BEIJING: A four-year-old Chinese boy is planning to swim 350 kilometres along the Yangtze river to win a place in the Guinness Book of Records, Xinhua reported on Monday. Wang Dengwa, from the northeastern city of Dalian, is planning to start the journey in late June in the central city of Nanjing with the help of his father. He will swim downstream to the metropolis of Shanghai. ``My boy can swim over 1,000 metres without a stop a day,'' father Wang Chuan toldthe news agency. ``He has received training in swimming and has been involved in winter swimming in a local park''."

Angelopoulos wins award

CANNES: The Cannes festival jury unanimously awarded the Golden Palm Sunday to Greek director Theo Angelopoulos for his film Eternity and a Day.In 1995, Angelopoulos was frustrated at winning only the Special Jury Prize for Ulysses' Gaze which he had hoped would take the top award. Eternity and a Day, which tells the story of a dying writer, Alexander,and his meeting with an Albanian child immigrant, is his 11th film.

Tapping record

STUTTGART: Nearly 7,000 people tap-danced their way through the streets of Stuttgart to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of Records on day. Organisers said 6,951 tap-dancers performed on the square in front of the black forest city's landmark train station out-tapping the previous Guinness book record of 6,653 dancers who tapped their way into the book outside a New York department store last year.

``That qualifies us for the new record,'' said organizer Sabine Lynch, who said the even was planned to mark the May 25 birthday of tap-dance legend Bill Bojangles Robinson.

Prostitutes protest

TAIPEI: Prostitutes from eleven countries gathered in Taipei to demand working rights in the first such meeting in East Asia on Sunday. The three-day meeting will denounce the Taipei city government's banning of prostitution and discuss prostitutes' rights, hygiene as well as brothels and urban planning.

Delegatesfrom Japan, the United States, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan will report on the consequences of banning prostitution, the organiser said.The 17 foreign delegates include officals, lawyers, human rights activists and sex workers. The deputy mayor of Sydney is also attending the meeting.Hundreds of taiwan women activists are also attending.

Taipei mayor Chen Shui-Pian banned prostitution on September 6 last year, shutting 18 licensed brothels and putting 137 prostitutes out of work.