How a black soldier killed an officer, disappeared into the Burmese jungle, and joined a tribe of headhunters.

Athletes in the Beijing Olympics should use the platform they provide to speak out against China's continued human rights abuses, according to John Amaechi, an ambassador for London's successful 2012 bid who today takes on a similar role with Amnesty International.

Amaechi, who was raised in Stockport but made his name at the pinnacle of American sport in the National Basketball Association, will travel to Beijing as Amnesty's official sporting ambassador.

He will attempt to highlight what Amnesty claims is China's failure to deliver on the human rights reforms promised when bidding for the games, and will press athletes to do likewise. Amaechi is also scheduled to provide commentary for the BBC while in Beijing, a platform that may allow him to speak out.

Speaking to the Guardian, Amaechi said that athletes with any doubts about the Chinese regime had a duty as Olympians to raise their concerns publicly.

"I would encourage athletes not to distract themselves by burying themselves in the nuance and facts and figures and legislation of China, but simply to acknowledge that being an ambassador for human rights in China is the most Olympian thing to do. Anything less than that is not being a true Olympian, no matter the colour of the medal that you hold up," he said.

The International Olympic Committee is acutely concerned about the prospect of athletes criticising China and will remind all teams of their responsibilities under the Olympic charter, which outlaws "propaganda". Earlier this year the British Olympic Association was forced to abandon a clause in its athletes contract that would have prevented competitors from speaking about political issues.

Amaechi, who last year became the first NBA star to come out as gay, contends that the Olympic charter compels athletes to take a moral stance. "I've read the Olympic charter and when you read it, it is quite clear that it expects from athletes something more than being hugely talented beasts of burden," he said.

"It expects that sport be more than entertainment of the masses. It demands that they are intended to be a tool for wholesale change in the lives of individuals and groups." He called on the IOC to do more to pressure China into reform. "If you have the power to make the world better then that's something you should do, particularly when it is directly in line with your charter. To ignore those ideals so as not to embarrass a host compromises the movement."

Amaechi's appointment as a sporting ambassador is a coup for Amnesty, which maintains that China has failed to deliver promised reforms to the use of the death penalty, the justice system, media freedoms and the right of ordinary Chinese to express dissent.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "Amnesty International is delighted John Amaechi has chosen to work with us. We hope John's involvement will help encourage fellow sportsmen, the Olympic authorities and the thousands of press due to descend on the games to take a closer look at the appalling human rights record of the Chinese authorities. It is only through public scrutiny that we can hope to achieve a lasting legacy of human rights for the people of China."

Here is Hitsville’s R. Kelly SexFacts™, a public service to the many, many folks who have written about R. Kelly but who seem to have been unaware of many of the, ah, pungent aspects of this story.

Or you can think of it all as R. Kelly’s Greatest Hits—”hits,” that is, in the sexual predator sense of the term.

The R. Kelly case started when Jim DeRogatis, the pop critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, and Abdon M. Pallasch, the paper’s legal reporter, wrote a 3000-word story detailing the Chicago star’s penchant for young girls. It was published way back in December 2000—the day before a sold-out Christmas concert by the singer at the city’s United centre!

The story detailed the first sex suit against Kelly, including the $250,000 out-of-court settlement that resulted. The pair also talked with a woman who said she’d had sex with Kelly as a 15-year-old, and even had sex with him and another girl. Accusations #’s 1 and 2!

According to the story, Kelly met the girls by hanging out with the choir at his old high school, the scamp!

A year later, DeRogatis received a phone call telling him to check his mailbox. In it was a videotape showing Kelly having sex with a young girl. The girl’s aunt identified her, and Kelly. In the tape, the singer called her by her first name; she called him “Daddy.” Accusation #3.

Besides a variety of sex acts, the girl urinates on the floor at “Daddy’s” direction. “Daddy” then urinates into her mouth.

After the tapes came to light, Kelly’s lawyer said this: “The fact is there is no tape of R. Kelly having sex. There have been reports in the media of different tapes, and none of them agrees with the other. If someone does say there is a tape out there, those claims are false—absolutely false.”

The lawyer hired San Francisco investigator Jack Palladino to find out who might be trying to smear Kelly’s name by, presumably, making and releasing a fake videotape!

The Chicago Tribune weighed in, too! Kelly was sued for an “indecent sexual relationship” in 2000 and 2001 with an Epic records intern, who was 17 at the time, the paper reported. (The story named the woman and quoted her attorney.) Kelly settled the matter out of court! Accusation #4.

