The fossil of a woolly rhino that has been dug up in a remote area on the Tibetan plateau is thought to be the oldest such specimen ever found, and its discovery could rewrite theories about the evolution of giant Ice Age mammals, according to a report published on Friday in the journal Science. The creature lived about 3.6 million years ago in the Himalayas, according to paleontologists, long before similar beasts roamed in northern Asia and Europe in the ensuing Pleistocene Ice Age.
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China’s official Xinhua news agency has confirmed the death of a Tibetan Buddhist monk who set fire to himself in a remote region of Sichuan province, reporting that it was “unclear why he had burnt himself”. The Free Tibet Network in London identified the monk as 29 year old Tsewang Norbu saying that according to witnesses, he doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze while shouting “long live the Dalai Lama”, “We Tibetan people want freedom” and “Let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet”.
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The Chinese-designated Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, who Communist Party officials hope will one day become a spiritual leader of five million Tibetans, arrived in a monastery town in the northwestern province of Gansu on Thursday. Hundreds of armed police were guarding the Labrang Tibetan Buddhist monastery where on 14th March 2008 clashes broke out when monks and thousands of local Tibetans protested against Chinese rule demanding independence for Tibet.
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President Barack Obama has invited the Dalai Lama to the White House for talks today. The Tibetan spiritual leader has been in Washington for an 11-day Kalachakra Buddhist ritual. The meeting will be in the White House Map Room, and not the Oval Office which is reserved for visiting heads of state. “The president will highlight his enduring support for dialogue between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences” the White House said on Friday
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