During its flight, the satellite sent back high-definition digital images of sprouting vegetables, according to the Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology with the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is conducting the experiment.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture said the ministry will ask research institutes to use the seeds returned from space to develop new seeds featuring high yields, good quality and high efficiency.

Since 1987, China has carried out seed breeding tests on nine satellites and a number of new species of plant seeds have been bred in space by Chinese scientists.

Over the past four years, new types of crop developed with space-bred seeds have been planted in a total of 567,000 hectares of farmland, producing 340 million kilograms of grain and direct GDP of 500 million yuan (62.5 million U.S. dollars).

The United States and Russia are also capable of breeding seeds in space.

The Shijian-8 is the 90th space flight made by Long March rockets and the 23rd time China has launched a recoverable satellite. China has chalked up 48 successful space launches in a row since October 1996.

The Xi'an Satellite Control Center is responsible for monitoring, controlling, and recovering the Shijian-8.

According to official sources, China's recoverable satellites will compete on the international market.

China launched its first recoverable satellite for science and technological experiments in 1975.

The council recently voted to outlaw "acts of a racist and xenophobic nature conducted through computer systems." The measure was added to the Convention on Cybercrime, criminalizing hacking, intellectual property violations, and use of computers to commit fraud. The first set of rules was signed in November 2001. The non-European members are being asked to endorse the hate-speech provision at a meeting in late January.

Broad Ban 'Terrifying'

The Justice Department has indicated it will not support the broader restrictions because of concern that it is incompatible with First Amendment rights to free speech. The agreement defines racist and xenophobic material as "written material, images or other representations of ideas or theories advocating, promoting or inciting hatred, discrimination or violence against individuals or groups, based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin, or religion."

"It's a terrifying prospect," says James Gattuso, a research fellow for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It's inherently dangerous for governments to define what appropriate speech is. You can't define or limit speech without chilling speech." The protocol is subject to interpretation, he notes. "If you have a cartoon criticizing French foreign policy, would the French government have recourse?" he asks. "I don't see anything that would exclude that." The Electronic Privacy Information Center suspects that the protocol is aimed at right-wing racist speech, says Sarah Andrews, EPIC's research director. She thinks it targets white supremacist or antiabortion groups. A separate proposal on revisionism would prohibit speech about Holocaust denials, she notes. But either ban is drastically contrary to the U.S. practice of protecting even hate speech. For example, an antiabortion group ran a Web site called the Nuremberg Files, which listed doctors who performed abortions. As antiabortion activists killed these doctors, they were crossed out on the Web site. Critics said the Web site incited violence, and a lower court agreed; but upon appeal the Web site was declared to be protected by the First Amendment. Under the Council of Europe protocol, the Web site would be illegal, Andrews says. "At the very extreme, historians or journalists writing about these people or [about] Holocaust denials would be prohibited," says Andrews.

'Cultural Clash'

The Council of Europe's original Convention on Cybercrime in 2001 also contained a hate-speech measure, but it was dropped at the last minute to gain support from the United States, which signed the treaty along with 29 other countries. However, for the treaty to become reality, the members must enact laws in their own countries. Nations have been slow to ratify the treaty, says Barry Steinhardt, director of technology and liberty programs for the American Civil Liberties Union and cofounder of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign. Only two Council of Europe members--Albania and Croatia--have executed the treaty's provisions from one year ago. Ratification in the U.S. requires action by the Senate, which has not happened. While few countries have taken action, civil liberties groups say the protocol has a chilling effect and are tracking the Council of Europe's actions. "The U.S. has always maintained that they won't sign on to this protocol, and it would be very shocking if they did so in the end," EPIC's Andrews says. If European countries find unacceptable material on an American-based Web site, they cannot expect American courts to block access to the material because it would be protected here by the First Amendment, says Paula Bruening, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy &

Technology. "As disturbing as this kind of speech is, it is protected by the First Amendment," Bruening says. "Our vision of the Internet is a free exchange of ideas, but Europe takes a different approach. What we're seeing here is a cultural clash."

Who's Responsible?

