BEIJING — Police in the capital of Tibet clashed for four days with Buddhist monks trying to celebrate the awarding of a congressional honor for the Dalai Lama, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.
The awarding of Congress’ highest civilian honor – bestowed on the exiled spiritual leader by President Bush on Wednesday – had already caused China to warn that Washington had “gravely undermined” relations.
The Ming Pao newspaper said hundreds of monks at the Zhaibung monastery in Lhasa had clashed with police. It said that after the clash, the monastery was surrounded by 3,000 armed police who refused to allow more than 1,000 monks to leave. It gave no other details and did not say if there were any injuries.
Hu wins second five-year term
BEIJING — President Hu Jintao won a second five- year term as China’s Communist Party chief today, heading a new leadership lineup that features potential successors yet could invite a divisive battle to succeed him.
Hu’s ability to manage the new, disparate coalition will determine how united the party is in dealing with tensions over a yawning gap between rich and poor at home and managing China’s rising clout abroad so as not to anger the U.S. and other world powers.
If Hu is successful, he will be freer to boost spending on health, education and other services long neglected in the drive for economic growth. Otherwise, with his retirement likely in five years, he could become a lame duck.
Overall, Hu emerged politically stronger from eight days of high-level political meetings and months of bargaining. A party congress that wrapped up Sunday endorsed Hu’s signature policy program to help the poor and saw the retirement of a key rival. A Central Committee meeting today elevated a Hu protégé, Li Keqiang, into the leadership.
“We are fully aware of our difficult tasks and great responsibilities,” Hu said as he introduced the new Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s most powerful body.
Swiss nationalist party gains 7 parliamentary seats
GENEVA — A nationalist party rode an anti-immigrant wave Sunday to its best showing in parliamentary elections since World War I, while the Green Party made gains by appealing to environmental concerns, according to projections.
In one of the most bitter political campaigns in memory in this usually tolerant Alpine nation, the Swiss People’s Party called for a law to throw out entire immigrant families if a child violates national laws.
The party gained seven parliamentary seats in the 200- seat lower house of parliament, while the Green Party added five, according to projections from widely respected experts for the state-owned SRG television and radio networks, which base forecasts on voting returns.
The Social Democrats, the second-largest party, dropped nine seats.
Marksmen search for escaped crocodiles
BANGKOK, THAILAND — Marksmen cruised rivers in northeastern Thailand on Sunday, hunting for 11 crocodiles that escaped from a farm during floods last week.
Thirty-four crocodiles escaped the commercial farm in Nakorn Ratchasima province Wednesday, but the rest have been shot and killed, said Suwira Phonkoh, an official in the province’s special task force to help flood victims.
Some of the escapees are as much as 20 feet long. Experts from a Bangkok zoo have been asked to help in the search.
“The area is huge, and the big crocodiles are more skillful, and they can dive longer than small ones,” Suwira said.
