Elton John has virtually no chance of adopting an HIV-positive toddler from Ukraine, the country's family minister said yesterday.
But Ukraine Family Minister Yuri Pavlenko told Reuters that he hoped the British singer's intentions would encourage Ukrainians to adopt sick children.
Elton John said on Saturday that a 14-month-old baby boy named Lev had "stolen" his heart and wanted to adopt him together with his long-term partner, David Furnish.
The two visited an orphanage for children whose parents have HIV in the industrial east of the country with John's AIDS Foundation.
"Officially, Elton John has not approached the ministry or any other authority with a request to adopt the child at the Makeyevka orphanage," Mr Pavlenko said. "In any case, if there were such a request from Elton John we would have to refuse."
Mr Pavlenko said 62-year-old Elton John is too old to adopt the baby as he is not allowed to be older than the child by more than 45 years and prospective parents must be married. (Reuters)
Paedophile jailed
A Cambodian court yesterday jailed a Frenchman for one year after he was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Jacques Collinet, 61, was arrested in April with the 15-year-old and denied having sex with her, saying he only hired the girl for a massage.
But Judge Chhay Kong of Phnom Penh Municipal Court found him guilty and gave him a three-year prison sentence, before ordering him to serve only one year behind bars and to remain on probation for five years.
The judge also ordered Mr Collinet to pay $500 in compensation to the victim.
A Greek national arrested at the same time as Mr Collinet, Christos Kapalios, has not yet gone on trial. (AFP)
Gropers arrested
Tokyo police this week launched a crackdown on gropers who have long molested women on the city's busy subway network during rush hour, an official said yesterday.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police has deployed teams of uniformed officers to platforms and plain-clothes officials aboard trains to catch men who fondle women or try to sneak revealing photographs of them.
More than 100 high school girls, wearing school uniforms with short skirts, have joined the week-long campaign, carrying a banner that reads "Groping is contemptible. We don't forgive it!"
"We want to get on trains safely," they shouted in unison as passengers walked by on Monday at Ikebukuro, one of the busiest stations in the Japanese capital.
Police decided to launch the intensive campaign to prevent the crime and increase social awareness about groping, which has spawned internet forums among molesters. (AFP)
Man charged with murder of pensioner
A 33-year-old man was charged yesterday night with the murder of an 85-year-old widow who was strangled in her bed before her home was set on fire.
The man, who has not been named, will face Teesside Magistrates' Court in Middlesbrough tomorrow accused of the killing of Pat Thompson.
The pensioner died in Emma Simpson Court, Hartburn, Stockton-on-Tees on the evening of September 5.
Yesterday, Cleveland Police said a 33-year-old man, from the South Bank area of Middlesbrough, had been charged with the pensioner's murder and would be appearing before Teesside Magistrates' Court tomorrow morning.
Mrs Thompson, a retired schoolteacher with three children and six grandchildren, moved to her bungalow around nine years ago.
The churchgoer was well known in her local community and her death shocked many people. (PA)
Former Bosnian Serb President's release
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal announced yesterday it approved the early release from prison of former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic after she served two-thirds of her 11-year sentence for persecution. The decision means that one of the most senior political leaders ever convicted by the UN court could walk free as early as next month from the prison in Sweden where she has served most of her sentence.
Ms Plavsic, 79, was sentenced in 2003 after pleading guilty to a single count of persecution, a crime against humanity, as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive Muslims and Croats out of Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia.
Her guilty plea was part of a plea bargain to have other charges, including genocide, dropped.
The campaign destroyed 850 Muslim and Croat villages and included 1,100 documented mass murders, prosecutors said. (PA)