Beijing: Long-imprisoned nun allowed to leave for U.S.

A Tibetan nun, China’s longest-serving female political prisoner, was allowed to leave Friday for the United States, a U.S.-based activist said.

Ngawang Sangdrol flew to the United States accompanied by a U.S. diplomat, said John Kamm, president of the Dui Hua Foundation in San Francisco.

Imprisoned as a 15-year-old in 1992 for taking part in demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet, Ngawang Sangdrol was paroled in October, Kamm said. Her sentence was to have run through 2011.

California: State keeps regulations for zero-emission cars

Rules that effectively require electric-car production in California stayed on the books Friday after air regulators deadlocked over how to switch their focus to fuel-cell vehicles that are years away from rolling off the assembly line.

The state Air Resources Board could not reach a decision on changing its zero-emissions vehicle rule. The board planned to revisit the issue next month.

The industry has long fought the zero-emissions standard because it effectively requires them to produce thousands of electric cars, which unlike hybrids have limited range and require heavy, expensive batteries.

The industry contends electric cars are a commercial flop.

Washington: FBI offices in foreign capitals to open in war on terror

The FBI plans to open offices in Kabul, Jakarta and eight other foreign capitals as part of a decade-long overseas expansion that officials say is crucial to meet the global threat of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

Their importance was demonstrated during the afternoon of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the FBI says, when agents in dozens of cities already were tracking down leads with the cooperation of local authorities in Germany, Canada, Great Britain and elsewhere.

Earlier this year, Congress agreed to give the FBI money to open new legal offices in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Tunis, Tunisia; San’a, Yemen, and Tbilisi, Georgia. Those will be up and running in coming months.