Indian flags, pro-Tibet banners a rebuff to China

November 6th, 2009 Dalai Lama visit highlights India-China tensionsTAWANG, India — This remote town in the Himalayan foothills spruced up its monasteries Friday to prepare for the Dalai Lama's arrival, a trip highlighting the growing friction between China and India — two nuclear-armed giants vying for economic and political power in the region. While a repeat of the 1962 border war between the two countries seems unlikely, the quarrel has underscored tensions — some stemming from India's swift economic growth and the increasing challenge it poses to Chinese dominance of the region.

November 5th, 2009 India restricts coverage of Dalai Lama's tripNEW DELHI — India effectively barred foreign journalists Thursday from covering a rare visit by the Dalai Lama to a Buddhist monastery close to Tibet in an apparent effort to ease Chinese anger by reducing news coverage of the trip. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's planned visit Sunday to the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh — the heart of a long-running border dispute between China and India — has inflamed already heightened tensions between the Asian powers.

October 19th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Besides issuing separate visas to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir, China is also projecting the disputed territory as an independent country in other ways. Visitors to Tibet, especially journalists invited by the Chinese government, are given handouts where Kashmir is indicated as a country separate from India.

October 19th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Besides issuing separate visas to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir, an issue that has irked New Delhi, China is now showing the state as if it is an independent country. Visitors to Tibet, especially journalists invited by the Chinese government, are given handouts where Kashmir is indicated as a country separate from India.

October 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India said Thursday it will be determining if China is building a large-scale dam project on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra river in its territory. In response to a media report, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said the Indian government would be examining if there had been any change in the Chinese position.

October 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Dalai Lama has said that an opportunity for President Barack Obama to raise the Tibet issue with Chinese leader Hu Jintao without alienating Beijing was more important than his own visit to the White House. "(A) more serious discussion is better than just a picture," he told CNN in an interview aired Thursday.

October 2nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - For the first time in its history, Nepal will form a Border Security Force to patrol its northernmost tip of the border it shares with Tibet in a bid to prevent anti-China activities by Tibetan dissidents, Nepal's Home Minister Bhim Rawal said. Accompanied by the heads of different security wings, the home minister Thursday paid a surprise visit to Mustang, Nepal's northernmost district that was once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom which escaped the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 and still retains its old culture.

October 1st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Under pressure from Beijing to prevent protests by Tibetan refugees on China's 60th anniversary celebrations, Nepal Thursday began rounding up Tibetans here and sending them to detention centres. As the crackdown started on refugee leaders suspected of leading anti-China protests in the past, police arrested 45 Tibetans from different parts of the capital.

September 21st, 2009 China bans foreign tourists from TibetBEIJING — China has banned foreign tourists from traveling to Tibet ahead of a parade in the capital to mark 60 years of Communist rule, an official said Tuesday, amid stepped-up security across the country to ensure nothing mars the celebrations. Tan Lin, an official with the business administration office at the Tourism Bureau of Tibet, said foreign tourists would be banned from Tuesday onwards, but those who have already arrived would be allowed to stay.

September 3rd, 2009 TAIPEI - The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, called Thursday on China to introduce democracy to avoid a collapse like that of the Soviet Union. The Dalai Lama, invited to visit Taiwan to bless typhoon victims, made the call while receiving disciples at the Howard Plaza Hotel in Taipei.

July 1st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Fretting at the resumption of anti-China protests in Nepal by Tibetan refugees, Beijing has sent a delegation to Kathmandu to seek support from the new government of Nepal to quell them. Zhang Jiuhuan, a former ambassador to Nepal and current politburo member of the Communist Party of China, Wednesday met Nepal's new Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala to register his government's concern at the fresh eruption of protests calling for a 'Free Tibet'.

April 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - There was a long chain of cars and motorbikes parked outside a hall in Moradabad town in Uttar Pradesh. But unless one peeked inside, there was nothing to hint that the man at the centre of all this attention was cricket star-turned-politician Mohammed Azharuddin! Azharuddin is the Congress candidate from Moradabad, but there were no party banners outside the hall.

March 27th, 2009 DHARAMSALA - The Tibetan government-in-exile Friday expressed concern over the situation in Tibet and criticised China for declaring the 'provocative' new Serf Liberation Day holiday in the region Saturday. According to Chinese official, the day commemorates the elimination of centuries of serfdom after the departure of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

March 10th, 2009 DHARAMSALA - The Tibetan cabinet-in-exile Tuesday challenged the leadership in China to test the popularity of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, saying he was the undisputed leader of all Tibetans. 'The Kashag would like to reiterate to the leadership of China that the Dalai Lama is the supreme leader and the sole spokesperson of the six million Tibetans,' the cabinet-in-exile said in a statement on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day.

February 25th, 2009 DHARAMSALA - Hundreds of Tibetan exiles Tuesday took out a silent protest here on the eve of Losar (Tibetan New Year). 'The exiles participated in the peaceful protest to express solidarity with our brethren who sacrificed their lives for rights of the people of Tibet,' said president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) Tsewang Rigzin.