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Tibet: latest developments

●Dozens of Ethnic Tibetan students staged a candle-lit vigil inside the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing on Monday, saying it was to pray for the dead. Police kept reporters well away from the peaceful protest.



● Washington said on Monday that it would increase radio broadcasts to Tibet via Voice of America and Radio Free Asia as China clamped down on media coverage.



● Italian media on Monday questioned Pope Benedict's silence and speculated that the pontiff did not want to antagonize Beijing.



● UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on China to show restraint in handling protests and urged all concerned "to avoid further confrontation and violence."



● But the UN Security Council will likely keep silent about China's crackdown on demonstrations in Tibet, mostly because of the belief that provoking Beijing would accomplish nothing, diplomats said on Monday.



● German police detained 26 Tibetan demonstrators on Monday after they tried to force their way into the Chinese Consulate in Munich.



● Around 200 protesters threw eggs, tomatoes and sticks at the Chinese embassy in London on Monday.



● Some 300 protesters rallied on Monday outside the Chinese consulate in Barcelona, Spain, to denounce Beijing's crackdown.



● A protester who tried to drape the Tibetan flag over the Yahoo billboard in Times Square in New York was arrested.



● In Switzerland, some 400 people protested yesterday, demanding the International Olympic Committee (IOC) intervene. They chanted a prayer and waved Tibetan flags and banners as they marched through Lausanne toward IOC headquarters.



● The IOC said on Monday that it hoped the unrest in Tibet would not prevent the Olympic torch from making its trek through China.



● Tibetan activists sent a letter to the IOC yesterday demanding that the Tibetan region and Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces be excluded from the torch relay.



● The Swiss Olympic Committee on Monday urged the IOC to release a statement and urged IOC head Jacques Rogge to remind China of the world's expectations on human rights and civil liberties.



● John Kenwood, a 19-year-old tourist from Victoria, Canada, said before leaving Lhasa that he saw street cleaners wearing orange vests emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics symbol.
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