8 KILLED IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ATTACK

BEIJING An attacker killed eight students and injured two others at an elementary school in central China on the first day of the new semester, police said Tuesday.

The attack occurred around 8 a. m. Monday in Chaoyangpo village of Enshi city in Hubei province, Enshi police said in a statement.

The suspect is a 40year- old man surnamed Yu, who is in custody and being investigated. How the children were attacked was not disclosed. The motive for the attack was unclear.

According to the Guangzhou- based Southern Weekly, which cited staff from Hubei prison, the suspect was released last June after serving his sentence for attempted murder.

In June last year, two children were stabbed to death by a man outside an elementary school in Shanghai.

In April last year, nine were killed and more than a dozen injured outside a middle school in northwestern Shaanxi province by an attacker who allegedly was a former pupil seeking revenge for having been bullied.

Tens of thousands in Hong Kong boycott first day of school.

Clad in gas masks along with their formal white school uniforms, tens of thousands of students in Hong Kong boycotted the first day of classes Monday as part of a citywide strike following a violent weekend of demonstrations.

High school students added gas masks, goggles and hard hats to their traditional uniforms, while university pupils crowded into a square at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. There have been nearly three months of protests calling for democracy and an independent inquiry into police conduct.

1,500 asylum- seekers being transported to Greek mainland.

THESSALONIKI, GREECE About 1,500 asylumseekers were being transported from Greece’s eastern Aegean island of Lesbos to the mainland Monday as part of government efforts to tackle massive overcrowding in refugee camps and a recent spike in the number of people arriving from the nearby Turkish coast.

A ship carrying 635 people, mostly Afghan families, from Lesbos reached the northern port city of Thessaloniki. Authorities said the asylumseekers were then being bussed to a camp in Nea Kavala that already holds another 1,000 Syrian migrants.

U. S., Poland sign agreement on 5G technology.

WARSAW, POLAND The U. S. and Poland signed an agreement Monday to cooperate on new 5G technology as concerns grow about Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Vice President Mike Pence and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the deal in Warsaw. The signing comes during a global battle between the U. S. and Huawei over network security and fears of Chinese access.