Secrets case dropped

A court has dropped charges against a New York Times assistant accused of leaking state secrets. Zhao Yan, who worked as a researcher at the newspaper’s Beijing bureau, was detained in September 2004. Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court agreed the case should be thrown out, and Zhao freed soon. The government did not detail the charges against the researcher, but it has been reported he was detained in connection with a story about Jiang Zemin’s decision to give up a post in the military. President Hu Jintao is soon to visit the United States, which has expressed concern about the case.