■ Belgium
Child rapist in key drama
Belgian child rapist Marc Dutroux denied on Thursday plans to escape after a mystery handcuff key was found near his jail cell, as his emotionally-charged trial over a spate of killings continued. The revelation, the latest to call into question security surrounding Dutroux, came as the court took behind-closed-doors testimony from doctors who examined the bodies of his schoolgirl victims. Dutroux, who escaped for a few hours in April, 1998, was "surprised" at the discovery of the key in a container of salt stored in a cupboard along the corridor from his cell.
■ United States
Asteroid passes Earth
An asteroid with a diameter of 30m passed close but harmlessly by Earth, astronomers said. The hurtling rock passed about 42,640km above the southern Atlantic Ocean at 10pm on Thursday. It was the closest recorded encounter between Earth and an asteroid, said Steven Chesley, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who works on a program looking for such objects. Such encounters, however, are actually believed to occur at the rate of one every two years and have simply not been detected, he said. Astronomers were continuing to observe the asteroid, 2004 FH.
■ United States
Men con blind woman
Two magazine salesmen were sentenced to jail for defrauding a nearly blind 85-year-old woman who bought 210 years worth of subscriptions. Jonathan Carey, 22, of Tacoma, Washington, and Jeremy Marquez, 21, of Sacramento, went to the woman's home on Dec. 20, telling her they represented United Family Circulation and they wanted donations for college, according to District Attorney Greg Totten. The woman signed two blank checks with the promise that each check be made out for US$130. Instead, Totten said, the defendants wrote out each check for US$3,360 and forwarded them to their employer.
■ United States
Police avert school shooting
A teenager was charged with attempted murder after police found him outside school with 20 homemade bombs, a rifle and a note saying he wanted to injure everyone at his high school except for three friends. Authorities believe they averted what could have been the worst school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Josh Magee, 17, was arrested on Tuesday in the parking lot of Malcolm High School in Malcolm, Nebraska after a staff member saw him swigging liquor from a flask and putting on a black overcoat. Police who searched Magee's car found a bolt-action rifle, several rounds of ammunition, small bottles of propane and rigged containers of a petroleum-based propellent.
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