The treaty says Internet service providers would not be held responsible for simply hosting a Web site or chat room containing hate speech. However, if the Council of Europe member countries adopt laws that make it a crime to distribute such material to the public through e-mail or Web sites, this may negatively impact privacy and Internet use by Americans, say some civil liberties groups. The proposals would require governments to take invasive measures to prosecute individuals, says the ACLU's Steinhardt. He says the United States would have to cooperate in such a case. American Internet service providers could potentially be forced to shut down their interactive components because people may engage in speech that is offensive in Europe, says Steinhardt. Some members of the European parliament called for an "unlawful hosting" provision that would have increased the liability of U.S. companies, says Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon Communications.

The Council of Europe rejected that proposal as problematic, but ISPs are still concerned because Internet jurisdiction is largely unsettled, Deutsch says.

Recurring Concerns

When French organizations brought Yahoo to court for allowing Nazi-oriented auction items on its Web site, a French court said Yahoo was liable, but did not enforce the judgment. A U.S. court said later that the ruling could not be imposed in the United States. Some U.S.-based Web sites have chosen to voluntarily block access to some information in respect of other countries' laws, which also raises concerns among civil liberties organizations.

But a Yahoo executive could be arrested when traveling in France because that judgment still stands, says Deutsch. "Some countries hold you liable because citizens can access your Web site," says Deutsch. "Countries need to adopt a common set of principles."

Khoury is co-founder of BETA, the humane society Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which partnered on the project with the American animal society Best Friends.

BETA has gathered up many pets left behind by the tens of thousands of foreigners, or Lebanese with foreign passports, who fled the country in July and August. Many left on the recommendations of their governments, which organized evacuations by land and sea.

But the U.S. Embassy and others told evacuees that pets would not be allowed on the ships and helicopters carrying them to safety, and many families were forced to abandon their animals or leave them with friends who later got rid of them. Some 300 of those dogs and cats, including a few stray animals, will be flown out Monday.

"This is certainly the largest animal airlift operation we've ever done overseas," says Michael Mountain, president of the Utah-based Best Friends, America's largest refuge for abused and abandoned pets. In a telephone interview, he said the homeless pets from Beirut would be airlifted on a special Emirates cargo plane Monday to the U.S.

There will be two refueling stops - one in Manchester, England, and another at New York's JFK Airport - before arriving in Las Vegas, where the orphaned pets will be put on Best Friends trucks for the 3.5-hour ride to temporary housing at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, southern Utah.

"Once there, the pets will undergo a final health and behavior evaluation before they're off to their new, permanent homes," Mountain said. "We've already had a lot of offers to adopt these cats and dogs," he added.

He said their entire Middle East operation is costing around US$250,000, most of it from donations raised by animal activists.

Volunteers at the sanctuary have been hard at work building temporary houses for the pets arriving from Lebanon.

"This is for the animals," said Alberto Nunez, one of the construction team. "When I think of their situation over there, it makes me so sad. I want to work for them," he said, according to the Best Friends Web site.

Best Friends arranged a similar operation just a year ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when it brought more than 6,000 animals out of the disaster-stricken zone and to new homes. The society has also been assisting animal groups in Israel, where people were also evacuated without their pets.

But the major crisis for animals has been in Lebanon.

On July 12 at the start of the 34-day war, BETA had to move dogs and cats from a shelter near a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut that was repeatedly hit by Israeli warplanes. The animals took refuge in an abandoned hilltop pig farm in Monteverde, in the hills overlooking Beirut. Other BETA shelters were also damaged.

At the height of the war, they were featured on ABC's "Good Morning America," after which adoption offers from the U.S. "started coming down on us by the hundreds," said Khoury.

Jutta Sold, a 36-year-old animal activist who is also a BETA volunteer, said the airlift to the U.S. is "a very good thing."

"It's sad for me, I knew some of these dogs when they were just puppies, but I'm very hopeful that their chances for adoption are much better over there," said the Germany citizen who adopted one of the canines herself.

She said people in Lebanon don't have much connection with animals. "The attitude here is very different from Europe or the United States. A lot of people are afraid of animals, they kick them around."

She also noted there are no laws to protect animals, and chances of them being adopted were much higher in the West.