Bolivia bus plunge kills 16, mostly students

At least 16 people, mainly teenage students, were killed late Thursday when a bus careened off a mountainous road in Bolivia known as the "Highway of Death," local television reported. Officials would not immediately comment on the crash, which took place on a narrow dirt road winding through the Andes north of the capital. The bus was reportedly en route to a school competition in La Paz. A young man with mild injuries interviewed on television said the bus crashed when it tried to overtake another vehicle on the narrow road, which is just four meters (13 feet) wide at some points with traffic going both ways. Another 40 people were wounded in the accident, according to lists provided by local hospitals, as live footage showed rescuers still searching for the dead and injured, indicating the toll could rise. In a separate incident three foreign tourists, apparently French, died when the bus they were traveling on collided with a cane sugar train in the eastern Dominican Republic, according to local officials. Dominican authorities said they had not yet confirmed the identity or nationality of the three who died. Another 23 people were wounded in the crash.