More than 40 people are feared dead after a bridge collapsed while under construction in western India, police said yesterday as hope faded for finding survivors.
Rescuers had recovered the bodies of 12 workers from the site in Rajasthan state by yesterday and feared that the 30 others still missing could be dead, said Rajeev Dasot, the area's inspector general of police.
Hundreds of workers were clearing debris from the site of the bridge being built across the Chambal River near the town of Kota, 170 miles west of Jaipur, the state capital.
The workers could take another three days to clear all the debris, Dasot said.
Five people were taken to hospital after the accident, but their injuries were not life-threatening, he said.
Police were investigating the cause of the accident and have arrested two project managers on charges of culpable homicide, he said. (PA)
Drugs death sentence
A Vietnamese court sentenced five Chinese citizens to death by firing squad for trafficking nearly eight tonnes of marijuana in one of the country's largest drug cases.
Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said the five were convicted of illegally transporting marijuana after a four-day trial in the province of Quang Ninh, bordering China. It said the group was hired by two unidentified people from Hong Kong to transport the drugs from Vietnam to China for 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars (£134,353). (PA)
Salvationist shot dead
Two men shot dead a Salvation Army major in front of his three young children outside the organisation's community centre in Little Rock, Arkansas.
County coroner Garland Camper said two men attacked Philip Wise and his children, aged four, six and eight, on Christmas Eve. One of the men pulled out a gun, demanded money and then shot Major Wise, he said. Major Wise's wife Cindy, also a major in the Salvation Army, was in the centre and called emergency services. (PA)
Berlusconi's pious note
Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi wrote a Christmas letter to the Pope saying Christian values guided his government's work - the latest evidence that the premier beset by a sex scandal is taking an increasingly pious tone as he eyes Catholic voters.
The letter follows a new Berlusconi mantra, 'Love conquers hatred and envy', and his public pardon of the man who recently assaulted him, breaking his nose and two teeth.
Mr Berlusconi's conservative forces have a solid majority in parliament, but his purported dalliances with a prostitute strained relations with the Catholic Church earlier this year. (PA)
Bus crash
A bus skidded off a highway and crashed into a barrier in northern Malaysia, killing 10 people and injuring two others.
The vehicle, heading from central Selangor state to the northernmost state of Perlis, which borders Thailand, spun out of control and slammed into the metal barrier that tore through the lower tier of the double-decker bus, a Perak state police officer said.
All the victims were Malaysian and seated on the lower deck. Thirty-eight others on the bus were not injured. (PA)
Mexican journalist gunned down
A journalist was gunned down as he left a holiday party in the Mexican Caribbean resort town of Tulum, bringing to 12 the number of reporters killed this year in the country.
Alberto Velazquez of the newspaper Expresiones de Tulum, had written articles critical of local officials and his paper had received threats, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a statement, the group quoted colleagues as saying Mr Velazquez, who founded the paper in June and worked as a lawyer, was shot by a gunman on a motorcycle and they believed it was related to his reporting. (PA)
Campaigner has swine flu
Poland's ombudsman, who has waged a campaign against the government for refusing to import swine flu vaccines, says he is now sick with the illness.
Janusz Kochanowski announced on Twitter that he had a bad case of swine flu and called it "ironical".
Poland's government has refused to import swine flu vaccines, arguing that not enough clinical trials have been carried in the rush to produce them and that producers refuse to take responsibility for possible side-effects. (PA)