■ China
Excrement saves woman
A woman survived a plunge from a sixth-floor balcony thanks to a convenient pile of excrement that broke her fall, local media said. The accident happened when the woman was hanging out laundry on Monday in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, the Kuaibao tabloid said. "Workers happened to be emptying the building's septic tank, which had not been tended for a long time and had regularly blocked sewage pipes," the newspaper said. "She probably stretched out too far and fell ... right on to a 20cm thick heap of excrement." The woman suffered only slight injuries, the newspaper said.
■ India
Angry mob kills `rapist'
A man who allegedly raped a five-year-old girl was lynched in an Indian town already reeling from a case in which dozens of poor children were sexually assaulted and murdered, reports said yesterday. Some 1,000 residents in the upscale satellite town Noida outside New Delhi set upon the ice-cream vendor after he was found with a girl who went missing on Tuesday, the Indian Express newspaper said. An angry mob led by the girl's father beat the vendor for over 15 minutes before police rescued him, a Hindustan Times report said. He later died in hospital.
■ Indonesia
`Solders' rob military office
Two men stormed a military headquarters on Sulawesi island unchallenged, stealing more than US$50,000 and a handgun before fleeing the scene, a report said yesterday. The machete-wielding robbers, wearing army fatigues, entered the local military base on Monday and made straight for the finance office, the Koran Tempo newspaper said. They attacked soldiers during the raid, wounding a soldier before making off with the handgun and envelopes containing soldiers' wages worth US$50,273, it said. The robbers then used the stolen weapon to shoot another soldier in the knee as they left the headquarters, it said.
■ China
Ex-land official probed
A former land official in scandal-hit Shanghai has been placed under investigation amid a probe into bribe-taking in return for real estate approvals, reports said yesterday. The Shanghai Securities News and other newspapers gave no details of any specific allegations against Yin Guoyuan (殷國元), the former vice director of the bureau of land and housing management. Yin's former subordinate, Zhu Wenjin (朱文錦), and eight other officials were reportedly detained last year on suspicion of accepting cash and expensive gifts in return for approving real estate developments, although the city government has yet to provide confirmation. Details of such investigations are rarely disclosed until a final decision has been made on whether to file charges.
■ Japan
Abe to visit US
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make his first trip to the US as head of state this month for summit talks on North Korea and Iraq, against a backdrop of renewed controversy over Japan's use of military brothels during World War II. Abe will travel to the US on April 26 to 27 and hold meetings with US President George W. Bush at Camp David before traveling to the Middle East, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said yesterday. The visit comes at a sensitive time, with US lawmakers considering a nonbinding resolution urging Japan to apologize formally for forcing thousands of women into the brothels.
■ Croatia
Chameleons smuggled in
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