■ Australia
Bomb robot saves Tweety
A robot designed to disarm bombs was sent yesterday to rescue a pet bird from a Sydney apartment building crumbling because of a tunnel collapse. The cockatiel, Tweety, was stranded in an apartment directly above a gaping hole when a new tunnel partially collapsed earlier this week. Tweety's owner, Karen Bruce, was barred from entering the building to get her pet after she and about 60 other residents were awoken early on Wednesday and ordered to flee. When the robot emerged with Tweety yesterday, Bruce held the bird up triumphantly.
■ India
Copulating fossils found
Scientists say they have discovered two fossils fused together in sexual union for 65 million years. The findings were published in the October edition of the Indian journal Current Science, which said it was the first time that sexual copulation had been discovered in a fossil state. The fossils are tiny swarm cells, a stage of the fungus myxomycetes. The cells reproduce by "fusing," Ranjeet Kar of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany said. Finding the fossils in a fused position is evidence that the two cells were having sex, Kar said. The cells were found in a 9m-deep well in Madhya Pradesh state.
■ Japan
Asteroid landing delayed
The JAXA space agency canceled a rehearsal for a planned landing on an asteroid because of mechanical trouble with the space probe, officials said yesterday. The Hayabusa probe, launched in May 2003, is to make a brief landing to retrieve surface samples from the Itokawa asteroid after hovering around it for three months. The space agency, did not elaborate on the mechanical failure that scuttled the rehearsal. The asteroid, about 290 million kilometers away between Earth and Mars, is only 690m long and 300m wide. Officials have said Hayabusa is to be the world's first two-way trip to an asteroid.
■ Australia
Student-sex teacher jailed
A female teacher was jailed for five years yesterday for having sex with a 15-year-old student who had begun dating her daughter. The 36-year-old mother of four, Cindy Howell, from Melbourne, sobbed in court as she was sentenced, AAP reported. She had pleaded guilty to the charge of having a sexual relationship with the under-age boy over eight months last year. Howell was employed at a high school as a teacher and was assisting the boy with a reading difficulty. Their sexual relationship began after he started dating her daughter. Judge Jan Pannam said the case was "particularly disturbing" as Howell was in a position of trust when she engaged in the relationship.
■ Hong Kong
Bed hurling triggers arrest
A man was arrested for throwing parts of his bed out of the window of his 15th floor apartment, the South China Morning Post said yesterday. No one was injured by the falling wood that the 42-year-old man lobbed out of his window on Thursday morning, said a police spokeswoman. Police had to break into the man's apartment because he was emotional at the time of the arrest, she said, adding that he was admitted to a hospital for medical tests. A neighbor said the man had recently moved furniture and electrical appliances from his apartment to the garbage-collection area in the housing estate, the Post reported.
■ United States
Alleged spy ring busted
An engineer and TV director were indicted in Santa Ana, California, on charges of stealing secret documents on US Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle them to China. Chi Mak, a naturalized US citizen from China, was ordered held without bond after appearing on Monday in federal court. Mak was arrested along with his brother, Tai Wang Mak. Their wives were also arrested. Chi Mak allegedly took computer disks from defense contractor Power Paragon, where he was lead engineer on a sensitive research project involving propulsion systems for navy warships.
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