World in brief

Democracy campaigner Suu Kyi has surgery

YANGON, Myanmar - Detained prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was recovering well after undergoing surgery, her physician said Saturday.

The 58-year-old Nobel laureate underwent what was described as a major three-hour operation Friday at the private Asia Royal Cardiac and Medical Center in the capital, Yangon. Her physician, Tin Myo Win, declined to specify the nature of the operation, but doctors familiar with the case called it a common gynecological procedure.

"Her recovery is very satisfactory" and her blood pressure and pulse are stable, said Tin Myo Win, who led the operating team.

Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent promotion of democracy, has been detained at an undisclosed location by the military government since the end of May, when she and her followers were caught in a violent clash in northern Myanmar with government supporters.

Her detention, accompanied by a crackdown on her National League for Democracy party, has drawn international condemnation and calls for her immediate and unconditional release.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An audit of the Palestinian Authority revealed that President Yasser Arafat diverted $900-million in public funds to a special bank account he controlled, an International Monetary Fund official said Saturday.

Most of the cash went into some 69 commercial activities in Palestinian areas and abroad, said Karim Nashashibi, IMF resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza. He did not elaborate on the types of businesses the PA was involved in, but has said its interests range from cement to telecommunications holdings in Algeria and Jordan.

Nashashibi disclosed the Arafat account and figures to reporters at a news conference on the economic situation in the West Bank and Gaza. He said the information provided by the Palestinians were an example of the openness and transparency in Palestinian finances under Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayad.

However, Nashashibi did not rule out the possibility that a portion of the funds were misused. He said he believes an accounting of the rest of the money will be conducted "at some point, but we're taking it all a step at a time."

After five days of delays caused by snow and high winds, a twin-engine rescue plane equipped with ski landing gear made its way to the South Pole on Saturday in a bold attempt to rescue a worker in need of emergency medical care.

The Twin Otter aircraft with four aboard left a British research station at Rothera Point near the Antarctic coastline south of Chile at 8:48 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. It landed 81/2 hours later at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, 1,346 miles away.

As of Saturday evening, the crew was scheduled to rest for several hours before an anticipated departure from the pole about 4 a.m. Eastern time today.

The ill worker, who has asked that his identity be withheld, is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services Co. of Centennial, Colo., the firm that operates the polar station for the science foundation. Neither the NSF nor Raytheon would describe the nature of the man's illness, except to say that it is not contagious and that no other employees at the station are at risk.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican issued an unusually strong rebuke to the former Soviet republic of Georgia and its dominant Orthodox Church on Saturday, after the government scrapped an accord guaranteeing religious freedom for Catholics.

The Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, traveled to the capital, Tbilisi, on Thursday to sign the agreement, which would have obliged Georgia to guarantee Catholics the freedom to perform rites, open schools and study church history.

But Tauran went away empty-handed after thousands of Orthodox Christians, including at least one high-ranking church leader, protested in the streets Friday and prompted the government to cancel the signing.

Tauran issued an unusually critical statement upon his departure from Tbilisi, saying he regretted that the aim of his trip had been thwarted by a "last-minute rethinking by Georgian authorities."

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