Couple arrested in China

(Vatican Radio) In China, a British-American couple are under arrest, charged with illegally gathering data on companies and individuals. The husband and wife team, Briton Peter Humphrey and American Yu Ying Zeng, are accused of using illegal means to gather data that also infringed privacy. The data included details of home owners and car registration records, an investigator told Chinese state television. The channel said the couple would buy that data from sources and use it to prepare business intelligence reports for foreign companies such as manufacturers and law firms.

Humphrey was well known in Shanghai for his work researching commercial risk. His consultancy advised foreign investors how to do business in China. State television showed him after his arrest speaking in Mandarin, making what it described as a confession and an apology to the Chinese government. It's unclear whether these arrests relate to ongoing investigations of alleged bribery and price-fixing by some multinational companies in China. But the state news agency said police in Shanghai have been specifically pursuing data traffickers. It said in the first half of August they arrested 140 suspects.

Listen to the report by correspondent Alastair Wanklyn: