Representatives of several Tibetan groups in exile say tensions remain high in Tibet. The groups say China has responded to the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the country with a military crackdown that has increased the climate of fear and intimidation faced by the Tibetan people.

President of the Geneva-based Tibetan U.N. Advocacy group, Ngawang Choepel, likens Tibet to a huge detention center.

“As the Dalai Lama said, it is like a death sentence has been passed upon the Tibetan people. Given these alarming developments and given the history of over 50 years of human rights violations by the Chinese authorities in Tibet, what we are asking today is for a high-level U.N. engagement with the Chinese authorities to stop these brutal crackdowns against the Tibetan people,” said Choepel.

At the current session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, a number of leading human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have presented reports on the deplorable human rights situation in Tibet.

Choepal says he is pleased by the amount of evidence presented in these reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearances. But, he adds, he is disappointed by the reports presented by several U.N. rights groups.

“For example, the report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has not highlighted the massive arbitrary detentions which took place in Tibet … Now concerning the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, again my own NGO submitted cases. But, this year, very, very little attention has been paid. And, we must not forget the case of the Panchan Lama of Tibet. His disappearance remains an outstanding case before the Working Group,” said Choepel.

Twelve years ago, the 11th Panchan Lama, then six years old, disappeared after the Dalai Lama nominated him to this position. He and his family have not been seen since. The Chinese authorities say they are well and do not want to be disturbed.

The Tibetan groups are asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay to lead a high-level inquiry into the situation of Tibetans. But, the prospects are not promising. They say requests to meet with the High Commissioner have gone unanswered.

Tibetan Groups Urgently Appeal for UN Intervention

But Hamas officials quickly rebuffed Mr Fayyad’s announcement, casting doubt on whether or not his gesture would help lead to reconciliation between the sides.

The main goal of such a government would be to end the current situation in which the militant Hamas movement rules the Gaza Strip and Fatah, considered more moderate and supported by the West, rules the West Bank.

”This government did not work for the sake of the Palestinians, it worked for its own agenda. This end was expected for a government that was illegal and unconstitutional,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Mr Fayyad was appointed as prime minister after a violent showdown between the factions in June 2007 in which Hamas seized control of Gaza.

Mr Fayyad said he was resigning in hopes that a unity government between the sides might follow.

The two factions held their first reconciliation talks last week and have agreed to form a caretaker government that would then lead to new elections for both the president and the parliament.

Even if the sides find a way to share power it is not clear the international community will be supportive. The European Union, for example, refused to directly aid the previous and short-lived Palestinian unity government after Hamas failed to adhere to several peacemaking principles, among them recognising Israel’s right to exist.

Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad resigns – Election Updates

Following General Batista Tagme Na Waie’s killing, soldiers murdered President Joao Bernardo Vieira earlier this week in an apparent reprisal in the West African nation.

“The general found, one week before his death, a hideaway in an army hangar with 200 kilogrammes of cocaine packed into four travel bags. He made a lot of effort to find out who had hidden the drug,” the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The chief of staff of Guinea-Bissau’s army was killed in a bomb attack Sunday at the military headquarters, three months after an assault on the presidential residence.

Guinea-Bissau soldiers gunned down the president as he fled his home Monday following the army chief’s death.

The country has become a notorious hub for South American cocaine being trafficked to Europe.

According to the officer, the general had told his staff to “do everything so that this affair is solved … we will never accept people hiding behind us to sully the military institution.”

He called for those responsible to be arrested, the source said.

The general had recently made enemies among drug traffickers, having carried out a seizure in May 2008 of a tanker truck carrying 10,000 litres of fuel, the source said.

According to the source, the fuel was meant to supply drug trafficking planes in the town of Cufar.

A month later, he discovered 60 barrels of fuel in a hangar on Bubaque, part of the Bijagos Islands off the country’s coast, the officer said.

The officer called bomb attacks such as the one that killed the general “unseen in Guinea-Bissau,” adding that “there is definitely an invisible hand” involved.

The bomb was placed under his office stairs and remotely activated just after the general arrived. Part of the building collapsed due to the blast.

Murdered GBissau general found 200 kilos of cocaine: officer

In comments on Wednesday, Hasina said that her own safety was also at risk, describing last week’s revolt by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards as “condemnable”.

Hasina said the 33-hour mutiny was part of a wider plot to destabilise the country.

“Conspiracies against Bangladesh are not over yet … the game is still on,” she said at a seminar speech later published on an online newspaper.

Arrests

About 9,000 border guards rose up against their superiors last Wednesday, with demands for better pay and work conditions.

