US prosecutors pushed yesterday to have charges reinstated against a stuntman who tried to parachute off the New York City's Empire State Building, saying the man endangered the people who tried to stop him.

In January 2007 Justice Michael Ambrecht of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan threw out charges against Jeb Corliss, ruling that the stunt - while "dangerous and ill conceived" - was legal because there was no law barring it. He also said Mr Corliss, 30, had taken "affirmative steps" to ensure the safety of bystanders when he tried to scale the three-metre security fence of the building's 86th floor observatory landing in order to jump off the skyscraper in April 2006.

Mr Corliss's bid was thwarted when police and security officers pulled the former Discovery Channel host back, shackled him to the security rail and arrested him.

Kenya's traditional meal at risk

If there is one thing Kenyans of any political stripe can agree on, it is nyama choma. On Saturdays and Sundays, the Kenyan tradition of meeting friends over a piece of slow-roasted goat meat, beer and ugali - a maize flour cooked to a soft cake - is as entrenched as the rise and set of the sun.

But the eruption of violence and unrest around the disputed presidential election of December 27, combined with the annual Christmas break, put parts of Kenya into a nyama drought for three weeks. In Nakuru, the trading gateway to the breadbasket of Kenya's Great Rift Valley where goats are abundant, butcheries were bare for the period save a bit of ng'ombe - beef - borrowed from suppliers, nyama choma sellers said.

The lack of goat - known as mbuzi in Swahili - came as violent Kalenjin gangs in the Rift closed roads stretching across the centre part of it as they attacked and drove off members of the Kikuyu tribe in the area. That choked transport for days, until police began accompanying fuel trucks that pass through the Rift heading toward western Kenya, Uganda and beyond.

Citroen apologises to China

French car-maker Citroen has apologised to China for running a full-page advertisement in several Spanish newspapers featuring a poster of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong pulling a wry face at a sporty hatch-back. Under the Biblical quotation "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's", the text talked up Citroen's position as a car sales leader in a bombastic tone.

"It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops," the advertisement said.

The Mao poster is similar to the huge painting of the Great Helmsman gazing out over Beijing's Tiananmen Square, except that it has been distorted to show lips screwed up and eyes squinting.

Banksy graffiti wall auctioned

A painting attributed to cult graffiti artist Banksy fetched more than £200,000 in an online auction on Monday. Now the lucky owner will just have to work out how to get it home.

The work, depicting an artist in old-fashioned clothes putting the finishing touches on the word BANKSY spray-painted in red, was scrawled on a wall on the Portobello Road in the west London district of Notting Hill. It was offered for sale on the e-Bay auction site and went for £208,100 after attracting 69 bids.

The winner of the auction may well get the painting and the wall it is on, but they will have to calculate how to get the whole work delivered and pay to replace the wall.

"I am selling the wall because I can't really justify owning a piece of art worth as much as it is," said Luti Fagbenle, the owner of the property on which the graffiti is sprayed.

Using tuition fees to buy stocks

A Chinese university has banned 440 students from sitting their finals because they owe more than 14 million yuan (€1.34 million) in tuition fees, accusing them of using the money to invest. China has sought to bridge a yawning wealth gap between affluent cities and the impoverished countryside by waiving compulsory education fees for rural students, but a college education still remains out of reach for most.

But the Hebei University of Technology said some of the students who had not paid their dues were using the tuition money to make investments, the Beijing Times reported.