U.S. Army Captain Michael Kelvington, commander of the Battle company, 1-508 Parachute Infantry battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, bows next to remains of Gulam Dostager, a member of Afghan Local Police who was killed in the blast of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) during the joint Tor Janda (Black Flag in Pashtu) operation, in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 25, 2012.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov  (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: MILITARY CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012.  REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: MILITARY ANNIVERSARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

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Factbox: Latest developments in the Chile mine rescue

Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:44pm EDT

(Reuters) - Thirty of the 33 trapped miners have been rescued from a gold and copper mine in Chile's northern Atacama desert in a painstaking operation still under way.

The latest miner to reach the surface was Raul Bustos, 40, who lost his job in a Talcahuano shipyard that was ravaged by a tsunami following a massive February 27 earthquake.

Bustos had been working for six months in the mine on the day of the collapse, when he overstayed his shift to fix some machinery.

TOP DEVELOPMENTS

* One by one, the miners climbed into a specially designed steel capsule barely wider than a man's shoulders and took a 15-minute journey through 2,050 feet of rock to the surface.

* The first rescued miners were hoisted to safety, cheering, punching the air and hugging their families after two months deep underground.

* The first miner to be freed, Florencio Avalos, was brought to the surface shortly after midnight. Avalos, a 31-year-old father of two, looked very healthy following a nearly 16-minute journey to safety.

* The miners were sent for medical checkups and found to be in "more than satisfactory" health, except for one who has pneumonia and is being treated with antibiotics.

ONGOING RESCUE OPERATION

* Rescuers, relatives and friends broke into jubilant cheers as each miner emerged from the mine. Nervous wives, children, parents and friends waited on an arid, rocky hillside above the San Jose mine for the men to be evacuated.

* Trapped deep inside the earth for 69 days, Mario Sepulveda never lost his sense of humor, so when he was finally pulled to safety, he brought a souvenir with him -- a bag of rocks.

* The accident shone a spotlight on lax mining controls in the world's top copper producer, but also highlighted a mature industry that has the machinery and expertise to handle one of the world's most challenging rescues ever.

* The ordeal began with a cave-in on August 5 that trapped the miners about 2,050 feet underground in the mine near the northern Chilean city of Copiapo, 500 miles north of Santiago.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

* "This is a miracle from God." -- Alberto Avalos, the first rescued miner's uncle.

* "I have been with God and I've been with the devil." -- Sepulveda, the second miner to be pulled from the mine.

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