On Tuesday, security forces arrested Touhidul Alam, who was assistant director of the BDR at the time of the revolt, on suspicion of organising the mutiny.

Alam, who led negotiations with Hasina that helped end the uprising, was arrested along with four other suspected mutineers in Dhaka, the capital.

Soldiers are still on the hunt for more than 1,000 BDR guards believed to be involved in the two-day mutiny.

The police have charged them with murder, arson and hostage-taking.

Coup fears

The large scale of the revolt has led to speculation that it was meant to destabilise the freshly elected government, raising fears over a possible coup in Bangladesh.

The mutiny ended after Hasina met a group of the border guard troops and threatened to put down their revolt by force.

She had earlier offered the mutineers an amnesty, but retracted the offer after it became known that the guards had resorted to large-scale killings of their seniors.

After the premier launched an investigation into the attacks, the army said on Tuesday that it was conducting its own independent probe, a move analysts say underlines tensions between the two.

The revolt came two months after Hasina’s Awami League won national elections, which themselves followed about two years of military rule.

Bangladesh PM fears more attacks

Mr Abhisit was due to make his first policy speech on Monday, but had to abandon the attempt.

Demonstrators loyal to the ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra blockaded the building.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said the police had been ordered not to use violence to clear the protesters and allow Mr Abhisit access.

“We don’t want to start our government’s work with violence,” he said.

But one of the leaders of the protest said that Mr Abhisit was free to enter the building.

“We still insist that the PM and parliament members should walk through us to get in. We guarantee their safety. By walking in, we can have a talk with him,” Chakrapob Penkhair told the Associated Press news agency.

Constitutional requirement

Protesters say Mr Abhisit – the third prime minister in four months – has no mandate to lead and should resign.

He was elected in a parliamentary vote two weeks ago, after a court dissolved the former government, seen as close to Mr Thaksin.

He now faces crowds of red-clad opponents on the streets who say they object to his route to power.

Some reports suggest that if the protests continue the speech – which was expected to outline measures to try to boost Thailand’s ailing economy – could even be put off until the new year.

Under the constitution, a new Thai government cannot start work officially until it delivers its policy statement to a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate.

Mr Thaksin was ousted from the prime minister’s job in a military coup in 2006, but elections in December 2007 under a new constitution returned his loyalists to power.

Several governments led by his supporters collapsed under the weight of court rulings against them.

Now his supporters are on the streets in moves to blockade parliament reminiscent of the protests mounted against them when they were in power.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Thai protesters maintain vigil

The police were targeted as they ringed a Christmas tree on the main Syntagma Square which has been a focus of demonstrations since the shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 6.

The tree was brought in last week after the original was torched at the height of unrest following the schoolboy’s death.

The trouble came on the fringe of an anti-racist demonstration by about 200 people in the capital.

“Migrants are killed, schoolchildren are killed,” said banners carried by the protesters who marched to the Greek parliament.

The march follows daily protests in Athens and other Greek cities over Grigoropoulos’s death that have often become violent.

Two hours later, more protesters threw a petrol bomb at a building housing a banking services company although there was only minor damage and the fire was quickly brought under control.

In the northern city of Thessaloniki, youths occupied a hall being used for a film festival while others pelted the city mayor with pastries , police said.

Masked youths Friday attacked the French cultural institute in Athens after about 1,000 students and communist activists staged a march to condemn a second shooting on Wednesday in which the son of a teacher’s union official was slightly wounded.

Protesters demanding justice over Grigoropoulos’s death continue to occupy hundreds of schools and many universities across Greece.

The Athens Polytechnic, site of a 1973 student uprising that hastened the fall of military dictatorship in Greece, is among the occupied campuses.

Athens Polytechnic students were to gather on the street corner in the Exarchia district, where Grigoropoulos was hit by a police bullet two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, German police on Saturday arrested 10 people and suffered four injuries in fighting with demonstrators staging a rally in Hamburg in support of the Greek protests, officials said.

About 1,300 police were mobilised to monitor the approximately 1,000 demonstrators who marched to the Greek consulate in the northern port city.

Police said some of the Hamburg demonstrators wore face masks and threw bottles and burning missiles at the police, two of whom needed hospital treatment.

Greece’s conservative government is under fire over the unrest, with unions putting extra pressure on the government ahead of a parliamentary vote Sunday on the budget.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has shrugged off opposition calls to resign. Last week he announced financial measures to support the business and tourism sectors hard-hit by the unrest.

Hundreds of shops and banks in Athens and elsewhere have sustained damage in street violence.

