Three Japanese mountaineers including a well-known TV cameraman were found dead in an apparent avalanche in the Himalayas, the expedition’s leader said Thursday.

Taliban insurgents have freed 118 laborers they kidnapped in western Afghanistan last week, Taliban commanders and Afghan officials said on Friday.

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck southwestern Tibet on Thursday near the border with Nepal, close to an area hit late last month by a stronger quake that damaged hundreds of homes.

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck southwestern Tibet on Thursday near the border with Nepal, close to an area hit late last month by a stronger quake that damaged hundreds of homes.

The Dalai Lama denies he told a French newspaper that Chinese soldiers may have shot 140 Tibetan protesters this week, his office said Thursday.

Thousands of angry Tibetans staged anti-China protests in the capitals of India and Nepal on Thursday, with hundreds detained by baton-wielding police in Kathmandu, a day before the Olympic Games open in Beijing.

China on Thursday defended its decision to deport a Tibetan British woman this week, saying she was a key member of a pro-Tibet independence group and had engaged in unspecified illegal activities in the country.

Representatives of the Dalai Lama and China made no headway on the status of Tibet in talks this week, an envoy of the spiritual leader said Saturday, describing himself as “disappointed.”

An envoy of the Dalai Lama said on Friday the latest round of talks with China was “tough”, calling the dialogue ill-timed because Beijing was preoccupied with the Olympic Games.

Excusing himself from the banquet table, Liao Chunlei stood up, wine glass in hand, and belted out a traditional folk song with colleagues as his face turned red with drink.