The Dalai Lama celebrated his 75th birthday today with hundreds of cheering followers in Dharmsala, northern India, which has been his home since he fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama said today that Chinese authorities rebuffed all his efforts to reach a compromise over Tibet and instead engaged in systematic repression as part of a plan to “annihilate Buddhism” there.

The Dalai Lama’s envoy claims that “concrete proposals” were made during talks between Tibet’s exile government and Chinese officials.

Runners carried the Olympic flame along a heavily guarded and cut down route through New Delhi today keeping Tibetan exiles and other protesters from disrupting the ceremony.

Chinese cheerleaders and Tibetan protesters greeted the Olympic flame today amid a massive security clampdown for the latest leg of the international torch relay in India, home to the world’s largest Tibetan exile community.

India’s football captain Bhaichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Beijing Olympic torch during its run in the capital New Delhi later this month in protest at Chinese authorities’ crackdown on protests in Tibet.

Dozens of Tibetan exiles burned an effigy of Chinese President Hu Jintao as they reached the Indian capital New Dehli today carrying a symbolic flame which they said would burn along with the official torch for the Beijing Olympic games.

Nearly 140 people have been killed in demonstrations and a crackdown by China’s government since protests against Chinese rule started in Tibet on March 10, the main Tibetan exile group said.

China today issued a “most wanted” list of 21 rioters pictured in Lhasa last week. Meanwhile thousands of troops continued to push into Tibetan areas of western China to contain unrest.

The main Tibetan exile group says Chinese police have killed about 100 Tibetan demonstrators and injured many more during protests against Chinese rule.

A group of more than 100 Tibetan exiles went on hunger strike today after being arrested in northern India during a march protesting China’s hosting of the Olympic Games, organisers said.

Police today detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles marching in northern India to Tibet in protest at China’s staging of the Olympic Games, organisers and officials said.

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles made preparations today for a six-month march from India to Tibet to protest against Beijing’s hold on the Himalayan region and China’s hosting of the Olympic games.

A judge who issued obscenity charges against Richard Gere for publicly kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has been transferred from his job, it was reported today.

Legal experts in India today ridiculed a court’s obscenity charges against actor Richard Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty for kissing in public.

A TIBETAN activist unfurled a Tibetan flag and then set himself on fire yesterday outside the Mumbai hotel where Chinese President Hu Jintao was courting Indian business leaders eager to boost trade between Asia’s emerging giants.

A Tibetan activist unfurled a Tibetan flag and then set himself on fire today outside the Mumbai hotel where Chinese President Hu Jintao was courting Indian business leaders eager to boost trade between Asia’s emerging giants.

Thousands of Tibetans living in India offered a special prayer today for the 70th birthday of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who said he was striving toward happiness as he marked the day.

A human rights group has claimed abuses by the Chinese authorities in Tibet have increased in the past year in a bid to break the people's loyalty to their exiled religious leader, the Dalai Lama.