According to the same story, the same lawyer settled a similar lawsuit that charged Kelly with having sex with yet another girl when she was a minor. (She was named as well.) Accusation #5.

A few months later, the original girl’s aunt, an R&B singer named Stephanie Edwards, who records under the name Sparkle and was once Kelly’s protege, again confirmed, this time in an LA radio interview, that the girl in the video was her niece, who was 14 at the time—and 12 when she met Kelly!

After the interview, the station’s program director said the station’s programmers were debating whether they should stop playing Kelly’s music.

In 1994, Kelly married a 15-year old girl. Married! Her name was Aaliyah Haughton; she was a singer and a protege of Kelly’s with whom, associates have said, he was having an affair. Without telling her what was going on, Kelly arranged an impromptu wedding at a suburban Chicago hotel and then swept her toward a plane. Fortunately, the girl called her parents. They came and got her and, articles have said, the pair never saw each other again. Accusation #6.

As rumors surfaced about the union, Kelly lied about it. But then Vibe magazine found a marriage certificate, on which Haughton’s age was listed as 18. The union was annulled a short time later. (Over the next six years or so Haughton, under the stage name Aaliyah, became a fairly big star before dying in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.)

Aaliyah was the niece of Kelly’s manager, Barry Hankerson.

Boy, wouldn’t you have liked to be a fly on the wall for that conversation? Hankerson must have really given it to Kelly!

Hankerson worked for Kelly another five years.

When the one girl tried to sue Kelly in Chicago, he filed a pre-emptive $30,000 suit against her, charging her with trying to blackmail him. He hired high-powered NY publicist Dan Klores—and got mentions of his lawsuit in several large papers.

The girl’s suit went unpublicized!

Reported the Chicago Sun-Times, several years later:

In 1998, Kelly picked up a 16-year-old girl at the so-called “Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonalds” in Chicago, just north of the Loop. They had an affair that lasted until she told him she was pregnant, GQ reported; one of Kelly’s associates drove her to the abortion clinic. Accusation # 7.

Kelly grew up on the South Side of Chicago. The profile of Kelly in GQ magazine says that “family members and early associates” said that Kelly had been abused by an older neighbourhood man as a child.

They also said he had tried to commit suicide as a youth, but covered up the story of the resulting bullet wound by saying some kids who had been trying to steal his bike shot him.

Associates of Kelly have said as well that he can barely read or do basic maths; he later confessed in a Vibe magazine story to being illiterate.

According to GQ, Kelly is estranged from his siblings and didn’t take care of his mother, who drove a beat-up car and could not pay her medical bills. After she died of cancer in 1997, Kelly declared that he had “found the lord”!

After the original Sun-Times story that revealed his pattern of preying on young girls, Kelly kept getting into trouble! The Chicago lawyer who handled the first four legal cases against Kelly represented at least one other victim as well. Accusation #8!

GQ also reported that Kelly’s personal hygiene left a lot to be desired; he could wear the same clothes for a week, the story said. Said one of his former assistants: “I could never understand the women. I’d be like, ‘How could you be with him when he stink like that?’”

Smelly Kelly!

The videotape that really got Kelly into trouble was described as “well lit” and “crystal clear” by those who have seen it. Originally, his contention was that it was not he in the video; that’s what he told the interviewers in a cozy chat on BET in 2002. More recently, his lawyer has said his contention will be that the woman on the tape wasn’t underage.

Hey, isn’t this all part of the glamorous world of the modern pop star? A British magazine seems to have been the only publication to have asked Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who broke the R. Kelly story originally, about what the tape was like. DeRogatis said:

In another interview, Kelly said:

After the video of him having sex with a 14-year-old came to light, according to GQ, Kelly grabbed his “spiritual advisor,” the Rev. James Meeks, of Chicago’s Rainbow Coalition, and went to a Chicago church to sing for kindergarteners.

There are actually three R. Kelly sex tapes! There’s the one with the girl that is at the centre of the case; another of an adult woman, who is suing Kelly for filming her without her knowledge; and a third of another young girl, who as yet has not been identified. Allegation #9.

On one of his CDs, Kelly thanks the girl who has been identified as being on one of his sex tapes. Kelly describes her as his “goddaughter”!

To R. Kelly, the oversight of a child’s religious upbringing is not complete until he’s urinated in her mouth.

And filmed it.

