WORLD IN BRIEF : JAPAN : Cult Leader Hints He’ll Shift Blame

The self-styled messiah who police believe was behind a Tokyo subway attack hinted that he may try to shift the blame for the deadly poisoning away from himself. “I can’t know everything each of many disciples is doing,” cult leader Shoko Asahara reportedly said. Yet even as Asahara was making his first court appearance, newspapers reported that police had found a sealed underground chamber at his rural hide-out with yet another huge cache of nerve gas ingredients. Asahara, arrested Tuesday, was bound over for at least 10 more days of interrogation.