Chile miners near rescue

Just wonderful news -- from the UK Telegraph:

Trapped Chile miners emerge to fame, movie contracts - and angry wives
Some will emerge to fame and fortune. Others just want to fade rapidly back to obscurity. And a few have some serious explaining to do.

Unless an unthinkable disaster strikes, the ordeal of "Los 33" - the 33 miners entombed nearly half a mile beneath the moonlike wilderness of the Atacama desert in northern Chile - will end this week.

A drill carving a rescue shaft broke through the rock into their subterranean dungeon early on Saturday, 65 days after they were trapped by a huge rockfall.

They were feared dead for the first 17 days until a borehole reached the shelter where they had eked out two days' emergency supply of tuna and peach.

That "miracle at the mine" was remarkable enough. But for the last seven weeks, they have lived an unprecedented underground existence, kept alive and well via the two small "umbilical cords" that are their only connection with the world above.

The extraordinary tale of survival in one of the most inhospitable spots on the planet has captured the attention of the world. But for some of the miners, that glare of publicity has also thrown an unwelcome spotlight on messy private lives.

Several men have been revealed to have children by different women, and competing claims for their affections. And amid talk of lucrative compensation claims, film and book deals and media buy-ups, love and money are destined for an awkward clash.

Quite the story they will have to tell when they surface. When I was coming home from my spring Memphis road trip, I stopped in Butte, Montana and toured a copper and silver mine there. At one point, the guide had us turn off our headlights and it was a very eerie feeling to be standing there in pitch black darkness -- dead silent.