BLACKSBURG, Va. (Jan. 21) — A graduate student from China was decapitated with a kitchen knife in a campus cafe at Virginia Tech by another graduate student who knew her, police said Thursday.

Xin Yang, 22, was killed Wednesday night after arriving at the campus from Beijing on Jan. 8 to begin studying accounting, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu of Ningbo, China, knew the victim but no motive for the slaying has been determined, Flinchum said. School records showed that Haiyang was listed as one of Xin's emergency contacts.

Haiyang was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

Haiyang and Xin had been having coffee in a cafe in the Graduate Life Center, where Xin was living. About seven other people who were in the coffee shop told police that the two hadn't been arguing before the attack.

Police received two 911 calls shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, Flinchum said, and were on the scene in a little more than a minute to take Haiyang into custody.

Flinchum said Haiyang was not known to the campus police or to the university team that deals with mentally disturbed students.

University officials said Haiyang arrived on campus last fall and was a Ph.D. student in agricultural and applied economics.

The stabbing was the first killing on campus since a mass killing on campus in 2007, when a student gunman shot 32 people and then took his own life.

"An act of violence like this brings back memories of April 16," university President Charles Steger said. "I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught."

University spokesman Larry Hincker said a campus alert system put in place after the mass shootings by Seung-Hui Cho in 2007 sent out messages to 30,000 subscribers by e-mail, text messages and telephone voice mails Wednesday night.

Because a suspect was in custody, the messages were sent out as notifications rather than as emergency alerts, he said.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine offered condolences to the campus.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Xin Yang today — and with the broader Virginia Tech community," he said in a statement. "The tragic attack on campus this week has no doubt revived terrible memories for countless members of the Hokie family."
Wow, seem to be lots of "disturbed" students at this place? Today is the one year anniversary of Heath Ledger's death! That alone, should put serious suspicion on this event. Virginia Tech also had a 78-71 victory over WAKE FOREST (Deacons)!

(the story below is certainly joker resonating)

(GMT 23 Jan 2009) Two children and one adult were killed Friday in a stabbing attack at a nursery school in Belgium, officials said.

Ten children and two adults were being treated in the hospital after the attack, the Interior Ministry said. It was unclear whether all of them suffered stab wounds.

The attacker entered the day care center in Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, around 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) and began stabbing children and staff, the ministry said.

"The guy just went crazy," local official Theo Janssens said, according to Agence France-Presse news agency.

He was arrested an hour and a half afterwards, according to the Interior Ministry. Reports said he was trying to make his escape on a bicycle.

Local journalist Bart Bekaert told CNN that the attacker's face was painted black and white.

"Witnesses say he looked calm. There was no security and he just walked straight in," he added.

AFP reported that the man was not known to staff at the nursery. Unconfirmed reports said the knifeman was an inmate at a nearby mental health institution.

Looks like 5 are dead now...

2 shot outside kindergarten in Norway

By DOUG MELLGREN – 2 hours ago

OSLO, Norway (AP) — A police officer in northern Norway shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, then critically wounded himself Friday outside the elementary school where she was a student teacher, police said. No children were injured.

The shooting happened in a parking lot between the Slettaelva elementary school and a kindergarten in Tromsoe, the main city in the Norwegian Arctic, police said.

Police initially said both victims had died, but Tromsoe Police Chief Truls Fyhn later corrected that information, saying the 53-year-old man was in "extremely critical condition" at a local hospital.

Fyhn told a news conference broadcast on national radio that the woman, who was in her early 40s, had been living with the police officer until they broke up last week. He said he could not release their names, pending notification of next of kin.

Fyhn said it wasn't immediately known whether the man had used his service weapon in the shooting.

Police said it was not clear how many children were nearby when the shooting occurred, but it was likely that at least some were in the vicinity. The shooting was reported to police at about 8:30 a.m. (0730 GMT).

Tromsoe is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle.