American Buddhist Net

July 24th, 2008 - 1:43 pm ICT by IANS

Dharamsala, July 24 (IANS) The Indian government has refused to allow Tibetan spiritual leader the Karmapa Lama, the only major monk reincarnate recognised by both the Dalai Lama and China, to visit areas close to the China border ahead of the Beijing Olympics, his aides said here Thursday. The 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, had sought permission to visit various monasteries in Lahaul and Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh as well as Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir.

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July 24, 2008

The Indian government has refused to allow Tibetan spiritual leader the Karmapa Lama, the only major monk reincarnate recognised by both the Dalai Lama and China, to visit areas close to the China border ahead of the Beijing Olympics, his aides said here Thursday.

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I think "free speech zone" is a far better brand than "protest zone," which really sounds too negative. Go USA! ABN
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By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 24

BEIJING, July 23 -- Beijing will set up specially designated protest zones in three public parks during next month's Olympics, a top security official for the Games announced Wednesday.

..."It's just a show for the foreigners to make it look like we have free speech," said Wang Zhenjiang, a 48-year-old Beijing resident unhappy with the compensation offered in exchange for evicting him from his home. "They will only approve applications from those people who make them look good."

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By EDWARD WONG
Published: July 24, 2008

...Local governments in southwest China’s quake-ravaged Sichuan Province have begun a coordinated campaign to buy the silence of angry parents whose children died during the earthquake, according to interviews with more than a dozen parents from four collapsed schools. Officials threaten that the parents will get nothing if they refuse to sign, the parents say.

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By KER MUNTHIT – 5 hours ago

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Thailand accused Cambodia of eyeing even more of its land and leaflets appeared in the Cambodian capital calling for a boycott of Thai goods, as a military standoff over disputed border territory entered a second week Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Cambodia asked the U.N. Security Council to intervene in the dispute over the 1.8 square miles of land near the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, warning that the two sides were at "an imminent state of war."

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2008-07-23

...As Sri Lanka marks the 25th anniversary of the riots Wednesday, two exhibits by artists from the Sinhalese majority seek to prod their countrymen into acknowledging a quarter century of suffering, in the hopes of offering a path out of the violence.

"We need to take a minute after 25 years to think," said [Anoma] Rajakaruna, 43, a photographer and documentary filmmaker. "People haven't dealt with this as they should."

Her exhibit, "July: Life After 25 Years," is a series of photographs of Tamil victims of the riots and the ensuing war. The images are stark and each portrait shows a different facet of the tremendous suffering.

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Kathmandu, July 22 (IANS) After a Nepali of Indian origin representing a community that ranked at the bottom of Nepal’s social ladder became the first president of the country, the federal republic can see another astounding change in its social landscape if a debutant but powerful ethnic party manages to wrest the post of prime minister.

Bijay Kumar Gachchhedar, chief of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum parliamentary party, is laying stake to the executive post, saying his party has the support of two other major parties, whose alliance Monday succeeded in defeating the Maoists in the nation’s historic first presidential election.

If Gachchhedar has his way, he will become the first prime minister from the Tharu community, a group that was among the first inhabitants of Nepal but were displaced by migrants from India and Nepal’s hills from the fertile Terai plains along the Indo-Nepal border.

In the course of time the Tharus, who were the descendants of royal families, including the one in which Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, belonged, became landless paupers and were forced to become bonded slaves by the new migrants.

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Tuesday, 22 July, 2008, 01:35 AM Doha Time

PREAH VIHEAR: They may wear flip-flops, but most the Cambodian forces facing Thai troops at a border standoff are battle-tested former Khmer Rouge fighters, officers and soldiers said yesterday.

More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers have been stationed for a week around a small Buddhist pagoda on the slope of a mountain leading to the ruins of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

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JULY 22, 2008 09:07

The recent Mount Geumgang shooting incident has put on a new face when South Korean intelligence authorities revealed a piece of information indicating that the North Korean soldier responsible for the death of a South Korean tourist may be a 17-year-old female soldier.

The information, if confirmed to be true, will be a key to determining whether the shooting down of the victim, Park Wang-ja, was “intentional” or “accidental,” the case’s biggest question mark.

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Chinese authorities are hunting bombers who killed two people in attacks on commuter buses this morning, just three weeks before the Beijing Olympic Games begin.

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:14PM BST 21/07/2008

The first bomb exploded at 7.05am on a bus at a stop on People's Road West, one of the main thoroughfares of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, which borders Vietnam, Burma and Tibet in China's far south.

One person was killed and another ten injured, according to local media. Websites showed photographs of the bus with a gaping hole in its side and glass all over the road. The victim was named locally as Wang Dezhi, 30, who was with her husband going home to rejoin their daughter in an outlying area of the province and celebrate her birthday. The husband was also injured.

The second explosion happened on another bus on the same road about an hour later. Chen Shifei, 26, from the town of Lijiang, also in Yunnan, was killed and a further four injured.

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PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The austere existence of Buddhist monks is supposed to show Cambodians how to live. One thing monks have been forbidden to do, however, is show them how to vote.

That will change Sunday, when Cambodia's Buddhist monks vote in their first general election since they led anti-government demonstrations a decade ago, when they were beaten and shot in the streets for protesting against Prime Minister Hun Sen's victory.

After the demonstrations, which left at least two monks dead, Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, head of the country's largest Buddhist sect, barred Cambodia's 54,000 Buddhist clergy from voting.

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By SETH MYDANS
Published: July 21, 2008

KANTHARALAK, Thailand — Hundreds of Thai and Cambodian soldiers faced off at the ruins of an ancient Hindu temple here for a sixth straight day on Sunday, in a modern-day echo of the age-old clash of empires across Indochina.

