Tibet

• Huge Hole Forces Plane Landing:
  A Qantas passenger plane from London to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila after a giant hole was ripped in its underside. The emergency landing left all 346 passengers safe, but the nine-foot wide hole led to a loss of cabin pressure and a rough landing amid emergency preparations. Once safe on the ground, reactions of the passengers ranged from vomit to tears.



• Nepal Police Detain 125 Tibetans:
  Nepali police have detained 125 Tibetan refugees for attempting to storm a Chinese consular office in Kathmandu. Over 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal and many regularly protest for the freedom of Tibet. Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Nepal was responding to pressure from China without regard for human rights with unexplained arrests and abuse in detention.
• HIV Drugs Add 13 Years:
  A study of 43,000 patients shows that life expectancy for people with HIV has increased by about 13 years since the last decade because of HIV treatments. Researchers liken HIV now to a chronic condition like diabetes instead of a fatal disease. The study found that a person diagnosed at 20 could expect to live for another 49 years. Meanwhile, the US House passed a bill tripling the money spent on fighting AIDS worldwide.

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• House Agrees on War Funding: Last night, House leaders arrived at a bipartisan solution on a major spending measure set to provide funding to the war in Iraq through the end of the current administration. Included in the agreement are significant new education benefits for veterans, and a concession to Democratic demands for added unemployment benefits. The bill could be voted on as early as today and would solve the two-year battle between President Bush and Congressional Democrats over war funding by allocating $163 billion for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan without imposing conditions like a withdrawal timetable.



• Tibetans Missing: According to Amnesty International, more than 1,000 Tibetans detained during protests against the Chinese government in March still remain missing. The human rights group reports that detainees had been beaten and deprived of food and are asking China to "shine some light" on the missing Tibetans. The March anti-China protests led by Buddhist monks were the worst in the region in 20 years. China says protesters killed at least 19 people, and Tibetan exiles say security forces killed dozens of people. The Olympic torch is set to reach Tibet on Saturday.
• Israel and Hamas Start Ceasefire: A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began this morning despite up to the wire outbreaks of cross-border attacks. The truce is supposed to both stop Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip, and to quell missiles being fired from Gaza into southern Israel. The ceasefire is the first step, further talks about a prisoner exchange may follow, though the truce is fragile. The last ceasefire collapsed in April 2007. There were no reports of fire from either side on Thursday morning.

• 30 Sentenced in Tibet: A Chinese court in Tibet has sentenced 30 people to prison for their roles in the deadly rioting last month. The sentences range from three years to life in prison. Those punished were accused of taking part in the protests, vandalism, and violence that began March 14 in the Tibetan capital. China blames the Dalai Lama for the conflict and the ensuing problems with the Olympic torch relay. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, “We hope the Dalai can cherish this opportunity, recognize the situation and change his position to take concrete measures to stop his criminal acts of violence, stop his sabotage of the Beijing Olympics and his separatist activities, so as to create conditions for the next step of talks.”



• Wildfires Rage: Firefighters enter their fourth day battling wildfires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. The fires were 57 percent contained early Tuesday after less than a square mile and most of the more than 1,000 people evacuated from their homes had been allowed to return. Fires outside of Reno are being fanned by up to 68 m.p.h. winds making containment difficult. The blaze has caused a major highway to close, threatened homes, and caused the evacuation of a school.
• Economy 0.6 % Growth: The US economy grew 0.6 percent during the first quarter of this year. The growth is equal to the last quarter of 2007. The 0.6 percent statistic doesn't meet the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy, though the slim gains show struggle.

• Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for his followers to end fighting in Basra, the ceasefire coming after six days of violence in the port city. In return, al-Sadr is demanding concessions from Iraq’s government. Those concessions include general amnesty for his followers, release of all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of crimes, and a return of “the displaced people who have fled their homes as a result of military operations.” In participating in negotiations with al-Sadr, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has seen a serious blow to his political reputation because he had vowed to see an end to the Basra campaign through to a military victory. The violence and ceasefire called by al-Sadr served to showcase his political and military power.



• German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the first world leader to announce a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. She will not be attending the games, a decision made as Tibetan protests still rage, and some residents of China itself are becoming critical that their government is not being strict enough against the protesters. One Chinese woman, appalled that the Chinese government isn't acting more forcefully, said, “we couldn’t believe our government was being so weak and cowardly. The Dalai Lama is trying to separate China, and it is not acceptable at all. We must crack down on the rioters.” China reports so far it has arrested 414 protesters, with an additional 289 turning themselves in.
• Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson is expected to resign today. In the midst of the growing mortgage crisis, the resignation removes a key administration player. Jackson has been under investigation by the Justice Department over questions that he gave lucrative housing contracts to friends.

About 20 Tibetan high school students breached a brick wall surrounding the United Nations compound in Katmandu today, with a small home-made sign reading "Free Tibet." Their mission was to ask the UN to help their cause. Sounds like an unruly breach of security? Not really. The students peacefully assembled on the grass and they were served a lunch of steamed dumplings, called momos, instead.

A spokesman for the United Nations, said the teenagers were polite intruders and over lunch they were asked to write their grievances for United Nations officials. No one was arrested, and agency officials said they would make sure they all were escorted home safely. The spokesman concluded of the protesters, "they were very nice."

