Dalai Lama leave hospital, feels 'almost normal'

NEW DELHI - The Dalai Lama said Tuesday he was feeling much better after being treated in a New Delhi hospital for a pain in his left arm that doctors diagnosed as a pinched nerve.
The 73-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who underwent three hours of medical tests Monday, returned Tuesday to the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala, where he has his headquarters.
Speaking to reporters before his departure, the Dalai Lama said he was feeling "much better, almost normal."This treatment would not affect a visit to Italy and Germany, scheduled to begin Feb. 8, said Tenzin Takhla, his spokesman.
The Dalai Lama has had a number of health problems in recent months that have interrupted his busy schedule of international travel to teach Buddhism and highlight the Tibetan struggle for more freedom under Chinese rule.
The spiritual leader has lived in exile in Dharmsala since fleeing Tibet following a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule over the Himalayan region.
In October, he had surgery to remove gallstones, while in August he was admitted to a Mumbai hospital and underwent tests for abdominal discomfort. His aides said then he was in good condition, but doctors advised him to cancel a planned trip to Europe and rest, saying he was suffering from exhaustion.
Following March protests in Tibet, China has stepped up its campaign to vilify the Dalai Lama, accusing him of leading a campaign to split Tibet from the rest of the country.
The Dalai Lama has denied the allegations, saying he is only seeking greater autonomy for the region to protect its unique Buddhist culture.
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Dalai Lama resting after treatment: spokesman

NEW DELHI (AFP) — Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was resting in his home-in-exile Tuesday after being treated for a pinched nerve in hospital, his spokesman said.
"He is in residence, wearing a collar which has been prescribed," Tenzin Taklha told AFP.
The 73-year-old Buddhist monk had been rushed by air to New Delhi's Apollo hospital on Monday from his home in the northern hill town of Dharamshala after he complained of discomfort.
He was released the same day after being prescribed medication and spent the night in New Delhi recovering.
"He will resume his schedule tomorrow as audiences are lined up for religious discourses," said Taklha.
The Dalai Lama was admitted to a New Delhi hospital in October last year for keyhole surgery to remove stones from his gallbladder.
A similar health-related episode last August forced him to cancel regular engagements and be admitted to a hospital in Mumbai.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in Dharamshala since he fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Tibet official: Dalai Lama uninvited to World Winter Games

BOISE -- Did he decline or was he uninvited?Our exclusive story on the Dalai Lama’s omission from the 2009 World Winter Games sparks a response from the office of Tibet.The allegation is that political pressure from China led the Special Olympics to withdraw its invitation to the Dalai Lama -- an invitation to the opening ceremonies in Boise, which the Dalai Lama had already accepted.The president of Special Olympics International specifically denied that, indicating it was simply a scheduling conflict not a political problem, and that explanation is echoed by local organizers.(Related:Political pressure may be behind Dalai Lama’s canceled visit)But after our story aired Wednesday, the office of Tibet contacted us with its side of the story saying organizers kowtowed to pressure and threats from China.The Dalai Lama’s representative says he was uninvited in mid-December."The request was being made simply because there is strong Chinese pressure. Because they are threatening to boycott the whole Olympic Games," said Lobsang Nyandak, Dalai Lama representative. I think it is solely because of political pressure from the Chinese government that the visit has been canceled.”This does raise awareness, of course, about Tibet’s struggle for independence against China, but the Dalai Lama’s representative assured us there was no agenda here. He said the Dalai Lama had been looking forward to attending the games. We tried all day to reach those who still insist this was simply a scheduling conflict, but our calls to the Special Olympic International were not returned.

Questions for Mrs. Clinton

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of state, appears today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Op-Ed page asked 10 experts to pose the questions they would like to hear Senator Clinton answer.
1. United States policy has failed with respect to Israeli-Palestinian peace. The reluctance of any American president to act as an honest broker in the process, rather than as a strong, unquestioning friend of Israel, has contributed to this failure. How do you propose to bring success to the peace process?
2. There is clearly an imbalance of influence and power between the State Department and the Defense Department. An enormous shift of foreign policy influence has also occurred, since the era of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, from the State Department to the National Security Council staff and its head, the national security adviser. How do you propose to bring some of that influence back to the State Department?
— LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005
1. Does it benefit American security to have more liberal democracies in the world? If so, what steps would you take to advance this trend?
2. Do you believe that NATO enlargement has contributed to American security and moved former Soviet states toward greater democracy and regional cooperation?
— MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI, the president of Georgia
1. Some say “war on terror” is a misnomer that has led our policy astray. They argue that terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology or a cause, and that a war against it is bound to be ill focused and inconclusive. Do you think we should drop the term “war on terror,” and describe our policy more precisely as a war to defeat Al Qaeda and violent Islamic extremism?
2. In the Middle East, we see a paradox: Countries with pro-American governments like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have populations with high levels of anti-American sentiment. Meanwhile in Iran, whose government is hostile to the United States, public opinion of America is more favorable. How do you explain this, and what can we learn from it? Should the United States disentangle itself from autocratic regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt?
3. One of the most damaging legacies of the Iraq war is that it has given idealism and internationalism a bad name. How will you persuade the American people, and the world, that the United States can be a force for democracy and freedom?
— MICHAEL SANDEL, a professor of government at Harvard
1. Tibet may prove to be the most divisive issue between China and the West. There is a real possibility that China and the Obama administration will have friction or even a temporary diplomatic clash over Tibet. How will you treat this possibility? If Barack Obama is inclined to meet with the Dalai Lama, what will be your attitude? Might you or other senior members in the State Department meet with the Dalai Lama or other leaders of the Tibetan exile government?
2. Will you criticize strongly and frequently the status of human rights, religious freedom and public welfare in China? If so, how do you plan to deal with the angry reactions of the Chinese government — and of the Chinese people themselves? Do you think there is any truth to the argument that China is an “authoritarian success”?
— SHI YINHONG, a professor of international relations and the director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing
1. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson appointed William Jennings Bryan secretary of state for solely domestic political reasons. He needed but distrusted him, and thus relied on other advisers to conduct diplomacy. Have you read up on Wilson’s relationship with Bryan, and will it be relevant to your own situation?
2. In the past, you have taken different positions on Iraq. As secretary of state, which of these foreign policy positions are you likely to adopt? Will you be the hawk who voted to authorize the war, or the war critic who referred to reports of progress in Iraq as requiring a “willing suspension of disbelief?”

China Protests Sarkozy-Dalai Lama Meeting

By VOA News 07 December 2008
China has lodged a protest with France over a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.Chinese state media say Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei summoned the French ambassador in Beijing, Herve Ladsous Sunday to make the protest.The French president met the Dalai Lama Saturday in the Polish city of Gdansk, at a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.Chinese media say Deputy Foreign Minister He told the French ambassador the meeting damaged Sino-French and Sino-EU relations. France holds the rotating EU presidency.The Chinese official is quoted as saying the French president "grossly interfered" in China's internal affairs and hurt the feelings of Chinese people.Mr. Sarkozy has tried to play down the meeting.He said he told the Dalai Lama that it is important for the Tibetan spiritual leader to continue to pursue dialogue with the Chinese government. Mr. Sarkozy said the Dalai Lama reiterated a pledge not to demand independence for Tibet from China.A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday that France must, in his words, "correct its mistakes" to allow Sino-French relations to continue steady development.Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China and has long criticized foreign leaders for meeting with him. The exiled spiritual leader insists he only wants greater autonomy for Tibet.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

Dalai Lama urges EU to stand firm

By Oana Lungescu BBC News, Brussels

The Dalai Lama insists his goal is meaningful autonomy for his homeland
The Dalai Lama has urged the EU to stand firm on the issue of human rights in order to protect the long-term interests of the Chinese people.
Tibet's spiritual leader told the BBC that they wanted freedom of expression, a free media and the rule of law.
He also said he planned to reach out to the Chinese by meeting their writers and intellectuals in the coming months.
The Dalai Lama is due to address the European Parliament and meet the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, this week.
In response, the Chinese government has cancelled its annual summit with the EU, warning that the meeting would put relations at risk.
'Immense help'
The Chinese authorities call him a wolf in monk's clothing and a devil with a human face, hell-bent on breaking Tibet away from China.
The 73-year-old Dalai Lama insists his goal is meaningful autonomy for his homeland.
I'm quite sure it will be a new face in the White House but the same policy
Dalai Lama
He now wants to reach out to the Chinese people, by inviting Chinese writers and scholars to meet him in the next few months, at a location yet to be decided.
But he is also calling on Europe, Beijing's main trading partner, to stand firm on human rights.
"Our friends should take firm stand," he told the BBC. "That I think for the long run is an immense help to the Chinese people."
"[The] Chinese people also want freedom of expression, free media and rule of law," he added. "If you adopt an attitude of appeasement, in the long run [it is] in no-one's interest."
The Dalai Lama's European tour includes an address to the European Parliament, meetings with the Belgian and Czech prime ministers and with fellow Nobel Peace Prize-laureates like Poland's Lech Walesa.
Many Europeans also want the EU to support the Dalai Lama's efforts
But it is his planned talks with the President Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, at the weekend that has led China to scrap its annual summit with the bloc in an unprecedented sign of anger.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government warned the US to stop interfering in its affairs after President George W Bush called the Dalai Lama to inquire after his health.
The exiled spiritual leader said he would miss the outgoing president.
"I love Mr Bush - very straightforward, very nice person as a human being. But some of his policies, I don't know. In some cases, a little disaster!" he joked.
The Dalai Lama said he had met President-elect Barack Obama years ago and had kept in touch during the campaign.
On Tibet, he said: "I'm quite sure it will be a new face in the White House but the same policy."
As for his own future, the Dalai Lama said, with a typical giggle, that he was in no hurry to retire and hoped to remain Tibet's spiritual leader for another 10 or 15 years.

Taiwan president nixes Dalai Lama visit

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's president on Wednesday ruled out a visit to his island by the Dalai Lama, a gesture likely to please rival China, and give new impetus to rapidly improving relations across the volatile Taiwan Strait.
The comments by Ma Ying-jeou followed reports earlier this week that the Tibetan spiritual leader wants to come to Taiwan in 2009, in what would be his third trip to the island in the past 11 years.
A Dalai Lama visit would have incensed China, which accuses him of working to undermine Chinese authority in Tibet, a Chinese autonomous region. It would also have threatened Ma's hallmark policy of reducing tensions with Beijing, the centerpiece of his six-month old presidency.
Speaking to foreign reporters in Taipei, Ma said that while Taiwan generally welcomed religious leaders' visits to Taiwan, the Dalai Lama's desire to come to the island could not now be accommodated.
"I think at the current moment the timing isn't appropriate for that," he said.
Ma didn't elaborate, but in his remarks to the reporters, he stressed his desire to expand on the wide-ranging economic agreements reached between the sides during an historic visit to Taiwan by a senior Chinese envoy early last month.
Those agreements include the initiation of direct flights and shipping across the 100-mile- (160-kilometer-) wide Taiwan Strait, and the resumption of postal links, broken nearly 60 years ago when the two sides split amid civil war.
Taiwan and Tibet share similar histories. Both are territories that Beijing believes should be under its rule. Despite a failed 1959 uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile, China controls Tibet and has refused the Tibetan religious leader's demand for greater autonomy.