With trading gradually resuming, rumours are rife in the Greek media that Karamanlis will reshuffle his government which relies on a fragile single-seat majority in the 300-deputy parliament.

AFP:

One banner proclaimed “Resistance” in four languages while another called for mass demonstrations Thursday against the Greek government across Europe, The New York Times reported.

On Tuesday, demonstrators firebombed riot police headquarters in Athens and stormed a state television station to protest the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy on Dec. 6, Kathimerini reported Wednesday. A police officer was injured and six vehicles burned.

The protest has spilled onto school campuses, with an estimated 500 schools and dozens of universities under occupation by protesting students, the Greek newspaper said.

Meanwhile, a ballistics test on the bullet that killed Alexis Grigoropoulos and triggered the protests may contradict statements made by one of two police officers charged in the teen’s death, Kathimerini said. The results indicate the officer fired with his arm in the direction of the victim, not above Grigoropoulos’ head as a warning shot, which the officer claimed.

UPI.com

A group of about 10 youths got into the studio of NET state television and turned off a broadcast of a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, station officials said. The protesters forced studio cameras to instead show them holding up banners that read: “Stop watching, get out onto the streets,” and “Free everyone who has been arrested.” No one was hurt, and no arrests were reported.

NET chairman Christos Panagopoulos said the protesters appeared to know how to operate cameras and studio controls.

“This goes beyond any limit,” he said.

In the northern city of Thessaloniki, protesters made their way into three local radio stations, agreeing to leave only when a protest message was read out on the air.

Violence also broke out again after a two-day lull as masked youths attacked riot police headquarters in Athens and protesters clashed with police in Thessaloniki.

Police said 30 youths threw petrol bombs and stones at the riot police building, damaging seven cars and a police bus parked outside.

In Thessaloniki, riot police fired tear gas to disperse 300 youths throwing fruit and stones outside the city’s main court complex. The disturbance followed a court decision that found eight police officers guilty of abusing a student following riots two years ago.

Overnight, arsonists attacked three Athens banks with petrol bombs, causing extensive damage.

The fatal police shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Dec. 6 set off violence that led to more than 300 arrested and left hundreds of stores smashed and looted. Retailers say the damage will cost them euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) in lost income.

Protesters have called for riot officers to be pulled off the streets and for police to be disarmed. But the protests tapped into wider discontent with Karamanlis’ conservative government and there have been widespread calls for the government to revise its economic, social and education policies.

Higher education in Greece has come to a standstill. Lessons have stopped at more than 100 secondary schools that are under occupation by students, according to the Education Ministry. Scores of university buildings across Greece are also occupied.

Greece’s opposition Socialists, who are calling for early elections, accused Karamanlis of mishandling the crisis which they said had worsened the effects of the international economic downturn.

“Greeks are losing their patience. Their salary is running out before the end of the month as they endure a major economic crisis, and at the same time can see the state collapsing,” Socialist spokesman Giorgos Papaconstantinou said.

“People want answers to their problems, not speeches.”

Karamanlis insisted his government has acted “calmly and responsibly” in dealing with riots, avoiding the loss of life. But for the first time since the violence erupted, he acknowledged the public’s sense of frustration.

“Of course there are broader issues,” he said. “People experience a lack or merit, corruption in their daily lives, and a sense of social injustice.”

In Athens main Syntagma Square, Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis relaunched holiday celebrations after the city’s Christmas tree was torched by rioters last week.

A small group of protesters chanted slogans during tree-lighting ceremony, as hundreds of revelers looked on. The protesters, mostly students from various drama schools, handed out fliers that read: “Lavish storefront and Christmas Trees will not hide the reality.”

Yahoo! News

Police said a group of 30 youths threw petrol bombs and stones at the building, causing extensive damage to seven cars and a police bus parked outside. The central Athens building is also used by traffic police.

After a two-day lull, violence flared across Athens on Tuesday. Schoolchildren blocked streets and dozens of teenagers gathered outside the capital’s main court complex and a maximum security prison — where some threw stones at police. Similar protests were planned in other parts of town later in the day.

Protesters also briefly occupied a state NET television studio, and interrupted a news bulletin holding banners calling for mass participation in the demonstrations. Footage of a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was suddenly replaced by some 10 youths in the studio.

For more than a minute, they displayed banners reading: “Stop watching, get out onto the streets,” and “Free everyone who has been arrested.” NET offered no comment.

Protesters have called for riot officers to be pulled off the streets, for police to be disarmed and for growing social inequality to be resolved.

The focus of the protests is now shifting to high school students, who were shocked by the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in a police shooting and have also voiced concerns at government economic, social and education policies. Lessons have stopped at more than 100 secondary schools that are under occupation by students, according to the Education Ministry.

