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■ CAMBODIA
Court charges German
A court charged a German man yesterday with having sex with a 13-year-old girl, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail, police and prosecutors said. Walter Munz, 61, was arrested on Sunday in a Phnom Penh guesthouse where Keo Thea, deputy head of the capital's human trafficking unit, said Munz "shared a bed with a beggar girl" whose school fees he helped pay. Munz denied the allegations. Prosecutor Sok Roeun said there was sufficient evidence to detain Munz for up to six months while further investigations were carried out.

■ THAILAND
Crowd tramples woman
A 50-year-old woman was killed and dozens of people were injured on Monday when a crowd in the south stampeded during a sale of a popular talisman supposed to bring good fortune, police said. More than 10,000 people had camped overnight by a school compound in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, 580km south of Bangkok, waiting to buy the amulets, which in the past few months have gained a huge following. The victim fell and was trampled on when the crowd rushed the school gates when sales of a new batch of amulets was set to begin on Monday morning, police Lieutenant Suriyon Kaemthong said.

■ JAPAN
Russian makes beer run
A Russian mariner was arrested near disputed waters after he sailed an inflatable boat to Japan's coast to buy beer, police officers said on Monday. Sergei Mikhailovich Vashkevich, the off-duty chief mate of a merchant ship, landed on the eastern tip of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Saturday and bought a case of beer for ?10,000 (US$80) at a highway rest stop. But he was arrested as he headed back with the 24-bottle case on a cape in the city of Nemuro, police said. Vashkevich, who lives on the far eastern Russian island of Sakhalin, north of Hokkaido, was handed over to public prosecutors on charges of illegal entry.

■ INDIA
Tata offers to clean Bhopal
One of the country's richest men has been lobbying for the government to drop a court case against a US multinational to pay for the clean-up costs of the world's worst chemical accident, according to letters obtained by campaigners. The documents show industrialist Ratan Tata writing to ask whether the government could "withdraw [an] application" to make Dow Chemical pay US$22 million. Dow owns Union Carbide, whose pesticide plant leaked a deadly gas killing thousands in Bhopal in 1984. The site has not been decontaminated more than 20 years on. Tata, who runs the Tata Group, says his company could fund a clean-up of the site.

■ CHINA
Facades collapse on crowd
Brick facades collapsed onto crowds in a busy commercial street in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, killing at least 10 people, state media and a city spokeswoman said yesterday. Another 24 people were hospitalized after Monday afternoon's disaster, in which materials including sign boards, bricks, concrete and wood atop a row of single-story shops tumbled over without warning, the Shanghai Morning Post said. Those killed included four elderly people crushed while playing mahjong. Another elderly woman said she had been playing cards in the open when her dog began barking, warning her of the crashing bricks.

■ GERMANY
Knut a hit on weekend
About 125,000 people descended on Berlin zoo over the Easter weekend to get a glimpse of Knut, the polar bear cub who has become a global sensation, the zoo said on Monday. About 300,000 extra people have visited since the four-month-old cub, who was rejected by his mother at birth and is now being raised by a handler, first appeared in public on March 23. Faced with the Easter crush, the zoo authorities had to set up a one-way system past Knut's enclosure to ensure all his fans got a peek.

■ UNITED KINGDOM
Teen faces murder charge
A 13-year-old boy was due to appear in court yesterday charged with the murder of Paul Erhahon, the 14-year-old stabbed to death near his London home, police said. The youth, who has not been named, is also charged with the attempted murder of Erhahon's 15-year-old friend, who is stable in hospital after being stabbed in the same attack. Police said the pair was attacked by a gang in Leytonstone on Friday. Two 14-year-olds arrested in connection with the murder are still in police custody. A 19-year-old was jailed in June, pending further inquiries.

■ TURKEY
Soldiers clash with rebels
Four soldiers and six Kurdish guerrillas were killed in a clash near the southeastern city of Tunceli on Monday, the governor's office said yesterday. Fighting between soldiers and the rebels belonged to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, traditionally increases in the spring when the snow melts and mountain passes in the rugged region are easier to access. Over the weekend, eight soldiers and a pro-government village guard were killed in clashes and in two separate land mine explosions in the region. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the EU.

