held, said dozens of people had been questioned as part of the probe. Both declined to be named.

"We know that we have lost 301 loved ones, but we have loved ones inside as well," the man said.

The governor of Manisa province, Abdurrahman Savas, said 19 people were being held, according to media reports, which said they were detained on suspicion of neglect and "causing multiple deaths".

The general manager of the mining company, Soma Madencilik, and the plant manager were among those held, broadcaster CNN Turk said, adding that 28 prosecutors had been appointed to the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the company said she did not have information on the detentions. A police official confirmed that people had been detained and were being questioned but provided no further details.

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October 20, 2004: CHINA - An explosion leaves 148 dead in a coal mine in the Henan province. Rescue …

FINAL BURIALS

The rescue operation at the coal mine ended on Saturday after the bodies of the last two workers were carried out. They were buried on Sunday.

Mourners cried and prayed beside a line of recently filled graves as one of them was buried in Soma.

Holding their palms open to the sky, around a thousand people said "amen" in unison as a white-bearded imam, or Muslim prayer leader, finished reciting verses.

"My only wish and battle will be to make sure Soma is not forgotten," said a written note, signed "your brother", which was left on one grave along with some flowers.

Ramazan, a worker from a mine near the one where the accident occurred, was among those paying his respects.

"My friend lost half of his family. And for what? To make a living," he said. "Accidents can happen of course, but it's an accident when one person, two people die. When 300 people die, its not an accident anymore."

Erdogan has presided over a decade of rapid economic growth

but workplace safety standards have failed to keep pace, leaving Turkey with one of the world's worst industrial accident records. The plant manager has denied negligence at the mine which was inspected by state officials every six months.

As the rescue operation wound up, police put Soma on virtual lockdown, setting up checkpoints and detaining dozens of people to enforce a ban on protests in response to clashes on Friday between police and several thousand demonstrators.

Dozens of people were detained on Saturday as hundreds of riot police patrolled the streets while others checked identity cards at three checkpoints on the approach road to Soma.

The checkpoints remained in place on Sunday but those detained, including eight lawyers from the Contemporary Jurists Association, were released by Saturday evening, media reports said.

There were fresh clashes between police and protesters in Istanbul and Ankara on Saturday night amid anger at the government's handling of the disaster.

Erdogan's opponents blame the government for privatizing leases at previously state-controlled mines, turning them over to politically connected businessmen who they say may have skimped on safety to maximize profit.

His ruling AK Party said the formerly state-run mine at Soma, 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Istanbul, had been inspected 11 times over the past five years. It denied any suggestion of loopholes in mining safety regulations.

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Company executives are among those held as prosecutors begin their questioning, a news agency reports.
Final burials

A general view of the Arak heavy-water project, 190 km (120 miles) southwest of Tehran January 15, 2011. REUTERS/ISNA/Hamid Forootan

By Michelle Moghtader

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran appeared to take a harder line in its nuclear dispute with world powers on Sunday by dismissing as "ridiculous" one idea that could allay Western concerns about a planned atomic research reactor.

The fate of the heavy-water reactor at Arak, which has not yet been completed, is one of several thorny issues in talks between Iran and six powers aimed at reaching a long-term deal on Tehran's nuclear program by an agreed July 20 deadline.

"It is ridiculous that the power of the (Arak) reactor would be cut from 40 megawatts to 10 megawatts", nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi said, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Western powers fear the Arak plant - 250 km (150 miles) southwest of Tehran - could provide a supply of plutonium - one of two materials, along with highly enriched uranium, that can trigger a nuclear explosion - once operational.

Iran says it would produce isotopes for medical treatments, and denies any of its nuclear work is aimed at making a bomb.

If operating optimally, Arak could produce about nine kg (20 pounds) of plutonium annually, enough for about two atom bombs, the U.S. Institute for Science and International Security says.

Araghchi made no other reference to the idea in the remarks carried by IRNA, and it was not clear whether such a reduction in electrical power at the planned facility had been formally proposed at the latest round of talks last week.

But possible options that could allow Iran to keep the reactor at Arak while satisfying the West that it would not be used for military purposes include reducing its megawatt capacity and altering the way it will be fuelled, experts say.

Iran's atomic energy organization chief said in February Tehran was prepared to modify Arak, while insisting that Western concerns over Arak were a ploy to apply pressure on Tehran.

