Miners' morale soars as drill inches closer

THE morale of 33 miners trapped in Chile soared yesterday after music and hot meals were supplied, and Nasa added its experience to keeping them healthy while a rescue drill inched closer. A new video shot by the miners and broadcast on state television late Tuesday showed the men shaven, wearing clean clothes and listening to a tropical tune. The figures in the images were a far cry from the haggard, mud-caked, bare-chested miners shown in a first video last week, days after they were located by a probe drill. The miners have now spent 27 days in the San Jose mine in northern Chile, which collapsed August 5 — a feat of subterranean survival unprecedented in memory. The other miners to have spent almost as long trapped underground were three Chinese men rescued in July last year.AFP