School girl drowns

AN eight-year-old school girl drowned at the Bumbu River in Lae last Wednesday.
Sheila Benson from Vitipi village in Yangoru, East Sepik province, was with friends after school closed at noon, relatives said.
She and three second grade classmates from Polipi Elementary School at Talair Compound, Kamkumung, decided to go for a swim because the weather was hot.
At sunset her friends had had enough and picked up their clothes to go home.
She decided for one last leap, friends said.
When she was not at home after nightfall, her mother started a search.
A group of neighbours in the search and rescue effort found her at the bottom of the river bed.
Three other people were reported to have died in the same spot on separate occasions last year.