■ China
Escaped tiger returns
A rare Siberian tiger that escaped from an animal park in China's northeast returned on its own after eluding authorities who spent two days trying to capture it, a police official said Tuesday. The tiger, which bit a park employee during its escape on Saturday, returned to the Siberian Tiger Park on Changbai Mountain in Jilin province on Monday, said the official in the nearby town of Erdao. He would give only his surname, Yin. "It came back on its own," Yin said. He said park managers had put out cattle and sheep as bait, though he didn't know whether any were eaten. The Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is one of the world's rarest mammals.
■ China
Anti-terror center pact inked
The prime ministers of China, Russia and four Central Asian countries signed agreements yesterday that set plans in motion for a long-awaited regional anti-terrorism center in Uzbekistan. They also agreed to give the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a leading role in boosting economic ties among members China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with the goal of creating a free-trade zone. The new center will be in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, but the nature of its role was not made clear. The leaders signed six documents, including one authorizing the regional anti-terror body and its personnel arrangements.
■ Pakistan
Hambali's brother arrested
Pakistani police have captured the younger brother of Hambali, Osama bin Laden's point man for Southeast Asia, in an arrest that may help unravel a tangled web of links between al-Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group blamed for the deadly Bali bombings. Rusman Gunawan, an Indonesian, was among 17 students detained Saturday in raids on three Islamic schools in the southern port city of Karachi -- the latest in a string of high-profile arrests of terror suspects in this Muslim country. The students "are suspected terrorists or have links with terrorists," Foreign Ministry spokesman Massood Khan said Monday.
■ East Timor
Former soldier indicted
A former Indonesian soldier was indicted yesterday in East Timor for crimes against humanity in connection with the disappearance of a pro-independence activist during violence that swept the territory four years ago. Rusdin Maubere, a Timorese national who was detained in March, is accused of taking part in the beating and kidnapping of Andre de Oliviera, who was killed in April 1999 when Indonesian troops and their proxy militias began targeting supporters of the country's independence campaign. Oliviera was arrested by Indonesian soldiers following his escape from a church massacre in the town of Liquica, according to the indictment.
■ Japan
Opposition to join forces
Japan's two largest opposition parties worked yesterday to finalize a merger aimed at strengthening their chances against popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in parliamentary elections expected in November. Senior officials were believed to be holding last-minute discussions on a plan under which the Democratic Party of Japan would absorb the smaller Liberal Party, said Hiromi Nakanishi, a spokesman for the Liberal Party.
■ United States
NASA safety panel quits
All nine members of a panel of outside experts established by Congress to advise NASA on safety resigned on Monday, with several citing frustration over their lack of influence. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) established after NASA's first major accident, the 1967 Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts, was criticized by the Senate Appropriations Committee for failing to have foreseen problems leading to the Columbia crash, and in a report on the crash released last month that called the panel "independent, but often not very influential." As an example, the Columbia investigators noted that the advisory panel had complained in 1995 that NASA officials were treating the space shuttle as mature and that the situation "smacks of a complacency which may lead to serious mishaps."
■ United States
Anthropology makes strides
A jawbone found in a cave in Romania may be evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe, living at the same time as the last of the Neanderthals. Erik Trinkaus, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, has dated the bone at 34,000 to 36,000 years ago. His findings are reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The jawbone was found by recreational cavers who gave it to Oana Moldovan, director of the cave research institute in Cluj, Romania. Moldovan, Trinkaus and Ricardo Rodrigo, a Portuguese archaeologist, returned to the cave in June with the cavers and found a facial skeleton, temporal bone and other pieces that are now undergoing analysis.
■ United States
Braun announces candidacy
Carol Moseley Braun formally announced on Monday that she was seeking the presidency of the US, contrasting herself, as a black woman, with the otherwise all-male pool of Democratic candidates. Speaking with the poise that has characterized her performance at the Democratic debates, Braun, who is the only black woman to have served in the Senate, promoted themes of "partnerships for peace, prosperity and progress" and an "American renaissance."
■ Uganda
Bus crash kills 48
At least 48 people were killed on Monday when a bus they were travelling in collided with a food aid truck near the Uganda-Rwanda border, officials said. "A passenger bus coming from Burundi collided with a trailer [truck] carrying maize to Burundi," Uganda police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi said.
■ United States
Stars love KGB's RU-21 pill
A drug created by the former KGB to keep its agents sober so that they could drink opponents under the table before stealing their secrets is being sold on the Internet to Hollywood stars as a defense against hangovers. The drug, known as RU-21, is made in Russia and sold as a natural remedy. Hollywood actors are said to be fond of the fix, which enables them to make the most of LA's party circuit. Its makers claim that it stops the body making an enzyme which turns alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic chemical which can damage tissues. The pill lets you get drunk, but indefinitely delays the hangover and damage to the body's organs.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the