Bus Carrying Pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq Crashes in Iran, At Least 28 Dead

Iranians drive past Iranian and Palestinian national flags hanging on buildings at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past Iranian and Palestinian national flags hanging on buildings at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Bus Carrying Pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq Crashes in Iran, At Least 28 Dead

Iranians drive past Iranian and Palestinian national flags hanging on buildings at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past Iranian and Palestinian national flags hanging on buildings at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, 19 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

A bus carrying Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq crashed in central Iran, killing at least 28 people, an official said Wednesday.
The crash happened Tuesday night in the central Iranian province of Yazd, said Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, a local emergency official, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Another 23 people suffered injuries in the crash, 14 of them serious, he added. He said all the bus passengers hailed from Pakistan.
There were 51 people on board at the time of the crash outside of the city of Taft, some 500 kilometers southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Iranian state television later blamed the crash on the bus brakes failing and a lack of attention by its driver.
A separate bus crash early Wednesday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province killed six people and injured 18, authorities said.



Thailand Says Mpox Case Recorded in Traveller from Africa 

The logo for Thailand's Department of Disease Control is pictured after officials hold a press conference on the suspected first case of the new more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on August 21, 2024. (AFP)
The logo for Thailand's Department of Disease Control is pictured after officials hold a press conference on the suspected first case of the new more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on August 21, 2024. (AFP)
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Thailand Says Mpox Case Recorded in Traveller from Africa 

The logo for Thailand's Department of Disease Control is pictured after officials hold a press conference on the suspected first case of the new more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on August 21, 2024. (AFP)
The logo for Thailand's Department of Disease Control is pictured after officials hold a press conference on the suspected first case of the new more dangerous strain of mpox in Bangkok on August 21, 2024. (AFP)

Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday.

Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, told Reuters.

"After he arrives from the flight there is very little time frame where he come into contact with others," Thongchai said. "He arrives around 6 pm and on the next day, Aug 15, he went to see the doctor at the hospital."

Thongchai said the man has undergone a test to determine whether the case was a Clade 1 variant, with the result expected by Friday. Authorities are also monitoring 43 people in the country who may come into contact with the patient, he said.

The director-general did not name the African country the man had been in. He said the man had transited in a Middle Eastern country, which he also did not name, before flying on to Thailand.

Thailand has detected 800 cases of mpox Clade 2 since 2022, but so far not detected a case of the Clade 1 or Clade 1b variants.