World Briefs

CHINA Eleven workers trapped underground in a coal mine collapse have died, authorities in central China said, the latest in a series of mining disasters. The miners were found yesterday afternoon, a day after the mine in Shaanxi province collapsed, Yulin city’s propaganda department said in a statement. The reason for the collapse is under investigation, it said. The rest of the 49 miners who had been working in the privately run mine escaped.

MIDDLE EAST President Barack Obama and Iraq’s leader are discussing ways to prevent a diplomatic dust-up between Saudi Arabia and Iran from exacerbating ongoing sectarian conflict in Iraq. Obama spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.The White House says both leaders were concerned about Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and subsequent attacks against Saudi diplomatic outposts in Iran.

GHANA Two men who were captured in Afghanistan and held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly 14 years without charge have been released and sent to the West African nation of Ghana for resettlement, officials say.

EUROPE Unemployment across the 19-country eurozone has fallen to its lowest rate in a little more than four years, official figures showed yesterday in the latest sign that the economic recovery in the region ended 2015 on a relatively chipper note. Following surveys this week that suggested the eurozone economy is poised for solid growth in 2016, statistics agency Eurostat found that the unemployment rate in the region fell to 10.5 percent in November from 10.6 percent the previous month. The number of unemployed fell by 130,000 people during the month.

VATICAN The Vatican is loaning a deeply symbolic religious relic to a meeting in Britain discussing the future of the 80 million-strong Anglican Communion that has been badly divided over issues of female bishops and same-sex marriage. The ivory top of the pastoral staff of St. Gregory the Great — the 6th-century pope who dispatched missionaries to England to spread Christianity — will be displayed in the Canterbury Cathedral before and after the Jan. 11-16 meeting of Anglican primates.

JAMAICA Violent rivalries among Jamaica’s lottery scam rings have helped drive the Caribbean island’s homicide rate to the highest level in five years, according to police.