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It's not a tiger, but they aren't sure what it is: That's what French police and armed forces have concluded after searching for two days for a mystery beast near Disneyland Paris, one of Europe's top tourist destinations.

The latest sighting of what is being described as a wild cat was this morning when truckers spotted it on a main road between Paris and eastern France. It was photographed several times Thursday in the town of Montevrain.

A statement from the Seine-et-Marne, the local administration, said the animal was an unknown feline, and urged residents to stay indoors.

The Associated Press reports: "One theory is that the mystery cat could be a lynx — the wild cat once common in France before being hunted out of existence. It was reintroduced in France in the 1970s, according to the wildlife group Ferus. But the nearest known lynx habitat, the Vosges Mountains, is 350 kilometers (215 miles) away from where the cat was first spotted Thursday."

The Guardian adds:

"The alarm was raised on Thursday when a woman spotted an animal near the local supermarket. A dozen fire trucks, a helicopter with heat-seeking equipment, 200 firefighters, gendarmes and police officers armed with stun guns, and a sniffer dog specially trained to track bears and large game spent most of the day searching for the animal, while schoolchildren got a police escort home and local residents were warned to stay indoors."

The search was resumed Friday by dozens of police, who were armed with tranquilizer guns, and soldiers from a nearby base.

tiger

France

A tariff system that adds as much as 25 percent to the cost of American high-tech products could be on the way out, thanks to negotiations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China. President Obama announced the new progress Tuesday.

The development could speed the adoption of a new agreement by the World Trade Organization. The current tariff system has been in place for nearly 18 years and now applies to more than $4 trillion in annual global trade, U.S. officials say.

From Beijing, NPR's Scott Horsley reports:

"Negotiators have been working for the last two years to update what's known as the Information Technology Agreement, or ITA, but for much of that period talks were stalled. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman says a breakthrough came last night, here in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific economic summit.

"President Obama told his fellow leaders today that the APEC summit has often been an 'incubator' for ambitious free trade agreements:

" 'So it's fitting that we're here with our APEC colleagues to share the news that the United States and China have reached an understanding on the ITA that we hope will contribute to a rapid conclusion of the broader negotiations in Geneva. We think that's good news.' "

The new approach would phase out tariffs on devices that were far from the public market when the current ITA was shaped. Its adoption would require the support of dozens of other countries in addition to China and the United States.

In a release about today's news, the White House says more than 200 tariffs would be eliminated, including those that cover medical equipment, GPS devices, video game consoles and computer software.

"We already export over $2 billion of high-tech, high-end semiconductors, even with 25 percent tariffs," Froman says. "Eliminating those tariffs will obviously expand that trade significantly. It's an area where we have a comparative advantage, and where we can support a lot of good, well-paying American jobs."

Tariffs

China

Investors in Shanghai's stock market will for the first time on Monday be able to invest directly across the border in Hong Kong's Hang Seng stock exchange and vice versa.

The new system, called the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, will give foreign investors direct access to Shanghai's so-called A shares, including many blue chip, state-owned companies.

China has strict currency controls, so it can manage both the value of its currency, the renminbi, as well as protect its economy. The government will cap total daily transactions between the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges to a little more than $2 billion in each direction.

Related NPR Stories

The Two-Way

In China, Dreaded Process Of Getting Visa To The U.S. May Get Easier

Jun Qian, who teaches at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, says the change is inevitable as China tries to build an efficient financial system and internationalize the renminbi.

"Money has to come in and out of China much more freely than now," says Qian. "It's going to come gradually and the Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect is a little pipe in that opening."

Parallels

Capitalism Is Making China Richer, But Not Democratic

One reason China wants to open a pipe is to help bring order to Shanghai's stock market, which, years ago, one Chinese economist described as being "worse than a casino."

The Shanghai market is driven by insider trading and speculation, says Oliver Rui, a finance professor at Shanghai's China Europe International Business School. Therefore, it doesn't serve a stock exchange's crucial function: channeling investment to the most promising and innovative companies that create value and help drive an economy.

Rui says the hope is foreign institutional investors will bring their expertise to Shanghai's market and help raise investing standards to international levels. Rui says people's future living standards here may depend on it.

"We are still facing the risk of falling into a middle income trap," Rui says, referring to the fear that China's growth will stall and the vast majority of the country will never become wealthy. "Without a well-functioning capital market, we may not be able to become a real, developed country."

By permitting Chinese to invest across the border in Hong Kong, China's government is permitting more renminbi to circulate globally. Over time, that will help China internationalize its currency and eventually help establish it as a reserve currency.

China's leaders want more global influence on everything from the pricing of commodities to a say in how the rules of world finance are written. To that, Qian says, other big economies respond this way: "China, sorry, but basically your financial system is closed. It's separated. You're not a real member of the global community."

China hopes as the renminbi spreads around the world, the country's financial power will more closely reflect the size of its economy.

Hong Kong

China

Investors in Shanghai's stock market will for the first time on Monday be able to invest directly across the border in Hong Kong's Hang Seng stock exchange and vice versa.

The new system, called the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, will give foreign investors direct access to Shanghai's so-called A shares, including many blue chip, state-owned companies.

China has strict currency controls, so it can manage both the value of its currency, the renminbi, as well as protect its economy. The government will cap total daily transactions between the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges to a little more than $2 billion in each direction.

Related NPR Stories

The Two-Way

In China, Dreaded Process Of Getting Visa To The U.S. May Get Easier

Jun Qian, who teaches at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, says the change is inevitable as China tries to build an efficient financial system and internationalize the renminbi.

"Money has to come in and out of China much more freely than now," says Qian. "It's going to come gradually and the Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect is a little pipe in that opening."

Parallels

Capitalism Is Making China Richer, But Not Democratic

One reason China wants to open a pipe is to help bring order to Shanghai's stock market, which, years ago, one Chinese economist described as being "worse than a casino."

The Shanghai market is driven by insider trading and speculation, says Oliver Rui, a finance professor at Shanghai's China Europe International Business School. Therefore, it doesn't serve a stock exchange's crucial function: channeling investment to the most promising and innovative companies that create value and help drive an economy.

Rui says the hope is foreign institutional investors will bring their expertise to Shanghai's market and help raise investing standards to international levels. Rui says people's future living standards here may depend on it.

"We are still facing the risk of falling into a middle income trap," Rui says, referring to the fear that China's growth will stall and the vast majority of the country will never become wealthy. "Without a well-functioning capital market, we may not be able to become a real, developed country."

By permitting Chinese to invest across the border in Hong Kong, China's government is permitting more renminbi to circulate globally. Over time, that will help China internationalize its currency and eventually help establish it as a reserve currency.

China's leaders want more global influence on everything from the pricing of commodities to a say in how the rules of world finance are written. To that, Qian says, other big economies respond this way: "China, sorry, but basically your financial system is closed. It's separated. You're not a real member of the global community."

China hopes as the renminbi spreads around the world, the country's financial power will more closely reflect the size of its economy.

Hong Kong

China