Albuquerque, Aug 31 (AP/UNB) — At least seven people were killed and others were seriously injured Thursday in a head-on crash involving a commercial passenger bus and a semi-truck along Interstate 40 in New Mexico, near the Arizona border, authorities said.

Preliminary information indicated the semi was headed east when it blew a tire, sending the rig across the median and into oncoming traffic where it smashed into the bus, New Mexico State Police said.

There were 49 people aboard the Greyhound bus. Authorities said many were transported to hospitals, but they could not immediately provide an exact count of how many were hurt or their conditions.

Nine bus passengers were being treated at University of New Mexico Hospital with three more patients expected to be sent there. UNM officials didn't release any details about the patients' conditions.

Passing motorists described a chaotic scene with passengers on the ground and people screaming.

Eric Huff was heading to the Grand Canyon with his girlfriend when they came across the crash.

Huff said the semi's trailer was upside down and "shredded to pieces," and the front of the Greyhound bus was smashed, with many of the seats pressed together. Part of the side of the bus was torn off, he said.

"It was an awe-inspiring terrible scene," he said

Truck driver Santos Soto III shot video showing the front of the Greyhound sheared off and the semi split open, with its contents strewn across the highway.

He saw people sobbing on the side of the road as bystanders tried to comfort them.

"I was really traumatized myself, because I've been driving about two years and I had never seen anything like that before," Soto said.

"I'm a pretty strong person and I broke down and cried for at least 30 minutes," he added.

Chris Jones was headed west on Interstate 40 when he caught his first glimpse of the semi turned over. He saw the rest of the wreckage and stopped to help before coming across the driver of the semi sitting on the shoulder of the highway.

"It was intense," Jones said.

He said the driver told him that one of his front tires had popped, forcing the truck to veer into oncoming traffic, where it struck the bus.

Greyhound said the bus was heading from Albuquerque to Phoenix.

"We are fully cooperating with local authorities and will also complete an investigation of our own," Greyhound spokeswoman Crystal Booker said in a statement.

The crash occurred near the town of Thoreau. It forced the closure of westbound lanes of the interstate and traffic was backing up as travelers were diverted.

The National Transportation Safety Board and New Mexico state police are investigating.

El Paso, Jul 27 (AP/UNB) — A Mexican journalist detained in a remote West Texas immigration facility while asking the U.S. government for asylum was released from detention Thursday night.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his adult son, Oscar, said the two were released from the El Paso, Texas, facility without bond, said their attorney, Eduardo Beckett.

The agreement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release the two came six days before a hearing in El Paso before U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, at which federal attorneys were to argue for continuing to keep Gutierrez under lock and key. Gutierrez's representatives had argued the continued detention was partly the result of his criticism of U.S. immigration policies.

Gutierrez worked for El Diario del Noroeste, a newspaper in the state of Chihuahua. He said his problems began after he wrote articles that alleged military forces were robbing and extorting local people in Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and part of West Texas.

Mexico is one of the world's most dangerous places for journalism, in league with Syria and Iraq. After receiving what his advocates called veiled threats, Gutierrez discovered his name had been placed on a hit list. So he fled north with his teenage son and entered the U.S. in 2008, seeking asylum.

He spent seven months in detention before his release in January 2009, while his application for asylum remained pending. Beckett said Gutierrez has told him he is afraid of taking "one step into Mexico."

While pressing his asylum case, he and his son lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they operated a food truck. Last year, he accepted the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award from the National Press Club on behalf of journalists in Mexico, now the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists.

After nine years, a judge denied his asylum request last July, and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal in November.

On Dec. 7, weeks after delivering his speech to the press club, he and his son went for their routine check-in with immigration officials, were placed in handcuffs and put in detention after his asylum request was denied. They had come within hours of deportation in May when an appeals board halted his expulsion while he challenges the denial of his asylum request.

In a statement, the National Press Club, which has been advocating for Gutierrez's release, said the journalist will begin a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan while he continues his quest for asylum.

"While we deeply regret the long detention for a reporter who violated no laws of this country, we are thrilled that, ultimately, common sense and American values have prevailed in this case," said Kathy Kiely, press freedom fellow for the National Press Club's nonprofit Journalism Institute. The institute organized the defense for the Gutierrezes.

Johannesburg, Jul 26 (AP/UNB) — The five leaders of the BRICS emerging economies have gathered in South Africa for an annual summit where the United States is being criticized for escalating tariffs on foreign goods.

The leaders clasped hands and posed for a group photograph on Thursday, the second day of the meeting in Johannesburg.

They are Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Michel Temer and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa .

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also been invited to the summit.

Xi said Wednesday that the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation" amid a trade dispute with the United States.  U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, accused China of "vicious" tactics on trade.