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Tibetan exiles went to a prison here today to pay fines to release 18 Tibetan refugees, but they were too late: minutes earlier, two Chinese diplomats had arrived with a van preparing to forcibly carry the escapees back to Chinese-ruled Tibet.

Numerous women have over the years offered to marry the Dalai Lama, the celibate Tibetan spiritual leader told a German magazine. The exiled leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner told the weekly Die Welt am Sonntag, due to appear on

As a young monk, he studied Buddhist scriptures with the Dalai Lama. In 1959, he fled to India with Tibet's spiritual and political leader, after China occupied the country.

A Tibetan woman is dragged away by Nepalese police after throwing herself in front of a bus of carrying deportees to the border with China, in Kathmandu, May 31, 2003. Nepal deported 18 Tibetans to China on Saturday, the biggest group to be sent back for several years, bringing a strong rebuke from the United Nations refugee agency. (REUTERS/Nick Dawson)

Police in Nepal handed over 12 to 18 Tibetan refugees to Chinese authorities on Saturday in what activists said was a break with Nepal's past tolerance of Tibetans trying to leave their Himalayan territory.

Recent official surveys from the TAR and Qinghai - the latter province traditionally known to Tibetans as Amdo - reveal several startling results. Extreme poverty in the TAR, as measured by the official poverty line in China

Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, turns to photographers before the beginning of a discussion on 'Visions of Global Ethics' during the first German ecumenical church convention in Berlin, Germany Friday, May 30, 2003. With more than 200.000 participants, the ecumenical convention is the first of its kind and size to bring together members of Germany's predominant Catholic and Lutheran churches. The event, filled with music, lectures and discussions, will continue until June 1, 2003. (AP Photo/Franka Bruns)

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer reaffirmed Germany's "One-China" policy Friday during a meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying that Tibet is part of the People's Republic, a spokesman said.

Three disciples of a condemned Tibetan monk are urging China to throw out his suspended death sentence, saying the bombing charges against Tenzin Deleg Rimpoche were false, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets devotees upon his arrival to a gathering part of Germany's first Ecumenical Church Day in Berlin.(AFP-DDP/Michael Urban)