After Kelly was arrested for making that videotape, his label, Jive Records, released a statement that said: “R. Kelly has been with Jive Records for 11 years, and we fully support him and his music.”

Kelly’s manager, Barry Hankerson, left the singer’s employ in 1998, writing a letter telling Kelly’s label and associates that the singer “needed psychiatric help for his compulsion to pursue underage girls.” This was five years after Kelly married Hankerson’s underaged niece, the singer Aaliyah.

It’s fair to say, in this context, that Kelly’s behaviour must have hit a pretty high bar.

Kelly or his representatives have said a) that it is not he in the video; b) that it is he but that the video was faked; and c) that it is he but the girl is over 18. One suspects at the trial his attorney will at some point take refuge in a Maxwell Smartian, “Would you believe he has a long-lost twin brother….?”

In one of his infrequent interviews, this one on Primetime Live, Kelly was asked about these predilections. “For an older man to have sex with an underage girl—do you see that as immoral?” he was asked. “Rephrase the question,” Kelly said. The reporter said: “For an older man to have sex with an underage girl—someone under 17—do you see that as immoral, if they’re in love?” Kelly responded: “I really can’t be the judge of that.”

In an interview with Hip Hop Soul magazine, Kelly said, “I’m the Ali of today. I’m the Marvin Gaye of today. I’m the Bob Marley of today. I’m the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that came before us.” When asked about the quote by a British writer, he replied: “I’m not saying I’m Martin Luther King. I’m still surprised it got taken out of context like that. I’m inspired by those people, I want to be like them. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming.”

Kelly married in 1996 and has three kids. When Essence magazine asked his wife if she believed in the charges against Kelly, she said: “C’mon. Who would believe all that? That’s why they call them allegations.”

Later, his wife had a protection order taken out against him; she said he had hit her after she told him she wanted to leave him. She later rescinded it but later got the divorce.

In 2006, Kelly’s brother Carey went on a radio show, Vibe.com reported, and said R. Kelly had skimped on their mother’s tombstone, because she had refused to leave the siblings’ step-father: “This was the man who raised us when our dad walked away like a coward. My mom didn’t leave him, so when she died, her tombstone was only $500.” He also said Kelly was a bisexual, and had slept with a young relative. Allegation #10.

Another British interviewer wrote this after waiting six hours to talk to the singer: “[Kelly] circumnavigates every subject listlessly but a question about God catches his attention and he comes to life and launches into long, rambling answers, even if they bear only a vague relation to the questions. He never takes his dark glasses off. It is one of the most intriguingly bonkers 20 minutes I have ever spent with a celebrity, beating encounters with Stevie Nicks, Geri Halliwell, Yoko Ono and both Beckhams.”

R. Kelly on love: “You come to appreciate love more when you in love. Just as you like cereal until you come to your favourite kind of cereal and then you can appreciate cereal even more now, you know?”

Many of Kelly’s associates have been quoted saying they thought he was sick, or had an uncontrollable compulsion to have sex with young girls. Perhaps the strongest evidence of this is that, while already under indictment for filming himself having sex with a child, he was found to have in one of his houses a digital camera with new photos of him having sex with an underaged girl. Allegation #11.

One suspects that many six year olds, having been caught with one illicit chocolate chip cookie, would proceed posthaste to do away with another they had hidden underneath their pillow. Kelly, who associates have said is illiterate, can’t do simple maths, and has an, um, redolent disdain for personal hygiene, also seems kinda dumb! The search that produced the camera was later disallowed by a judge, so Kelly was never prosecuted for those photos.

After the notorious videotape came to light, R. Kelly’s longtime publicist, Regina Daniels, had this to say when asked about the child sex charges: “There are a lot of people who are very much a player-hater of Robert. . . . All I can go by is the years that I’ve worked with him and what I’ve seen. I’m not saying anybody is beyond doing what I don’t see, but I’m not looking under the covers with him. All I know is that he has presented himself to me to be a respectable person and that is what I can go by.”

(Emphasis added.)

If Daniels had looked under his covers, she might have found someone she recognized. Daniels quit earlier this year after discovering that Kelly was shtupping her daughter.

The daughter, thank goodness, was 21 at the time.

After she left, Kelly’s camp had this to say:

On this, you have to agree with him.

A band played "Hey Jude," a Beatles hit, as McCartney walked on stage to accept the honorary degree.

