Seven people in the same family were found stabbed to death in western Japan yesterday and police said they plan to arrest a family member who was taken to hospital with burns suffered in a car crash while leaving the scene.
The bodies of four men and three women ranging in age from 26 to 80 were discovered in adjacent houses near the port city of Kobe. An eighth victim, a woman in her 50s, is in serious condition with multiple stab wounds to the abdomen.
PHOTO: AP
The suspect, a 47-year-old unemployed man who is the nephew of the oldest victim, was burned when the car he was driving away from the scene crashed and caught fire, police said. He will be arrested on his release from hospital, they said.
Domestic media said the suspect had confessed that "a long-held grudge" had driven him to commit the killings.
He is also thought to have set fire to his own nearby house, burning it to the ground but causing no further injuries, Kyodo news agency said.
Crime rates have been rising in Japan, with 2.85 million crimes reported in 2002, the highest level since World War Two.
Strict gun laws mean many violent crimes involve knives. A 12-year-old girl was stabbed to death by an 11-year-old classmate in June in an incident that shocked Japan.
In 2001, a former mental patient killed eight children and injured a number of others in a knife attack in a primary school in Japan's second city of Osaka.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS