Nine killed in bus crash

MANILA (Reuter): Nine people, including a town mayor, were killed and 19 injured in a bus crash on Leyte island in the central Philippines yesterday, officials said.

Police said Zosimo Bartolini, mayor of an isolated town on Leyte, 600 km (370 miles) south of Manila, was among those on a bus that plunged into a rice field after hitting a parked truck.

The bus was trying to avoid an approaching vehicle, police said.