Briefly

UNITED STATES

Short-term debt limit hike to avert default

Lawmakers rubber-stamped a short-term bill to lift the nation's borrowing authority on Tuesday, averting the threat of a first-ever debt default－but only for a few weeks. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted along party lines to pass the stopgap $480 billion hike, which advanced from the Senate on Oct 7 after weeks of heated debate. The new arrangement merely kicks the can down the road, possibly to complicate another major funding deadline－a shutdown that would begin from Dec 3 when the government's coffers theoretically run out, Agence France-Presse reported. Economists estimate that the nation will reach the new, revised debt limit some time in mid-December or early January－slightly later than the Dec 3 date that Congress originally projected.

NEPAL

Bus crash in rugged district leaves 28 dead

At least 28 people were killed and more than a dozen injured on Tuesday after a packed passenger bus plunged off a road in a hilly region in northwestern Nepal, officials said. The accident in the remote Mugu region happened at noon after a puncture to one of the front tires. The bus was driving from the southern Banke district to the Mugu area and was believed to have been carrying at least 45 people, many traveling to celebrate the Hindu festival of Dashain. Helicopters airlifted some injured passengers to hospitals, with rescuers continuing to search for survivors and victims.

FRANCE

Train hits and kills sleeping migrants

A train hit and killed three people and seriously injured another person in southwestern France on Tuesday morning. The regional prosecutor said the victims appeared to be Algerian migrants who had been expelled from nearby Spain and had been sleeping on the tracks, calling it a "terrible human drama". The train was on a line that links the seaside resort town of Hendaye, on France's border with Spain, and the city of Bordeaux, the national railway company SNCF said. The collision occurred at around 5:30 am, striking four people who were on the tracks, it said.

Agencies - Xinhua