●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.
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
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