100 dig at India collapse site, rescuing 6

NEW DELHI — More than 100 rescuers dug for survivors under a collapsed 11-story building in southern India on Monday, with hopes buoyed after six people were found alive two days after the accident.

The collapse Saturday killed at least 19 people and left an enormous pile of broken slabs, twisted iron girders and concrete dust where the apartment building, still under construction, had stood in a suburb of Chennai, the south-coast capital of Tamil Nadu state.

Nearly 90 contract workers, most from neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, were believed to have been in the basement collecting wages.

Rescuers have pulled at least 41 people from the wreckage, even as seasonal monsoon rains impeded the search. Police said 30 other people are likely still trapped.

Three backhoes were working to clear the area, but rescuers were having to work slowly and carefully to avoid upsetting the debris, which could settle further and crush anyone trapped below.

Syrian rebels’ mortar fire said to kill 14

DAMASCUS, Syria — A barrage of mortar shells hit government-held areas of the northern city of Idlib on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding at least 40, Syrian state media said.

Idlib, the provincial capital in northwestern Syria, has been under the control of President Bashar Assad’s troops since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in March 2011. Rebels trying to overthrow Assad’s government control the areas around the city. They have been besieging the city for more than two years, firing mortars into the government-held areas and clashing with Assad’s troops at its outskirts.

The state-run SANA news agency said mortar shells fell on several parts of Idlib on Monday afternoon, including a residential area and a market. State TV said children were among those who died in the attacks, and at least 40 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

State TV blamed “terrorists” for the attacks, a term the Syrian government uses for rebels trying to overthrow Assad’s government.

Editor in U.K. phone hacking faces retrial

LONDON — Prosecutors said Monday that they would seek a retrial for Andy Coulson, a former spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron who once edited Rupert Murdoch’s best-selling tabloid in Britain, on charges of illegally acquiring royal telephone directories from police officers.

A court in London was told of the plans by the prosecutor, Andrew Edis, after a jury failed to reach a verdict on bribery charges last week and found Coulson guilty of only one charge, a conspiracy to hack into mobile phones during his time at the helm of The News of the World, a now-defunct Sunday paper.

The paper’s former royals editor, Clive Goodman, will also be retried on the same charges; Goodman has already pleaded guilty to a separate charge of phone hacking that occurred in 2006.

Coulson, who resigned from Cameron’s office in 2011, faces up to two years in prison for the hacking conviction. The judge is expected to sentence him Friday, along with three other former colleagues who pleaded guilty before the trial. A fourth person who has admitted to phone hacking will be sentenced late this month.

3 bombs kill 2, hurt 10 near Egypt palace

CAIRO — Three homemade bombs went off Monday near Egypt’s presidential palace, killing two senior police officers and injuring 10 people on the anniversary of mass protests that led to the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The devices were planted less than 20 yards away from the walls of the Ittihadiya palace in the upscale Heliopolis district in eastern Cairo, in what appeared to be a serious security breach in the heavily policed area.

It was not immediately clear whether President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who as army chief ousted Morsi last summer, was inside the palace when the explosions occurred.

In a nationally televised speech from the palace later, el-Sissi said the government will go after the culprits and will issue legislation to deter those seeking to destabilize the country.

He did not elaborate, but the government has drafted an anti-terrorism bill that has been delayed by the absence of an elected parliament.

— Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports