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Bus crash kills 13 and injures over a dozen on highway in central Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A passenger bus overturned, killing 13 people and injuring over a dozen others on a highway in central Iran, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The bus was traveling late Monday from Isfahan to the northeastern city of Mashhad when it struck the highway’s central guardrail, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a taxi before flipping over, police said.

Eleven bus passengers and two people who were in the taxi were killed in the crash, while six women and seven men were hospitalized, IRNA said.

Emergency teams, including ambulances and rescue units, were dispatched to the site shortly after the crash.

Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records, with some 20,000 deaths annually. The grave toll is attributed to widespread disregard for traffic laws, unsafe vehicles and inadequate emergency services in its vast rural areas.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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