A disgruntled former worker of a Beijing primary school armed with a hammer attacked and injured 20 children, three of them seriously, officials said Tuesday, the latest such incident in China.
The attack at the Number One Primary School in Beijing's Xicheng district took place just around noon, media reports said.
The suspect, the school's former repair worker who was angry after he failed to pass his probation, hit the children's skulls one by one using a hammer, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted a former school maintenance worker surnamed Liang as saying.
Police in the Xicheng district said in a statement on Weibo that they have detained the 49-year-old male suspect surnamed Jia.
Jia was a migrant worker from Heilongjiang province whose contract ended at the start of the year, and police suspect that the attack was motivated by the anger at having his employment terminated, the Post report said.
Several of the students were rushed to the intensive care unit of the ...

Man attacks children with hammer in Chinese primary school; 20 injured

PTI Automatic

Two passenger trains collided during the morning rush hour in South Africa's capital city Pretoria Tuesday, killing three people and injuring hundreds, emergency services said.
Two critically injured people were airlifted from the scene of the crash in Mountain View, northern Pretoria, spokesman Charles Mabaso told AFP.
Another 300 people were hurt, with 82 sustaining serious injuries.
"The current fatalities stand at three, but it still might rise," said Mabaso.
When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found carriages from both trains tilting half off the track.
"Numerous passengers were found either in the trains or found walking around on the scene," Russel Meiring, a spokesman for the ER24 emergency services, said in a statement.
Rail accidents are common in South Africa.
A year ago, in one of the country's worst rail disasters, a passenger train travelling from the southern city of Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg smashed into a lorry at a level crossing near Kroonstad in the ...

South African train collision kills three, injures 300

The Netherlands will provide free legal advice to relatives of those killed in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine for damages claims, the Dutch justice minister said Monday.
The Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 on board.
The Boeing 777 passenger jet was hit by a Russian-made BUK missile while on a routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.
In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia blamed Russia for the disaster.
"Free legal aid is being arranged for relatives wanting to add themselves to the trial" with the aim of claiming for damages, Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said.
The minister said he also asked justice policy experts within his department to investigate the consent requirements of suspects in using video conferencing in the MH17 prosecution process.
Dutch lawmakers last year approved a treaty signed between the Netherlands and Ukraine to ease the possible prosecution of those responsible for ..

Dutch to give free legal aid for MH17 claims

Russian military police have begun patrolling around the Syrian city of Manbij, a spokesman said Tuesday, moving into an area once held by US-backed Kurdish forces.
Russian forces are acting in support of Syrian government troops who recently deployed in Manbij, in Aleppo province near the border with the Turkey.
Kurdish fighters, fearing a Turkish military assault, invited regime forces into Manbij late last month after US President Donald Trump's shock announcement of a full American withdrawal from Syria.
Speaking in a report on Rossiya 24 television, Russian military police spokesman Yusup Mamatov said MPs had started patrolling "the security zone around Manbij".
"The task is to ensure security in the area of responsibility (and) to monitor the situation and movements of armed formations," Mamatov said.
The report said Russian military police would be deployed in the area "on a regular basis".
It showed a group of around a dozen khaki-clad armed military police driving through ...

Russian military police starts patrols around Syria's Manbij

US officials held a second day of trade talks with Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Tuesday, overshadowed by an unannounced visit from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
This is the first time the two sides have met face-to-face since President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to a tariff truce during a meeting in Argentina on December 1.
The talks between the US delegation -- led by Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish and including officials from the Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture and Energy departments -- and the Chinese side were still ongoing late Tuesday, a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Negotiators are seeking to resolve a number of thorny issues that have threatened an all-out trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
These include more Chinese purchases of US goods and services to reduce a yawning trade gap, increased access to China's markets, stronger protection of intellectual property and a reduction in Beijing's ...

US, China hold more trade talks overshadowed by Kim visit

The roof of the home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK will be dismantled by military teams following the deadly nerve agent attack on him and his daughter, a media report said Tuesday.
British detectives believe Skripal and his daughter Yulia first came into contact with Novichok, a military-grade poison, when it was sprayed on the door handle of their property, allegedly by Russian agents in March.
The clean-up at Christie Miller Road, Salisbury, has been taking place ever since they collapsed on March 5, the BBC reported.
Wiltshire Council has warned neighbours of about four months of disruptions.
Contractors will cover the house and garage with a "sealed frame", according to a letter written by the council's director of public of health, Tracy Daszkiewicz.
A military team will then dismantle and remove the roofs.
Everything will be wrapped and sealed before being removed from the site.
"When that work is completed, contractors will move on site to build a replacement .