Yale University President Richard Levin evoked some of the songwriter's most memorable lines. "Here, there and everywhere," Levin said, quoting a line from a Beatles song, "you have pushed the boundaries of the familiar to create new classics. We admire your musical genius and your generous support of worthy causes."

Air quality in the capital was rated as "heavily polluted" due to a sandstorm from Mongolia, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said on its website. Just how sand is considered "pollution" is something only the CCP can explain, but then this is a country that considers dolphins fish.

Beijing's pollution has already proved a major concern for athletes, with twice Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, pulling out of the men's marathon out of concern for his health.

In addition to shutting down high polluters within city limits, Beijing has demanded five surrounding provinces scale back or stop production to ensure blue skies hang over Olympic venues for the Games in August.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that some endurance events might have to be shifted if the air quality is not good enough and the earlier they know about that possibility, the easier it is to re-schedule. There are also concerns that rain, which is common in early August in the Chinese capital, might ruin the opening ceremony at the roof-less Bird's Nest National Stadium on August 8.

Well you know it was very interesting because at first, you know, I am not happy about the ways the Chinese were treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don’t like THAT.

And I had been this, you know, concerned about, oh how should we deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine.

And all these earthquake and stuff happened and I thought: IS THAT KARMA... when you are not nice that bad things happen to you?

And then I got a letter, from the Tibetan Foundation that they want to go and be helpful. And that made me cry. And they ask me if I would write a quote about that and I said, “I would.” And it was a big lesson to me, that some times you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who are not nice to you. And that’s a big lesson for me...

Comparing Bush's diplomatic advice with a lesson from the past Nathan Thrall and Jesse James Wilkins argue that President John F. Kennedy’s disastrous summit meeting with Nikita S. Khrushchev was a result of the president’s naïve rush to meet with an enemy leader.

IN his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy expressed in two eloquent sentences, often invoked by Barack Obama, a policy that turned out to be one of his presidency’s — indeed one of the cold war’s — most consequential: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Kennedy’s special assistant, called those sentences “the distinctive note” of the inaugural.

They have also been a distinctive note in Senator Obama’s campaign, and were made even more prominent last week when President Bush, in a speech to Israel’s Parliament, disparaged a willingness to negotiate with America’s adversaries as appeasement. Senator Obama defended his position by again enlisting Kennedy’s legacy: “If George Bush and John McCain have a problem with direct diplomacy led by the president of the United States, then they can explain why they have a problem with John F. Kennedy, because that’s what he did with Khrushchev.”

But Kennedy’s one presidential meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, suggests that there are legitimate reasons to fear negotiating with one’s adversaries. Although Kennedy was keenly aware of some of the risks of such meetings — his Harvard thesis was titled “Appeasement at Munich” — he embarked on a summit meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961, a move that would be recorded as one of the more self-destructive American actions of the cold war, and one that contributed to the most dangerous crisis of the nuclear age.

Senior American statesmen like George Kennan advised Kennedy not to rush into a high-level meeting, arguing that Khrushchev had engaged in anti-American propaganda and that the issues at hand could as well be addressed by lower-level diplomats. Kennedy’s own secretary of state, Dean Rusk, had argued much the same in a Foreign Affairs article the previous year: “Is it wise to gamble so heavily? Are not these two men who should be kept apart until others have found a sure meeting ground of accommodation between them?”

But Kennedy went ahead, and for two days he was pummelled by the Soviet leader. Despite his eloquence, Kennedy was no match as a sparring partner, and offered only token resistance as Khrushchev lectured him on the hypocrisy of American foreign policy, cautioned America against supporting “old, moribund, reactionary regimes” and asserted that the United States, which had valiantly risen against the British, now stood “against other peoples following its suit.” Khrushchev used the opportunity of a face-to-face meeting to warn Kennedy that his country could not be intimidated and that it was “very unwise” for the United States to surround the Soviet Union with military bases.

Kennedy’s aides convinced the press at the time that behind closed doors the president was performing well, but American diplomats in attendance, including the ambassador to the Soviet Union, later said they were shocked that Kennedy had taken so much abuse. Paul Nitze, the assistant secretary of defense, said the meeting was “just a disaster.” Khrushchev’s aide, after the first day, said the American president seemed “very inexperienced, even immature.” Khrushchev agreed, noting that the youthful Kennedy was “too intelligent and too weak.” The Soviet leader left Vienna elated — and with a very low opinion of the leader of the free world.

