Pakistan bus crash kills 12 children

At least 12 Pakistani children were killed and two others wounded when the bus taking them to school plunged into a canal in Kashmir on Friday, police said. The accident took place near Mirpur town, some 230 kilometres (142 miles) south of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "So far we have found the bodies of 12 children from the canal," senior local police official, Chaudhry Munir Hussain, told AFP. He said the bus driver had been speeding when he lost control of the vehicle, which had a total of 18 people on board. "The bus had picked up children, all below the age of 15, from Ali Baig town to drop them at different schools in Mirpur," Hussain said, adding that two of the children had been admitted to hospital. Police official Chaudhry Ghulam Akbar confirmed the incident, saying that rescue parties were still searching for three missing children and the driver. Pakistan has one of the world's worst records for deadly traffic accidents, blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.