World in brief: Media harassed at bridge site

Communist authorities have banned most state media from reporting on the deadly collapse of a bridge in southern China, with local officials punching and chasing reporters from the scene, reporters said Friday.

The harassment and the reporting ban, issued by the Central Propaganda Department, came Thursday while reporters swarmed the tourist town of Fenghuang to report on Monday’s accident.

The collapse of the bridge, which was under construction, left at least 41 people dead. Cairo, Egypt

16 in Brotherhood are arrested

Egyptian security forces arrested the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political bureau and at least 15 other Brotherhood officials Friday, leaders of the group said. The arrests were part of a continuing government crackdown on the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition organization.

Essam al-Erian, who helps direct Brotherhood political activities in Egypt, was taken into custody at a meeting of Cairo-area officials of the group, said Abdel Monem Abo el-Fetouh, a member of the Brotherhood’s top-level guidance office. Mahmoud Hussein, another member of the guidance office, also was arrested, as were the group’s Cairo-area officials, Abo el-Fetouh said.

With the crackdown, authorities “aim at the weakening and exclusion of the Egyptian opposition,” Abo el-Fetouh said by telephone. There was no immediate comment from security officials.

Egypt’s 79-year-old Muslim Brotherhood says it advocates an Islamically guided civil government for the country. The organization has officially renounced violence.

TAIPEI, Taiwan

Deadly typhoon batters Taiwan

A powerful typhoon slammed into Taiwan on Saturday, killing at least one person, forcing thousands to evacuate and disrupting power supplies across the already-saturated landscape.

Typhoon Sepat — by far the strongest storm to hit the island this year — made landfall at 5:40 a.m. near the eastern city of Hualien, packing sustained winds of 109 mph. It later weakened, with sustained winds of 95 mph, the Central Weather Bureau said.

The storm, the third major tropical system to hit Taiwan in the past two weeks, cut an east-west swath, leaving overturned cars and washed out roads.

From wire reports