■MALAYSIA
Bridge collapse kills girl
A new footbridge across a river collapsed while schoolchildren crossed it during a camping trip, killing one girl and leaving two missing and feared drowned in the currents below, officials said yesterday. Police, firefighters and emergency services personnel were scouring the Kampar River in the north where the 12-year-old students disappeared late on Monday, district police chief Aziz Salleh said. An error in registration records of the 300 students on the trip caused authorities to earlier estimate that 22 had disappeared, Aziz said. At least 20 students were walking on the 50m bridge when it collapsed, but most managed to cling to it or were pulled to safety by their teachers. K. Mathivanan, 12, told national news agency Bernama that the bridge had been swaying and abruptly collapsed after some students jumped on it.
■CHINA
Teacher ‘pricks’ students
A 24-year-old female kindergarten teacher has been detained after allegedly stabbing more than 20 children with a syringe to discipline them, state media reported yesterday. The woman was taken into custody at the weekend in Yunnan Province after angry parents complained to police about the alleged abuse at the unlicensed school in Jianshui County, the China Daily reported. One mother said her four-year-old daughter had been stabbed multiple times last week on the back of her left hand and on her bottom. It was not immediately clear if the alleged syringe contained any hazardous materials. Children were given ultrasound examinations and HIV tests, which were negative, the China Daily said.
■CHINA
Mob attacks ‘smugglers’
A mob of angry parents lynched a book salesman and badly injured four of his colleagues after rumors spread that the men were part of a human smuggling ring, the official Xinhua agency said late on Monday. The attack at the Chumen Primary school, in prosperous Zhejiang Province, occurred in the early morning as the group handed out leaflets about a lecture to be given nearby, the agency quoted a police official as saying. After gossip spread that a gang was trying to ensnare the young pupils, parents surrounded the group and set upon them until police intervened. One man died in hospital and the others were undergoing treatment, Xinhua said. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children go missing each year, seized by roving criminal gangs to serve as props for beggars or for sale to childless couples. Estimates are difficult to come by, though the Ministry of Public Security reported investigating 2,566 potential trafficking cases last year.
■SAUDI ARABIA
Man beheaded for murder
A man was beheaded by the sword on Monday after being sentenced to death for shooting a relative during a dispute, the interior ministry said. Eid bin Mifrih al-Zahrani was executed in Al-Laith near Mecca for killing his cousin, the ministry said, giving no details about the date of the crime or the trial. It was the country’s 56th execution this year. Last year it put 102 people to death. The country imposes capital punishment for the crimes of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.
■BELGIUM
Thief steals one shoe
Police say a one-legged suspect was caught after only one shoe went missing in a store. An amputee was an immediate suspect when a store attendant found one shoe missing from a shop in the town of Maldegem. Police spokesman Rik Decraemer said on Monday authorities were alerted and quickly found the man who fit the description by shopkeepers. The shoe was also recovered. The suspect, a Russian asylum seeker, faces possible charges and was handed over to judicial authorities.
RSS