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World News Quick Take

■ THAILAND

School torched in south

Suspected Muslim insurgents burned down a school in the restive south yesterday, a day after detonating two bombs that killed one person and left 71 wounded, police said. Arsonists torched the school in Narathiwat province at about 1am local time when it was empty, Lieutenant Anurak Chathapon said. Nobody was injured but the two-story schoolhouse was destroyed. The attack bore the trademark of Muslim insurgents, Anurak said.



■ GERMANY

Bus fire leaves 20 dead

A tour bus caught fire on a highway near the city of Hannover on Tuesday night, killing 20 people after a passenger reportedly sneaked a cigarette, police said. Survivors told authorities the fire broke out in the bathroom of the bus after a person apparently smoked a cigarette there, police spokesman Stefan Wittke said. When the door was opened, flames shot out and quickly engulfed the bus, he said. “Passengers who were sitting close to the exit could get away, but the others had no chance,” a fire department official said. In addition to the deaths, thirteen people were injured in the blaze, including three with serious burns, according to the fire department. The bus had 39 primarily elderly passengers and the driver aboard, the company that owns it said. Wittke, however, said 33 people were aboard the bus.



■ CHINA

Factory owner held

Authorities have detained the owner of a feed processing factory suspected of selling chicken feed tainted with an industrial chemical that was later found in eggs, state media reported. Xinhua news agency said late on Tuesday that authorities in Shenyang found that the factory mixed an ingredient tainted with melamine into feed sold to the country’s leading egg producer, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group. Xinhua said the owner of the Mingxing Feed Processing Factory, Gao Xingtao, was detained and the remaining tainted animal feed made by the factory was destroyed.



■ COLOMBIA

Army chief resigns

Army commander General Mario Montoya resigned on Tuesday after a probe tied scores of officers to the disappearance of a group of men who were later shot, dumped in mass graves and reported as killed in combat. The scandal has already forced President Alvaro Uribe to purge 27 officers from the army as the UN and rights groups call security forces to stop killing civilians to falsely inflate combat successes. Montoya had been the spearhead of Uribe’s recent military successes against rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.



■ PUERTO RICO

Voters oust governor

Puerto Rico voted on Tuesday to oust an incumbent governor who is under indictment for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, electing a challenger who vowed to fight crime and spur the island’s economy. Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila conceded the election after Luis Fortuno of the New Progressive Party took a strong lead in early returns. Fortuno had 53 percent of the vote to 41 percent for the governor with 42 percent of ballots counted. The governor had urged islanders to support him despite a 24-count indictment charging him with wire fraud and other offenses for allegedly raising money illegally to pay off campaign debts from his terms as Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate to Congress from 2000 to 2004.


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