Overloaded bus falls 650 feet

An overcrowded bus speeding home from a religious festival veered off a highway emergency ramp and crashed through a metal barrier Monday, falling more than 650 feet into a ravine. Fifty-seven people were killed.

Three people survived the plunge from the highway, considered one of the 15 most dangerous in Mexico. The bus had already traveled for more than 10 hours as it returned from an Easter gathering in the western city of Guadalajara to the passengers’ home state of Tabasco, on the Gulf Coast.

The bus, equipped to hold 46 passengers, was carrying 60, some of whom were standing, said Federal Preventive Police Cmdr. Reinaldo Ascencio Cavazos. He said the owner of the bus was detained for questioning.

N’DJAMENA, Chad

Pressured leader withdraws threat

Chad’s president Monday backed off a threat to expel Sudanese refugees, heeding international calls to protect the tens of thousands who have fled Sudan’s volatile Darfur region.

President Idriss Deby’s government also extended a deadline for halting oil production, saying it welcomed U.S. help in resolving a dispute with the World Bank over oil payments.

Deby, who is seeking a third term in May 3 elections, has been trying to draw attention to Chad’s problems as he seeks help in stopping rebels he says are backed by neighboring Sudan.

The president announced Friday that he was severing relations with Sudan and would expel 200,000 Darfur refugees packed in camps along the border by June 30 if the international community did not do more to stop the rebel movement.

TEHRAN, Iran

President reports centrifuge testing

Iran’s president has thrown a new wrinkle into the nuclear debate by claiming his country is testing a centrifuge that could be used to more speedily create fuel for power plants or atomic weapons.

But some analysts familiar with the country’s technology said Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be deliberately exaggerating Iran’s capabilities.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Monday the Kremlin insists on a diplomatic solution to the standoff rather than any tough measures against Iran. Russia’s U.N. ambassador said that Moscow is hopeful that Iran will suspend uranium enrichment before an April 28 Security Council deadline, suggesting that the Islamic republic’s tough line so far was a negotiating tactic.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro

Crews fight surging Danube

Floods threatened cities and farmland across Serbia, and record water levels on one of Europe’s longest rivers surged downstream toward neighboring Romania and Bulgaria on Monday.

In Serbia, emergency crews and volunteers struggled to keep embankments and sand barriers from giving way as the Danube River’s water levels started receding. Meanwhile, the Tisa River, which flows from Hungary in the north, started rising dramatically.

Thousands of civil protection workers and soldiers in Romania and Bulgaria were bolstering dikes and building new ones. The peak of the Danube floodwaters was expected to reach the two Balkan countries in the next few days.

More than 3,000 residents left on their own or were evacuated by the police from the southern Romanian villages of Rast and Negoi after a dike collapsed Sunday, flooding the communities.