World IN BRIEF : JAPAN : Cult Leader Moved as His Trial Nears

With helicopters overhead and hundreds of police blocking off streets in Tokyo, doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara was taken from police headquarters to a Tokyo jail. The move was in anticipation of his long-delayed trial, set to begin April 24, for murder in the nerve-gas attack last year on Tokyo’s subway. Meanwhile, top cult member Ikuo Hayashi admitted he played a role in the 1989 abduction and slaying of a lawyer campaigning against the cult. And separately, a Tokyo court sentenced former cult member Seiji Tashita, 26, to seven years in prison for abetting murder in the subway attack. It was the first sentencing directly linked to the March 20, 1995, gassing that killed 12 people and injured about 5,500.