India bus crash kills 44

A bus has swerved off a mountain road and plunged into a deep ravine in a Himalayan region of northern India, killing at least 44 people, an official said today.

"A preliminary report shows that a private bus fell into a gorge and has killed more than 40 people. The latest report given to me shows 44 people have been killed," Rohan Chand Thakur, district commissioner of Shimla, the state capital of Himachal Pradesh where the accident occurred, told AFP.