The last union coal mine in Kentucky, a state where workers fought and died for the right to organize, has closed, the Associated Press reports. Patriot Coal had announced the closing of its Highland Mine, which employed about 400 hourly workers, late last year.

The death toll from Tuesday's explosion at a Turkish coal mine now stands at 274, making it the worst mining disaster in the country's history. As many as 150 workers remain missing.

Miners are helped by rescue workers and friends from a coal mine on Wednesday in Soma, Turkey, more than 19 hours after an explosion and fire killed at least 238 miners and trapped hundreds more. Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said 787 workers had been in the mine when the blast occurred. Image via Ozgu Ozdemir/Getty.

Tuesday afternoon, an explosion and huge fire at a coal mine in Soma, Turkey trapped hundreds of workers, leaving at least 232 dead and more than 200 missing.

It's a textbook case of not appreciating what you have until it's gone: the U.S. Navy plans to replace some of its mine-hunting dolphins with unmanned submersibles described as "12-foot torpedo-shaped robot[s]" by 2017. Were you even aware before this announcement that the Navy had a $28 million-dollar marine mammal program based in Southern California? Or that it began in the 1950s and at one point also included "killer whales and sharks"? If not, you must feel this loss all the more keenly.

The 29 New Zealand miners missing underground since an explosion last week were declared dead following a second, "massive" explosion.

More bad news in New Zealand: Gas levels at the coal mine where 29 are trapped remain too toxic for rescuers.

A robot is being deployed to search for 29 miners trapped in New Zealand.

Chinese rescue workers managed to extract 29 miners from a flooded coal mine in the Sichuan province.

Workers today began drilling a test shaft at the site of last week's mine explosion in New Zealand to check deadly gas levels before rescue operations can get under way. 29 men are missing inside the Park River mine. [Guardian]

Thirty-six coal miners are missing following an explosion in a New Zealand mine.

A huge explosion in a Chinese coal mine killed 21 workers and left 16 trapped. Like Chile! Except, "mining accidents are so common in China that they rarely make newspaper front pages." So, way more tragic and awful.

Four miners are trapped, alive, in a mine in Ecuador. Media, relocate!

Bells are ringing in Chile: Florencio Avalos (pictured), one of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for months, just became the first to be successfully rescued. He looks pretty good, for a guy who was trapped in cave!

The 33 Chilean miners trapped seven weeks ago have had a pretty tough existence, but a relief hole was drilled, allowing food and electricity to get to them. Still, they're not allowed to have booze, headphones, or even video games.

The wife of one of the 33 trapped Chilean miners gave birth to a baby girl, named Esperanza, or "Hope." Ariel Ticona, the miner, had promised to be in the delivery room. His wife, Elizabeth Segovia, will probably forgive him.

Chilean miners, trapped underground without contact for 17 days, sent a message to the surface saying that they were all alive. "The 33 of us in the shelter are well," read the note, "and could someone please DVR Mad Men."