■ Hungary
Malls for prostitutes mulled
The Interior Ministry looks set to allow prostitutes to tout for business in shopping malls, newspapers reported yesterday. The ministry is thinking of allowing special shopping centers where prostitutes could strike deals for sex as long as they move to a place of their own to carry out the transaction, the daily Nepszabadsag said. "There is nothing intrinsically wrong legally with an entertainment center without gratification," the daily quoted from a letter the ministry sent to the businessman who proposed to set up an "all-in-one" sex plaza. Hungary allows local governments to set so-called "zones of patience" for the country's up to 20,000 prostitutes, but no municipality has done so yet.
■ Germany
Toy gun halts train
A man armed with a toy gun forced an emergency stop on a high-speed train between Berlin and Hamburg, police said on Monday. The 28-year-old pulled the "pistol" from his pocket when asked for his ticket on Sunday but calmly put it back when he realized what he had in his hand. The rail employee then alerted the police, who stopped the train for 20 minutes before determining that the gun was made of plastic, said a police officer in Buechen. The train then continued on to Hamburg, where the "gunman" was appearing in a play.
■ United Kingdom
Toddler killer gets life
A British woman who murdered her neighbor's two-year old son by battering his head against a banister was sentenced to life in prison on Monday. Suzanne Holdsworth, 34, had denied killing Kyle Fisher at her home in Hartlepool last July, claiming the boy had suffered a fit but the jury did not believe her. Holdsworth had been looking after Kyle while his mother went for a night out. Expert witnesses had told Teesside Crown Court the boy's injuries had been so severe as to be similar to damage that might be inflicted from a high speed car crash. "There have been many victims in this case -- Kyle, his family who will not see him grow up and the children of his killer," said a spokesman for the police who investigated the murder.
■ United States
Immigrant sentenced to jail
A federal judge in California on Monday sentenced a Chinese immigrant to two-and-a-half years in jail plotting to illegally ship missile and fighter jet parts to China. Liang Xiuwen, 34, pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiring to export defense items and attempted unlawful export. Her husband, Zhuang Jinghua, 35, pleaded guilty to the same charges and is serving his two-and-a-half year sentence imposed in December 2003. The couple are among four people who two years ago denied charges of exporting or plotting to illegally ship missile and fighter jet parts to China. The four and their firms were accused of illegally shipping parts of sensitive weapons, including for surface-to-air missiles and fighter aircraft.
■ Germany
Animal assaulter nabbed
Police said on Monday that they had captured a man behind a rash of brutal sexual assaults on horses, donkeys and sheep. The 47-year-old with a history of mental illness admitted 12 attacks on animals since the middle of last year and is suspected of another 10 cases, some of which were fatal, police said. Authorities received a tip from staff at a correctional facility where the man was serving a sentence for robbery on a day-release program. The man is now in custody.
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