■ UNITED STATES
Hotel boss fined US$35m
A string of allegedly inappropriate e-mails to female employees will cost Starwood Hotels boss Steven Heyer US$35 million in severance pay after he left the company amid a flurry of lurid accusations. Starwood, which owns the luxury Sheraton, Le Meridien and W hotel chains plus landmarks including London's Cafe Royal, ousted Heyer last week citing "issues with regard to his management style." It emerged on Monday that these issues included the discovery of scores of e-mails and text messages from the 54-year-old married chief executive to female staff, many sent outside working hours.

■ UNITED STATES
Duo pleads not guilty
Two men charged in a New Year's Day assault on a group of Yale University a cappella singers have pleaded not guilty. Richard Aicardi, 19, and Brian Dwyer, 19, appeared in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday, where Dwyer entered his plea. Aicardi pleaded not guilty on March 8. Aicardi and Dwyer face assault and battery charges stemming from what police said was an attack on an all-male singing group called the Baker's Dozen after a New Year's Eve party. Witnesses said the trouble started after the group sang The Star Spangled Banner. Victims said five attackers hurled anti-gay epithets at them and allegedly confronted group members as they tried to leave.

■ ARGENTINA
Teachers go on strike
School teachers went on a one-day nationwide strike on Monday after a high school chemistry teacher was killed by police last week during a protest over pay in the southern province of Neuquen. In the capital, Buenos Aires, workers at banks, hospitals, government offices and public transportation joined the strike for one hour on Monday afternoon. Police in the northern city of Salta fired tear gas at groups of protesters, local media said. Carlos Fuentealba, a 41-year-old teacher, died on Thursday, a day after he was hit in the head by a tear gas cartridge when police broke up a teachers' protest and road block in Neuquen.

■ COLOMBIA
Bomb explodes at barracks
A powerful car bomb exploded on Monday in front of police barracks in the southwest city of Cali, killing one person and injuring 34, the region's governor said. Governor Angelino Garzon told Caracol radio that "the first theory we're going with is that it's the work of the FARC," referring to the country's largest leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. "Although we cannot rule out other illegal groups, whether it's drug traffickers, paramilitaries or common criminals." The explosion killed a taxi driver who was passing the car when the bomb was detonated. The blast also injured 19 officers in the barracks, and 15 civilians on the street outside.

■ MEXICO
Six rescued out of bay
Six people were rescued on Monday after being swept out into Acapulco Bay when an unusually large wave washed over part of the resort city's coastal road, government news agency Notimex reported. Photos showed the seawater reaching the wheel wells of cars on the hotel-lined boulevard, dozens of meters inland from the normal high-tide mark. The six people rescued were apparently walking along the beach when the wave hit and were pulled to safety by passing boats, Notimex said.

■ UNITED STATES
Health worker accused
A health department worker in New York City who gave a passing grade to a fast-food restaurant crawling with rats resigned before she could be fired on Monday as the health commissioner acknowledged systemic flaws in the city's inspection system. Cemone Thomas quit hours before city investigators released a scathing report accusing her of "gross dereliction" of her duties by underreporting a rodent infestation at a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village. Thomas inspected the restaurant on Feb. 22 and didn't cite all the rat droppings, which would have caused the restaurant to fail the inspection and could have forced it to close immediately, inspectors said.

■ UNITED STATES
Vandals strike school buses
Public school students got an extra day of spring break in Bay City, Michigan, on Monday after vandals deflated the tires on all 88 of the district's school buses. "We're treating this situation very seriously," said schools Superintendent Carolyn Wierda, who canceled classes because of the lack of transportation. "We will proceed in any way possible to take action against whoever is responsible." The vandals hit sometime over the weekend, district transportation director Michael Gwizdala said. He said there was no evidence of damage to the fence around the bus yard, and the vandals left behind nothing obvious but the flat tires.


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