Miner Killed as Police Crush Protest

Romanian police crushed a violent protest by thousands of angry coal miners and arrested their leader, Miron Cozma, in clashes that left at least one miner dead and 100 injured. About 2,000 miners were headed to the capital, Bucharest, to protest a high court ruling that sentenced Cozma in absentia to 18 years in jail for leading coal miners in anti-reform riots in 1991. The clash lasted three hours, with about 1,000 police fighting back with tear-gas grenades, rubber bullets and batons. The 1991 riots toppled Romania’s first post-Communist government.