By Andrew Luck-Baker BBC Radio 4, Palau

Dense rafts and slicks of pink coalesced all around the boat

The annual mass spawning of corals on the Palau archipelago in the western Pacific has occurred right on cue.

With Sunday night's full moon, coral polyps let forth a huge swathe of sperm and egg, to seed the next generation.

The event was short-lived - only about 30 minutes - but so vast in its scale that it turned the sea water pink.

Scientists from Palau, Australia and the UK are studying the practicality of collecting coral larvae to help restore damaged reefs elsewhere.

See what a mass spawning at Palau looks like (Reefvid.org)

2008.04.18

Grace Wang was interviewed by RFA/Cantonese reporter Ho Shan in her dorm room, at Duke University, on April 17.

WASHINGTON—The Chinese student who sparked outrage among Chinese nationals who say she sided with Tibetans at a Duke University campus protest says a public apology letter purportedly written by her father is a fake.

“That wasn’t written by them. I have been in touch with my parents. They told me very clearly that it wasn’t written by them,” Grace Wang, 20, from Qingdao, told RFA’s Mandarin service. “I don’t know who wrote it.”

“I’m sure. They were very clear about that. They also said they knew I would never do anything to betray my country,” Wang said. “They said that they were just lying low, waiting in silence for the coming of spring, as it were, until everyone had calmed down a bit and could take a different view of the matter.”

Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 PM BST

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By Eric Olsen

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama on Sunday urged the world to work for a sustainable planet while pro-China demonstrators accused him of lying about the turmoil in his homeland.

There were no arrests among the 300 to 400 people who showed up outside his speech at a University of Michigan sports arena where the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader spoke to about 8,300 people in an Earth Day-themed lecture.

The demonstrators repeatedly chanted "Dalai Liar!" and cheered when a plane circled overhead trailing a large banner reading "Dalai Please Stop Attacking Olympic Flame."

The vast majority of the demonstrators appeared to be of Chinese ancestry and wore white shirts emblazoned with "Support Beijing Olympics 2008" and red shirts printed with the Chinese flag.

"Tibet Belongs to China and So Do I" read one sign in the crowd.

Beijing has accused the 72-year-old Dalai Lama of being behind March 14 riots in Lhasa and unrest that followed in other ethnic Tibetan areas, as part of a bid for Tibetan independence and to ruin the coming Olympic Games.

The Dalai Lama has said he wants autonomy for Tibet, not a separate state, and has denied he orchestrated the unrest, which China says killed 19 people. Exiled Tibetans have given a far higher death toll.   Continued...

A teenager has been found dead in a Welsh county hit by a spate of suicides.

Police said the 19-year-old male was found in Bettws, near the town of Bridgend, South Wales, at 7.30am on Sunday morning.

Inspector Marion Stevenson said: "There do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances and an investigation is under way."

He is believed to be the 19th person to have taken their lives in Bridgend since the beginning of 2007.

Zimbabwe's government has ignored a significant call from South Africa to release the result of the presidential elections and has accused the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, of treason by plotting with Britain to overthrow the President, Robert Mugabe.

Themba Maseko, a South African government spokesman, said the situation in Zimbabwe was "dire". Mr Maseko said: "When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern."

The comments mark a significant shift from South African President Thabo Mbeki's policy towards Mr Mugabe's regime, which has has divided his own party, the ANC, and attracted stinging criticism.

But South Africa confirmed that it will not intervene to stop a shipment of Chinese-made weapons from reaching Zimbabwe, despite fears of a violent crackdown in the country.

A Chinese ship docked in Durban harbour late on Wednesday carrying three million rounds of ammunition for small arms, 3,500 mortar bombs and mortar tubes, as well as 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, according to local media.

Mr Maseko said that as long as the administrative papers are in order, South Africa cannot intervene to prevent weapons being transported through its territory to its landlocked neighbour. "We are not in a position to act unilaterally to prevent a trade deal between two countries. South Africa is not at all involved in the arrangement. It would be possible but very difficult for South Africa to start intervening and saying that we will not allow the shipment through."

Xinhua also said Saturday Buddhist monasteries in the Tibetan capital Lhasa will resume religious activities for the first time since protests against Chinese rule turned violent last month.

One of Lhasa's main monasteries, the Drepung, will soon hold Buddhist services five times every month, Xinhua said. No date was given for when services would resume.

Drepung officials could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Lhasa saw its landmark Buddhist monasteries of Jokhang, Drepung and Sera surrounded by troops after unrest broke out March 14. Chinese government investigation teams have since been going through the monasteries to track down monks who participated in the protests.

The International Campaign for Tibet said last week that a "patriotic education" work team had been sent to Drepung, and food and water supplies at the monasteries in Lhasa were running low as monks were prevented from leaving.

