China

World’s oldest panda in captivity dies

The world’s oldest panda held in captivity has died at a south China zoo at the age of 36, or the equivalent of 108 human years, according to the Chinese government.

Meimei died Tuesday at the Guilin City Zoo in the Guangxi region, where she had been living for the past 20 years, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Meimei lived in the Wolong Natural Conservation Area in southwest China’s Sichuan province before being transferred to the zoo in September 1985. The park is China’s premier center for the study and breeding of pandas.

Grenada

Preparations made as Emily nears

Grenadian police ordered people off the streets and businesses closed Wednesday as Tropical Storm Emily threatened an island still recovering from Hurricane Ivan last year.

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell sought to reassure citizens the government would not be caught off-guard – as it was when Ivan killed 39 people and left a wasteland of ruined buildings in September.

Grenadians rushed home under heavy rain, forming traffic jams in the capital of St. George’s. Islanders had flocked to the stores Tuesday, snapping up canned food, water and batteries. The rush contrasted with the attitude before Ivan, when islanders took few precautions.

At 8 p.m. Wednesday, the center of Emily was about 85 miles southeast of Grenada.

Iraq

Saddam’s trial could begin next month

Saddam Hussein could go on trial as early as next month for his alleged role in a massacre 23 years ago, a top judge said Wednesday. He said the ousted dictator could face the death penalty.

Raid Juhi, chief judge of the Iraq Special Tribunal, said the investigation into the July 8, 1982 massacre in Dujail, a predominantly Shiite village 50 miles north of Baghdad, was complete.

Juhi said four other former senior officials would stand trial in the Dujail massacre, in which Saddam’s security agents allegedly shot dead at least 50 people after a plot to assassinate him was uncovered.

Juhi said the trial would begin “in August or September, but we would like it to begin before that.” Saddam and the others could be sentenced to death if convicted, Juhi said.

Kenya

Raid, reprisals leave at least 71 dead

A raid by hundreds of Ethiopian bandits on a remote village in northern Kenya, and reprisals by tribesmen and Kenyan security forces, left at least 71 people dead, including more than two dozen children, police said Wednesday

Armed with guns and spears, the bandits attacked villagers in Turbi, a remote area of Kenya about 350 miles northeast of the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday killing 45 civilians and stealing thousands of farm animals, police spokesman Jaspher Ombati said Wednesday.

Kenyan security forces pursued the bandits, who numbered between 300 and 500, and killed 16 of them, the deputy Eastern Province police chief, Gerald Oluoch, said. The security forces also recovered 5,000 sheep and 200 cattle.

In an apparent reprisal, men believed to be from the Garba tribe killed 10 members of the rival Borana tribe Wednesday.