China stepped up attacks against the Dalai Lama yesterday as authorities apprehended suspects in four arson and murder cases stemming from anti-government riots that engulfed the Tibetan capital last month.
Jiang Zaiping (江再平), vice chief of the Public Security Bureau in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, said investigators arrested the suspects thought to be responsible for arson attacks on three shops -- including a clothing outlet where five young women were burned to death -- and one in nearby Dagze County, the Tibet Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
A total of 414 suspects have been arrested in connection with the anti-government riots, Jiang was quoted as saying.
Another 298 have turned themselves in, he said.
The Tibetan regional government also announced that the families of two of the women killed were given compensation of 200,000 yuan (US$28,170) each, Xinhua news agency said.
A commentary by Xinhua said yesterday that if the Tibetan leader "really wishes to be a simple Buddhist monk, it's high time for him to stop playing politics and cheating people, Westerners in particular, with his hypocritical `autonomy' claims."
"The self-proclaimed spiritual leader has obviously forgotten his identity, abused his religion and played too much politics," the commentary said.
Hundreds of Tibetan exiles in New Delhi yesterday burned Chinese flags and enacted street plays of Beijing's recent crackdown on protesters in Tibet.
In the street plays, some Tibetans beat up their colleagues -- draped in the yellow, red, white and blue Tibetan colors -- and then dragged them off.
Other protesters broke crockery allegedly made in China as they shouted "Free Tibet!" and denounced Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Australia's foreign minister said yesterday diplomats who visited Tibet were told that monks who interrupted a visit by journalists with an anti-China outburst would not be punished.
"The delegation received an assurance that monks who protested effectively in the presence of international journalists a few days prior to the diplomat's arrival would not be punished," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Perth.
In Kathmandu, Nepali police beat pro-Tibet protesters with sticks yesterday and detained more than 100 people for demonstrating against China, police and witnesses said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique