BRUSSELS: Five people died and several were badly injured when a bus carrying Russian youngsters on their way to Paris crashed early yesterday in northern Belgium, officials said.
The Polish-registered bus had 42 passengers on board when it swerved off the E34 highway approaching the port city of Antwerp at around 6.30am (0430 GMT).
A spokesman for the local commune of Ranst, about 10km from Antwerp, said three of the young passengers died along with the two Polish drivers.
Nineteen people were injured. Six of them suffered serious injuries, including one who is in critical condition, and they will to stay in hospital longer, he said.
The other 13 have left hospital after receiving treatment.
French police hunt for gangster
LILLE: French police were on a manhunt yesterday for a notorious armed robber who staged a dramatic prison break in northern France after briefly taking several guards hostage.
Lille prosecutor Frederic Fevre said about 100 investigators were involved in the hunt for Redoine Faid, known for brazen attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles, after he blasted his way out of a jail in the northern town of Sequedin on Saturday.
Faid, a 40-year-old who risked a heavy new sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, used explosives to blast through five prison doors and took hostage four prison guards, who were later released. Investigators were yesterday trying to determine how Faid had managed to obtain explosives inside the prison and whether he had any accomplices.
US blacklist blow
to ties: Kremlin
MOSCOW: Washington’s publication of a blacklist of Russian officials allegedly connected to the death of a jailed Russian whistleblower is “a blow” to relations, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said yesterday.
The US on Friday said it had imposed sanctions on 18 people seen as linked to Moscow’s handling of the case of dead human rights lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Russia retaliated by issuing its own blacklist of 18 US officials banned from entering the country. “It’s a blow to Russia-US bilateral relations,” Dmitri Peskov told a Russian television station about the US move, according to the Interfax news agency.
Leftists back Prodi as president
ROME: Former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi was proposed on the weekend as Italy’s next president by leftist loyalists — drawing immediate indignation from Silvio Berlusconi and others on the right.
“I find it intolerable that some people think of excluding Prodi” from the list of candidates to succeed outgoing President Giorgio Napolitano in an election in parliament starting Thursday, said Nichi Vendola, one of the influential centre-leftists.
Vendola’s comment came a day after Berlusconi, who is angling to become prime minister once again despite a political deadlock, roused his supporters in a chorus of boos against Prodi, saying: “If it’s him, better we all leave the country.”
Agencies
