Main News of March 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

* Sixteen people were killed and 25 injured after a passenger bus plunged into a river in Ecuador’s coastal province of Guayas, Ecuadorian daily La-Hora reported

* A Swiss woman on a tourist trip across India with her husband was gang-raped in the country’s impoverished Madhya Pradesh state, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday

* Several thousand of people rallied in the streets of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s opposition party Batkyvshchyna said

* The Czech Republic sent a group of 34 military servicemen to Mali to join a military operation against Islamist militants in the north of the country, Czech news agency CTK reported

* China’s newly-elected President Xi Jinping has pledged a resolute fight against corruption at all levels, Xinhua news agency reported

* Venezuela’s Acting President Nicolas Maduro will launch social media accounts on Sunday to communicate actively with his supporters ahead of the forthcoming presidential elections where he is running as the main candidate from the ruling party, Maduro’s election adviser said

* A French corporal was killed during fighting in northern Mali, bringing to five the death toll of the French military contingent fighting armed Islamists in the west African country, President Francois Hollande’s office said

* Five villagers have confessed to gang-raping a Swiss female tourist in central India, the local police said

* China’s newly elected President Xi Jinping pledged on Sunday to steer the country along the Chinese path of development and take energetic efforts to deliver the ‘Chinese dream’ to the nation of over 1 billion

* Britain's secret intelligence service MI6 paid at least 90,000 pounds ($136,000) to former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died after being poisoned in London in 2006, The Sunday Times has reported

* The new leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis posted his first tweet on Sunday to engage with over 3 million followers of his personal Twitter account, with a message: “Pray for me"

* Washington’s plans to abandon a key part of a European missile defense plan strongly opposed by Russia are ‘no way’ linked to Moscow, The New York Times has reported citing a Pentagon spokesman

* Serbia’s authorities are in talks with Russia to obtain a $500 million loan instead of the $1 billion loan Belgrade had earlier asked for to stabilize its budget, the local newspaper Blic reported citing the country’s finance minister

* The Central Bank of Cyprus has ordered all national banks to suspend operations at both domestic and foreign offices, a Cypriot news website reported

RUSSIA

* The Russian Navy will maintain 5-6 warships in the Mediterranean Sea as a task force to defend Russia’s interests in the area, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said on Sunday

* Three little girls were killed and the fourth girl was injured in a fire that broke out in a village house in southern Russia’s Saratov Region, the regional Emergences Center reported

SPORT

* Timothy Bradley has defended his WBO welterweight title in a bruising points defeat of Russian challenger Ruslan Provodnikov

* The leader of Russia's southern province of Chechnya has launched a scathing attack on the referee in Sunday's 0-0 draw between his side Terek Grozny and visitors Rubin Kazan