In brief: 22 kids, 6 adults die in Swiss bus crash

LONDON – Belgium observed a day of mourning Wednesday as investigators sought to determine the cause of a bus crash in a Swiss highway tunnel in which 28 people, most of them 12-year-old Belgian schoolchildren, were killed Tuesday night while returning home from a ski holiday.

Attorney Olivier Elsig told reporters that the children were wearing seat belts. Swiss police confirmed that the bus hit the wall of an emergency parking bay after entering a tunnel on a highway in southern Switzerland.

Elsig said possible causes being examined were a technical problem, sudden illness and human error.

Of the 28 who died, 22 were children; teachers and the two drivers also died. Emergency rescue teams transported 24 injured passengers, most of them children, to hospitals around the country.

Chinese bank quits Iran pipeline deal

ISLAMABAD – China’s largest bank has backed out of a deal to finance a proposed Iran-to-Pakistan gas pipeline that is opposed by the United States, a potential sign of the lengthening reach of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran.

Pakistani officials confirmed Wednesday that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had withdrawn from plans to head a consortium that would finance the $1.6 billion Pakistani portion of the cross-border pipeline, apparently over concern that the bank could be excluded from the U.S. economy.

The move suggests that even Chinese companies are beginning to bend to the sanctions on Tehran.

Pakistani officials said they would press ahead with the project, which would deliver natural gas from Iran’s South Pars field.

Opiates seizure said to be Mexico record

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican army said Wednesday that it has made a record seizure of opiates, about 3.6 metric tons of a dark liquid that may be opium paste being processed into heroin.

A Mexican Defense Department press statement called it “the most important seizure of this drug in the history of the army and air force.”

Authorities did not say how much heroin it would produce, but in general a kilogram of opium paste can yield about one-tenth as much of the drug.

The latest seizure was made Feb. 1 during a raid in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, the department said Wednesday.