■ INDIA. Lions dying in Chandigarh zoo after failed experiment. Twenty-one lions are dying in a zoo in Chandigarh after a cross-breeding experiment to boost the park?s attractions went disastrously wrong. In the 1980s officials at the Chhatbir Zoo in Chandigarh, bred captive Asiatic lions with a pair of African circus animals, resulting in a hybrid species. Within a few years it became obvious it had not worked. The offspring found it hard to walk, let alone run, because their hind legs were weak. And by the mid 1990s the big cats ? which live for up to 20 years in captivity ? showed symptoms of failing immune systems. But it wasn?t until 2000 that the breeding programme was ended, and the male lions given vasectomies, by which time the zoo had 70 to 80 such lions. Their number dwindled slowly, with disease killing some and some dying of wounds inflicted by other lions. Authorities say they are waiting for the population to ?phase out? before they can start breeding pure Asiatic lions. ?But the effort here is to help them die with dignity,? said Dharminder Sharma, a senior zoo official. ?We give them all the facilities to live a happy life in their last years. Some of the old lions are even given boneless meat.? Last year the zoo opened a special enclosure, away from the main exhibit area, where it keeps lions who have become too feeble to defend themselves. It has been dubbed an ?old age home? for lions.

■ UNITED STATES. A live Asian elephant, painted in pink and gold, stands in a makeshift living room. Giant cockroaches swarm over copies of Paris Hilton?s pop CD. A dummy angel wearing a gas mask and a white parachute flaps in the blue skies. Even in free-wheeling Los Angeles, they?d never seen anything quite like this. Graffiti artist and prankster Banksy opened his first Los Angeles show on Friday in an obscure warehouse in industrial Downtown, bringing his subversive humour and anti-capitalist message to a city better known for wealth and self-obsession. ?Barely Legal,? a free three-day event billed as a ?vandalized warehouse extravaganza,? opened with the excitement and puzzlement that has come to be the hallmark of the elusive ?guerrilla artist.? Banksy keeps his identity secret but has built up a cult following in Europe over the last four years, placing his work in top museums, zoos or on the streets. ?It is really amazing. I think he is hilarious,? said Los Angeles graphic designer Manny Skiles, 30, who has spent two years following Banksy?s work mostly through the Internet. Skiles and dozens of others spent more than an hour lining up to buy $500 (266 pounds) limited print editions of Banksy?s work. The originals sell for up to 25,000 pounds sterling.

■ VISIT. Prince Charles investing in TransylvaniaPrince Charles is set to be a landowner in Transylvania ? but he has no plans to move to the home of ?Dracula?. The Prince of Wales is looking to buy a property in the region to promote sustainable tourism, a spokesman said yesterday. His proposed purchase, a ruined farmhouse in the village of Viscri, would be restored and could be rented out to tourists, the spokesman said. Charles is the patron of the Mihai Eminescu Trust which seeks to restore the cultural heritage and economy of the villages in Transylvania. The Romanian region is famed as birthplace of Vlad The Impaler, inspiration for Bram Stoker?s ?Dracula?.

■ GREAT BRITAIN. Jowell says London fashion should ban thin models. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has urged London Fashion Week to ban ?stick-thin? models from its catwalks. But The British Fashion Council (BFC), which organises the London Week, has said it will not tell designers how to run their shows. However it has decided to cancel a planned photocall yesterday ?because it is unwilling to add any more impetus to the publicity surrounding this complicated issue.?The growing trend for super-slim ? so-called ?size zero? ? models in the industry has created a furore at the height of the fashion show season. London?s Fashion Week, which starts today, follows New York and comes before Milan and Paris.