News In Brief

Asylum-seeker boat sinks off Indonesia; 20 killed
Afp, Jakarta

At least 20 people, mostly children, have drowned and scores are missing after an Australia-bound boat carrying Middle Eastern asylum-seekers sank off Indonesia, police said yesterday.
Twenty-five people were plucked to safety but about another 75 were unaccounted for after the boat, carrying people from Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen, went down off the main island of Java, police said.

Minibus crash kills 20 in India
Afp, Shimla

A minibus swerved off a mountain road into a deep gorge in northern India killing 20 passengers yesterday, police said.
A 12-year-old boy was the lone survivor, after the bus rolled down into the 500-foot (152-metre) deep gorge in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
The accident occurred in the remote Sangrah area of Sirmaur district, some 150 kilometres from the state capital Shimla.

5 killed as Japan ship capsizes
Afp, Tokyo

Japan's coastguard recovered what appeared to be five bodies after a Japanese cargo ship capsized following a collision with a Sierra Leone-registered vessel yesterday, television footage showed.
Coastguards found five bodies inside the Eifuku Maru No. 18, which overturned off the coast of Japan after crashing into the much larger Jia Hui, which weighs 2,687 tonnes.