Novichok poisoning attack house roof to be demolished in UK

Bangladesh would cultivate more effective ties with India and China, pursuing a vigorous economic diplomacy, newly appointed Foreign Minister Abdul Kalam Abdul Momen said Tuesday.
Momen, 71, also said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed him to intensify cooperation with neighbours on the basis of "solid partnership" and ensure that the foreign office acts as a partner of other ministries to draw more foreign investments in the country.
"My main focus will be to pursue a vigorous economic diplomacy with all major countries and particularly the neighbours," Momen told PTI in an interview a day after assuming the office, indicating that the new government wanted to reap the benefit of the friendships with both India and China.
An economist by background, Momen said his office would effectively do its part to elevate the country's status as a higher middle income by 2021 as envisaged by the premier and draw the required foreign assistance in implementing the government's ambitious ...

B'desh to cultivate more effective ties with India, China: New Foreign Minister

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Tuesday in Jordan on a Middle East tour to show commitment to the region after President Donald Trump's surprise decision to withdraw troops from war-torn Syria.
The top US diplomat, on his longest trip since taking the post last year, pledged that the Islamic State group (IS) would not be allowed to regroup following a string of battlefield defeats.
But in a stark reminder of the lingering threat, a war monitor reported that the jihadists had killed 23 US-backed fighters in a counterattack in eastern Syria aimed at defending their last bastion.
After setting off on the trip to eight Arab capitals, Pompeo told reporters he would show that "the United States is still committed to all the missions that we've signed up for with them over the past two years." The eight-day tour comes weeks after Trump announced that the United States would quickly pull its 2,000 soldiers out of Syria, declaring that IS -- also known as ISIS -- had been ...

Pompeo launches Mideast tour vowing no IS return

An official Chinese newspaper warned Washington not to demand too much from Beijing as talks on ending their tariff war entered a second day Tuesday with no word on possible progress.
The Trump administration is dealing with an increasingly strong China that has its own pressing needs, said the Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party.
It said Washington "cannot push China too far" and must avoid a situation that "spins out of control." Negotiators began talks Monday on a fight over Beijing's technology development tactics that companies worry might hobble global economic growth, but there was no sign either side has changed its stance.
Presidents Donald Trump launched the trade war in July by hiking tariffs on Chinese goods in response to complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology.
He and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed December 1 to postpone more tariff hikes on each other's goods for 90 days while they negotiate. But ...

Chinese newspaper warns US not to push too hard on trade

Singapore immigration authorities said Tuesday they had foiled a bid to smuggle four kittens into the city-state stuffed down a man's trousers after hearing meows coming from the suspect's crotch.
In a statement, they hailed their "fur-midable" officers for stopping the "impawsible" attempt to transport the animals in a car through a border checkpoint with neighbouring Malaysia.
"Our officers were checking the travellers in the car, they heard a meowing and saw the bulge in the man's pants," an immigration authority spokeswoman told AFP.
The officers asked the 45-year-old Singaporean whether he had anything to declare, before discovering the live kittens secreted in his trousers.
The spokeswoman said that hiding items, such as contraband cigarettes, under clothing is a common method of smuggling.
"But to stuff four live kittens into one's trousers - this is the first time we've seen it," she added.
The kittens survived the ordeal - the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, which is now .

Fur-midable: Singapore foils cat-in-trousers smuggling bid

High-resolution satellite data can very precisely assess the status of poverty at household level in rural areas of developing countries, according to a study.
If countries are to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is particularly important to track the living conditions in poor nations around the world where the future population growth is highest, according to a study published in the journal PNAS.
It can be difficult to make a global assessment of poverty and poor economic conditions, but an eye in the sky can provide a good hint of the living conditions of populations, researchers said.
"Based on high-resolution satellite images, we can very precisely assess the status of poverty at household level in rural areas in developing countries," said Jens-Christian Svenning, a professor at the Aarhus University in Denmark.
In an agricultural area in Kenya, the researchers measured, among other things, the size of buildings and areas of uncultivated soil and the length of ...

