A Tibetan farmer set himself on fire in remote north-west China today in the second such death near the Labrang Monastery in two days, a rights group said.

Chinese authorities have reversed their decision and will not send two elderly women to a labour camp after they applied for a protest permit during the Olympics, a human rights group said today.

Chinese authorities have received 77 applications from people who want to hold protests during the Beijing Olympics, but all were withdrawn, suspended or rejected, the state media said today.