■ ChinaBus driver attacks children
A Chinese bus driver stabbed 25 primary school children, wounding them in their arms and faces, in the third attack of its kind in less than two months, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The 37-year-old man stabbed the children with a kitchen knife and kidnapped a nine-year-old girl at the No. 1 Experimental Primary School in Juxian county, Shandong Province, on Monday, Xinhua said, quoting police. He was later arrested and the hostage freed. "According to a preliminary interrogation, [the attacker] fought with a resident and was seeking revenge."
■ Malaysia
Thieving `monkey' shot
A Malaysian man trying to steal fruits from his neighbor's orchard was shot in the stomach after he was mistaken for a monkey, local reports said yesterday. The 48-year-old man had climbed up one of the fruit trees and was collecting the duku fruit -- a tropical fruit slightly larger than the size of grapes -- when the owner mistook him for a thieving monkey. The orchard owner fired a shot which hit the suspect in the stomach, causing him to fall off the tree and injure his legs and face, the New Straits Times daily reported. The suspect was rushed to a nearby hospital, and police have said he will be charged with trespassing once he recovers.
■ India
Concessions ruled out
India has ruled out any territorial concessions to Pakistan in disputed Kashmir in a statement issued ahead of a meeting in New York between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The foreign ministry statement followed a Time magazine article quoting an unnamed Indian official as saying India was willing to "adjust" the so-called Line of Control in Kashmir, a military ceasefire boundary, "by a matter of miles" to "help defuse the situation in Kashmir." "This is completely and wholly inaccurate. Any suggestion the prime minister will make such an offer is factually wrong," foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in the statement.
■ Nepal
Rally against violence held
Thousands rallied for peace in the heart of Nepal's capital yesterday, pleading for an end to the Maoist insurgency that has killed more than 10,000 people in this Himalayan kingdom. Buddhist monks and Hindu priests chanted religious songs while schoolchildren joined artists, teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, human rights activists and business executives at the Katmandu rally. The demonstrators urged both the government and Maoist guerrillas -- who've been fighting for eight years to set up a communist state -- to resolve the conflict through dialogue.
■ Malaysia
Backing Anwar discouraged
The ruling party leadership warned rank-and-file members still loyal to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim against trying to stir up support for him as the annual party congress opened yesterday. The message bolstered a decision to bar Anwar -- recently released from six years in prison -- from rejoining the United Malays National Organization, where he could stage a political comeback. "There may be some stragglers who are devotees of Anwar," Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz, chief of the UMNO women's wing, told reporters. "We would just like to remind them, do not because of your devotion to one person do things that jeopardize the party," Rafidah said.
■ GreeceMilitary exercises canceled
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