WORLD BRIEFING / BULGARIA
A bus careered down a Bulgarian mountainside and plowed through hikers heading to a hilltop religious festival, killing 16 people and injuring 15, authorities said.
Police said the brakes failed as the bus carrying 19 residents of a local senior care home came down a steep mountain road near the city of Yambol, about 160 miles east of Sofia, the capital.
The bus hit a crowd of several dozen people climbing to the 1,700-foot peak of Mt. Bakadzhik to attend an annual religious feast in a forest chapel to mark Ascension Day.
The bus finally came to a stop when it crashed into trees in a dense pine forest.
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