China braced against further protests yesterday as it prepared for the arrival of the Olympic torch today amid reports of fresh disturbances in Lhasa.
Beijing tightened security in Tiananmen Square, where the Olympic torch will be officially welcomed to the country today before beginning a worldwide relay expected to be dogged by protests over the unrest in Tibet.
Tension in the Himalayan region continued to simmer, the Tibetan government-in-exile and activist groups said.
On Saturday, a disturbance occurred when hundreds of people in Lhasa panicked as police moved in to check residents' identity papers there, the International Campaign for Tibet and the Free Tibet Campaign said.
The incident prompted police to surround key Buddhist temples in the area and close many shops.
No violence was reported.
At Tiananmen Square, authorities announced new spot checks on visitors to "strengthen public security" ahead of the ceremony to welcome the torch, a government Web site said.
Fears of global embarrassment for China along the torch's route have grown since protesters disrupted the lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia last Monday.
Exiled Tibetans in India yesterday lit an "independence torch" that will also be taken around the world.
Meanwhile, police in Nepal's capital Kathmandu baton-charged protesters -- most of them Tibetans -- during a demonstration outside a Chinese embassy office, detaining more than 100 people, police and witnesses said.
China continued its crackdown on the Tibetan unrest, with Xinhua reporting late on Saturday that police had arrested 26 people and seized guns and other weapons from a monastery.
Beijing also fired Tibet's top official for minority and religious affairs, Chinese state media said yesterday.
Danzeng Langjie, director of Tibet's Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs Commission, has been "removed" from his post, a statement posted on the Web site of the Tibet Daily newspaper said.
It gave no further details on Danzeng's background or reasons for his removal.
It said he had been replaced by Luosang Jiumei, another ethnic Tibetan who has been vice secretary of the Chinese Communist Party committee of Lhasa since 2004.
The change was believed to be the first by Beijing since the demonstrations began.
In Slovenia, the EU foreign ministers expressed "strong concern" on Saturday about violence in Tibet, but skated around the issue of China's role in the unrest.
Germany said it would not send any ministerial-level participants to the Olympics opening ceremony. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel said they did not plan to go to Beijing.
Before the two-day EU meeting, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner ruled out an EU boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, but saw a need for a "European response" to the crackdown.
The response was mild and brief.
In a statement, the EU ministers did not mention the Aug. 8 to Aug. 24 Olympic Games or link China directly to the crackdown.
The ministers reiterated their "strong concern over the events in the autonomous Chinese region of Tibet, [called] for an end to the violence and [asked] that arrested persons be treated in conformity with international standards."
Diplomats said the EU was content to appeal for a peaceful resolution and leave it at that.
On Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the first European leader to suggest that a boycott of the opening ceremony was a possibility to protest China's handling of the unrest in Tibet.
Also see: Chinese students rally behind PRC
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS