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Reuters blog archive
from Africa News blog:
Was South Africa right to deny Dalai Lama a visa?
By Isaac Esipisu
Given that China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and given the close relationship between Beijing and the ruling African National Congress, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that South Africa was in no hurry to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.
Tibet’s spiritual leader will end up missing the 80th birthday party of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel peace prize winner. He said his application for a visa had not come through on time despite having been made to Pretoria several weeks earlier. (Although South Africa’s government said a visa hadn’t actually been denied, the Dalai Lama’s office said it appeared to find the prospect inconvenient).
Desmond Tutu said the government’s action was a national disgrace and warned the President and ruling party that one day he will start praying for the defeat of the ANC government.
It’s the second time the Dalai Lama has been unable to honour an invitation to South Africa by Tutu after failing to make it to a meeting in 2010.
South Africa will certainly win more plaudits in Beijing, which last week agreed to $2.5 billion in investment projects with during a visit by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
from FaithWorld:
Obama meets Dalai Lama at White House, China sees U.S. interference
(The Dalai Lama arrives to deliver A Talk for World Peace on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington July 9, 2011/Yuri Gripas)
China accused the United States on Sunday of "grossly" interfering in its internal affairs and seriously damaging relations after President Barack Obama met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House. Obama met the Nobel Prize laureate for 45 minutes, praising him for embracing non-violence while reiterating that the United States did not support independence for Tibet.
from FaithWorld:
China says everything normal at restive Tibetan temple
(A Tibetan in Nepal on a 24-hour hunger strike in Kathmandu April 18, 2011, to express solidarity with victims of a Chinese crackdown last month/Navesh Chitrakar)
China has said everything was "normal" at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery after the Dalai Lama urged restraint in a stand-off between security forces and Tibetans at the temple in southwest China. "According to what we understand, over the past few days the life and Buddhist activities of the monks at the Kirti monastery are all normal. Social order there is also normal. Material supplies in the temple are totally sufficient," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing.
from FaithWorld:
Exiled Tibetans vote after Dalai Lama gives up political leader role
(Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama delivers a teaching session inside a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala March 15, 2011/Mukesh Gupta)
It may be a low-key campaign for 83,000 votes dotted around the globe, but an election of exiled Tibetans may ring in momentous changes for one of the world's regional hot spots. Three secular candidates are battling to fill a vacuum created by the Dalai Lama's move to relinquish political power after more than five decades as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, a town of temples, hotels and trinket shops.
from FaithWorld:
China says Dalai Lama must reincarnate, can’t pick successor
(The Dalai Lama during a talk at Mumbai University, February 18, 2011/Danish Siddiqui)
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, does not have a right to choose his successor any way he wants and must follow the historical and religious tradition of reincarnation, a Chinese official said on Monday.
from Tales from the Trail:
One Washington day is not like another for Mr. Hu
China's President Hu Jintao was feted with full fanfare at the White House on Wednesday, with a 21-gun salute, honor guards and a state dinner. Things might not be quite so fancy on Thursday when he goes to Capitol Hill.
There he will see Republican Speaker John Boehner in the House of Representatives, then cross the Capitol to meet Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Neither bothered to attend Wednesday's state dinner.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Five seconds more, I’m goin’ postal!
Blog Guy, I've noticed you often use pictures of the Dalai Lama in your blog. He's always smiling, and he seems to have true inner peace.
Yeah, I suppose so. But that's his job, isn't it?
You're SO cynical! I bet you're constantly hoping something will push him over the edge and make him snap, but of course nothing will ever do that.
from India Insight:
Separatists make contact with China to ‘discuss’ Kashmir
The chief of Kashmir's moderate separatist alliance recently met a Chinese delegation in Geneva, the first such contact by Kashmiri separatists with Chinese officials since a simmering discontent against Indian rule broke out in 1989.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, met the Chinese Director Foreign Affairs, Ying Gang, in Geneva on the sidelines of the 13th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council and discussed Beijing's possible role in the resolution of the dispute.
from Tales from the Trail:
Dalai to Washington special syntax brings
The Dalai Lama, fresh from his controversial meeting with President Barack Obama, greeted the U.S. press corps during a blustery press conference on Thursday outside his Washington hotel, and delivered his pearls of wisdom with a brand of syntax that sometimes leaves listeners scratching their heads.
"Important is truth," the grinning Dalai Lama told reporters, when asked if he ever got discouraged about China's implacable resistance to his cause.
from Tales from the Trail:
Who knew the Dalai Lama was a feminist?
World peace came first. But then the Dalai Lama told reporters he brought up to President Barack Obama during their White House meeting the issue of women in leadership roles. 
"I also mentioned the female, biologically, more sensitive about others' pain ... about others who are suffering," the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said, adding with a laugh that Obama agreed with that sentiment.