Kennedy’s assessment of his own performance was no less severe. Only a few minutes after parting with Khrushchev, Kennedy, a World War II veteran, told James Reston of The New York Times that the summit meeting had been the “roughest thing in my life.” Kennedy went on: “He just beat the hell out of me. I’ve got a terrible problem if he thinks I’m inexperienced and have no guts. Until we remove those ideas we won’t get anywhere with him.”

A little more than two months later, Khrushchev gave the go-ahead to begin erecting what would become the Berlin Wall. Kennedy had resigned himself to it, telling his aides in private that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.” The following spring, Khrushchev made plans to “throw a hedgehog at Uncle Sam’s pants”: nuclear missiles in Cuba. And while there were many factors that led to the missile crisis, it is no exaggeration to say that the impression Khrushchev formed at Vienna — of Kennedy as ineffective — was among them.

If Barack Obama wants to follow in Kennedy’s footsteps, he should heed the lesson that Kennedy learned in his first year in office: sometimes there is good reason to fear to negotiate.

On the other hand...

Nathan Thrall and Jesse James Wilkins argue that President John F. Kennedy’s disastrous summit meeting with Nikita S. Khrushchev was a result of the president’s naïve rush to meet with an enemy leader.

There was another factor — Kennedy may well have been high on amphetamines.

As Lawrence K. Altman and I reported in The New York Times on Dec. 4, 1972, Kennedy was accompanied to the summit by Dr. Max Jacobson, a physician who routinely injected the stimulant into many prominent figures.

Dr. Jacobson told us that he injected Kennedy there. White House records confirm that the doctor was on that trip. It is not certain that the shots contained “speed,” but Dr. Feelgood, as patients called him, is known routinely to have mixed amphetamines into his potions.

The drug causes not only feelings of euphoria but also an exaggerated sense of power and superiority.

The Chinese government has a chance to show the world that it is a worthy host of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But as August approaches, a crackdown in Tibet is taking place. In response to this spring’s demonstrations against Chinese misrule in Tibet, thousands of Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns have been detained. More than a hundred have reportedly been killed. Tibetans are risking their lives to get their message out of Tibet. On March 27, 2008, during a State-organized journalists’ trip to Lhasa, monks at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple initiated a spontaneous protest on camera and in front of security personnel. On March 29, Tibetans also began a protest related to a tightly controlled visit to Lhasa by foreign diplomats. The Chinese government response continues to be very harsh. A Tibetan woman in Ngaba County died on May 5 after being subjected to brutal torture by Chinese prison guards, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. On May 7, thousands of Chinese armed police raided Labrang Monastery and arrested 140 monks. These are but a few of the many incidents that have occurred in Tibet since the beginning of March. With the Olympics less than 80 days away, Tibet needs your help. Take action now! 1) Petition world leaders not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The International Campaign for Tibet is participating in a global effort to encourage world leaders not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. World leaders can make this important political gesture in support of human rights and the people of Tibet. While the Olympics are an international sporting event, there is a clear distinction between the Chinese government’s opening day extravaganza and the sporting competitions that follow. We urge world leaders to use their attendance at the opening ceremony as political leverage to press for positive change in China. Click here to sign this petition. 2) Petition the International Olympic Committee to cancel permission for the Olympic Torch Relay in Tibet. With complete disregard for the tension in Tibet, the Chinese government still intends to take the Olympic torch through the region. This is likely to provoke new demonstrations and intensify the crackdown. We do not wish to see any more Tibetans imprisoned or killed. The Olympic Games are an international sporting event. The Olympic torch is a symbol of peace. Neither the torch nor the Games belong to Beijing, but to the citizens of the world, including the Tibetan people. It is in their name that we call for the IOC to re-route the Olympic Torch and avoid further crackdown in Tibet. Click here to sign this petition. 3) Inform your friends, family, and colleagues. Help us reach our goal of 500,000 signatures for both petitions! We need to have a big impact over the next 80 days, and now is the time to act. Please inform as many people as possible, and help make an impact for Tibet. Click here to forward 4) Support Tibet by making a donation. Every dollar will help us to meet the extraordinary costs of working on many fronts to improve the situation for Tibetans as only ICT can in these decisive months before the Olympic Games. Click here to make a gift securely online. The critical moment for Tibet is now. Together, I know we can play an important role in shaping its future. Sincerely, John Ackerly President

