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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Philippine interior minister missing in light plane crash: army

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MANILA | Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:35am EDT

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine interior minister and two others went missing after a light plane carrying them crashed at sea off a central island on Saturday, an army spokesman said.

A search for the plane and its passengers was called off late on Saturday because it was too dark and the water too deep for craft available, police said.

Jesse Robredo was on his way to his hometown in the central Camarines Sur province from Cebu when the propeller-driven Cessna plane he was on malfunctioned and the pilots decided to land at the nearest air field on Masbate island.

Robredo, 54, is an ally of President Benigno Aquino.

Witnesses saw the plane plunging into the water, about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the runway. Robredo's police escort was rescued by fishermen and brought to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.

"They were not able to make it to the airport," Colonel Generoso Bolina, an army spokesman told reporters, saying they immediately sent search and rescue teams but could not find any wreckage.

Local television said Robredo was on the phone with his wife hours before the plane went down, saying the propeller had stopped working.

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Ed Lane)
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