PRICE, Utah, July 24 (UPI) -- The Utah coal mine where nine people were killed last year had major engineering problems that left it "destined to fail," U.S. regulators said Thursday.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration fined Genwal Resources Inc., the operator of the Crandall Canyon mine, $1.6 million, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Agapito Associates, Genwal's engineering firm, was fined $220,000.

Six miners were trapped when the mine collapsed Aug. 6, 2007. A few days later, another collapse killed three rescuers trying to reach the trapped men and six more were injured.

The MSHA report was released Thursday morning at a hotel in Utah to the families of the men who died in the mine and to the news media and public in the afternoon.

MSHA found that the mine's owners and operators withheld critical information from regulators and then violated the approved mine plan by removing more coal than the plan called for.

Virginia executes 2001 killer

JARRATT, Va., July 24 (UPI) -- Virginia executed a North Carolina man Thursday night for the 2001 robbery and beating death of a co-worker.

Christopher Scott Emmett had challenged the legality of lethal injections in Virginia -- his execution was delayed temporarily until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled lethal injection constitutional -- but dropped his appeals Thursday afternoon, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch said.

Gov. Tim Kaine declined to delay Emmett's execution further.

Emmett, 36, was sentenced to death for the bludgeoning murder of John F. Langley, 43, as Langley slept in a motel in 2001. Emmett then stole Langley's money to buy drugs.

The two roofers were from Roanoke Rapids, N.C., but were sharing the motel room in Danville, Va., while they worked on a job, the newspaper said.

Emmett was the 102nd person executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.

Zimbabwe talks under way in S. Africa

PRETORIA, South Africa, July 24 (UPI) -- Zanu-PF, the ruling party in Zimbabwe, and the Movement for Democratic Change began face-to-face talks Thursday at a secret location in South Africa.

Mukoni Ratshitanga, a spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki, said neither the site of the talks nor the agenda would be disclosed, The Times of London reported. He appeared optimistic the talks will produce a result even if they run past the two-week timetable agreed to this week in Harare.

"It does not mean if the talks are not done in two weeks, that the talks will collapse," he added.

The major area of disagreement between the two groups is the leadership of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, insists he won a March 29 presidential election with even the official results recognizing that he outpolled President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe won the June 29 runoff after Tsvangirai dropped out, saying that Zanu-PF violence against his supporters made a fair vote impossible.

Memo equates torture with 'severe pain'

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The Bush administration told the CIA in 2002 a U.S. torture ban would not be violated unless an interrogator meant to cause "severe pain," a rights group said.

The American Civil Liberties Union released several memos Thursday obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

A hitherto secret Justice Department memo said interrogators abroad had to "have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering" to violate the ban, and an interrogator's "good faith" and "honest belief" the session would not cause severe suffering protected interrogators from prosecution, CNN reported.

Another memo released Thursday cited President George W. Bush's and others' warnings against torture but said "waterboarding," or simulated drowning, did not violate the law.

CNN said a third released memo tells CIA interrogators to keep records of sessions. The memo is signed by CIA director George Tenet and dated Jan. 28, 2003, the report said.