11 Dead after School Bus Hits Students, Parents in China

A boy and an adult ride on an electric scooter on the first day of school in Beijing, China, 02 September 2024. EPA/ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES
A boy and an adult ride on an electric scooter on the first day of school in Beijing, China, 02 September 2024. EPA/ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES
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11 Dead after School Bus Hits Students, Parents in China

A boy and an adult ride on an electric scooter on the first day of school in Beijing, China, 02 September 2024. EPA/ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES
A boy and an adult ride on an electric scooter on the first day of school in Beijing, China, 02 September 2024. EPA/ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES

Eleven people were killed in China's eastern Shandong province on Tuesday after a school bus lost control at a busy pedestrian junction, broadcaster CCTV reported, with disturbing footage showing bodies lying on the road and trapped under the vehicle.
Six parents and five children were killed in the incident while one remained in critical condition. More than two dozen were injured, CCTV said, according to Reuters.
Dongping Police Department said in a statement on WeChat that a vehicle picking up students lost control at a junction in Dongping County, Shandong on Tuesday morning. The accident is under investigation, it added.
In July, a motor vehicle ploughed into pedestrians in Hunan province, killing eight people. In May, a bus carrying 45 passengers including 39 students collided with a truck in Jiangsu province, partly due to negligent driving.
Traffic accidents, often deadly, are common in China because of weak enforcement of traffic rules and a lack of safety awareness.
China's People's Daily Newspaper said on Sunday that China was urging measures at primary and secondary schools across the country to ensure safety of students and school including preventing safety hazards on campus, safe use of school buses and traffic patrols.



IAEA Chief Meets Ukrainian Energy Chiefs on Way to Nuclear Plant

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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IAEA Chief Meets Ukrainian Energy Chiefs on Way to Nuclear Plant

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi holds a press conference on the opening day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi met Ukrainian energy officials on Tuesday before a planned visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, part of efforts to prevent a wartime nuclear catastrophe.

Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in Ukraine a week after visiting the Kursk nuclear power station in Russia and warning of the danger of a nuclear accident there.

On his latest visit to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Grossi met Energy Minister German Galushchenko, as well as Petro Kotin, head of state nuclear power company Energoatom, and Oleh Korikov, acting head of Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, Reuters reported.

The IAEA was "fully committed to safety & security of (Ukrainian) nuclear sites, with (a) presence at each," Grossi wrote on X alongside photos showing him and Ukrainian officials holding talks.

He said they were "exchanging (views) on our support to Ukraine’s NPPs (nuclear power plants) ahead of my ZNPP visit."

Grossi said on X on Monday that he was on his way to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) "to continue our assistance & help prevent a nuclear accident."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would meet Grossi after the IAEA chief visits the country's nuclear plants.

The ZNPP in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, fell to Russian troops soon after Moscow's full-scale invasion and is not operating now.

Both sides have frequently accused each other of shelling the plant. Moscow and Kyiv both deny the accusations.

-SAFETY CONCERNS

Zelenskiy and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Monday visited the city of Zaporizhzhia, which lies across the Dnipro River to the northeast of the plant.

Zelenskiy also said that at this stage of the war, it is not possible for Ukraine to take back control of the plant.

"It is safer for Ukraine to control the Zaporizhzhia plant, but so far, from the point of view of the battlefield, I do not see such possibilities, and those that probably exist, they are dangerous," Zelenskiy said.

Russian news agencies reported on Monday that a high-voltage power supply line at the plant had automatically disconnected, but the plant's needs are supplied by another line. There was no reason given for the automatic disconnection.

Ukraine said Russian attacks had damaged one of the two external overhead lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian power grid on Monday. Russia did not immediately comment on this assertion.

Russia says the Kursk nuclear plant visited by Grossi last week has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40 km (25 miles) away since Ukraine carved out a slice of Russian territory in a cross-border attack this month.

Grossi said after visiting the Kursk nuclear plant that it was extremely fragile because it had no protective dome and that the "danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here."

Ukraine's foreign ministry on Thursday denounced what it said were Russian efforts to "accuse Ukraine of alleged provocations against nuclear safety".

It said Russia had intensified a "disinformation campaign to distract attention from its own criminal acts at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."

In a statement, it described such accusations as "cynical" following attacks on energy infrastructure that forced Ukraine to disconnect several nuclear power units from the grid last week.