Thirteen die as bus sliced in half
Thirteen people died and six were critically injured in New York yesterday, when a bus returning from a casino flipped on to its side and was sliced in half by the support pole for a large roadside sign. The driver told police he lost control after being clipped by a lorry. The bus was returning to Chinatown with a full load of passengers from a casino in Connecticut.
Czech crisis
The Czech Defence Minister, Alexandr Vondra, suspended General Vladimir Lozka, the head of the military police, after armed soldiers raided public TV headquarters in search of a leaked report that exposed failures in military intelligence.
American jailed
An American aid contractor has been jailed for 15 years in Cuba after a court found he had worked to undermine the revolution. Alan Gross was accused of distributing sophisticated computer equipment under a programme considered subversive by Havana.
Diners rescued
Emergency crews rescued 83 diners in Kentucky when a riverside restaurant broke its moorings and drifted into the flood-swollen waters of the Ohio river.
Firemen built a makeshift gangplank of ladders and ropes to Jeff Ruby’s Waterfront restaurant. Nobody was injured.