Briefly . . . NATION/WORLD

CHICAGO

- Intense thunderstorms and tornadoes swept across the Midwest yesterday, causing extensive damage in several central Illinois communities, killing at least two people and even prompting officials at Chicago's Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game.

Mark Styninger, the coroner of Washington County in southern Illinois, said an elderly man and his sister were killed about noon when a tornado hit their home in the rural community of New Minden.

In central Illinois, the town of Washington appeared particularly hard-hit, with one resident saying his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds by a tornado.

By midafternoon it remained unclear how many people were hurt. In a news release, the Illinois National Guard said it had dispatched 10 firefighters and three vehicles to Washington to assist with "immediate search-and-recovery operations in the tornado-damaged area."

OURAY, Colo. - Two workers were killed and 20 others were injured yesterday in a mining accident near the southwestern Colorado town of Ouray.

The Ouray County sheriff's office was called to the Revenue-Virginius mine about 7:20 a.m., county spokeswoman Marti Whitmore said. The miners were underground and were confirmed dead Sunday afternoon.

Star Mine Operations LLC, the owner of the mine, couldn't immediately be reached by the Associated Press for comment, but Whitmore said the company has accounted for all of the workers at the site.

She said 20 people were taken to hospitals, and all but two had been treated and released. The conditions of those two hospitalized workers hadn't been released.

MOSCOW

- A Boeing 737 jetliner crashed and burst into flames last night while trying to land at the airport in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people aboard in the latest in a string of deadly crashes across the country.

The Tatarstan Airlines plane was trying to make a second landing attempt when it touched the surface of the runway near the control tower, and was "destroyed and caught fire," said Sergei Izvolky, the spokesman for the Russian aviation agency.

The Emergencies Ministry said that 44 passengers and six crew members were aboard the evening flight from Moscow and that all had been killed. The ministry released a list of the dead, which included Irek Minnikhanov, the son of Tatarstan's governor, and Alexander Antonov, who headed the Tatarstan branch of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB.

WASHINGTON

- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has secured public support from nearly half the Senate, but not enough votes, for her proposal to give victims of rape and sexual assault in the military an independent route outside the chain of command for prosecuting attackers.

Gillibrand's solution for a problem the military calls an epidemic appears to have stalled in the face of united opposition from the Pentagon's top echelon and its allies in Congress, including two female senators who are former prosecutors.

Opponents of the proposal by Gillibrand, D-N.Y., insist that commanders, not an outside military lawyer, must be accountable for meting out justice. Even so, major changes are coming for a decades-old military system just a few months after several high-profile cases infuriated Republicans and Democrats in a rapid chain of events by Washington standards.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government plans to put former President Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason for declaring a state of emergency and suspending the constitution while in power, the interior minister said yesterday.

Musharraf, a former army chief, would be the first military ruler tried for treason in a country that has experienced three military coups in its 66-year history. He could face the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted of treason, but some question whether the country's powerful army actually will let that happen. Musharraf has maintained his innocence.

The government plans to send a letter to the Supreme Court today asking that treason proceedings begin, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. The government made its decision after an investigating committee formed under the direction of the Supreme Court collected enough evidence for a trial, Khan said, including information about Musharraf's decision to suspend senior judges and detain them after he declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3, 2007. He was apparently concerned they would challenge his re-election as president.

-Daily News wire services