It was announced that Yelena Timchenko, a Russian woman...

It was announced that Yelena Timchenko, a Russian woman sentenced to death in China in March 2002 for drugs trafficking, could have her punishment eased. "Now there is hope the sentence will be reconsidered," a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Beijing said on return from the Chinese province of Yunnan, where he had met with Timchenko and other three Russian citizens serving life terms for similar crimes. Timchenko could get a life sentence instead, the embassy spokesman said.