MEXICO CITY — Mexico's government yesterday called China's treatment of its citizens unacceptable and said it would not participate in a Shanghai trade fair in a bitter dispute over anti-swine flu measures adopted by China.

Already angered by China's quarantining of dozens of Mexican travelers, flight cancellations and a ban on its pork imports, Mexican officials said China had withdrawn Mexico's "guest of honor" status at the May 19-21 food fair.

The Mexican protests came as China's Health Ministry reported the nation's first suspected case of swine flu on the mainland — a 30-year-old student surnamed Bao who returned from studying at a U.S. university.

JOURNALIST'S LAWYERS HOPEFUL AFTER APPEAL

BEIRUT — Lawyers for jailed journalist Roxana Saberi say they pursued a vigorous and lengthy defense of their client at an appeals court hearing yesterday that they hope could trim the Iranian-American's eight-year prison sentence.

No Iranian official has indicated the longtime North Dakota resident would be released from prison any time soon, but the lawyers said they were optimistic the terms of her punishment would be amended.

In a brief, closed hearing last month, Iran's Revolutionary Court convicted and sentenced Saberi, 32, to jail for allegedly spying on behalf of the United States. Iran had promised a complete review of the case on appeal and insisted Saberi would be allowed to provide a full defense.

MIDEAST CHRISTIANS CALLED TO PERSEVERE

AMMAN, Jordan — Pope Benedict XVI told about 20,000 followers in an open-air Mass yesterday that Christians in the Middle East are "deeply touched by difficulties and uncertainties" but that they must be strong in their faith to counter religious extremism.

The pope's message on the final day of his pilgrimage to Jordan, which primarily focused on improving the Vatican's relations with the Muslim world, was for Christians to persevere as their populations decline in a Middle East that offers limited economic opportunity and is torn by violence and radicalism.

The German pope arrives in Israel today for the final leg of his tour. Earlier this year, Benedict sparked outrage among Jews when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

ELECTIONS BOOST SECULAR RULE IN INDONESIA

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The secular party of Indonesia's president tripled its share of the vote in parliamentary elections as support for religious parties nosedived in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

After years of unpopular laws pushed through by religious hard-liners, regulating women's dress and banning everything from smoking to yoga, even devout Muslims say they have had enough with religion in politics.

The election victory Saturday by the party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to help him win a second term when a presidential vote is held in July. The former army general became the country's first democratically elected leader in 2004.

MEMBER OF 1970S-ERA SLA OUT OF JAIL

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical 1970s-era group notorious for bank robberies, killings and the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, was released from prison yesterday, a corrections official said.

James William Kilgore, 61, was paroled from High Desert State Prison after serving a six-year sentence for his role in the murder of housewife Myrna Opsahl during an April 1975 bank robbery.

Kilgore was one of five SLA members to serve time for Opsahl's murder.

700 MILITANTS KILLED IN PAKISTAN OFFENSIVE

ISLAMABAD — A major Pakistani military offensive in the northwest has killed up to 700 militants in the past four days, and the operation will proceed until the last Taliban fighter in the area is ousted, the country's top civilian security official said today.

The offensive in Swat and nearby districts has earned praise from the U.S., which wants al-Qaida and Taliban militants rooted from Pakistani havens where they can plan attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. But the fighting has unleashed an exodus of refugees and raised concern over the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The announcement came as a witness and a police official reported new airstrikes in parts of Swat Valley.