Puerto Rico: Polar bears moved from circus to zoos

Six polar bears seized from a Mexican circus that kept them caged in tropical heat were flown to new homes at three U.S. mainland zoos Tuesday, but one died in transit.

The bears’ departure from Puerto Rico ended an 18-month battle by activists to get the arctic animals out of the Caribbean. The Suarez Brothers circus was accused of giving the bears, normally accustomed to subzero temperatures, only occasional access to air conditioning or swimming pools.

U.S. authorities confiscated the bears two weeks ago, saying the circus had violated the U.S. Marine Mammal Act. The animals were put under federal marshal guard while veterinarians treated them.

The bears will have new homes in Asheboro, N.C., Detroit, and Tacoma, Wash.

Moscow: Liberal party critical of raid on theater

A Russian political party said Tuesday that its investigation into last month’s deadly hostage crisis revealed officials in charge of the rescue acted negligently.

Almost all of the 128 hostages who died in the crisis were killed by an opiate gas used to knock out the gunmen before special forces troops raided the building. Many human rights groups and liberal lawmakers criticized the government because it didn’t tell doctors about the gas quickly enough and didn’t organize timely treatment of victims.

“Negligence on the part of officials in charge … was the chief cause of the numerous deaths,” said lawmaker Eduard Vorobyov, who led the liberal Union of Right Forces’ probe.

The government has said it had to release the gas to avoid more casualties among the 800 people in the audience. Officials have also said more than 1,000 doses of antidote were prepared to help victims.

Estonia: Former agents on trial for Stalin-era crimes

Eight former Soviet secret police officers went on trial Tuesday for allegedly deporting more than 400 Estonians to Siberia in the 1940s.

The trial is one of this former Soviet republic’s biggest prosecutions of Stalinist-era crimes.

“This trial’s about justice, not revenge,” said Henno Kuurmann, a spokesman for investigators who spent three years on the case, drawing on KGB secret police files discovered when Estonia regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The former agents, all in their 70s and 80s, are accused of deporting Estonians, mostly well-off farmers, to Siberia in March 1949, five years after occupation by the Red Army.

All the former agents on trial pleaded innocent. Several argued they did not break any laws in effect in the Soviet Union at the time.

England: Global warming will change gardens

The fabled English garden with its velvety green lawn, its vivid daffodils, delphiniums and bluebells, is under threat from global warming, leading conservation groups said Tuesday.

Within the next 50 to 80 years, palm trees, figs and oranges may find themselves more at home in Britain’s hotter, drier summers, the National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society said, releasing a new report on the impact of climate change.

In the report, Reading University scientists Richard Bisgrove and Paul Hadley determined that there are likely to be fewer frosts, earlier springs, higher year-round temperatures, increased winter rainfall leading to flooding risk, and hotter, drier summers increasing the risk of drought.

The list of cool-loving plants likely to suffer includes snowdrops, crocuses, bluebells and daffodils. But gardeners can expect to see more palms, grapes, citrus fruit, figs and apricots, as well as colorful climbers like plumbago and bougainvillea.