The temple, perched high on a bluff on a disputed patch of border, may be the prize. But the conflict has also created a secondary, more prosaic target: an embattled government in Bangkok, where the opposition is using the historical dispute and nationalist fervor as weapons.

The fires of nationalism have spread in both nations over the past few weeks. Old grievances have flared, and troops and heavy weapons have been mobilized in the mists above the jungle. Over the weekend, truckloads of reinforcements from each country were seen heading toward the temple, called Preah Vihear.

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Both nations to hold talks on dispute today

July 21, 2008

PREAH VIHEAR: Cambodia complained to the UN Security Council that Thai forces have violated its territory near a World Heritage Site temple, as more than 4,000 troops from the two sides were deployed in the border region Sunday.

The two countries are to hold talks today in Thailand aimed at resolving the dispute, but a Cambodian general said he had little hope they would succeed. Cambodia’s mission at the United Nations submitted a letter to the chairman of the Security Council and the chairman of the General Assembly to “draw their attention to the current situation on the Cambodian-Thai border,” Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Sunday.

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Both sides urged to resolve issue in spirit of Asean solidarity

July 18, 2008

A row between South Korea and Japan threatened to spill over into Korean bedrooms yesterday after authorities in Seoul ordered the removal of posters advertising Japanese condoms from subway trains.

This week, South Korea recalled its ambassador from Tokyo in protest at guidelines for high school teachers in Japan reportedly saying that two islands in the Sea of Japan belong to Japan, while noting that South Korea also claims sovereignty.

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Sun, 20 Jul 2008

Preah Vihear, Cambodia - Preah Vihear local Sor Sarom went to the pagoda on the first day of Buddhist Lent as she always does, and found herself being held at gunpoint by a man dressed in black. "It brought all my memories of the Khmer Rouge back. I was terrified. He just came out of the shadows inside the temple," the 50-year-old said.

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By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer Sat Jul 19, 6:35 AM ET

BEIJING - Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.

Half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles will be pulled off the roads and many polluting factories will be shuttered. Chemical plants, power stations and foundries left open have to cut emissions by 30 percent — and dust-spewing construction in the capital will be halted.

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Saturday 19 July 2008
By AFP

Cambodia and Thailand further increased their forces in the fifth day of a tense standoff on disputed land near an ancient Hindu temple on the border, officials said Saturday.

More than 500 Thai troops and well over 1,000 Cambodian soldiers are stationed around a small Buddhist pagoda on the slope of a mountain leading to the ruins of 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

"Now there are nearly 400 Thai troops stationed in the pagoda. I'm not sure how many are stationed in the jungle," said Brigadier Chea Keo, commander of Cambodian forces in the area.

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By Dan Isaacs
BBC News, Orissa

Hundreds of families in a remote region of the eastern Indian state of Orissa remain homeless and without support after a wave of violence swept the region last month.

The minority Christian community in Kandhamal district, many of whom are forest tribal people and low-caste Dalit converts from Hinduism to to Christianity, say they've been targeted by radical Hindu nationalist organisations seeking to put an end to the church and its activities in the region.

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By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page A09

HONG KONG -- Brad Eddington arrived in Shanghai on a whim seven years ago and fell in love with the place. He got a job teaching English to kindergartners at a private school, an apartment in the trendy French Concession district, and a girlfriend. And even though he was on a visitor's visa he had to renew every year, he considered China his new home.

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Jul 19, 2008
By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police arrested a human rights campaigner in the country's southwest for "possession of state secrets" after he offered help to parents of children killed in the region's massive earthquake, his family said.

Huang Qi was detained in quake-hit Sichuan province on June 10, and on Friday police told his mother of his formal arrest on the secrets charge, his wife Zeng Li said by phone on Saturday.

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Bangkok City Hall is campaigning to cut down on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages on national holidays

by Supoj Wancharoen, The Bangkok Post, July 18, 2008

Bangkok, Thailand -- Measures to turn people away from selling and drinking alcohol are expected to yield tangible results over Buddhist Lent period, which begins today and will end on Oct 14.

The 2008 Alcohol Control Act is now in place, banning the drinking of alcohol in temples or places for organising religious rites, public health service locations, hospitals, government offices, schools and other places of education, and petrol-filling stations.

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Saturday July 19, 2008
Clancy Chassay in Rangoon

In Rangoon, Burma's former capital, an atmosphere of fear and intimidation smothers the city. Since September's failed uprising, when thousands of people were beaten and arrested, security has been tightened. The ruling junta's vast network of informants and plain-clothes police officers watch everything.

But the crackdown has not extinguished the flame of protest. Members of Burma's battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their struggle.

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07/18/2008
By SOPHENG CHEANG

...On Thursday night, 61 monks along with 13 nuns and lay people came to the Buddhist pagoda some 220 yards west of the Preah Vihear complex to celebrate the start of Buddhist Lent.

The Cambodian monks must remain on the temple grounds during the three-month period. The age-old practice is traditionally to prevent them from trampling new plants and insects.

About 50 Cambodian troops entered the pagoda hoping to stay the night to provide security for the monks and nuns, but the Thai soldiers moved to evict them, prompting the gun-pointing, Cambodian Brig. Gen. Chea Keo said.

Chea Keo said the incident lasted about 10 minutes before the Cambodians departed.

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July 17, 2008
Jane Macartney

A month before the Olympics, China is so determined to present a trouble-free image to the world that it has imposed a news blackout on reports of continuing deadly unrest in Tibetan parts of the country.

Three Tibetan sources, all speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Times that two monks at a monastery in western Sichuan province that borders Tibet proper were killed in a clash on July 12. For monks of what are popularly known as the “red hat” sects, the date is one of the most auspicious festivals of the year.

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