Daily News Roundup

Twenty eight German tourists have been killed in a horrific bus crash on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

The bus, which was reportedly carrying 55 Germans, rolled down a steep hillside after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal. More than 20 others in the bus were injured.

Portuguese authorities said there were 17 women and 11 men among the victims.

Filipe Sousa, Mayor of the town of Canico where the accident happened, told cable news channel SIC it struck at least one house after crashing.

Pedro Calado, vice-president of Madeira’s regional government, told a news conference that the injured, including the Portuguese driver and a local tour guide, were taken to a local hospital.

He declined to provide a breakdown of the victims’ nationalities, but Mr Sousa said the bus was carrying a group of German tourists.

Local television showed bodies scattered over the rural hillside next to the Atlantic Ocean off the north-east African coast.

Madeira is a popular vacation destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape.

Ms Merkel’s spokesman said “terrible news is reaching us from Madeira”.

Steffen Seibert wrote on Twitter that “we are in deepest sorrow over all those who lost their lives in the bus crash”.

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North Korea has ended its missile moratorium by testing a new type of tactical guided weapon, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has reported.

The test was overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which is in talks with US president Donald Trump about denuclearisation.

It is North Korea’s first public weapons test since the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi ended with no agreement in February.

KCNA did not describe exactly what the weapon tested on Wednesday was, including whether it was a missile or another type of weapon, but “tactical” implies a short-range weapon, as opposed to the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States.

Nevertheless, the missile has a “peculiar mode of guiding flight” and “a powerful warhead,” KCNA said.

Mr Kim said “the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power” of the North Korean army, according to KCNA.

The announcement came after reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research centre and long-range rocket site where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the US mainland.

The White House said it was aware of the report and had no comment.

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DNA tests are being carried out on a man claiming to be the illegitimate son of the late television mogul Reg Grundy, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports.

Simon Thomas Russell has joined Grundy’s only child, daughter Viola La Valette, in claiming a share of an $800 million fortune currently in the hands of his second wife, Carolyn Joy Chambers-Grundy.

The paper says a DNA sample is being tested and the results will be known by next week.

Ms La Valette, who had been estranged from Grundy for 22 years, began legal action in 2017 to claim a share of her father’s fortune.

Grundy, who died in 2016, was behind such successful shows as Blankety Blanks, Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Prisoner, Sons and Daughters, The Young Doctors and Neighbours.