The Chinese government has a chance to show the world that it is a worthy host of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But as August approaches, a crackdown in Tibet is taking place. In response to this spring’s demonstrations against Chinese misrule in Tibet, thousands of Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns have been detained. More than a hundred have reportedly been killed. Tibetans are risking their lives to get their message out of Tibet. On March 27, 2008, during a State-organized journalists’ trip to Lhasa, monks at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple initiated a spontaneous protest on camera and in front of security personnel. On March 29, Tibetans also began a protest related to a tightly controlled visit to Lhasa by foreign diplomats. The Chinese government response continues to be very harsh. A Tibetan woman in Ngaba County died on May 5 after being subjected to brutal torture by Chinese prison guards, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. On May 7, thousands of Chinese armed police raided Labrang Monastery and arrested 140 monks. These are but a few of the many incidents that have occurred in Tibet since the beginning of March. With the Olympics less than 80 days away, Tibet needs your help. Take action now!   1) Petition world leaders not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The International Campaign for Tibet is participating in a global effort to encourage world leaders not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. World leaders can make this important political gesture in support of human rights and the people of Tibet. While the Olympics are an international sporting event, there is a clear distinction between the Chinese government’s opening day extravaganza and the sporting competitions that follow. We urge world leaders to use their attendance at the opening ceremony as political leverage to press for positive change in China. Click here to sign this petition. 2) Petition the International Olympic Committee to cancel permission for the Olympic Torch Relay in Tibet. With complete disregard for the tension in Tibet, the Chinese government still intends to take the Olympic torch through the region. This is likely to provoke new demonstrations and intensify the crackdown. We do not wish to see any more Tibetans imprisoned or killed. The Olympic Games are an international sporting event. The Olympic torch is a symbol of peace. Neither the torch nor the Games belong to Beijing, but to the citizens of the world, including the Tibetan people. It is in their name that we call for the IOC to re-route the Olympic Torch and avoid further crackdown in Tibet. Click here to sign this petition. 3) Inform your friends, family, and colleagues. Help us reach our goal of 500,000 signatures for both petitions! We need to have a big impact over the next 80 days, and now is the time to act. Please inform as many people as possible, and help make an impact for Tibet. Click here to forward  4) Support Tibet by making a donation. Every dollar will help us to meet the extraordinary costs of working on many fronts to improve the situation for Tibetans as only ICT can in these decisive months before the Olympic Games. Click here to make a gift securely online. The critical moment for Tibet is now. Together, I know we can play an important role in shaping its future. Sincerely, John Ackerly President

The Dalai Lama received an honorary doctorate for promoting global peace

The Tibetan spiritual leader has received an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University for "promoting peace globally".

The Dalai Lama was in London at the start of a 10-day visit to the UK.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not receive him at 10 Downing Street but is due to meet him with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace on Friday.

Protests at his visit are expected from a variety of groups, with Scotland Yard having planned "appropriate" policing.

The Tibetan spiritual leader will address Parliament and give evidence on human rights to a parliamentary committee during his trip.

Territorial dispute

Demonstrators are expected to target his speech at the Albert Hall on Thursday and his meeting with Mr Brown at the end of the week.

The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile is also due to meet Conservative leader David Cameron, teach in Nottingham and receive an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University.

The visit, and particularly questions over where and whether he should meet Mr Brown, has proved controversial.

China and Tibet have long disagreed over the status of Tibet, and China sent troops into the region to enforce a territorial claim in 1950.

The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile have been based in India since fleeing Tibet nine years later.

Anti-China protests led by Buddhist monks began in the capital Lhasa on 10 March this year and gradually escalated into rioting.

The demonstrations took place after the anniversary of the 1959 uprising and ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

China says at least 19 people were killed by the rioters, but Tibetan exiles say dozens of people were killed by the Chinese security forces as they moved to quell the unrest.

Beijing says the Dalai Lama incited the violence, which he denies and accuses the Chinese government of human rights abuses.

China says Tibet has officially been part of the Chinese nation since the mid-13th Century and so should continue to be ruled by Beijing.

Many Tibetans disagree, pointing out that the Himalayan region was an independent kingdom for many centuries, and that Chinese rule over Tibet has not been constant.

In London, worshippers of 17th-Century monk Dorje Shugden are due to protest during the Dalai Lama's visit, saying they want the freedom to practise their worship.

The Dalai Lama has rejected worship of Dorje Shugden, saying it is an evil force. However, the Western Shugden Society says it is a 400-year-old Buddhist practice.

