Bush, Putin to talk of US missile plans

WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday he will meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia next week to try to break a logjam between the two nations over a proposed US missile defense system. Bush is accepting Putin's invitation for a meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on April 6, to come at the end of the president's trip to Ukraine, Croatia, and Romania. It will probably be the last meeting between Bush and the Russian leader before Putin leaves office. (AP)

JERUSALEM - A prominent rabbi urged the Israeli government yesterday to avenge the shooting attack that killed eight Jewish seminary students earlier this month, saying members of the Palestinian gunman's family should "hang . . . from a high tree." Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the northern town of Safed and the son of a former chief rabbi of Israel, issued the call in a newsletter. "A country that really cares about its citizens should hang the 10 sons of the terrorist from a high tree," he wrote, in a reference to the biblical Book of Esther. In an interview, Eliyahu said he was using the reference as a "metaphor," but said he supported taking revenge against people who attack Jews. (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO - Pointy-nosed crocodiles may have joined sharks as the dominant predators in the world's oceans some 62 million years ago, according to Brazilian scientists who yesterday unveiled one of the most complete skeletons found of the prehistoric animals. Scientists called it a new species, Guarinisuchus munizi. The fossil includes a skull, jawbone, and vertebrae, making it one of the most complete examples found in South America, said Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. (AP)