Fifty years after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, the US is still searching for how to support the spiritual leader who commands enormous respect but is up against a rising China.
The US once covertly funneled weapons to Tibetan guerrillas — despite unease by the Dalai Lama himself — and has long criticized Beijing’s policy. But a consensus is emerging to nudge China gently.
John Kenneth Knaus was an officer for the CIA as it trained Tibetan insurgents and dropped arms in the Himalayan territory — an effort the US gave up in 1968 as it became clear the Chinese were fully in charge.
“Was it worth it? These are questions that old men ask themselves,” Knaus, now 85 and retired from the CIA, said meditatively at his home in suburban Washington. “I’d like to think so, obviously. I think it’s really a typical American thing, support for the underdog.”
But Knaus was surprised that the Dalai Lama gave him a cool reception when they first met face-to-face in 1964.
“I didn’t get it. I was going there practically as a convert, a disciple — I knew several hundred of his people, these kids, and I loved them — and I was disappointed,” Knaus said. “It took me some time before I realized that to him, I represented the whole problem — we were providing arms to his people, we were in a sense sustaining violence, which he simply just by definition could not support.”
The Dalai Lama first traveled to the US in 1968 and has since become a regular visitor, addressing packed crowds on spirituality and helping spark a worldwide surge of interest in Buddhism.
To China’s fury, the Dalai Lama has gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but the 74-year-old monk has not succeeded in returning to Tibet, where China has poured in extra troops and forbidden any public support for the Dali Lama, who it accuses of separatism.
The US has also changed its tone. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Beijing last month, said Tibet and other human rights concerns would take a back seat in US-China relations in order to collaborate on issues such as fighting the global economic crisis.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS