Rescuers race to save miners still trapped

? Efforts to reach 33 Chinese miners still trapped in a flooded coal pit forged ahead today, boosted by the rescue of 115 of their fellow workers who were pulled out a day earlier after more than a week underground.

Authorities found five bodies in the mine in northern China’s Shanxi province today, state television reported, but expressed confidence that the remaining miners could be saved.

Some of those rescued had survived for eight days by eating sawdust and strapping themselves to the walls of the shafts with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.