■ CHINA
Zen comes under fire
The state-sanctioned Catholic church has criticized Hong Kong's Cardinal for marching in Sunday's pro-democracy rally there, warning that his actions may have harmed Sino-Vatican ties, a press report said yesterday. Liu Bainian (劉柏年), deputy head of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, spoke out against Cardinal Joseph Zen's (陳日君) decision to march in the rally, which coincided with handover anniversary events. "If all Catholics in Hong Kong followed suit [by demonstrating], how can Hong Kong achieve stability? If the Vatican supports someone like him, how can it win China's trust?" Liu said.
■ INDIA
Former French PM healing
Former French prime minister Michel Rocard was recovering at the Calcutta Medical Research Institute yesterday after undergoing emergency surgery due to a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said. "This morning he is resting in his suite, catching up with newspapers and books," she said. Rocard fell ill on Saturday as he prepared to participate in a meeting of the West Bengal Federation of UN Associations in Calcutta. He underwent surgery on Saturday and was shifted out of the hospital's intensive care unit yesterday, the spokeswoman said.
■ ISRAEL
Whistleblower sentenced
A court on Monday sentenced nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who once served 18 years in jail, to six months behind bars for violating bans imposed on him, the justice ministry said. The Jerusalem Magistrates' Court handed out the sentence after finding him guilty in April of violating restrictions by having contacts with foreign reporters and trying to leave Jerusalem to visit Bethlehem. Besides a six-month prison term, Vanunu was handed a six-month suspended sentence, a justice ministry spokesman said.
■ MALAYSIA
Air quality suffers from fire
Air quality and visibility declined in parts of the country yesterday due to smoke blowing in from fires in neighboring Indonesia, officials said, signaling the possible return of a seasonal smog. Hazy pollution often hits during the midyear dry season when farmers set illegal brush fires to clear land for planting. Satellite images showed nearly 270 "hot spots," indicating large peat fires, most of them on Sumatra, late on Monday, the Meteorological Services Division said yesterday.
Visibility was as low as 2km yesterday in some northern districts of peninsular Malaysia, which is separated from Sumatra by a narrow strait, the division reported.
■ EGYPT
fugees nabbed at border
Egyptian border guards arrested 20 Sudanese refugees yesterday as they tried to sneak into Israel, police said. The group, including women and children, were from war-torn Darfur and southern Sudan. They were seeking political asylum in Israel, Captain Mohammed Badr from the northern Sinai Peninsula police said. People smugglers left the group near the frontier and fled just minutes before police arrived, Badr said. The Sudanese said they had paid thousands of dollars to be smuggled into Israel. About 200 people a year, mostly from Sudan, are smuggled from Egypt into Israel, according to the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights.
■ GERMANY
Rail employees strike
A strike by train drivers and other railway employees caused major disruption across Germany yesterday morning. The national railway said tens of thousands of commuters were affected. The GDL union, which represents many of Deutsche Bahn (DB) AG's drivers, launched a four-hour walkout at 5am. That came on top of strikes from other unions in a separate wage dispute, seeking increases from 7 percent to 31 percent.The unions say the drivers currently earn some 1,500 euros (US$2,000) per month after taxes, which they describe as inadequate. The unions cite healthy company earnings, and have rejected a more modest 2 percent offer.
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