■ CHINA
Kids tossed out window
Police arrested a man suspected of throwing six children from the third story of a school building, killing one girl and injuring the others, state press said yesterday. The incident occurred on Thursday morning in Hongqiao, Hunan Province, with the suspect grabbing eight and nine-year-old boys and girls in a hallway and tossing them out a window, Beijing News reported. One of the boys was able to grab part of a tree as he fell, breaking his fall and reducing his injury. According to the paper, the suspect, identified as Kuang Xi, 28, had a history of mental illness.
■ INDIA
Pilgrims hit by train
At least 12 Hindu pilgrims died after being hit by a train, police said yesterday. The Kanwarias, or followers of the god Shiva, got off the train when it stopped on a bridge over a river near in Uttar Pradesh state, police officer J.K. Singh said. Another train arrived on an adjacent track and ploughed into a group of about 16 people, while others leapt off the bridge into the river below. "We have recovered 12 bodies. Some of them were badly cut by the train," Singh said.
■ CHINA
E-moon cakes risky
Internet users have been warned to be wary of downloading virus-infected mooncake greeting cards ahead of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival after a wave of Internet worms hit hard-drives last year. Web sites offering electronic versions of moon cakes have become popular in recent years. "Always scan files over the Internet before you download them," yesterday's China Daily quoted an official with Guangdong's Internet supervision bureau as saying. "I was very attracted by the e-card on QQ [an online chat application], but after I opened it many harmful pages popped up on my computer," the paper quoted PricewaterhouseCoopers employee Pan Yanyan as saying.
■ AUSTRALIA
Police linked to crimes
Corrupt police officers were linked with a bloody gangland war which raged for years in Melbourne, police confirmed yesterday. Victoria state's deputy police commissioner, Simon Overland, who formerly headed an investigation into the city's gangland violence, said detectives recently uncovered evidence of police involvement in two separate gang-related matters. "We've got specific information now that says there is a direct link between police corruption and gangland murders," he said. Police also confirmed that a senior officer was suspended on Thursday. A link between police and gangland criminals had long been suspected, particularly after a police informer and his wife were murdered.
■ COLOMBIA
Warlords put in prison boats
Two top members of the country's underworld, including one on the FBI's most-wanted list, are being transferred to offshore floating prisons for security reasons, the government said. Diego Montoya, whose capture on Monday was hailed as the country's biggest drug war victory since the 1993 slaying of Pablo Escobar, and paramilitary warlord Carlos Jimenez were being moved from the Combita prison to separate "prison boats" on the Pacific Ocean and off the Caribbean coast. Colombian Interior Minister Carlos Holguin told Caracol radio that Jimenez was transferred on Thursday and Montoya was to be moved yesterday. Both are awaiting extradition to the US.
■ UNITED KINGDOM
Same lab at fault again
The virus that sparked the latest case of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey this week came from the same nearby Pirbright laboratory that triggered last month's outbreak, according to preliminary tests, officials confirmed on Thursday. The Environment Department said scientists were busy analyzing its genetic sequence to determine whether the virus escaped in the same lapse of biosecurity from drains last month or whether a separate leak occurred. The disease re-emerged just a few days after government officials had declared it eradicated. The news brought some relief to farmers, who are less likely to face long-term stringent restrictions and culls than if it had come from a different source.
RSS