The fate of Arak was a big hurdle in talks last year that led to a landmark agreement to curb sensitive aspects of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for some easing of sanctions.

Araghchi said Iran's negotiating team would do its utmost to get an accord by July 20 based on the country's "red lines," but it would not be a "tragedy" if no deal was reached by then.

Iran's red lines include preserving the Arak reactor and maintaining the enrichment capabilities.

He said the talks would resume in Vienna on June 16-20.

OPPORTUNITY

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on his Twitter account that a deal was "possible".

"Back from Vienna after tough discussions. Agreement is possible. But illusions need to go. Opportunity shouldn't be missed again like in 2005," Zarif tweeted.

Zarif was referring to a 2005 proposal for Iran to convert all of its enriched uranium to fuel rods, making it impossible to use it for nuclear weapons. The proposal was rejected as the United States was not prepared to accept any level of Iranian nuclear enrichment.

Today, Western diplomats privately acknowledge that forcing Iran to halt all uranium enrichment, as stipulated in U.N. Security Council resolutions, is unrealistic given the scale of the work and resistance from Tehran.

In a related development, the International Atomic Energy Agency said a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog would hold one-day talks with officials in Tehran on Tuesday.

The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from those between Tehran and six world powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia - but are complementary, as both focus on fears that Iran may covertly be seeking weapons capability.

The six powers want Iran to scale back uranium enrichment and other sensitive nuclear activity and accept more rigorous U.N. inspections to deny it any capability of quickly producing atomic bombs, in exchange for an end to sanctions.

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by William Maclean and Robin Pomeroy)

Ukrainian forces fought insurgents in the country's east, killing one rebel and losing a police station, as separatists prepared for a fall election after declaring independence and saying they want to join Russia.

Masked men set fire to a candidate's regional campaign office before a May 25 presidential ballot as government troops and insurgents skirmished in Ukraine's Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The separatists, who hold buildings and radio and television towers in about 15 cities, said they'd hold a vote, possibly around Sept. 14, to elect new officials for their self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic."

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"All the current members of the government and parliament of the Donetsk People's Republic were appointed without a vote," Dmitry Gau, a spokesman for the separatists, said by phone. "In the fall we'll have elections."

Since holding May 11 referendums that they say justify their secession bid, the rebels have set up their own administration and intensified attacks against government troops, who in turn are pushing on with a military operation against the fighters. The government in Kiev and its U.S., European Union and NATO allies have rejected the separatists' independence calls and say Russia is trying to stir unrest before the presidential election.

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NATO says Russian President Vladimir Putin has 40,000 troops arrayed on Ukraine's border and the alliance has expressed concern that the separatist referendums may be a precursor to a land grab similar to Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula Crimea from Ukraine in March.

The U.S. and EU have imposed sanctions on Russian companies and people in Putin's inner circle and vowed to tighten them if he disrupts the election.

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Alexander Boroday, who has been named premier of the Donetsk People's Republic, said the province will ask to split from Ukraine and join Russia in the near future

"We're going to do all of this very urgently," Ostrov newswire quoted Boroday as saying yesterday.

While Russia's parliament has given Putin a green light to use his forces abroad to protect Russian speakers, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that his country won't send troops into eastern Ukraine and isn't trying to foment separatist sentiment there.

A study by the Pew Research Center last month found that 70 percent of respondents in eastern Ukraine wanted the country to remain unified and keep its current borders. The April 5-23 poll of 1,659 people gave no margin of error.

Boroday's statement followed an agreement between Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and national and regional political leaders and businessmen on a memorandum to be signed by Ukraine's political parties to let regions elect officials and solve issues through referendums.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, Yatsenyuk said the central government was willing to devolve power, give the Russian language special status and grant financial autonomy to the eastern regions, which now receive subsidies from Ukraine's central government.

Russia hasn't commented on whether it will absorb regions in eastern Ukraine, a step rejected by its onetime Cold War adversaries in the U.S. and much of Europe.

With a week to go before the presidential ballot, masked men torched the office of candidate Sergiy Tigipko's Donetsk campaign manager with Molotov cocktails.

"Armed radicals are interested in escalating tensions," Tigipko's office said in a statement late yesterday. "Thus the interests of radicals are in fundamental conflict with the interests of the residents of Donbass, who want security for themselves and their children, the order of the street, a stable and predictable economic environment."

