Attacker stabs 4 judges with knife smuggled into court

A man apparently upset with a court verdict stabbed four judges with a knife smuggled into a courthouse in central China yesterday morning, the court and state media said. The man suddenly drew the knife and attacked two judges as they were taking questions from him about the court’s ruling in a labor dispute, according to a statement released by the Intermediate People’s Court in the Hubei province city of Shiyan. It identified the attacker as the appellant in the case, 43-year-old Hu Qinggang. Two more judges were injured when they tried to stop Hu, who was later detained by court marshals, the court said. One of the judges was severely injured and put under intensive care, but the wounds were not life-threatening, the court said. The state-run online publication The Paper said the suspect had apparently smuggled the dagger past security at the front entrance by wrapping it inside newspapers. Neither the court statement nor the media reports disclosed the court’s verdict or the details of case, although labor disputes in China usually involve non-payment of wages

Hong Kong probes funds, brokers, Reuters says

Hong Kong’s securities regulator is investigating whether brokers and hedge funds in the city violated licenses by creating and trading Chinese investment products, Reuters reported, citing unidentified people. The two-week-old probe covers international securities firms and Hong Kong units of Chinese brokers and involves Chinese investment quotas used to create products for hedge funds to trade stocks and bonds in the mainland, Reuters said. No comment was immediately available from the Securities and Futures Commission. Brokers may have needed extra licenses in connection with some products, where they had the discretion to manage portfolios of securities for their clients, the news agency reported. One unidentified person said the SFC was looking at whether some hedge funds had breached their licenses or general conduct rules. The probe is intended to aid the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Reuters reported. Paul Panckhurst