Air quality tests in a section of a Mexican coal mine where as many as 26 miners could have been working have shown there is not enough oxygen to sustain life, it was announced early today.

AS IF the effort to rescue 65 trapped coal miners wasn’t hampered enough by toxic gas and walls of debris, a local power outage early yesterday briefly shut down a ventilation system.

Relatives of 65 coal miners trapped underground for almost two days after a gas explosion grew increasingly desperate and frustrated today, as rescue workers provided no real news of their loved ones.