CHINA: Chinese authorities have foiled plots to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks around the Beijing Olympics, police said yesterday, in a fresh blow to the image of harmony China has sought to promote before the games.
The European Parliament, meanwhile, voted for a possible boycott by EU leaders of the Olympics opening ceremony if China fails to talk to the Dalai Lama, raising pressure on Beijing over its handling of unrest in Tibet and neighbouring areas.
Authorities in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang detained 45 suspects and seized explosives and firearms in an operation a police spokesman said cracked two terrorist groups seeking to disrupt the Olympics.
"We are facing a real terrorist threat. All walks of life and the public should maintain a high degree of vigilance," police spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference.
China has heightened security in advance of the games, which start on August 8th, following a rash of anti-Beijing unrest in Tibet and neighbouring areas.
US president George Bush and other western leaders face a delicate balancing act as calls mount for them to boycott the games' opening ceremony.
China said British prime minister Gordon Brown was never expected to attend the opening ceremony, but would be at the closing ceremony.
Indonesia will shorten its leg of the torch relay on April 22nd in Jakarta following a request by Beijing over security concerns, a sports official said yesterday.
The path the torch takes on May 2nd in Hong Kong, its first stop in China, will also be curtailed "to avoid embarrassing scenes", Hong Kong's South China Morning Postreported.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the torch relay faced a crisis and athletes around the world were in disarray, but he was confident the Olympics would rebound and urged competitors not to lose faith.
China's ambassador to the US condemned a purported attempt to disrupt the US leg of the relay, saying such "disgusting" conduct was doomed to fail.
"A tiny group of people ignored the spirit of the Olympic charter and tried to disrupt and sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games," the official Xinhua news agency quoted ambassador Zhou Wenzhong as saying. He did not elaborate on the purported plot.
For its part, Tibet's government-in-exile said it was not trying to disrupt the torch relay, and the Dalai Lama said he had asked Tibetans in San Francisco not to be violent, reiterating his support for the Beijing games.
Protests led by monks gave way to riots in Lhasa on March 14th, sparking demonstrations in other Tibetan-populated areas which China has suppressed with a flood of troops.
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said Tibet had figured prominently in talks with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao yesterday. Mr Rudd said his government believed there were "significant human rights problems" in Tibet that should be resolved through dialogue.
But he indicated that Mr Wen and other Chinese officials had showed no wavering from their public stance to date.
Speaking in New Delhi, Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said it was open to a dialogue, and Beijing was sending signals through "all kinds of channels".
"But they are mixed signals. We are not able to understand," he said.