World News Quick Take

■ Cambodia
Girl bites lewd stepfather
A 17-year-old Cambodian girl nearly bit off her stepfather's tongue to thwart his alleged rape attempt, local media reported Saturday. The English-language Cambodia Daily said the stepfather, Mok Ya, 44, was charged on Thursday with rape and possession of an illegal weapon in southeastern Svay Rieng province's Kampong Ro district. The man's wife reportedly told authorities the day before that her daughter bit and nearly severed his tongue when he began to kiss her. Police told the Daily that Mok Ya had already raped his stepdaughter twice this year but the mother had been too ashamed to go to police.

■ United States
Gorilla goes on rampage
Three including a 3-year-old boy, were recovering Friday after an escaped 135kg gorilla charged them at the Dallas Zoo, biting and hitting them and tossing them around. Jabari, a 13-year-old lowland gorilla, escaped from his enclosure at the zoo Thursday and went on a rampage for 40 minutes before he charged police officers who shot and killed him. Police marksmen and zoo employees had tried to fire tranquilizer darts at the gorilla, but zoo director Rich Buickerood told The Dallas Morning News that Jabari was moving in a thickly forested area of the zoo, making finding him difficult and taking a shot dangerous. "Immobilization weapons are powerful enough to kill a person," Buickerood told the newspaper. "We worried about a missed shot."

■ Germany
`Lolita' based on `Lolita'
Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita apparently was adapted from a short story by a long-forgotten German writer, according to a newspaper report. A short story entitled Lolita is among a volume of stories written by Berlin journalist Heinz von Lichberg and published in 1916, according to the report in yesterday's edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The newspaper, which obtained a copy of the book, said the story's plot was virtually identical to that of Nabokov's 1955 novel. Lichberg was a well-known newsman in the 1920s and 30s, and wrote a bestselling book about the trans-Atlantic crossing of a dirigible airship and gave a stirring live radio eyewitness report of Nazi stormtroopers marching through Brandenburg Gate the night Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933.

■ The Philippines
Strawberry cake sets record
A northern Philippine town is attempting to bake itself into the Guinness Book of Records with what it claimed was the world's biggest strawberry buttercake. The northern town of La Trinidad, which calls itself the Philippines' strawberry capital, has been baking giant cakes for the last three years. But Mayor Nestor Fongwan said the town has outdone itself this time with the giant dessert weighing 11,146kg. At 10 pesos (US$0.18) a slice in the town hall, the massive cake was expected to feed 55,000 townspeople.

■ Argentina
Menem's pardons annulled
An Argentine judge on Friday annulled pardons granted by former president Carlos Menem to six military officers accused of gross human rights violations during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. The move by federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral opened the way for the three surviving officers to face prosecution in a case involving torture and assassinations of political prisoners in an army detention camp. The suspects are under house arrest while they await trial in separate case.

■ Israel
Officer charged over Jenin
An Israeli tank commander is to be charged with negli-gent homicide after having authorized his tanks to shell a group of Palestinians in a market, killing three child-ren and an adult. The lieutenant-colonel was in charge of an incursion into Jenin in June 2002 when one of his officers saw hundreds of civilians in an area that he believed was under cur-few -- though it was not. The officer sought per-mission to open fire and the lieutenant colonel gave it. Israeli rules of engagement permit soldiers to fire a small number of shells or bullets into a vacant open area to warn crowds to disperse. But the tank crews fired about 10 explosive rounds and several long volleys of machine-gun fire.

■ United States
Radio skit offends Muslims
An Islamic rights group filed a federal complaint against talk radio station KFI-AM and parent Clear Channel Communications because of a skit mocking the new Iraqi Constitution saying it advocated killing Jews and banned such Western teach-ings as "bathing on a regular basis." The station issued an on-air apology -- saying it didn't intent to bash Mus-lims -- after the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission. According to the skit Iraqi adults would be allowed relationships with "camels and goats."

■ Britain
NHS sets a new record
The state-run National Health Service is now the world's third-largest employer, beaten only by China's People's Liberation Army and India's rail network, according to a report. The NHS a total workforce of 1.3 million people, according to a new employee census