| Of all the times to have a flare up in Tibet, a few | | | | with this. |
| months ahead of the Summer Olympics is not a | | | | In a statement quoted by the state-run news |
| good pieace of public relations strategy. And as riots | | | | agency Xinhua, the Tibetan government urged "the |
| break out in this mountainous nation, International | | | | lawbreakers to give themselves in by Monday |
| Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge poured | | | | midnight" and promised that "leniency would be given |
| cold water Saturday on calls for a boycott of the | | | | to those who surrender". Hey, I've got some great |
| Summer Games in Beijing over China's crackdown in | | | | property in Arizona and Florida that I'd seel at a great |
| Tibet, saying it would only hurt athletes. | | | | price as well. This Chinese crackdown in Tibet is going |
| Demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet on | | | | to be about as bad a PR piece to them as the Rev. |
| Friday-the most violent riots there in nearly two | | | | Jeremiah Wright was-is to Obama (can you say not |
| decades-left at least 30 protesters dead, according | | | | good?). |
| to a Tibetan exile group. China ordered tourists out | | | | The violence - the worst in Tibet since 1989 - |
| of Tibet's capital and troops patrolled the streets on | | | | erupted on the fifth day of largely peaceful protests |
| Saturday. | | | | that began on Monday's anniversary of a 1959 |
| Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators | | | | uprising against Chinese rule. Fires broke out near the |
| defying a curfew in the old quarter of the city, and | | | | Jokhang temple, one of the most sacred sites for |
| police later cordoned off the centre. "Lhasa is | | | | Tibetan Buddhists, and Xinhua reported that shops, |
| completely closed and there is Chinese military all | | | | banks and hotels were destroyed. The |
| over," Danish tourist Bente Walle told Reuters news | | | | demonstrations - like those last September in Burma - |
| agency. | | | | were initially led by Buddhist monks and then |
| China could be exporting the American financial | | | | attracted crowds of ordinary people. |
| disaster to their own shores if they're not careful | | | | And here I thought Buddhists were peaceful. |