Captive-born panda to be sent into wild

A panda research center in southwest China is planning its first release into the wild of a panda bred in captivity, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

Xiang Xiang, a 4-year-old male raised at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in Sichuan province, will be released today after almost three years of training and will be tracked by a Global Positioning System device, Xinhua said.

Pandas are among the most recognized – but rarest – animals in the world. About 1,600 live in the mountain forests of central China, and more than 180 live in captivity.

London

‘Da Vinci’ ruling has its own code

Parts of London’s legal community ground to a virtual halt Thursday with lawyers turning into aspiring code-breakers as they tried to decipher a hidden message inserted into “The Da Vinci Code” trial judgment.

With the revelation that Judge Peter Smith inserted a secret code of his own into the April 7 judgment that cleared “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown in his copyright infringement case, lawyers have been hustling to solve the puzzle.

“The chat in the legal community is that not one billable hour has been done today,” lawyer Mark Stephens said Thursday.

The mystery began when lawyers pondering the judgment realized that italics had been placed in strange spots throughout the 71-page document.

Minsk, Belarus

Opposition leader jailed after rally

Belarus’ authoritarian government jailed the country’s most prominent opposition leader Thursday after a protest rally that attracted thousands, a move that drew swift international condemnation.

The sentences imposed on Alexander Milinkevich and three of his deputies threw into question the ability of activists to gather a substantial crowd at a demonstration planned for Monday in their campaign to drive President Alexander Lukashenko from power.

Milinkevich was sentenced to 15 days in jail.