BELARUS
Girl killed in chain saw attack
Belarusian police said a teenager attacked two girls in a shopping center in the capital of Minsk with a chain saw and an ax, killing one of them. Police spokesman Alexander Barsukov said the 17-year-old suspect from Belarus was arrested but so far had not told police anything. He said surveillance video showed the boy entered the shopping center carrying a guitar case in which he had hidden the chain saw and the ax. The spokesman said after attacking the two girls, he threatened other people. It was not clear how he was stopped.
SOUTH SUDAN
Japanese official visits
Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has visited troubled South Sudan as her country considers whether to give its peacekeepers broader abilities to use force. About 350 Japanese peacekeepers take part in the U.N. mission there. Almost all engage in engineering activities. Japanese media reports say the defense ministry is considering sending peacekeepers who would be able to undertake risky rescue missions in South Sudan. More than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers are in South Sudan, and they have been criticized repeatedly for failing to protect civilians, most recently when fighting erupted in the capital in July.
INDIA
Boy’s death sparks clashes
Indian forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas Saturday as thousands of people carried the body of a 12-year-old boy killed overnight during an anti-India protest in the main city of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. Chanting “Go India, go back” and “We want freedom,” thousands of residents marched to the main Martyr’s Graveyard in Srinagar for the boy’s burial. Police and paramilitary soldiers fired warning shots, pellets and tear gas, fearing the procession could become a larger rally calling for an end to Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region, a police officer said.
GERMANY
King receives peace prize
Jordan’s King Abdullah II has been awarded a prestigious prize in Germany for his peace efforts in the Middle East. At the award ceremony Saturday for the Westphalian Peace Prize in Muenster’s town hall, German President Joachim Gauck said Abdullah and his fellow Jordanians had “set standards for humanity” for their work in the region’s refugee crisis. Jordan, with a population of about 6.5 million, is hosting about 635,000 refugees from neighboring war-torn Syria.
Compiled from wire reports