20 dead as bus plunges into river

A bus packed with people heading home for the Christmas holiday plunged into a river in South Africa’s central Free State province today, killing 20 people and injuring 77, police said.

The bus, which was travelling from Mpumalanga province in the north to the Eastern Cape in the south, was driving on a dirt road near the town of Wepener, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Johannesburg.