World in brief: Officials plan second meeting

The Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese officials plan a second round of talks after holding their first meeting since violent anti-government protests erupted in Tibet in March, China’s state-run news agency reported Sunday.

The Xinhua News Agency, which quoted unidentified sources, did not say when or where the next round of meetings would be held. The report said that Chinese officials had answered questions raised by the Dalai Lama’s envoys at the meeting in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

“The two sides agreed another round of contact would be held at an appropriate time,” Xinhua said.

SAO PAULO, Brazil

At least 15 dead in ferry accident

A boat ferrying at least 80 people home from a party sank in Brazil’s Amazon region early Sunday, killing at least 15 and leaving dozens missing, according to rescue officials and Brazil’s government.

The wooden Comandante Sales ferryboat capsized in a pre-dawn rainstorm on the Solimoes River, one of the Amazon’s largest tributaries, said Fire Lt. Col. Raimundo Rodrigues da Silva.

It was unclear how many passengers the Comandante Sales was authorized to carry, but authorities said the ferry had been grounded several months ago after failing an inspection. Boats serve as buses in the area because there are few roads.

Rescue workers had recovered the bodies of 15 people by Sunday evening when the search was called off for the night, according to Agencia Brasil, the government’s official news agency.

PARIS

Church recognizes 17th-century vision

A Roman Catholic bishop said Sunday that the church has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a 17th-century shepherd girl in the French Alps.

Speaking at Mass in remarks broadcast nationally on France-2 television, Monsignor Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri said he recognized the “supernatural origin” of the apparitions to 17-year-old Benoite Rencurel from 1664 to 1718.

The bishop, in an interview on France-Info radio, said the decision meant the church “has committed itself in an official way to say to pilgrims ‘you can come here in total confidence.’ ” The recognition process involved a panel of experts including two theologians and an investigating judge, he said.

Officials at Notre-Dame-du-Laus church say that after four months of daily apparitions starting in May 1664, the Virgin Mary asked Rencurel to build a church and a house to receive priests.

The sanctuary, which was founded by Rencurel, today welcomes about 120,000 pilgrims a year.