NEWS LITE : 60-YEAR-OLD PLANE KEEPS COURSE.

Water dribbles into the cockpit when it rains. The two engines with propellers make more noise than a jumbo jet. The flights are long and cold.

Texas businesswoman and pilot Linda Finch is attempting to duplicate the last journey of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who disappeared along with her plane, and then finish the final 7,000 miles of the round-the-world trip.

To add to the realism, Finch is using a renovated Lockheed Electra 10E, the same model Earhart flew in 1935. And flying a plane that was state-of-the-art more than 60 years can be taxing.

``It's not comfortable physically, but I've spent so much time in it, I know what to expect,'' Finch said after arriving in Luxor, Egypt, on Friday, her ninth country and about halfway into the 29,000-mile trip.

Next stop: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Frenchman climbs up Malaysian skyscraper

A Frenchman who has been rebuffed in his attempt to climb the world's tallest skyscraper in the Malaysian city of Kota Kinabalu scaled a 32-story building instead Sunday.

Alain Robert, 34, began his climb at the 16th floor of the Yayasan Sabah building with hundreds of spectators watching from below. He had wanted to climb from the ground level, but said aluminum sheeting on lower floors made that impossible.

Robert, of Valance, France, makes his living scaling tall buildings as publicity for his sponsors.

Pavarotti pleases hosts with Mexican love song

With the backdrop of the 1,000-year-old Mayan pyramids of Chichen Itza in Mexico and towers of speakers, tenor Luciano Pavarotti got more applause at his Saturday concert for a Mexican popular tune than for the Puccini, Mozart and Verdi he sang.

Accompanied by crickets on the broad plaza in front of the castillo, or main pyramid, at Chichen Itza, Pavarotti got discrete applause for his operatic numbers.

But the audience of 18,000 gave the Italian tenor a standing ovation when he launched into ``Granada,'' a sentimental ballad by Mexican songwriter Agustin Lara, the country's leading composer in the 1940s and 1950s.

``It is admirable that, at the age of 60, (Pavarotti) has vocal qualities of such perfection,'' reviewer Alejandro Fernandez wrote for the Mexico City daily Reforma.

Pavarotti sang selections from ``Madame Butterfly'' and ``The Marriage of Figaro,'' but his best moments came in the duet from ``La Boheme'' and the farewell from ``Cavalleria Rusticana,'' according to Fernandez.

The Yucatan Children's Chorus sang folk songs at Pavarotti's intermission.

Fitted with twin towers for speakers, the concert provided a startlingly clear sound quality and, according to promoters, didn't do any damage to the Chichen Itza ruins.

Promoters provided folding seats and tubular steel platforms mounted at a safe distance from the crumbling limestone pyramids, built between 800 and 1100 AD by the Mayan Indians.

Many of the spectators, perhaps daunted by a monumental traffic jam at the entrance to the site, took a moonlit walk through the pyramids, temple platforms and sacred wells after the concert.

Cindy taking new TV role seriously

One question Cindy Crawford wouldn't dare ask Jay Leno is no secret anymore.

The model will interview the late-night talk show host on NBC's ``Later'' in May.

``They say, ask Jay why they (he and his wife, Mavis) don't have kids. Well, I would never ask somebody that,'' Crawford says in the April 26 TV Guide. ``It's really none of my business.''

As a TV hostess, Crawford has filled in for Kathie Lee Gifford on ``Live

With Regis & Kathie Lee'' and is being considered as a substitute for CNN's ``Larry King Live.''

``I'm totally intimidated,'' Crawford said of her newfound career calling, ``but I don't want to not do things because I'm afraid of failing.''

Dolly stay-at-home type? Think again

Dolly Parton: homebody? If only.

``The older I get, the more I want to stay home,'' Parton, 51, told local east Tennessee fans last week at her theme park, Dollywood.

But ``they got me busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest,'' the country singer joked.

Parton, always a busy performer, also has her own company, Sanddollar Productions, which has been producing films and TV shows. She is also trying to land her own television series and produce children's videos.

So the chance of Parton retiring to east Tennessee any time soon sounds remote, although she likes the idea of returning someday to make a local TV program.

Damon rattled by 'toon cancellation

Damon Wayans can't believe the Warner Bros. television network is yanking his cartoon ``Waynehead'' from its Saturday lineup. At least not for the reason given.

``I was told it wasn't black enough or funny enough,'' Wayans says in TV Guide magazine. ``If this show isn't black enough, what do they want? Something in ebonics?''

The black comedian thinks the cartoon cancellation is a retaliatory move aimed at him because he appears on two shows for rival network, Fox.

``We certainly weren't looking for a show in ebonics,'' WB spokesman Brad Turrell responded. ``The program was an attempt to offer more diversity on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the ratings didn't grow.''

Dowager queen marks half century

Dowager Queen Ingrid, whose common touch helped hold her country together during Nazi occupation, quietly celebrated her 50 years as queen of Denmark on Sunday.

Ingrid, mother of Queen Margrethe II, is still active at age 87.

The only daughter of Sweden's King Gustaf VI Adolf, she became the future Queen Ingrid of Denmark in 1935 when she married Crown Prince Frederik, who became King Frederik IX in 1947.

As a young mother, Ingrid earned respect by sharing hard times with her people during German occupation in World War II.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Philatelic horrors

Postcards illustrate stamps of Dracula and Frankenstein. Part of a four-stamp set being issued by Britain's Royal Mail, they coincide with the bicentennial of the birth of Frankenstein's Mary Shelley and the centennial of the first publication of Bram Stoker's ``Dracula.''

Associated Press

(2) PARTON