Satellite images can precisely assess global poverty: Study

The partial government shutdown is starting to affect air travel.
Over the weekend, some airports had long lines at checkpoints, apparently caused by a rising number of security officers calling in sick while they are not getting paid.
Safety inspectors aren't even on the job. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Monday that inspectors are being called back to work on a case-by-case basis, with a priority put on inspecting airline fleets.
So far, the impact of the shutdown  entering its 18th day on Tuesday  has been most visible for some government buildings and national parks being closed, and trash piling up on the National Mall in front of the Capitol.
If the shutdown continues, food stamp recipients will go without aid.
By increasingly affecting air travel, however, the pain is being felt more widely.
Here are some common questions about the shutdown's impact on airports and travel, along with the answers: ___  who is supposed to keep working?
About 10,000 air traffic .

Air travellers start to feel effects of government shutdown

From the ancient citadel overlooking the valley, Ridvan Ayhan looks at the Tigris with a furrowed brow. The river that supported his family's town for generations will soon destroy it.
"My grandchildren will not see where I grew up, where I lived. They will ask me, 'Grandpa, where do you come from? Where did you live?' What will I do? Show them the lake?" asks Ayhan, readjusting the scarf over his face.
The small town of Hasankeyf, in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, inhabited for 12,000 years, is doomed to disappear in the coming months.
An artificial lake, part of the Ilisu hydroelectric dam project, will swallow it up.
The dam, which will be Turkey's second largest, has been built further downstream the Tigris.
Ilisu is a central element of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), a land development plan to boost the economy of the long-neglected region, through hydroelectric energy and irrigation.
Confronted with the imminent flooding of their town and a hundred villages, the .

Turkey's 12,000-year-old town about to be engulfed

The Tri-nation Kabbadi International series involving India, Pakistan and Iran was rescheduled after the organisers on Tuesday failed to get security clearance for the inaugural matches in Jhang.
The organizers said that the series was scheduled to start from Tuesday with a clash between Pakistan and Indian teams at Jhang but the tournament will now be held from January 10 to 14.
"We didn't get security clearance from the interior ministry and now the event will start from January 10th from Bahawalpur and continue in Sahiwal and end in Lahore on the 14th," the organisers said.
Jhang in the Punjab province is notorious for being a hotbed of extremist sectarian religious parties and some religious seminaries based in the area have a reputation of being hardcore and supportive of militant elements.
The Indian Kabbadi team is already in Punjab for the series which also includes Iranian grapplers and Kabbadi fans have been looking forward to the matches between the Pakistani and Indian ...

Pakistan reschedules Tri-nation Kabbadi International series due to security reasons

Infants who are bottle-fed are more likely to be left handed than those who are breastfed, scientists claim.
The study of about 60,000 mother-infant pairs found that the prevalence of left-handedness is lower among breastfed infants as compared to bottle-fed infants.
The study, published in the journal Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, provide further insight into the development of complex brain functions which ultimately determine the infant's handedness.
"We think breastfeeding optimises the process the brain undergoes when solidifying handedness," said Philippe Hujoel, a professor at University of Washington in the US.
"That's important because it provides an independent line of evidence that breastfeeding may need to last six to nine months," said Hujoel.
The study does not imply, however, that breastfeeding leads to right-handedness, Hujoel said. Handedness, whether it be right- or left-handed, is set early in foetal life and is at least partially determined .

Bottle-fed babies more likely to be left handed, study claims

Drone exclusion zones around British airports will be extended and operators made to register under new rules announced after drone sightings wrought havoc at London's Gatwick in the run-up to Christmas.
Police will also be allowed to fine users up to 100 pounds (112 euros, USD 128) for failing to comply when instructed to land a drone, or not showing registration to operate a drone.
The Home Office will also begin to test and evaluate the use of counter-drone technology at airports and prisons after Gatwick and Heathrow, Britain's busiest airport, announced they were investing millions of pounds in such equipment.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling told parliament on Monday that disruption to flights at Gatwick -- the country's second biggest hub -- between December 19 and 21 was "deliberate, irresponsible and calculated, as well as illegal".
Tens of thousands of passengers were impacted and those responsible for the disruption have not been identified.
The exclusion zone around ...

