World datelines

Russia: Mine rescue

MEZHDURECHENSK — Thirty-eight Siberian coal miners are buried so deep in Russia's largest underground coal mine that rescuers use up most of their oxygen tanks trying to reach them and can't spend much time searching for the missing men, the regional governor said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the Raspadskaya mine, about 1,900 miles east of Moscow, to observe rescue operations, and he raised a series of sharp questions about mine safety and whether the initial rescue work was conducted improperly.

Sweden: Assault

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was assaulted Tuesday as furious protesters interrupted his university lecture about the limits of free speech.

Lars Vilks told The Associated Press a man leaped from the front row and head-butted him as he was delivering his lecture at Uppsala University, breaking Vilks' glasses but leaving him uninjured.

Police later said the attacker was stopped before he could reach Vilks and that the artist may have bumped into plain-clothes officers who briskly evacuated him from the room. Three people were detained, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the attacker was among them.

Puerto Rico: Drug raid

SAN JUAN — Hundreds of police and federal agents raided a public housing complex Tuesday and arrested more than three dozen people allegedly involved in selling an estimated $65 million worth of drugs.

Authorities rounded up 39 of the 70 suspects being sought for being in a gang that sold heroin, crack, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs to people in the northern coastal city of Carolina and nearby areas, police said.

Morocco: Flight woes

RABAT — Volcanic ash from Iceland wound its way south to North Africa and curled eastward on Tuesday, forcing authorities for the first time to shut down airports in Morocco, as well as in Spain and, briefly, in Turkey.

Ten airports in Morocco, among them Casablanca, Rabat-Sale, Tangiers, Fez, Agadir and Essaouira — almost all major tourist stops — were being closed until at least 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Albania: Shooting