A fire on a shuttle bus carrying steel fa-ctory workers in central Ch-ina killed 24 people and in-jured 19, state media said.
The official Xinhua news agency said the fire happened on Sunday night in Wuxi, a city close to Shanghai. The bus served night shift workers at the factory. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the blaze on the shuttle bus, the local Wuxi Daily newspaper reported. Wuxi government and party officials as well as employees who answered the phone at the Xuefeng Steel company refused to comment. In 2009, a man ignited a bucket of gasoline on an overcrowded bus in the southern city of Chengdu. The bus had sealed windows and no emergency exits, preventing escape, and 27 people died. That fire prompted safety checks for public buses and better driver training around the country. Road accidents also are common in China because of unsafe vehicles, poor road conditions and bad driving habits.
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Horses kill 1, injure 23 at July 4 Iowa parade
Washington, July 5: Two horses ran out of control and rammed into spectators during the American Independence Day parade in Iowa, and injured 24 people including children, the police said. The horses ran out of control after they rubbed their heads against each other, causing one’s bridle to come off. They then took off, taking the wagon they were pulling behind them, running into families watching the parade in Bellevue town. Children as young as two years old were also among the injured, Xinhua reported. Victims suffered injuries ranging from multiple fractures to collapsed lungs and bruises and abrasions. Five of the injured were in critical condition. —IANS
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Bomb scare forces JFK airport’s evacuation
New York, July 5: Authorities at New York’s John F. Kennedy international airport briefly evacuated one of its airport terminals after a bomb scare on Sunday, one of the busiest US holiday travel days. “Only Terminal 1 was evacuated from 6 pm till 8.30 pm (2200 to 0030 GMT) due to a bomb threat,” said a one-sentence statement by an unnamed airport employee posted on the airport’s official website. No other details were given. The airport was now operating normally, officials said. Earlier, television networks aired footage showing passengers milling about on the airport tarmac after airport officials received a bomb threat from an “anonymous woman.”
—AFP