Scores of university buildings across Greece are also under occupation.

After the Dec. 6 shooting, furious youths smashed and burnt hundreds of shops in Athens’ main shopping area, and attacked riot police who responded with massive use of tear gas.

Dozens of people were injured in the rioting, while more than 300 people were arrested. The policeman accused of killing the teenager has been charged with murder and is being held pending trial.

In the northern port of Thessaloniki, riot police fired tear gas Tuesday to disperse some 300 youths throwing fruit and stones outside the city’s main court complex. The disturbance followed a court decision that found eight police officers guilty of abusing a student following riots two years ago.

The policemen received suspended sentences ranging from three years and three months for grievous bodily harm to 15 months for being an accessory to the abuse.

In a symbolic gesture meant to revive the festive mood in riot-shocked Athens, municipal authorities will light a large Christmas tree Tuesday on central Syntagma Square — which has been at the center of many of the past 11 days’ protests. The tree replaces one burnt during last week’s riots.

Overnight, unknown arsonists attacked three Athens banks with petrol bombs, causing extensive damage. There were no injuries or arrests. Every year, small anarchist groups carry out dozens of firebombings against government property, banks and diplomatic vehicles.

The Associated Press:

Around 100 hooded youths firebombed a station next to the Exarchia district where 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos died from a police bullet last Saturday night, with tear gas being fired in reply and officers in pursuit as the gang fled into dimly lit side streets.

At about the same time, similar numbers in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, vandalised a gymnasium before holing up behind university walls, beyond the reach of law enforcement.

Shortly afterwards, a police source also reported Molotov cocktails being hurled at three banks, igniting fires, near the Athens Polytechnic from where self-styled anarchist leaders say they are planning a sustained campaign.

Ministry of Environment premises and public property were also targeted under the Athens full moon, with bins set ablaze across the area, police added.

The fresh outbreak of hostilities followed largely silent ceremonies marking the moment Grigoropoulos was killed, and signalled that disaffected protesters may be in it for the long haul.

Greece has been gripped over the past eight days by a deep-rooted protest movement which has succeeded in uniting mainstream and radical youth and that the opposition socialists are seizing upon to press for fresh elections.

The lull during peaceful rallies led by several hundred mourners holding lit candles and posting messages on a wall by the spot where the boy fell, had followed overnight attacks on banks and more tense stand-offs with police.

Some 2,000 demonstrators — mainly Polytechnic students — had earlier squared up to police outside the Greek parliament on the eighth day of their dogged challenge to state authorities.

Police had blocked off the central Syntagma Square on Saturday afternoon after an initial sit-down protest by around 300 pupils from the school attended by Grigoropoulos.

With riot police staying well back at this stage, demonstrators held aloft a large banner at the rear bearing the inscription: “06/12/08, Alexis Grigoropoulos, I won’t forget.”

Student pamphlets also announced rallies planned in front of the Athens police headquarters on Monday and back at parliament square on Thursday, when school pupils and teachers are expected to support the protests.

About 2,000 youths also marched peacefully in Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, on Saturday afternoon, while later some 300 gathered in silence around the city’s White Tower monument.

Meanwhile, police had already identified five banks attacked using gas canisters in Athens overnight Friday — underlining the link between the crisis here and broader economic malaise.

A local party office operated by Greece’s ruling conservative party was also hit.

At each location, firefighters had to extinguish blazes even if — a running feature of the unrest — there were no victims.

The deeply held anger which has emerged within the lower end of the 15-24 age group, one quarter of whom nationally remain unemployed, could fester for months, if past Greek unrest is taken as a guide.

Saturday’s protests come after Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis dismissed opposition calls to quit while attending an EU summit in Brussels.

“At this time the country faces a serious financial crisis… a steady hand on the helm is needed to deal with it,” Karamanlis said. “That is my concern, that is the priority of the government, not scenarios about elections and successions.

“The compassion with which all of us ought to treat the distress of young people cannot be confused with blind violence, with the activities of extreme elements.”

The offices of lawyer Alexis Kougias, representing two policemen charged over Grigoropoulos’s death, have already been trashed, while elsewhere in Europe, demonstrators have blocked traffic on the Champs-Elysees in Paris with hundreds marching in Berlin to show solidarity.

The officer who shot Grigoropoulos says he killed the boy by accident out of self defence due to a bullet ricochet. A ballistics report, said to confirm that the handgun was not pointed at him, has yet to be released.

AFP: Greek violence reignites after vigils over boy’s death