The Tibetan activist that unfurled a banner near China's parliament supporting a review of the ruling Communist Party's policy on Tibet has escaped to Hong Kong.
"I hope this kind of action shows the Chinese leaders that empty promises cannot stop our pursuit and fight for liberty and the right to determine our future," said Wangpo Tethong, an ethnic Tibetan Swiss national, yesterday after arriving in Hong Kong.
Tethong, 43, on Wednesday unfurled a banner saying, "[Chinese President] Hu Jintao (
During his brief protest he stood close to a clock counting down the time left until the 2008 games in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, near where the National People's Congress is meeting in an annual session.
He disappeared without being noticed by hundreds of plainclothes, uniformed and paramilitary police patrolling the square.
Tethong is a member of the steering committee of the International Tibet Support Network and has led its campaign on the 2008 games, citing Beijing's "cynicism" in hosting the Olympics while the same regime "annually executes thousands of people and imprisons and tortures others for their political convictions."
He also urged China to release all Tibetan political prisoners and the young Panchen Lama chosen by followers of the Dalai Lama.
The Panchen Lama is traditionally the second-highest leader of Tibetan Buddhism.
China appointed its own Panchen Lama, and the now 15-year-old boy chosen by followers of the Dalai Lama has reportedly been kept under house arrest in Beijing since 1995.
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS