World News Quick Take

A London Routemaster bus passes through Piccadilly Circus. PHOTO: AP

■ Singapore
Oral-sex sentence reduced
A Singapore judge reduced the sentence of a policeman charged with receiving oral sex after his case provoked a storm of protest, but he told the court that such a sex act did not conform to Asian values. Police coast guard sergeant Annis Abdullah's sentence was halved to a year in jail after the 27-year-old received consensual oral sex from a teenage girl in April. "In the Asian culture, certain offences are still not talked about though in some cultures you can go sucking away, and some important people had gotten away with it," 77-year-old Chief Justice Yong Pung How was quoted by state media as telling the court at Tuesday's sentencing.

■ Cambodia
Rat-meat sales boom
Bird may have decimated poultry businesses across Asia, but rat dealers have never had it so good. "I've got a constant stream of customers," Van Vath, a rat butcher in the western Cambodian town of Battambang, told Wednesday's edition of Cambodge Soir. With customers shying away from chicken for fear of catching the deadly flu virus that has killed millions of birds and at least 20 people, she has been selling more than 180kg of rodent meat every morning -- twice her normal turnover. In far-flung corners of the jungle-clad and impoverished Southeast Asian nation, rat -- fried, grilled or roasted with garlic and vegetables -- is a highly prized delicacy.

■ Singapore
Maids taught to avoid falls
Authorities launched a safety course to teach new maids how to avoid falling from high-rise flats following an alarming rate of helpers plunging to their deaths, a report said yesterday. The lessons began last October and from April 1 will be compulsory for new maids seeking to obtain a work permit, the Straits Times reported. Nearly 100 Indonesian maids have fallen to their death here since 1999, usually while cleaning windows or hanging out the washing, according to Indonesian embassy figures quoted by the paper.

■ Australia
Memorial service for teen
Mourners Christian prayers, performed traditional dances and played the didgeridoo yesterday at a memorial service in a Sydney ghetto for a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy whose death sparked a riot earlier last weekend. Thomas Hickey died on Sunday, a day after falling from his bicycle and being impaled on a metal fence. Police, who Hickey's family and friends say chased the teenager to his death, denied any involvement in the accident. Hickey's mother, Gail, was handed a canvas with the handprints and signatures of his friends during the service that was attended by politicians and the community's elders. Hickey will be buried next week in his home town of Walgett in New South Wales state, Australian Associated Press reported.

■ Australia
Men face `masculinity crisis'
Once they were strong, silent types who conquered the Outback. Now young Australian males are the sad victims of a modern-day "crisis of masculinity," according to the man aiming to be the nation's next prime minister. Opposition Labor Party leader Mark Latham said Wednesday the latest generation of Aussie blokes are bewildered, uneducated and unhappy. They are fast dropping out of school with lower literacy levels. Too many overdose on drugs or commit suicide.

■ United States
Iconic red buses phased out
It's as recognizable as St. Paul's Cathedral and as British as cod and chips, but London's iconic red Routemaster bus is reaching the end of the road. The city's transport authority, which has been quietly taking the old buses out of circulation for months, says Route-masters will be withdrawn from half of their remaining routes by the end of the year, and almost all will be gone by 2005. The Routemaster's disappearance -- long rumored and often denied -- has saddened supporters of the bus, which first rolled onto London streets 50 years ago and has starred in countless postcards and holiday snapshots.

■ Canada
O'Brien says `pardon moi'
Talk host Conan O'Brien apologized on Wednesday for offending any French Canadians during his show's visit to Toronto last week, but not before trying to wring some laughs out of the flap."People of Quebec, I'm sorry," O'Brien said on NBC television's broadcast of "The Late Show with Conan O'Brien" telecast early on Wednesday. He had his remarks "translated" into French and subtitled: "People of Quebec, I'm an albino jackass." O'Brien's cantankerous sock puppet, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, also drew the ire of French Canadian separatists with some of his jokes last week. O'Brien did a week of shows from Toronto -- with the help of US$750,000 in Canadian taxpayers' money.

■ United States
Soldier tried to aid enemy
A member of a US National Guard armored unit in Washington state sent details of military weak points to what he thought were al-Qaeda operatives in an effort to help them kill American troops, according to Army charges disclosed on Wednesday. Army Specialist Ryan Anderson, 26, who had been slated for deployment to Iraq with his unit based at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington, is being held there on three charges of attempting to aid the enemy. Anderson, who was arrested on Feb. 12, faces a possible death penalty if convicted of the charges by a military court. The charges accused him of sending the undercover officers, among other things, sketches of the M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams main battle tank.

■ Cyprus
Bomb hits near PM's house
Just before Cyprus reunification talks were scheduled to begin yesterday, a small bomb exploded in front of the home of the prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot state. There were no injuries. Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, a leading advocate of reunification, quickly vowed that the talks would go on. The blast in front of his home shattered windows and tore apart tree branches and street signs.

■ United Kingdom
Bare floors taking their toll
A vogue among British householders to replace carpets with bare wooden floors might be doing wonders for their minimalist credentials, but only at high cost to their health, according to a report in The Times. New accident statistics showed that more than 12,000 Britons a year have to go to hospital after falling on their floors, against a figure of just 2,900 five years ago, the newspaper said yesterday.