14 tourists killed in bus crash on Java motorway

Mojokerto: A tourist bus with an apparently drowsy driver has crashed into a billboard on a motorway on Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing at least 14 people and injuring 19 others, police said.

The bus, carrying Indonesian tourists from Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, was returning from a trip to Central Java’s Dieng Plateau when it hit the billboard on the Mojokerto toll road just after dawn, East Java traffic police chief Latief Usman said.

Mr Usman said police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but the driver reportedly appeared drowsy before the crash. He said police have not yet questioned the driver, who suffered severe injuries.

Nineteen people were being treated in four hospitals in Mojokerto, mostly for broken bones.

Alexandroupolis: A man has been killed in an automated dumpster after opening the bin and looking inside, apparently in search of food, authorities in northern Greece said.

Police said the unidentified man, believed to be homeless and aged about 40, was trapped in the bin and crushed to death when the compactor mechanism was activated.

The incident took place in the north-eastern

Greek port city of Alexandroupolis, 500 miles north-east of Athens.

Wellington: New Zealand’s government said it will help pay for lower-income families to scrap their old cars and replace them with cleaner hybrid or electric ones as part of a sweeping plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The government said it plans to spend NZ$569 million (£292m) on the trial programme as part of a larger plan that includes subsidies for businesses to reduce emissions, a switch to an entirely green bus fleet by 2035 and roadside food-waste collection for most homes by the end of the decade.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “We cannot leave the issue of climate change until it’s too late to fix.”

The plan also sets a target of reducing total car travel by 20% over the next 13 years by offering better transportation options in cities as well as improved options for cyclists and walkers.

Pyongyang: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un blasted officials over slow medicine deliveries and ordered his military to respond to the surging but largely undiagnosed Covid crisis that has left 1.2 million people ill with fever and 50 dead in a matter of days, state media said.

More than 564,860 people are in quarantine due to the fever that has rapidly spread among people in and around the capital, Pyongyang, since late April.

Eight more deaths and 392,920 newly detected fevers were reported yesterday, the North’s emergency anti-virus headquarters said.

State media did not specify how many were confirmed as Covid-19.

The Politburo had issued an emergency order to release and quickly distribute state medicine reserves and for pharmacies to open for 24-hour shifts, but Mr Kim said such steps were not being properly implemented.

Mr Kim ordered the medical units of his military to get involved in stabilising the supply of medicine in Pyongyang, KCNA said.