China appeared to bend to international pressure on Friday as the government announced it would meet with envoys of the Dalai Lama, an unexpected shift that comes as Tibetan unrest in western China has threatened to cast a pall over the Beijing Olympics in August.
Far from heeding international calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, China has accused Tibet’s exiled god-king of colluding with Muslim terrorists to destabilise the country before the Olympic Games.
Opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet set fire to vehicles and shops on Friday as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to witnesses and human rights groups.
A new video allegedly showing Chinese forces shooting and killing at least one Tibetan refugee is prompting calls for an international inquiry from human rights groups.
A young Tibetan writer secretly sentenced to one of the harshest jail terms in recent years in the Himalayan region over a book he never published has appealed to the United Nations for help.
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