Another group, Avaaz, is asking activists to join a three-mile "human chain handshake" on Thursday, ending outside the Chinese Embassy, to promote dialogue between China and Tibet.

• conning airlines into flying him and a camera man for free to disaster sites
• staging fake rescues for still photographs and videos
• fabricating letters of thanks from people he claims to have saved
• faking injuries at disaster sites in order to receive financial compensation

Burma newspaper, The New Light Of Myanmar, vaguely mentioned the cyclone this week. But had way more on Man Utd's league win and a story on “BBC Admits to holding on to charity money.”

Wei Jingsheng and IFCSS call for cancellation or curtailment of the Olympics

This has clearly been a very troubled year for China. Immediately before Chinese New Year, the worst snowstorms in 50 years paralysed travel, cut off power and supplies, and created a refugee crisis. Soon thereafter, demonstrations in Tibet turned deadly and led to a clamour of international condemnation and calls for boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games, scheduled to start in Beijing, China on August 8. The clamour about human rights re-opened the issues of Chinese involvement in Sudan's Darfur genocide, and support for the regime in Burma. Burma itself experienced Cyclone Nargis on May 2 and 3 this month, killing perhaps 100,000 people.

Now China has experienced the Sichuan earthquake of May 12, 2008 which is their largest earthquake since 32 years ago, when the Tangshan earthquake killed over 240,000 people. The 2008 death toll is now estimated at 50,000 and may still rise further. Over 4 million homes are thought to be damaged or destroyed.The political fallout of these disasters

In the wake of the earthquake disaster, Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng has already called for the cancellation of the Olympics. IFCSS has called for the Olympic torch relay to be curtailed, because it is set to go through the disaster area between now and the Olympics. Both Wei and the IFCSS have also suggested that "less is more" for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It is true that Olympic opening ceremonies are ostentatious displays of conspicuous consumption, and that advocates for disaster victims now want Olympic resources to be diverted into relief and recovery efforts, which are sure to be costly in the affected areas.

For most Chinese, when they hear in the news of government spending in preparation for the Olympics (35 or 40 billion dollars), one thing that they know for sure is that those sums of money are not hitting their pockets. It is an enormous amount of government spending -- some would say waste -- and, it is not going to them. At a time when China needs humanitarian relief, the Olympic spending breeds resentment. The Chinese government is also the butt of grumbling on four more earthquake-related issues.

First, some people feel that the government could have predicted the quake and provided warning to residents. Chinese officials were able to predict and warn residents in Haicheng to evacuate, one day in advance of its earthquake in 1975. In advance of this year's quake, a self-described seismologist posted a warning on the Internet, but government officials dismissed the post as rumour. It said, "I predict China will have an earthquake on May 12, 2008. The approximate location will be in the middle of Sichuan and Hubei, though all China may feel the tremors." Now, angry bloggers are expressing sentiments such as- "Why should we tax-payers spend money on you high officials in the National Seismology Bureau? The head of the National Seismology Bureau should resign from his position." Another blogger, less polite, said "The China Earthquake Administration should die."

Second, it is very suspicious when a new building collapses while older buildings around it stand. A report in the Globe and Mail cites a local construction worker with knowledge about the Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan, which collapsed upon 900 students. "Local officials... pocketed money that was budgeted for the school, while a private construction company had saved money by cutting corners on the project....To boost its profits, the company used iron instead of steel in many parts of the construction of the building. It cut back on the size and number of steel braces in the cement foundation slabs. And it used cheap materials to make the concrete walls, weakening the entire structure. The supervising agencies did not check to see if it met the national standards."

Third, the occasion of this earthquake is bringing renewed attention to China's "one child per couple" policy. It is a hideous policy which has led to human rights abuses such as forced abortions and sterilizations -- and steep fines for families which are out of compliance. The children killed in this earthquake tend to be "only" children, meaning that they are the entire progeny of their parents. Western news reports have highlighted the cruelty of this situation, and the earthquake will lead to calls for ending the one child policy, as well they should.

Fourth, the government is in trouble with the Chinese democracy movement. At the China Support Network, Director Emeritus John Kusumi phrased it this way-- "Premier Wen Jiabao visited the disaster area, and promised that 100,000 troops would be used in the relief efforts. That's remarkable, because when it was time to shoot unarmed protesters out of Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the government called out 300,000 troops. Let's compare these numbers, 100,000 versus 300,000. Tiananmen's massacre took three times as many troops! So now, we can see the government's priorities. Today's disaster is important, but only one-third as important as stopping democracy and free speech! And, if the government has the capacity to call out 300,000 troops, it suggests that two-thirds of them are idle right now. Have they got their feet on the desk while China reels from disaster?"