UK police get extra powers to control drones

Pakistan's Supreme Court has reserved its verdict in a case regarding the constitutional status of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the grant of fundamental rights to its residents.
A seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Monday took up a set of petitions challenging the 'Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018', 'Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order, 2009', as well as the right of the citizens of the area to be governed through their chosen representatives, the Dawn reported.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018 was earlier opposed by protesters from the region who demanded that the area should be declared a part of Pakistan instead of being administered through presidential orders.
Pakistan has bifurcated occupied Kashmir into two administrative parts - Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Gilgit-Baltistan was treated as a separate geographical entity by Pakistan till now. Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh are ...

Pak SC reserves verdict on constitutional status of GB

Marcello Lippi said an influx of foreign forwards had decimated China's striking stocks and could damage their Asian Cup campaign after an unconvincing start in the United Arab Emirates.
China's threadbare options up front were underlined when makeshift forward Yu Dabao grabbed the winner in Monday's 2-1 win over debutants Kyrgyzstan, which also left key attacker Wu Lei nursing a suspected collarbone injury.
Yu played as a defender last season for Beijing Guoan and Lippi said the overseas forwards flooding the cashed-up Chinese Super League have squeezed out Chinese players.
"This shows our situation in China. In China, nearly all the foreign players are forwards," said Lippi, who led his native Italy to the 2006 World Cup title.
"It means for our attack, I have to pick a player who spent the season in central defence."
China's attacking play was far from convincing against Kyrgyzstan, who led at half-time and should have grabbed at least a draw if not for a bungling own goal by their 

Lippi says China facing striker crisis

World number five Sloane Stephens battled back from the brink of a shock defeat to a qualifier Tuesday to join two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in round two of the Sydney International.
Less than a week before the Australian Open -- the season's first Grand Slam -- the American was twice two points away from losing to 72nd-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova, who had the former US Open champion on the ropes.
Alexandrova won the first set to love and was serving for the match and two points away from victory in the second set. But Stephens somehow rallied to win 0-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/3).
"I was, like, it's not going to get any worse than this," Stephens said of the first set.
"So it was like I might as well just play.
"Obviously she was playing well. Sometimes when you play a player that's just playing like that, there is not much you can do." Earlier, Kvitova avenged her US Open defeat to in-form Aryna Sabalenka.
The Czech, who slumped to 29 in the world after being attacked in her 

Stephens avoids shock loss to join Kvitova in Sydney round two

Manchester United's legendary former manager Alex Ferguson delivered a rousing call to arms to the players, insisting they could make the club successful again, a source close to the Premier League team told The Sun.
The 77-year-old Scot -- who guided United to numerous trophies including two Champions League titles during his 27-year reign -- has played an increasingly prominent role since former striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer became interim manager following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.
The latest intervention from Ferguson, who has made a remarkable recovery from the brain haemorrhage he suffered last May, came at the behest of Solskjaer and took place at the training ground.
The squad are presently in Dubai for a training camp ahead of Sunday's clash with Tottenham Hotspur which represents a real test for Solskjaer to maintain his perfect record of five wins in five matches.
"He (Ferguson) told the lads that this group will make United dominant and successful again," the source ...

Fergie delivers rousing call to arms to United players

A UAE-based Indian man has been jailed in Saudi Arabia for entering the kingdom without proper documents, a media report here said Tuesday.
Haris Poomadath, 28, a native of Kerala, went missing on December 8 from Abu Dhabi, Gulf News reported.
He was found at a hospital in Al Ahsa in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, nearly a month after his disappearance, according to his family members.
Haris was arrested and jailed by the Saudi authorities for entering the country without documents, his cousin Rashid Poomadath was quoted as saying by the report.
It is not clear how he managed to cross the UAE-Saudi border and reached Al Ahsa.
He was rushed to the hospital after he fell ill. An Indian nurse called up his home in India, Rashid said.
According to the report, Haris, who worked as a driver with a hotel in Abu Dhabi, was upset over the cancelation of his leave in December.
"The Saudi authorities allowed him to speak to his mother on phone. She was very happy to hear his voice after almost a month .

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