World Briefs

A bus carrying dozens of Hindu pilgrims home from a shrine plunged off a bridge in central India and killed 32 passengers.

Police say more than 20 people are being treated in a Maharashtra state hospital.

The bus, run by a private tour company, fell from the bridge in Osmanabad district before dawn today as it was returning from a temple to the city of Hyderabad.

Rocket found

The Israeli military says it has found remnants of a rocket that hit southern Israel overnight.

The rocket was discovered in an open desert area and did not cause any damage or injuries. The military was alerted after an explosion was heard.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military could not say from where the rocket was believed to have been launched.

A rocket crashed into the southern resort town of Eilat in April, also causing no injuries but raising concerns about militant activity in neighbouring Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Israel has warned of growing lawlessness in Sinai following the uprising last year that overthrew Hosni Mubarak’s regime. (PA)

Police killed

Two policemen were killed and three others wounded during a night-time attack on an Algerian police station, a security official said yesterday.

He said the attack came at around 9 p.m. when a large number of gunmen opened fire on the station in the district of Ouacif 120 kilometres east of the capital in the mountainous Kabylie region.

The attackers retreated after police reinforcements arrived from nearby towns, the official said.

The rugged Kabylie region is the sole remaining hideout in northern Algeria for the armed militants of Al Qaeda in North Africa. (PA)

Pope’s briefing

Pope Benedict XVI is getting a briefing from the three cardinals he appointed in April to investigate leaked Vatican documents that have cast a poor light on the governance of the Catholic Church.

The cardinals were given a broad mandate to interview Vatican officials across the board to get to the bottom of the leaks and report back to the pope. They are working separately from a criminal probe headed by the pope’s top bodyguard, a former Italian secret service agent who heads the Vatican police force. (PA)