POLICE ARREST FIVE IN RAID AFTER FINLAND STABBING SPREE
TURKU, Finland: Finnish police arrested five people in a Turku apartment overnight in their investigation into a stabbing rampage that left two people dead, they said Saturday. Police shot and wounded a knife-wielding suspect on Friday, arresting him minutes after an afternoon stabbing spree at a Turku market square. Police on Saturday raised the number of injured in the attack from six to eight. “There was a raid and we have now six suspects in custody, the main suspect and five others,” detective superintendent Markus Laine of the National Bureau of investigation told Agence France-Presse. “We are investigating the role of these five other people but we are not sure yet if they had anything to do with (the attack)... We will interrogate them, after that we can tell you more. But they had been in contact with the main suspect,” Laine said.
GREECE ARRESTS BELGIAN WOMAN WANTED FOR TERROR TIES – COASTGUARD
ATHENS: A 22-year-old Belgian woman has been arrested in Greece on charges of extremism under a Europol arrest warrant, the coastguard and reports said Saturday. “A 22-year-old foreign national has been arrested over suspected links to terrorist activity,” a coastguard spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse. “She is being held on the island of Corfu.” Authorities declined to identify the suspect’s nationality but state agency ANA said she was a Belgian apparently of Moroccan origin. It was not immediately clear when the warrant was issued or whether it was linked to any particular incident. “We do not know which case this is linked to,” the spokeswoman said. The woman had travelled by ferry from Italy to the Greek port of Igoumenitsa, ANA said.
JAPAN LAUNCHES SATELLITE FOR BETTER GPS SYSTEM
TOKYO: Japan on Saturday launched the third satellite in its effort to build a homegrown geolocation system aimed at improving the accuracy of car navigation systems and smart phone maps to mere centimeters. An H-IIA rocket blasted off at about 2:30 p.m. (0530 GMT) from the Tanegashima space center in southern Japan, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The rocket successfully released the “Michibiki” No.3 satellite about 30 minutes after launching. The launch was initially scheduled last week but was postponed due to a technical glitch. Satellite geolocation systems, initially designed for the US military, now power countless civilian applications, from car navigation to internet browsing on mobile phones. Japan relies on the US-operated Global Positioning System (GPS). Saturday’s launch was part of a broader plan to build a domestic version with four satellites focusing on the country and wider region.
WIDOW OF LATE CHINESE NOBEL LAUREATE REAPPEARS IN VIDEO
BEIJING: The widow of late Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has resurfaced in an online video, weeks after her friends raised concerns about her fate at the hands of the authorities. Liu Xia was last seen in government-released images of her dissident husband’s sea burial on July 15, and China has been under international pressure to free her and let her travel abroad. Liu Xia, 56, has been under de facto house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, despite having never been charged with a crime. “I am recovering in a province outside of Beijing. I ask you to give me time to mourn,” said Liu in the minute-long video posted Friday on YouTube, a website blocked in Communist-ruled China. Dressed in a black t-shirt and black trousers, Liu Xia was sitting on a sofa next to a coffee table while holding a lit cigarette. “I will see you one day in top form.