The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Guangzhou

At least 25 people were killed as a bus plunged off an icy roadway in China Tuesday, the latest casualties in a surge of severe winter weather that has disrupted the country's busiest holiday travel season and stranded hundreds of thousands of Chinese. About 500,000 people - most migrant workers - were stuck in the southern city of Guangzhou, railway officials said. Heavy snowfall in provinces to the north had cut off parts of the busy railway line that starts in the city and ends in Beijing. The crash brought the known death toll in the last two weeks to about 50. Xinhua News Agency said the bus veered off the road, plunging some 40 yards into a valley in mountainous Guizhou province at 7:40 a.m. The new agency said that in addition to the 25 deaths there were also 13 people injured, accounting for all 38 aboard. Two passengers were hospitalized in critical condition, while injuries to the 11 others were less serious.