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World News Quick Take

■ Singapore
Illegal oral sex reviewed
A law making oral sex illegal is under review after a Singapore police officer was jailed for two years for the act with a 15-year-old girl, two ministries said yesterday. The jailing of Police Coast Guard Sergeant Annis Abdullah, 27, on Nov. 6 has triggered widespread debate on whether there was a basis for prosecuting him. Many Singaporeans said they were shocked oral sex was still an offence. The statement of facts tendered to the court mistakenly stated the girl was 16 years old when, in fact, she had just turned 15 and was therefore a minor, the ministries said. The teenager made a police report after the incident on April 23 last year.

■ China
Satellite sent into orbit
China sent a communication satellite into orbit yesterday in its third launch since its first manned space mission last month, the government said. The Zhongxing-20 satellite went up from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan at 12:01am, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was carried up by a Long March 3-A rocket, Xinhua said. The launch was declared a success from the Xi'an Satellite Monitor and Control Center 25 minutes later, when the satellite entered orbit, Xinhua said.

■ China
Mine explosion kills 49
A gas explosion in a coal mine in southeast China has left 49 miners dead and seven more wounded, the state media reported yesterday. The blast which occurred on Friday morning at the Jianxin Coal Mine in Jiangxi province left 55 people trapped underground, the China News Service said. The bodies of 48 miners had been recovered as of late Friday, while seven other miners were wounded, two of them seriously, according to the agency. Coal mine accidents are frequent in China, a major coal producer and consumer, claiming 4,150 lives during the first eight months of this year, the equivalent of 17 deaths a day, latest figures show.

■ Cambodia
Vulture thieves nabbed
Two men have been charged with stealing a vulture for a man who allegedly wanted the bird's gall bladder as medicine to treat his illness. Mam Tuon, a 24-year-old employee at a zoo in Takeo province, and Yem Sokha, a 33-year-old coconut seller, were arrested and charged with committing the theft on Monday, The Cambodia Daily reported. Nuon Phon, a deputy police chief of the province, told the newspaper that the pair had stolen the endangered vulture from the province's Phnom Tamao zoo on Sunday. Two unidentified men had told Mam Tuon and Yem Sokha that their superior wanted to use the bird as a medicine to treat his illness.

■ China
Prolific serial killer arrested
An ex-convict dumped by his girlfriend has been arrested and linked to the stabbing murders of 65 people in several provinces, a newspaper reported yesterday in what could be the deadliest case of individual mass murder in the country's recent history. Yang Zhiya, who also goes by the aliases Yang Liu and Yang Xinhai, was apprehended on Nov. 3 in the northern Chinese province of Hebei, not far from Beijing, the Beijing News said. It said Yang, who had served time in prison in the past for unspecified crimes, has been accused of killing people in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Hebei because he "desperately wanted to retaliate against society."

■ Greece
Gays demonstrate kissing
Fifty gay men and women went on a "kissing demonstration" in central Athens in protest at a 100,000 euro fine imposed by the Greek TV regulator for scenes in a late-night drama that included a kiss between two men. The watchdog criticized the sexually charged language and portrayal of a relationship between gay men in the hit series Close Your Eyes, which deals with the lives of a group of 20-somethings. It said it "could damage young people by making them too familiar with vulgarity." Representatives of gay and transsexual rights groups gathered outside the building of the regulator to protest at what they said was a racist decision.

■ United States
Big crack forces evacuation
At least 4,800 people were evacuated from three downtown buildings in Wilmington, Deleware, on Friday after a crack that stretched eight stories was discovered in an office tower. An employee discovered the 2.5cm crack running from the ninth floor to the top floor in the facade of the 17-story Bank One building, authorities said. A city official said bolts connecting the panels to three floors of the building were loose. Inspectors examined bolts through the top story but found no other problems, officials said. About 1,000 people were evacuated from the Bank One building, 3,500 from the New Castle County Courthouse across the street and 350 people from another nearby building.

■ United States
Niagara survivor joins circus
The only person to survive a plunge over Niagara Falls without a safety device has run off and joined the circus. Kirk Jones, 40, planned to make his debut as the "world's greatest stunt man" during a Friday night gig with the Toby Tyler Circus, now touring Texas' Mexican border towns. Last month, the former auto parts salesman from Canton, Michigan, jumped over the Canadian side of the falls and somehow emerged from the rushing foam with only a few broken ribs. Jones said circus promoters called him a few days ago and promised him something "spectacular." He would not say what his act would involve.

■ United States
Dad denies beating Jackson
Michael Jackson's father says he never beat his son but admits in a TV interview to be broadcast today that he whipped him. Joe Jackson told the BBC that he whipped Michael with a switch and a belt but says he never dealt out a beating. "You beat someone with a stick," the BBC quoted him as saying in a story on its Web site on Friday. The pop singer has consistently accused his father of beating him as a child. The interview was conducted in a hotel room in an unspecified location in the US and overseen by a man, Majestik Magnificent, who described himself as Michael Jackson's personal magician.

■ Hungary
Art actually a corpse
Police on Friday removed the corpse of a man believed to have hanged himself at least a year ago after builders and students at Budapest's University of Arts had initially mistaken it for a modern sculpture. The body hung for a whole day in a garden building that had been re-opened for repairs before onlookers realized what it was and called the police, local media said. The building, in campus grounds crowded with different types of sculpture, had been closed five years ago pending reconstruction work.

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