JAPAN: A man was arrested on suspicion of driving his car into seven schoolchildren who were walking home, injuring them, one seriously, police said today.

Police were handling the case as attempted murder rather than reckless driving because the suspect, Yuki Yazawa, 28, told investigators that he was “sick and tired of everything” and drove his car into the children to kill them, officials said.

The injured schoolchildren were aged seven and eight and were walking home from a primary school nearby, police said.

BELFAST: Britain’s counter-terrorism police have opened an investigation into the Irish rap group Kneecap, who were filmed allegedly saying “Kill your local MP” and “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

In a joint statement, artists including Pulp, Paul Weller and Primal Scream defended the band, saying there is a “clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform” Kneecap.

It said politicians are “concocting moral outrage over the stage utterings of a young punk band” while ignoring a genocide in Gaza, following the band calling attention to the war at Coachella.

ASIAN SUBCONTINENT: Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir reviewed a military training exercise in the eastern Punjab province today, the military said, following rising with its neighbours after a terrorist attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir last week.

“Let there be no ambiguity,” Mr Munir said. “Any military misadventure by India will be met with a swift, resolute and notch-up response.”

The Indian army said today that it had responded to “unprovoked” small arms fire from Pakistan in the Kupwara, Uri and Akhnoor sectors of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

KENYA: President Willian Ruto urged police to conduct a “through investigation” today after an opposition politician was shot dead in Nairobi.

MP Charles Were was shot on Wednesday night as his car stopped at a roundabout on a busy major road. He was with his driver and bodyguard when a motorcycle taxi approached them. A passenger disembarked and approached their car before firing at the MP, police said in a statement.

The police have described the killing as a “targeted and premeditated” crime.