■ <B>MOSCOW. Crocodile falls 12 floors in escape bid. </B>

A crocodile survived a fall from the 12th floor of a Russian apartment block after making an escape bid through a window, emergency services said yesterday. Diving out of the window has become a habit for the crocodile, called Khenar, with concerned neighbours saying it was the third time he had used that method to flee, Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. The crocodile lost one tooth in the latest fall but was otherwise unscathed, said a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry in the Nizhny Novgorod region of central Russia. ?It seems the owner was not at home when the crocodile came out of the window,? she said. Emergency services put the crocodile in a local aquarium to recover from his fall. Within a few hours his concerned owner came to pick him up and the crocodile was last seen lying on the back seat of his owner?s car.

■ <B>LONDON. Girl, 15, charged with young mum?s murder. </B>A 15-year-old girl has been charged with murdering a teenage mother who was fatally stabbed near Newcastle, Northumbria Police said yesterday. Samantha Madgin, 18, died after being stabbed during a disturbance in a back lane in Wallsend just before midnight last Thursday. Detectives said an unnamed 15-year-old girl from Newcastle had been charged with the murder. Terry Davidson, 18, and David Kerr, 35, have also been charged with affray in connection with the death. All three appeared before magistrates later yesterday. Neighbours described Madgin?s death as a tragedy. ?She was a really nice young girl with nice manners and was a pleasure to know,? one told Sky News. ?She seemed to be looking forward to being a mum and was overjoyed when she was.?

■ <B>WELLINGTON. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it?s a baby! </B>A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son ?Superman? ? but only because their chosen name of ?4Real? has been rejected by the government registry. Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son ?Superman? but referring to him as ?4Real?, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported. The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was ?for real?. They decided ?4Real? was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters. Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won?t be budged on his choice. ?No matter what its going to stay 4Real,? Wheaton told the Herald, ?I?m certainly not a quitter?. A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son?s name were continuing. The baby is now two months old, after the Wheatons first applied to register his name in later June.