WORLD IN BRIEF : CHINA : Human Rights Team Rebuffed on Trials

A three-member international human rights team left China after authorities refused to answer questions about the closed trials of at least 25 pro-democracy activists. “It was like a Kafka novel. All the doors were closed to us,” French attorney Jean-Pierre Mignard said. The team said that officials at the Foreign and Justice ministries told them they had nothing to do with the trials and that a low-level court official said the trials were an internal affair. The three were the latest in a series of foreigners and overseas Chinese who have flown to Beijing in recent weeks to investigate or watch the trials of pro-democracy activists.