Crash Video : Vietnam Bus Plunges Off Bridge Into River; 34 Dead

A crowded overnight bus plunged off a bridge into a river in central Vietnam, killing 34 passengers and injuring 21 others in one of the country's deadliest road accidents.

The 50-seat coach lost control and ripped through the bridge's guardrails Thursday night, diving about 18 meters (60 feet) and landing on its top, partially submerged in the Serepok River, said local official Tran Bao Que.

"When the accident happened, everyone in the bus was sleeping," survivor Nguyen Van Khanh told online news site Dan Tri. "I vaguely heard a noise like a gun fire and then people were screaming when the bus was overturned. ... I managed to escape through a window which was smashed opened by others."

Que said it took rescuers four hours to pull the bodies from the bus, which was traveling on a regular 350-kilometer (217-mile) route from the central highland province of Dak Lak to the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.

Rescuers used axes to try to free trapped passengers. Photos showed a body hanging limply out the side of the ripped-open vehicle, which was hoisted out of the river by crane early Friday morning.

Y Bliu Arul, deputy director of the General Hospital in Dak Lak, says the bus's two drivers were among the 32 people who died at the scene. Two others died at the hospital. Of the 21 injured, 16 were in serious condition.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. Vietnam has one of the world's highest traffic fatality rates, with more than 11,000 people killed each year.

Alexander Lebedev Punches Sergei Polonsky On TV (VIDEO)

Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev has punched a fellow billionaire on a television panel show after a discussion on the financial crisis degenerated into petty name-calling.

Ledebev, a former KGB operative and owner of two major newspapers in the United Kingdom, wrote on his blog that property developer Sergei Polonsky had earned the clobbering by behaving abusively throughout the recording of the program.

In a preview clip posted on the NTV channel's website ahead of the show airing Sunday, Polonsky is seen saying that he sometimes felt like "bashing (Lebedev) in the face," prompting the newspaper owner to jump to his feet.

After sitting back down, Lebedev then swiftly delivered a sucker punch, sending Polonsky tumbling to the ground.

Punch-ups and heated exchanges between guests are a common on Russian political discussion shows.

Brazil: Patricia Acioli Assassination Is Intimidating Message From Militias

The Rio de Janeiro state judge paid for that fearlessness: Acioli was shot to death in front of her house last month. And all of the 21 bullets that hit her came from a lot issued to police, including some in Sao Goncalo, the city where she worked.

While violence and impunity are common in Brazil, the brazen murder of Acioli was an especially heavy blow, a message of intimidation from the vigilante militias.

The slaying was "a wound to the lawful state, to democracy; the figure of the judge is a symbol of justice," said Denise Frossard, a retired judge who presided over some of Rio's first cases against the militias in the 1990s. "If she is a judge and can be killed, how can a citizen feel secure enough to be a witness?"

Acioli's death was the first murder of a judge in the state's history, though Frossard herself survived three assassination attempts and had eight security guards ensuring her safety while she was on the bench.

Violent militias have grown in power and scope in recent years, taking over poor communities formerly controlled by drug dealers and coercing residents to pay for illegal utility hookups, transportation, and security. Their members include former and current police, firefighters and jail guards. Investigators say they have elected members as state and city legislators. They also have been praised by politicians, including Rio de Janeiro's mayor, for taking back swaths of territory from drug gangs.

A probe by the state legislature in 2008 found militias were connected to execution-style killings, far-reaching extortion schemes, and the kidnapping and torture of a group of journalists investigating the gangs' activities.

Acioli had been repeatedly threatened for taking on the police officers who were part of the gangs, and she had written letters to her superiors requesting protection. One week before her murder, she went to Rio police's internal affairs office and said she was being threatened by officers from Sao Goncalo, where she worked, and Niteroi, where she lived.

The last case on her docket on Aug. 11, the day she died, involved policemen charged with executing an 18-year-old man in a slum. One of her last acts as a judge was to authorize their arrest.