Nepal bus plunges into torrent

One person has been killed and more than 40 are missing feared dead in Nepal after a bus plunged into an overflowing river.

Police said the bus was trying to pass another vehicle when the driver lost control and veered off the road in Chitwan district, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu.

The search for bodies is continuing, hampered by heavy rain.

A police official at the crash site, Shyam Gharti, said it was unlikely there were survivors.

"The bus had been stalled for over 14 hours last night due to a landslide and the driver was probably in a hurry to finish the journey," he told the Associated Press.

Killer rain

The bus was travelling from Kathmandu to a western hill town, Baglung, when it plunged 200 feet into the raging Trishuli river.

Police say the vehicle may have been overloaded in the slippery conditions.

Hundreds of people have died in Nepal in the last month as a result of the annual monsoon, which brings floods and landslides every year.

Officials say bad weather may have been a factor in a plane crash in western Nepal on Thursday which killed 18 people, 15 of them western tourists.

And on Wednesday rains triggered a landslide which swept away a village in eastern Nepal, leaving more than 100 people feared buried under rubble.

The disaster was one of the worst to hit the kingdom in a decade.