"In imperial China, earthquakes traditionally signaled the end of a corrupt dynasty. This earthquake has done no favors for the corrupt regime of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The people have growing anger, and lower expectations, for the CCP on the basis of this, the latest in a long sequence of Chinese disasters." Kusumi has been scheduled to give one or more speeches in New York City this weekend, at which time he can highlight these issues.

1. China, 2008, after earthquake, paranoid Communist government: "China expresses welcome and gratitude for the earthquake relief aid from the international society, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said here Tuesday at a regular press conference.... [China has] opened special channels for receiving foreign aid. China welcomes aid from international society and is willing to keep contacts with foreign nations and organizations, [an official] said." (Xinhua)

2. Myanmar (Burma), 2008, after cyclone, military dictatorship: "Burmese officials are still denying U.S. emergency help for hundreds of thousands of people in dire need of help in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.... Burma has allowed some Asian neighbours -- such as Thailand and India -- to help. But its ruling junta apparently fears other nations may take advantage of the situation for nefarious reasons." (CTV.ca)

3. Gulf Coast, United States of America, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Bush Administration: "In separate Washington press briefings, both the White House and State Department spokesmen this week downplayed the Cuban government's offer to send some 1,600 medics, field hospitals and 83 tons of medical supplies to ease the humanitarian disaster.... White House spokesman Scott McClellan scorned the Cuban proposal last Thursday when asked if the president would consider accepting the Cuban help." (NBC)

A paranoid and inept U.S. government resembling the oppressive Burmese military junta and actually making China's government look open by comparison: just one more reason for us all to get to the polls in November, regardless of how our candidates fared in the primaries.

As the death toll in China's Sichuan province climbs, the nation’s bloggers have joined together in the search for a scapegoat.

Broadband connections across the country are pulsing with rumours of "earthquake omens" involving toads or butterflies - all allegedly ignored by the authorities. Some even talk of a vast pre-Olympic conspiracy.

One blogger from Shandong province, in eastern China, wrote that more than a month ago, he went to his local earthquake resesarch centre several times to report that his animals had been disturbed and restless.

But, he wrote: "They not only ridiculed me, they accused me of making up stories."

Other blogs link to Chinese newspaper reports of bizarre natural occurrences in the past few weeks.

The Chutian Metropolis Daily reported that on April 26, 80,000 tonnes of water suddenly drained from a large pond in Enshi, Hubei province. The province shares a border with Chongqing Municipality, which was devastated by the earthquake on Monday.

On May 10, a Sichuan-based newspaper, the West China Metropolis Daily, reported that hundreds of migrating toads descended upon the streets of Mianyang, the second largest city in the province which neighbours Wenchuan County, the epicentre of the earthquake.

The Chinese state news agency reported today that 18,645 people were buried under the city's collapsed buildings and 3,629 people confirmed dead.

In the city of Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicentre, bloggers pointed to reports just weeks before the earthquake of a mass migration of more than one million butterflies.

Other bloggers seized upon an as yet unsubstantiated rumour that a Chinese geologist had predicted the earthquake in advance but had been stifled by the authorities, and by fear.

"On the seventh of May, a geologist predicted this [earthquake]," wrote one blogger. "But he didn't dare make it public."

Another blogger from Beijing wrote: “Everyone is talking about the rescue effort but they are not actually joining it.

“So, instead we should turn our thoughts to why [the authorities] didn’t forecast the earthquake and evacuate the people...

“Could it be that it was out of a desire for a peaceful Olympics?”

In an editorial in the Southern Metropolis Daily, the established journalist and commentator, Chang Ping, cited the growing tide of rumours and speculation surrounding the earthquake as evidence of the need for greater freedom of information in China.

He wrote: “As the phone lines went down, rumours multiplied...I understood that the vast majority of this information could not be verified and that the police regarded it as the transmission of rumours punishable by criminal detention.

“But as someone with relatives in the affected area, I could not stop myself from seeking whatever information I could ...”

He added: ”The information was clearly unreliable, and it was difficult to tell what was true or false.

“Together it all spoke of a single problem, and that is the people’s fierce appetite for information when faced with a public incident.”