In a May 6-8 poll by GFK Ukraine, billionaire Petro Poroshenko, who owns a confectionery empire, was in first place with 40 percent. Tigipko was second in support with 9 percent, surpassing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was in third with 8.8 percent. The mobile phone survey of 810 people had a margin of error of 3.5 percent.

A group of gunmen attacked the Interior Ministry's regional office in Luhansk, the ministry said in a statement. The separatists were "hiding behind women and children," which prompted the central government officials to move their office to another town in the region to avoid casualties, the ministry said.

Insurgents also attacked a National Guard base overnight near Slovyansk, a town of 116,000 about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Russian border, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted on Facebook today.

"We didn't lose anyone," Avakov said. "Those who attacked the National Guard camp near Slovyansk had one killed and one wounded. He was provided with medical help and is detained. The investigation team is working with him."

The Defense Ministry said four soldiers were wounded there and in another attack in Izuym, which they also repelled, according to a statement on its website.

The fighting hasn't stopped a rally in Russian markets. The benchmark Micex Index of stocks added 0.8 percent on May 16, posting its third straight weekly gain, though it's still down more than 6 percent since Putin's Ukrainian ally Viktor Yanukovych was toppled from the country's presidency by a popular uprising in February. Ukraine's hryvnia fell 1.1 percent against the dollar on May 16, extending its loss this year to 31 percent.

The separatists have adopted a constitution establishing the breakaway state's borders as those of the two Ukrainian regions. Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting and scores more have been abducted.

In a report last week, United Nations monitors criticized "repeated acts of violence" against protesters, mainly those in favor of Ukraine's unity, as well as "targeted killings, torture and beatings," mostly by "well-armed anti-government groups in the east."

To contact the reporters on this story: Kateryna Choursina in Kiev at kchoursina@bloomberg.net; Daria Marchak in Kiev at dmarchak@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net; James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net Michael Winfrey, James Amott

CAIRO (AP) — A pair of Egyptian courts on Sunday convicted 170 suspected supporters of toppled President Mohammed Morsi on charges related to violent attacks last year, the country's latest mass trials ahead of this month's presidential elections.

The convictions in the courts in Cairo and in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh are the latest in a series over recent months that saw hundreds of people prosecutors identified as Morsi supporters sentenced to death or imprisonment.

In some cases, the verdicts came after no more than two hearings, drawing criticism from human rights activists and foreign governments as Egypt's military-backed interim government continues its crackdown on Morsi supporters and his Muslim Brotherhood group.

The Kafr el-Sheikh court convicted 127 people of storming and torching a church, a police station and a sports stadium to avenge the killing of hundreds of Islamists when security forces ended two sit-in protests in Cairo by Morsi supporters in August, according to a statement by the office of Egypt's top prosecutor. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison each. Five minors, all 17 years old, each received a one-year suspended sentence in the same case, the statement said.

The second court in Cairo sentenced 37 people to 15 years in prison each for their part in an attempt to blow up a subway station in Cairo last year, in addition to charges of vandalism, illegal possession of explosives, arms and ammunition along with disrupting public and private transport, said the statement from the chief prosecutor's office.

A 16-year-old boy received a three-year prison sentence in the same case. The court also fined all the defendants 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,800) each.

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To date, authorities have detained some 16,000 Brotherhood supporters, including Morsi and most of the group's top leaders, following the July 3 military overthrow of his government. Many of them are on trial on charges that vary between espionage, inciting murder to corruption.

In April, an Egyptian judge sentenced the Brotherhood's spiritual leader, Mohammd Badie, and 682 others to death, drawing worldwide rebuke. However, the trials have continued with many Egyptians appearing to approve of the heavy-handed measures as a way to end the turmoil roiling their country since its 2011 revolt against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

On Sunday, a judge said he would announce a verdict June 7 in a case involving Badie and 47 other defendants charged with cutting off a major road north of Cairo as part of a wave of post-Morsi protests last summer.

Several Sunday's verdicts came one day after a homemade bomb exploded at an election rally for presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, wounding four people, including two police officers. El-Sissi, a retired field marshal, led the military when it ousted Morsi 10 months ago.