It's a touching and humane story out of a situation that his been anything but. Chinese officials and Tibetan protesters have been in violent clashes for weeks. China says that currently about 660 protesters have "surrendered." Tibetan Monks staged a noisy protest today continuing the unrest which is the worst it's been in 20 years.

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• The US death toll in Iraq reached 4,000 yesterday after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. This sad milestone is likely to fuel calls for the withdrawal of American forces as the war enters its sixth year. The fatal attacks came amid heavy shelling on the US-protected Green Zone which also killed 61 Iraqis. The grim tally of US deaths has a companion list, that of Iraqi casualties. One widely respected count is by Iraq Body Count, which collects figures based mostly on media reports, estimates that 82,349 to 89,867 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the conflict.



• The Olympic torch has been lit at a ceremony briefly disrupted by protesters. At the lighting held in Greece, two pro-Tibet activists broke through the mass of 1,000 police officers in Olympia and tried to display a flag as China's envoy spoke. During the speech by the head of the Beijing Olympic committee, two men ran up behind him attempting to display a black flag depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs. The men were swiftly contained and removed by police and the ceremony continued uninterrupted. The torch will now begin the journey around Greece before being sent to China to start a trip through 20 countries, returning to Beijing on 08.08.08.
• Today marks the deadline for Pennsylvania voters to register to vote prior to the state's big primary. The April 22 contest could prove to be a pivotal point in the campaign with 188 delegate votes at stake.

• Another new audio message allegedly delivered by Osama bin Laden urges Muslims to join the insurgency in Iraq, calling it the best way to support the Palestinians. He makes the tie between the two saying, "The nearest jihad battlefield to support our people in Palestine is the battlefield of Iraq." The statement was released on al-Jazeera TV, and comes just a day after he threatened Europe in a similar audio recording. The newest statement says of attempts at peace talks, "Palestine cannot be retaken by negotiations and dialogue, but with fire and iron."



• Two employees have been fired from the State Department and another reprimanded for improperly opening electronic information from the passport file of Senator Barack Obama. The announcement came yesterday detailing three separate occasions of unauthorized access, in January, February, and March. The events are being called "imprudent curiosity," and there are no details yet as to reasons for the breach, or why the announcement only reached top officials and Senator Obama after the third occasion.
• US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arrived in northern India this morning for talks with the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government-in-exile. Pelosi sharply criticized China saying, "If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world. The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world." The comments came during a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. Pelosi noted that she was voicing her personal opinion and not US policy. The meeting comes amid violence surrounding Tibetan protests against China.

• More than 100 people have surrendered to police following anti-China riots in Tibet's main city of Lhasa, according to Chinese media. China had issued a deadline of midnight on Monday for the protests to stop, though the Dalai Lama refused to issue the order. The authorities threatened great harm to anyone who ignored the deadline. Accounts of the outcomes of the violent protests differ wildly. The Tibetan government in exile in India says 99 people have now died in clashes with security forces. Chinese officials claim only 13 people have died, and that they were killed by mobs during riots by Dalai Lama supporters. Tibet's Communist Secretary said, "we are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai clique."



• Flood and flash-flood warnings from Texas to Ohio, combined with tornado watches in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, previewed harsh weather that has flooded homes and roads throughout the central United States. The storms have killed at least two in Missouri and swept a teen down a drainage pipe in Texas. Since Monday, states have seen between six and ten inches of rain. At the Dallas airport, they broke the previous one-day rain record by an inch, coupled with winds up to 100 mph. Hundreds have been evacuated from homes across the Midwest.
• Senator John McCain is in Israel today as part of a tour of the Middle East and Europe. McCain met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. In a joint news conference, McCain confirmed his commitment to Israel and attacked the Islamist militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah saying, "if Hamas and Hezbollah succeed here, they are going to succeed everywhere."

• Moments ago, the Dalai Lama said he would resign as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile if his stepping down would help quell the violence erupting in Tibetan protests. Earlier, the Chinese government blamed the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the demonstrations. Saying that he would stand behind only nonviolent quests for greater Tibetan autonomy, the Dalai Lama criticized China pointedly indicating that though they had met three out of four conditions to be a “superpower” — the world’s largest population, military prowess, and a fast-developing economy — he said, "Fourth, moral authority, that’s lacking.”



• The death toll in yesterday's bombing in Karbala has risen to 52. The bomb exploded near the shrine of Imam Hussein, a pilgrimage centre for Shia Muslims, and is thought to have been detonated by a female suicide bomber. Overshadowing Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Iraq, the incident was the deadliest of a number of recent violent attacks in which at least 78 Iraqis have died. Officials suspect al-Qaeda insurgents were responsible for the the bombing which occurred 50 miles south of Baghdad, but no group has stepped forward.
• Florida has abandoned its plans for a mail-in primary reprise. Florida's Democratic Party said yesterday it would no longer advocate for a rerun of the state's invalid primary election and leave the decision on Florida's delegates up to the national party. Thousands of voters have sent in messages expressing this preference, leading the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party to say, "The consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again. So we won't."