PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The United States might delay activating its proposed missile defense sites in Europe until it has "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.

At a news conference after meeting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Gates said this was a proposal to the Russians — who strongly oppose U.S. missile defense — that has yet to be worked out in detail.

"We would consider tying together activation of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat — in other words, Iranian missile testing and so on," Gates said with Topolanek at his side.

The United States wants to build a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic, but details have yet to be negotiated.

U.S. officials have said that the proposal tying activation of the European sites to proof of an Iranian threat was presented to the Russians by Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month. But Gates' remarks in Prague were the most specific and clear that such a proposition raises the prospect of delay.

GAUHATI, India — Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote northeast, a wildlife official said today.Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.India's northeast accounts for the world's largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants with the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone estimated to have 7,000 of them.

HONG KONG — Rob Cohen has started shooting the third installment of "The Mummy" films starring Brendan Fraser in a desert valley north of Beijing.In a blog entry on his "Mummy" Web site, Cohen says he's filming a battle scene between a family of explorers and a resurrected ancient Chinese emperor, played by Jet Li, and his 5,000 terra-cotta warriors.He will later shoot a scene featuring the Chinese emperor racing through Shanghai's famous waterfront Bund in 1946 in a chariot drawn by four bronze horses.Fraser is reprising his role as explorer Rick O'Connell in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Maria Bello plays his wife, Evelyn, and Luke Ford is son Alex.Michelle Yeoh will portray a sorceress, and Russell Wong is one of the Chinese emperor's enemies brought back from the dead.The film is expected to be released next summer.