World news: Toddler hit by vans and left lying in pool of blood dies

A TODDLER who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by passers-by on a busy market street died today after days of bitter soul-searching over declining morality in China.

The Guangzhou Military District General Hospital said the two-year-old girl, Wang Yue, died shortly after midnight of brain and organ failure.

“Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect,” intensive care unit director Su Lei told reporters.

The plight of the child, nicknamed Yueyue, came to symbolise what many Chinese see as a decline in public morals after heady decades of rising prosperity.

Gruesome CCTV pictures of last Thursday’s accident showed Yueyue toddling along the hardware market street in the southern city of Foshan. A van strikes her, slows and then resumes driving, rolling its back right wheel over the child. As she lies with blood pooling, 18 people walk or cycle by and another van strikes her before a scrap picker scoops her up.

Police have detained the drivers of both vans on suspicion of causing a traffic accident but have not said what formal charges they would face and if manslaughter would be among them now that the girl has died.

Spain hails end of ETA violence

Spain is claiming an end to four decades of violent bombings and shootings after the Basque separatist group ETA announced it would lay down its arms and try to negotiate its demand for a separate nation.

ETA has killed more 800 people in its drive for an independent state and stopped short of declaring it was defeated.

Prime Minister Zapatero hailed the ETA concession as a victory for Spanish democracy.

UN to back Yemen resolution

The UN Security Council is expected to approve a resolution that calls for an immediate end to violence in Yemen and a transfer of power from president Ali Abdullah Saleh, above, to his deputy. The 15-member council will vote today.

Leader sorry for revolution

Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom has apologised to the family of former president Jacobo Arbenz who was ousted in a 1954 coup backed by the United States.

Mr Colom has acknowledged the state’s responsibility in overthrowing Mr Arbenz on the 67th anniversary of the revolution.

Fireworks blasts kill 16

Two unrelated incidents involving vehicles carrying fireworks have killed at least 16 people and injured 31 in Peru, police said.

In the southern city of Juliaca, a vehicle packed with confiscated fireworks blew up in front of a provincial police station, killing four officers.

In the second incident, fireworks set a small public bus on fire in the mountains east of Lima. .

Traffic police said between 12 and 14 people were killed and another ten injured.

Bear breaks into sweet shop

A BEAR broke into a sweet shop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and started helping itself to treats.

Employees reporting for work found the bear at the Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen, where the animal apparently had knocked a hole in a glass front door to enter, according to reports. Police scared the bear off.