China Closing Tibet to Tourists

Tibet has been declared off-limits to foreign tourists as the anniversary of protests against Chinese rule nears. Dozens of people died in March 2008 when Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising, and many more are believed to have died in the ensuing crackdown. Chinese authorities, who blamed the protests on the Dalai Lama, insist there is no unrest in Tibet and that foreign tours have been suspended because of cold weather, the Guardian reports. (More Dalai Lama stories.)