President George W. Bush openly challenged China`s repression of religion Sunday as he opened a diplomatically sensitive visit there, attending a service at a state-sanctioned Protestant church to send a message about free expression of faith in a country that harshly smothers it.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named eight countries this week as the world`s worst violators of religious liberty. The State Department`s seventh annual report on religious freedom listed the same eight countries that it did last year: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

While the move is not necessarily a surprise, it does present the interim government in Iraq and their U.S. allies the challenge of insuring that the transition to democracy in Iraq doesn`t get lost on the road to an Iran-style theocracy.

ultraorthodox Jews defeated a measure to extend daylight-saving time, citing religious traditions.