World Scene

VATICAN

Chinese bishop reported freed

VATICAN CITY — Authorities freed a Catholic bishop in China after 10 days, a religious news agency said.

News of the release of Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo spread among members of his community in the northern city of Zhengding although they hadn’t yet seen him, AsiaNews reported.

Bishop Jia’s detention, which lasted through the Easter holidays, followed the arrest of another Chinese bishop in March. The Vatican protested both arrests.

CHINA

7 states flout ban on arms to China

BRUSSELS — At least seven European Union states sell arms to China despite a 15-year-old ban, Amnesty International said yesterday, urging the bloc to close loopholes in its code of conduct for weapons exports.

The London-based human rights watchdog also called on the union to demand evidence that Beijing was improving its human rights practices before bowing to French pressure for an end to the arms embargo.

CANADA

China protests Dalai Lama’s visit

OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin will go ahead with plans to meet the Dalai Lama next week despite a strong protest from China, which regards the exiled spiritual leader as a dangerous separatist, officials said yesterday.

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, comparing the Dalai Lama to secessionists in the French-speaking province of Quebec, said it was “strongly opposed” to his visit and to planned meetings with Mr. Martin and other government officials.

MACEDONIA

Prime minister faces runoff for president

SKOPJE — Macedonia’s prime minister won this Balkan country’s presidential election yesterday, but not by a wide enough margin to avoid a runoff with the second-place finisher, according to unofficial party results.

With all of the vote counted, Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, had about 50 percent or about 334,000 votes. Sasko Kedev of the opposition VMRO party was next with 38 percent or about 269,000 votes. The two candidates will compete in a runoff in two weeks.

BRAZIL

Dozens of prospectors massacred in Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO — An Amazon Indian attack on prospectors who were illegally digging for diamonds on a reservation in northern Brazil may have killed as many as 35 people, officials said yesterday.

Police are in contact with other heavily armed prospectors who entered the Roosevelt Indian Reservation in Rondonia state, about 2,100 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro. The prospectors hoped to recover the bodies of colleagues killed apparently in the clash with Cinta Larga Indians on April 7.

BRITAIN

Babies born in May happiest

LONDON — Babies born in May are most likely to think themselves lucky, and October newborns the least, according to research from a British psychologist.

More than 40,000 people submitted their birth dates to Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire via the Internet and revealed the degree to which they saw themselves as lucky or unlucky.

“The effect might be due to changes in how some parents interact with their babies during summer and winter,” said Mr. Wiseman, who presented his findings at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in Scotland.