28 May 2019

Today's world news: What you need to know

6:35 pm on 28 May 2019

Schoolchildren attacked in mass stabbing in Japan

A screen shot of footage from Japan national broadcaster NHK that it says shows the scene of the attack.

A screen shot of footage from Japan national broadcaster NHK that it says shows the scene of the attack. Photo: Screenshot / NHK

A schoolgirl and a 39-year-old man have been killed in a mass stabbing in Japan.

Fifteen other people, including girls as young as six and seven years old, were injured when a man armed with two knives attacked them as they waited for a school bus in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo.

The suspect in his 50s, who stabbed himself in the neck, was detained by police but died from his injuries.

The motive for the attack is not known.

Read more:

  • Japan attack: Child among three dead in mass stabbing
  • Dozens of prisoners strangled to death in Brazil

    At least 40 prisoners in Brazil have been found strangled to death in four separate jails in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus.

    Authorities say fighting between rival prison gangs is to blame.

    A federal task force is being sent to Manaus in an effort to halt the violence.

    Prison clashes often spread rapidly in Brazil, where drug gangs have de facto control over nearly all jails.

    - Reuters

    Austrian politics in turmoil

    Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

    Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Photo: AFP

    The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been forced from office after he and his centre-right government lost a vote of no confidence.

    Mr Kurz recently ended his coalition with the far right Freedom Party after its leader was caught in a covert video sting which suggested he was open to bribes and corruption.

    Mr Kurz heads the conservative Austrian People's Party, and is the first chancellor in post-war Austrian history to lose a confidence vote.

    When he was elected in 2017, he was the world's youngest state leader at age 31.

    Read more:

  • Austrian leader loses no-confidence vote
  • Israel moves towards new vote as Netanyahu struggles to form government

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacts at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on May 12, 2019. (Photo by GALI TIBBON / POOL / AFP)

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: AFP

    The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made a televised address calling for compromise as the country moves closer to holding an unprecedented second general election within months.

    Mr Netanyahu is struggling to seal an agreement with a clutch of ring-wing, far-right and ultra Orthodox Jewish parties, following his election victory in April.

    In a preliminary vote, parliament decided to dissolve itself but Mr Netanyahu who heads the right-wing Likud Party has until Thursday to put a government together.

    - Reuters

    Hundreds of bags of cocaine found in dead traveller's body

    A Japanese man has died on a flight from Mexico City after ingesting 246 bags of cocaine.

    The flight, bound for Japan's Narita International Airport, had to make an emergency landing in Mexico's Sonora state after he began to have seizures.

    Authorities said the man transferred to the flight after starting his journey in the Colombian capital Bogotá.

    The bags - measuring 2.5cms long and 1cm wide - were found in his stomach and intestines during an autopsy.

    - BBC