Chile’s government announced a Cabinet shake-up, a day after the defence minister submitted a surprise resignation.

A magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook southern Chile, prompting tens of thousands to flee the coast for higher ground amid fears it could generate a tsunami like the one that ravaged the area last year.

FIRE engulfed a prison in the Chilean capital yesterday, killing 83 inmates and critically injuring 14 others, the government said, in the worst-ever accident in the country’s jail system.

A fire which broke out during a riot in a severely overcrowded Chilean prison killed more than 80 inmates today.

THE US and eight other Pacific Rim nations aim to forge a free-trade pact before President Barack Obama hosts an APEC summit in Hawaii in a year, Chile’s president said yesterday.

THE first three rescued Chilean miners out of the hospital celebrated their new lives as national heroes yesterday, as word emerged that the 33 want to closely guard their story so they can fairly divide the spoils of their overnight media stardom.

The Chilean miners began leaving hospital today and got a taste of their new lives outside the doors – a swarm of reporters, TV producers, publicity agents and even football teams desperate for a piece of their story.

CHILE’S 33 rescued miners posed with the president and were poked by doctors yesterday, itching to reunite with families and sleep in their own beds for the first time since a cave-in nearly killed them on August 5.

AMID the celebrations over the Chilean miners’ rescue, several key questions remain unanswered.

ONE is a great-grandfather four times over, another a 19-year-old father.

Chile's 33 rescued miners were reported in good health today as they met the country's president who pledged tougher safety laws.

ONE by one, the miners trapped for 69 days in a dungeon that could have been their tomb far beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface yesterday.

Families and rescuers were celebrating today as trapped miners steadily emerged from their half-mile-deep dungeon under the Chilean desert.

Miners trapped for more than two months deep underground in northern Chile were greeted with hugs, cheers and tears today as they were pulled to the surface one by one by rescuers using a missile-like escape capsule.

To hugs, cheers and tears, rescuers today began pulling 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom, 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed Chilean mine almost half a mile underground.

A drill has broken through the rock to Chile's 33 trapped miners, offering them escape after two months underground.

CHILEAN rescuers will begin today the months-long task of drilling a shaft to rescue 33 trapped miners as officials draft an accelerated rescue plan.

CHILEAN officials broke the news to a desperate group of trapped miners that they could be stuck in their collapsed mine for months before being rescued.

THEIR self-imposed rations were meagre: Two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, a bite of cracker and a morsel of peach every second day.

Rescuers reinforced a lifeline to 33 miners trapped deep underground today, ready to keep them supplied with food, water and medicine during the four months it may take to dig them out.

ALL 33 Chilean miners trapped deep underground for 17 days were found alive yesterday, Chile’s president confirmed.

Three groups of rescuers are searching for 34 miners trapped since Thursday in a collapsed gold mine in northern Chile.

The Roman Catholic Church has angered rights activists and some conservatives by petitioning Chile's government for prisoner pardons that would include people responsible for crimes against humanity.