■ Australia
Stallone charged in court
Aging Hollywood hunk Sylvester Stallone faces a stiff fine for allegedly trying to bring vials of a muscle-building hormone into the country, where it is restricted. An X-ray of bags among Stallone's entourage on their arrival on Feb. 16 to promote his latest Rocky Balboa movie prompted a search that revealed 48 vials of the human growth hormone product Jintropin, the Sydney Local Court heard yesterday. Stallone, 60, did not appear in court and was excused from appearing at another hearing scheduled for April 24 as long as a lawyer appears on his behalf. He will be required to enter a plea at the next hearing.
■ Japan
Landing gear fails
An All Nippon Airways passenger plane with 60 people on board made a successful emergency landing yesterday after circling an airport for nearly two hours when its front landing gear failed to descend. No one was injured when the Bombardier DHC-8 turboprop made a controlled landing on its rear wheels and then carefully touched its nose to the runway. Sparks shot from the bottom of the white and blue fuselage as the plane skidded to a halt, but the pilot kept it on the tarmac. The mishap was the latest in a string of problems with ANA's fleet of Canadian-made Bombardier aircraft.
■ Malaysia
Authorities to void marriage
Authorities are seeking to annul the marriage of a Muslim couple, claiming the husband was born a woman and the wedding was an illegal same-sex union, a court official said yesterday. A Shariah court in the southern state of Malacca heard a lawsuit on Monday filed against the couple by the state's Registrar of Marriages, a court official said. The New Straits Times newspaper identified the couple as Mohamad Sofian, 40, and Zaiton Aziz, 43, who were married in December 2002 in a mosque. The couple ran into problems when they tried to register their marriage.
■ Nepal
PM says king should bow out
The prime minister has suggested that King Gyanendra, who has been stripped of all power and authority, should give up his throne, news reports said yesterday. "If the king abdicates the throne now it would create a new environment," the Kantipur newspaper quoted Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala as saying in his hometown of Biratnagar. Koirala did not elaborate on what he meant by a "new environment" but criticized a statement last month by the king, in which he defended his decision in 2005 to dismiss the government and assume direct power.
■ India
Road collapse kills 18
At least 18 members of a wedding party were killed and 28 injured when a road collapsed, sending their bus hurtling down a ravine in northern India, a report said yesterday. The bus was carrying wedding guests in the hill state of Utta-rakhand when the driver parked the vehicle because of landslides, police superintendent V.P. Singh told the Press Trust of India. But a part of the road suddenly caved in and the bus hurtled 180m down the ravine. Thirteen people died on the spot while others died of their injuries en route to hospital, police said.
■ Germany
Hack fined for pope plot
A journalist has been fined 100 euros (US$131) after he filmed three artists stealing water from Pope Benedict's garden hose in Bavaria to sell on Internet auction site EBay. The three men, clad in overalls and wearing masks, broke into the garden of the Pope's house in Pentling, a suburb of Regensburg, last August armed with as many as 20 old lemonade bottles, said the journalist's lawyer, Jan Bockemuehl. They were filmed in the act by freelance journalist Hubertus Wiendl, who was caught when the caretaker noted down his car registration number, he said. Wiendl denied any knowledge of the plan to enter the garden.
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