El-Sissi, the front-runner in the May 26-27 vote, was not at the rally in the Cairo district of Ezbet el-Nakhl when the bomb went off late Saturday. The bombing was the first reported attack on a campaign event for el-Sissi, who has yet to appear at any election rally.

He said in a recent television interview that two assassination plots against him had been uncovered, but he gave no details.

No one claimed immediately responsibility for the attack. Since July, Islamic militants have targeted senior government officials, security facilities and army and police personnel across much of the country.

El-Sissi's only rival in this month's vote is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. El-Sissi is expected to win comfortably on the back of the nationalist fervor gripping the country.

Meanwhile Sunday, Egypt's interim president, Adly Mansour, decreed that his successor will get a monthly salary of 21,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,950) and a similar sum in a monthly allowance for entertainment. Mansour's decree amends a 1987 law that put the president's monthly salary at 12,000 pounds ($1,680) and gave him a similar amount as an annual, not a monthly, allowance.

Egyptian courts convict 170 in mass trials

The verdicts for the suspects, identified as supporters of toppled President Morsi, drew criticism from activists.
Upcoming elections

FILE - Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, is seen as he makes remarks during a news conference in this March 6, 20013 file photo, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. In the wake of a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month, Ray says he believes a firing squad is a more humane form of execution. And he plans to bring back that option for criminals sentenced to death in his state. He plans to introduce his proposal during Utah’s next legislative session in January. (AP Photo/Michelle Price, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In the wake of a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month, a Utah lawmaker says he believes a firing squad is a more humane form of execution. And he plans to bring back that option for criminals sentenced to death in his state.

Rep. Paul Ray, a Republican from the northern Utah city of Clearfield, plans to introduce his proposal during Utah's next legislative session in January. Lawmakers in Wyoming and Missouri floated similar ideas this year, but both efforts stalled. Ray, however, may succeed. Utah already has a tradition of execution by firing squad, with five police officers using .30-caliber Winchester rifles to execute Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010, the last execution by rifle to be held in the state.

Ray argues the controversial method may seem more palatable now, especially as states struggle to maneuver lawsuits and drug shortages that have complicated lethal injections.

"It sounds like the Wild West, but it's probably the most humane way to kill somebody," Ray said.

Utah eliminated execution by firing squad in 2004, citing the excessive media attention it gave inmates. But those sentenced to death before that date still had the option of choosing it, which is how Gardner ended up standing in front of five armed Utah police officers. Gardner was sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Salt Lake City attorney in 1985 while trying to escape from a courthouse.

He was third person to die by firing squad after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. A couple other death row inmates have opted to die by gunfire instead of lethal injection in Utah, but they are all several years away from exhausting the appeals of their death sentences, Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker said. Ray's proposal would give all inmates the option.

Lethal injection, the default method of execution in the U.S., has received heightened scrutiny after secrecy and drug shortages in recent years and the April incident in Oklahoma, when inmate Clayton Lockett's vein collapsed and he died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes later.

Ray and lawmakers in other states have suggested firing squads might be the cheapest and most humane method.

"The prisoner dies instantly," Ray said. "It sounds draconian. It sounds really bad, but the minute the bullet hits your heart, you're dead. There's no suffering."

Opponents of the proposal say firing squads are not necessarily a fool-proof answer.

It's possible an inmate could move or shooters could miss, causing the inmate a slow and painful death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

"The idea is that it would be very quick and accurate but just a little movement by the person could change that," he said. "Things can go wrong with any method of execution."

He cited a case from Utah's territorial days in 1897, when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson's heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts of the execution.

Dieter said that if Utah brought back firing squads as a default option rather than leaving it up to inmates to choose, as was the practice before 2004, it could be challenged in court.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of the firing squad in 1879, but as tastes have changed in the country since then, Dieter said it's possible a modern court could rule the practice violates an inmate's protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

Beyond the legal challenges, Dieter said it will probably bring back the kind of "voyeuristic attention" the state wanted to avoid.

For Ray, the option makes sense to avoid a situation like Oklahoma or legal fights over the blend of drugs used in lethal injections.

"There's no easy way to put somebody to death, but you need to be efficient and effective about it," Ray said. "This is certainly one way to do that."

___

Follow Michelle L. Price at https://twitter.com/michellelprice

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Rep. Paul Ray argues the draconian method could be a better option for criminals on death row.
'Most humane way to kill somebody'