More than 100,000 people had to be evacuated as Typhoon Neoguri battered China's southern province of Hainan.

The typhoon - the first to threaten China this year - also left 3,000 passengers stranded at an airport after 76 flights were cancelled.

It began lashing Wenchang late on Friday night with winds of up to 108km/h (67 mph), and reports say it caused a black-out in the city.

Neoguri has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.

The authorities evacuated about 120,000 people from low-lying areas in the island province of Hainan, and 20,000 boats returned to port.

No deaths have been reported but a number of fishermen are still missing.

LONDON (Reuters) - The former partner of Shannon Matthews' mother denied possessing child pornography at a court appearance on Friday.

Craig Meehan, 22, faces 11 specimen charges relating to the possession of indecent images of children.

The supermarket fishmonger, who lived with Shannon's 32-year-old mother Karen, entered a not guilty plea at Dewsbury Magistrates Court in West Yorkshire, a court official said.

He chose to stand trial before magistrates, rather than a jury at crown court, and was remanded in custody till May 14.

He had been arrested by detectives investigating nine-year-old Shannon's disappearance.

She was found after a massive police hunt 24 days after she went missing in February following a school swimming trip in Dewsbury.

Police discovered her hidden in the base of a bed around a mile from her home and she has remained in the care of local social services ever since.

Michael Donovan, Meehan's 39-year-old uncle, has been charged with abduction and imprisonment.

Donovan will go on trial in November alongside Karen Matthews, who has been charged with perverting the course of justice. Both are being held on remand.

Detectives have bailed three other women, aged 25, 29 and 49, who were arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in the case.

A change in the law could mean mediums, psychics and healers face prosecution if they cannot justify their claims. Spiritualists are delivering a mass petition to Downing Street and complaining that a genuine religion is being discriminated against.

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyant,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards.

Whether it's TS Eliot or Shirley Ghostman, the world of the medium has been gently drizzled with ridicule for some decades.

But now psychics, healers and spiritualists fear a new threat. Not gentle ribbing, but the long arm of the law.

Parliament is about to debate measures that will see all forms of paid-for paranormal activities fall under the new Consumer Protection Regulations. As well as tackling a raft of more mundane commercial sharp practice, these regulations will also replace the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951.

SPIRITUALISM Seven principles Practised since 19th Century Believe in god Believe contact with dead is possible Many mediums are not spiritualists

And some mediums are not happy. Under the old legislation, it had to be proven that any accused psychic was setting out to commit a fraud. The first case was a man in 1952 on a charge that he did in "purporting to act as a spiritualistic medium, unlawfully use a certain fraudulent device, namely, a length of cheesecloth". He was acquitted, setting a pattern for the last 50 years of very few prosecutions.

Under the new laws, some mediums feel they will be obliged to prove what they do. And when you're in the business of contacting spirits in the afterlife, that's not easy.

At Battersea Spiritualist Church, the new laws mean visiting medium Bill Rae is peppering his session of clairvoyance with disclaimers along the lines of "this is not science" and "this is just an experiment".

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FACTBOX - Zimbabwe's economy in freefall

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe bitterly attacked former colonial ruler Britain on Friday in his first major speech since disputed elections, saying London was paying the population to turn against him.

Mugabe, 84, told 15,000 cheering supporters in a fiery address to mark independence day: "Down with the British. Down with thieves who want to steal our country."

In a stream of insults against Britain, Mugabe added: "Today they are like thieves fronting their lackeys among us, which they give money to confuse our people."

Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, is under heavy international criticism for the delay in releasing results from a March 29 presidential election, which the opposition says was won by its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

But Mugabe was characteristically defiant in his speech, repeating a familiar line that London and not the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were the real enemy.

"Today they have perfected their tactics to a more subtle form by using money literally to buy some people to turn against their government. We are being bought like livestock," he said.

The delay in issuing the presidential result has provoked a chorus of international criticism including from the United States and the ruling party in neighbouring South Africa.

The MDC, which handed Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party its biggest defeat in a parallel parliamentary vote, accuses Mugabe of launching a campaign of militia violence to help him rig victory in an expected presidential runoff against Tsvangirai.

China seals gateway into Tibet By Denis D. Gray, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chinese side is seen at right of Friendship Bridge from Liping village on Nepal-Tibet border, 105 kilometers (65 miles) north of Kathmandu, Sunday, April 13, 2008. China sealed international gateway to Tibet from Nepal after bloody anti-Chinese demonstrations erupted March 10. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Manish Swarup/FILE

FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE, Nepal-Tibet Border - Three lithe Chinese security men shift silently into position so they are anchored abreast exactly midway across Friendship Bridge, high above a Himalayan river gorge.

