In brief: Bus falls into ravine, killing about 40

SAO PAULO – A bus carrying about 50 passengers plunged into a deep ravine in the mountains of southeastern Brazil late Saturday, killing at least 40 people, a police official said.

Police Col. Paulo Henrique Hemm told the G1 news portal at least a dozen other people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals.

Hemm said the cause was under investigation but that it appeared the driver might have lost control on a curve and the bus ran off the road and fell into a ravine that is 1,300 feet deep.

He said the accident happened in a mountainous area of Santa Catarina state.

Two dead in quake in eastern China

BEIJING – An earthquake in the eastern Chinese city of Fuyang has killed two people and damaged thousands of homes.

The quake struck in the Anhui province city Saturday afternoon, and 13 people also were injured, officials in the city said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 4.7.

More than 10,000 homes were damaged, more than 4,000 of them seriously, and 155 collapsed, the city’s Communist Party propaganda department said.

Fuyang is a city of about 10 million in a region that relies on coal mining and agriculture.