China

SARS declared eradicated

China’s last 12 SARS patients were declared cured on Tuesday, marking at least a temporary end to the epidemic in the country where it started.

Bob Dietz, spokesman for the World Health Organization office in Beijing, heralded Tuesday’s announcement but cautioned that SARS could return with a vengeance in China and elsewhere during the coming flu season, which begins in October or November.

China

Boston activist’s trial set for Monday

A pro-democracy activist from the Boston area will go on trial for espionage next week in China, where he has been jailed for more than a year, a lawyer for his wife said Tuesday.

Yang Jianli, who was indicted July 17, will be tried Monday on charges of entering the country illegally and acting as a spy for Taiwan. The case will be closed because it reportedly involves “state secrets,” according to Jared Genser, a lawyer for Yang’s wife, Christina Fu.

Yang’s family and supporters say the Massachusetts scholar is being punished for pro-democracy activities. A Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, Yang is founder of the Boston-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century.

He was detained by Chinese police in April 2002, while trying to board a plane in Kunming using false papers.

Congo

Up to 150 killed in attacks on villages

Thousands of tribal fighters attacked three villages in volatile northeastern Congo with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, killing as many as 150 people, a commander of a rival group said Tuesday.

Some 3,000 men, mostly from the Lendu tribe, staged early morning raids on Drodro, Largu and Blukwa on Friday to loot and kill, Saba Rafiki, security chief for a militia from the Hema tribe, said by telephone from Bunia, the provincial capital.

It was not possible to independently verify the report. U.N. observers withdrew from all areas of the Ituri province except the town of Bunia after two observers were abducted, tortured and killed in May.

Alabama

Judge delays bombing trial

A federal judge has delayed the trial of serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph indefinitely, saying both sides need more time to prepare for what could be a death penalty case.

In a decision released Tuesday, federal Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. said it was “unreasonable” to expect attorneys to be ready before next year, in a case involving more than 100,000 court filings about the deadly bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic.

Rudolph is charged in the Jan. 28, 1998, bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a clinic nurse.

Rudolph, 36, is also accused in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta that killed one and injured more than 100, as well as bombings the next year in Atlanta at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub.