Paedophile trial
Saarbrücken: Thirteen people appeared in court charged with the rape and murder of a five-year-old boy, in one of Germany’s biggest paedophile trials. The chief defendant, a 51-year-old woman identified as Christa W, was accused of charging clients £6.50 to sexually abuse the child. (AFP)
School attack
Beijing: A man carrying a knife attacked 25 children and kidnapped a girl aged nine at a school in east China. Police arrested Jia Qingyou, 37, a bus driver, after the attack at the No 1 Experimental Primary School in Shandong province. None of the children was seriously injured. (AFP)
Bomb blast
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Kabul: Nematullah Shahrani, one of Afghanistan’s four vice-presidents, narrowly escaped a bomb attack in the north of the country. In the south, two American soldiers were killed in a gunfight, the US military said. Six Afghan troops and two other US-led coalition soldiers were wounded. (AFP)
Text killer jailed
Thonon-Les-Bains: A Swiss woman who drove at 105mph and hit a French police van, killing two officers, while distracted by sending a text message was sentenced to 2½ years in prison. Angela Shala, 33, was criminally negligent in causing the accident in June 2003 in the French town. (AFP)
Rich pickings
Senlis: Police broke up an illegal weekend rally by British millionaires along French motorways by confiscating driving licences from some owners of around 60 sports cars which had been speeding along at more than 125 miles per hour, according to police officers. (AFP)