NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Fatal bus plunge: At least 23 children were killed Monday in northern India when their school bus skidded off a mountain road into a gorge in the foothills of the Himalayas, officials said. Four adults were also killed in the crash, said Himachal Pradesh state transport minister Govind Singh Takur. At least a dozen people were taken to area hospitals. Initial reports indicated the bus driver was speeding and lost control at the edge of the gorge, with the bus crashing some 200 feet to the ground below, said police officer Sunil Kumar. The accident occurred in the Kangra Valley, about 300 miles north of New Delhi.
_2 Deadly liquor: More than 50 people have died in little more than a week after drinking bootleg liquor in western Indonesia, including in the capital, Jakarta, officials said Monday. In the latest incident, 20 people died between Thursday and Monday near the West Java capital of Bandung. High taxes on alcohol have spawned a black market among the poor in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where drinking alcohol is frowned upon but not illegal under civil law. Potentially lethal methanol can be a byproduct of bootleg distilling. Police have arrested at least four suspects in the Jakarta area who are accused of selling tainted liquor.
_3 Canada crash: Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Justice said Monday that one of the deceased in the crash that killed 15 people en route to a hockey playoff game was misidentified. The ministry said the body of Parker Tobin was mistaken for that of Xavier Labelle. It said Labelle was injured but alive, and Tobin is among the deceased. The Office of the Chief Coroner apologized for the misidentification. The news came as the shattered town of Humboldt mourned its revered youth hockey team, trying to come to grips with the accident Friday that also injured 14 others.
_4 Mali slayings: Several civic associations said Monday that Mali’s army has killed 14 Fulani civilians who were arrested and detained by the military in the country’s central west region. Abdul Aziz Diallo, president of the Peulh Tabital Pulaaku Association, said the killings happened Friday. Mali’s army said Saturday that 14 suspected extremists were killed when they allegedly tried to escape detention. Mali’s minister of defense said the deaths will be investigated. Since 2015, mainly Fulani jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda have been attacking the Malian army. However, several human rights associations have accused the army of abuses.
_5 Militants targeted: A U.S. air strike killed the leader of the Islamic State group in northern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of setbacks for the extremist group, U.S. and Afghan officials said Monday. The strike in Faryab province killed Qari Hekmatullah and his bodyguard Thursday, the U.S. military said. Hekmatullah was a key commander of the Islamic State in Khorasan, or IS-K, as the Afghan and Pakistani branch of the Islamic State is known.
_6 Royal wedding: The British royal family announced Monday that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle prefer that donations be made to charities instead of gifts for their wedding. Kensington Palace said Harry and Markle “have chosen charities which represent a range of issues that they are passionate about.” The charities aid sports for social change, the empowerment of women, conservation, help for HIV sufferers and other causes Harry and Markle have backed.