USA

Texas carried out the execution of Mexican national José Medellin Tuesday in Huntsville over the objections of the World Court and Mexico. The US Supreme Court delayed the lethal injection four hours while it weighed his appeal, which focused on whether the convicted murderer-rapist was denied treaty-guaranteed help from the Mexican consulate when arrested in 1993.

The case of the anthrax-laced letters that took five lives in 2001 will be kept open long enough to tie up investigative loose ends, according to US officials, who Wednesday planned to brief relatives of victims and survivors at FBI headquarters after a federal judge unsealed hundreds of pages of related documents. Army scientist Bruce Ivins, the chief suspect, committed suicide last week.

The Federal Reserve kept the interest rate banks charge each other unchanged at 2 percent for the second straight meeting Tuesday. The strategy, the Fed said, is sensitive to worries about inflation and concerns about weak economic activity.

Attacks by tigers at two different Missouri facilities this week spurred law enforcement officials Tuesday to call for tougher exotic animal laws. Both facilities have been cited for past problems. One person mauled was seriously injured; another is in critical condition.

To encourage people to rediscover older suburbs, the Dela-ware Valley Regional Planning Commission has launched a "Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia" campaign. The initiative, which also serves New Jersey, helps market and inspire investment in inner-ring suburbs often bypassed by home buyers migrating to the urban fringe.