A court in Germany sentenced a law professor to three years in prison for giving students better marks in exchange for sex and money.

The 53-year-old from Hanover admitted accepting €156,000 in total for awarding doctorates to students who failed to make the grade.

The man also told the court he had given female students better marks in return for sex.

The academic, whom the court yesterday convicted on 68 counts of corruption, said he had resorted to taking bribes because he was having financial difficulties.

His net monthly salary of nearly €5,000 had not been sufficient to pay off his debts, the court heard.

...vicious pupils

Nine-year-olds at a school in the US state of Georgia brought a broken steak knife, handcuffs and electrical tape to school in a plot to injure their teacher, authorities said on Tuesday.

Teachers at Centre Elementary School in Waycross, Georgia, uncovered the plot when a pupil reported that a child in the third grade had brought a weapon into the school.

"The plan was to handcuff the teacher, put tape over her mouth and hit her over the head with the paperweight and possibly cut her," said Lt Duane Caswell of Waycross police. "It was a rather elaborate scheme for children of that age," he said, adding that the students spent a week planning the attack and planned to carry it out on the day they were caught.

Nine pupils in the grade, most of whom were nine years old, have been disciplined and some were given long-term suspensions. The police were also planning to charge three children with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and possession of a weapon on a school property.

Rare wild donkeys threatened

Conservationists who found 10 wild donkeys shot dead in northern Cyprus said yesterday the rare breed could disappear entirely if hunters continued to shoot them for sport.

Environmentalists in the Karpas region believe many more of the brown donkeys had been killed since a 2003 study counted some 800 living in the wild.

"Hunters are shooting at them for fun and farmers are killing them because they damage their crops," said Dogan Sahir, head of the Turkish Cypriot branch of the Green Action Group.

The north Cyprus environmental ministry said a new count would be carried out in the wake of the killings.

The breed is believed to be unique because it has managed to survive in the wild unassisted by humans since escaping from owners hundreds of years ago. The donkeys normally shy away from human contact.

Bond has new nemesis

There's a new villain in James Bond's life! Carlos Lopez, the mayor of a remote northern Chilean town, burst onto the film set of the latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," on Tuesday and had to be detained by police. Mr Lopez said he drove onto the set between the cameras and Bond actor Daniel Craig, interrupting filming, as he was angry at an excessive police presence in the small town because of the filming and the fact Chilean soil was being used to represent neighbouring Bolivia.

"For a town that has just 1,000 residents, sending in special forces and water cannon, preventing people from walking in the street, reminded me of the worst of the Pinochet years. I also disagree with national territory being used as locations (to represent) other countries," Mr Lopez said. "Even in a fictional film, unfortunately friendly, neighbouring countries use decisions like this to make unjustified claims."

Chile annexed the region around the northern mining centre of Antofagasta in a war in the late 19th century, depriving Bolivia of its only maritime border - an issue that continues to deeply divide the countries politically today.

Crowded out of home

A German man was such an avid collector of weapons and other paraphernalia that he ran out of space at home and had to sleep in a hotel, neighbours said following the 71-year-old's death.

Executors found an arsenal of weaponry and assorted goods at the man's two-storey home in the western city of Aachen, police said yesterday.

"There were 71 guns - one for each year of his life," said a police spokesman. "He also had 41 cases of ammunition and five walking sticks fitted with retractable blades."

Neighbours related how the man, who lived alone, collected everything from clothing to garden tools and watches. The house was stuffed to the rafters and by the end, the neighbours said he had to sleep in a hotel sometimes because there was no more room.

No heirs have yet been found for the man.

Tomb plots cost more than houses

Chinese are getting ready for Tomb-Sweeping Day tomorrow, as state media fret that the poor can no longer afford funerals while tombs for the rich cost more than houses.

China this year has reinstated the traditional Qingming Tomb-Sweeping Day as a holiday as Chinese beliefs and superstitions about the after-life, ingrained filial piety and soaring incomes have fuelled a scramble for burial plots, and prompted authorities to issue rules to regulate the roaring, unregulated funeral trade.

For decades after the 1949 Communist takeover, China banned burials and insisted on cremations, but the patchily enforced rule is now effectively abandoned. Five of Beijing's major cemeteries now demand between 10,000 yuan ($1,400) and 30,000 yuan per square metre for a standard tomb compared with an average of 20,000 yuan per square metre for an apartment in downtown Beijing.