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Truck overturns in central Bangladesh, killing at least 15 people

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A truck carrying iron rods and extra passengers overturned on a major highway early Monday in central Bangladesh, leaving at least 15 people dead and 10 others injured, police said.

The crash happened after the driver lost control around 5 a.m. at Soratoil area in Tangail district, 83 kilometers (52 miles) northwest of the nation’s capital, Dhaka, said local police chief Fuad Hossain.

Hossain said the truck was carrying hitchhiking passengers and travelling from Dhaka to the northern region as vacationers began traveling ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Adha on Thursday. The truck overturned and killed them at the scene, he said.

The official said most of the passengers were day laborers and were traveling to join their families for the festival.

Witnesses told TV stations that they rushed to the scene after hearing noise and started rescuing passengers who got trapped.

Road accidents kill thousands every year in the nation of more than 170 million people because of lax oversight of traffic rules, bad road conditions and unskilled driving.

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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