It's the only international gateway into Tibet. As a small group of foreigners approaches, the guards' unspoken message is clear: the rebellious territory behind them is off-limits.

After anti-government riots erupted March 14, Beijing closed off Tibet to foreign and domestic tourists and cracked down on Tibetans trying to escape. And China's security apparatus doesn't stop at the border.

Chinese security police in athletic wear can be seen lounging in tea shops and strolling the sole street in the border town of Liping. They shadow three Associated Press journalists from the moment they arrive, ordering them not to take photographs - on Nepalese territory.

And in the capital Kathmandu, Tibetan exiles say China is pressuring the Nepalese government to crush anti-Chinese activities by the world's second-largest Tibetan exile community. "The Chinese asked us unofficially to co-operate on securing the border. They are far stricter now," said one Nepali immigration official, requesting anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the press. "Even an Austrian lady who was studying Chinese in Lhasa (Tibet's capital) was not allowed to enter."

Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information--often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion--that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend.

Mac clone maker Psystar's Web store went down again on Thursday evening, the second time in as many days that the company has experienced an interruption in service.

"We're sorry but the store is temporarily down," Psystar said in the Store section of its Web site late Thursday. The company has been selling computers preinstalled with Mac OS X Leopard through that store, in violation of Apple's licensing policies for Mac OS X.

Psystar's site went down Wednesday after Powerpay, a payment-processing company, pulled its services from Psystar after the company violated the terms of its agreement with Powerpay, according to a Powerpay representative. It's not clear what caused Thursday's outage.

Dalai Lama, China keep channel open

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Gurinder Osan / Associated Press

The Dalai Lama at a March news conference in Dharamsala, India.

BEIJING -- Chinese officials use colorful language to describe the Dalai Lama, a "jackal clad in Buddhist monk's robes and an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast," as the Communist Party chief for Tibet put it.

But behind the rhetoric, there are more polite, and possibly fruitful, contacts between the Chinese government and the 72-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader.

Dalai Lama

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As anti-Chinese demonstrations were breaking out in sympathy with protests in Tibet and fire-extinguisher-wielding activists were chasing the Olympic torch across the globe, a quiet back-channel dialogue was taking place.

"Even in the middle of this tragic crisis, we have kept open the channel of communications with the Chinese government," the Dalai Lama's chief negotiator, Lodi Gyari, said in a telephone interview Wednesday from Paris, where he was soliciting French support for talks. He said that so far, the contacts with the Chinese weren't encouraging.

"To be candid, it is nothing but rhetoric, similar to what they [the Chinese government] say publicly," Gyari said. "But we hope when the situation returns to normal, or as normal as it can be, they will realize that this was a wake-up call for a more sensible approach."

The Dalai Lama himself alluded to contacts with the Chinese government at a news conference Sunday in Seattle, where he was attending a conference. "Just a few days these are going on," he said without elaborating.

If there is unanimity in the international community on just one question, it is that China should negotiate with the Dalai Lama.

Direct talks between Beijing and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader are a precondition set by some dignitaries, most notably French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for attending the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Many diplomats believe China's only hope of quieting the furor and restoring glory to the Summer Games would be a grand gesture such as sitting down to talk.

In recent weeks, most of the living Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter, have called for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. Last week, President Bush joined other world leaders in the call for talks, saying, "If they ever were to reach out to the Dalai Lama, they'd find him to be a really fine man, a peaceful man, a man who is anti-violence."

Over the last two decades, representatives of the Dalai Lama have been invited periodically to China for talks with Beijing over Tibetan grievances. The most recent round ended inconclusively in July. The Dalai Lama has not been permitted back in Tibet or elsewhere in mainland China since he fled into exile in 1959.

Hopes for a dialogue were buoyed recently by a speech given by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Laos. The premier said the Chinese government would negotiate with the Dalai Lama's representatives under certain conditions, among them that the Dalai Lama use "his influence" to stop violent protests in Tibet such as those that broke out last month.

Although Chinese officials had made similar offers to negotiate before, the March 30 comment was the most explicit acknowledgment that the Dalai Lama can sway Tibetans. It is the party line in China that Tibetans revere the Communist Party rather than their spiritual leader.

Defying the Chinese government's hard line, more than 100 Chinese intellectuals have signed a petition calling for dialogue.

"If the Chinese government refuses to talk with the Dalai Lama, things will get worse and worse," said Teng Biao, a Beijing lawyer who was one of the organizers of the petition drive.

The Dalai Lama long ago gave up demands for independence, espousing what he calls a "middle way" of autonomy in which the Tibetans would have more freedoms under Chinese rule. He has preached nonviolence to Tibetans for years and tried to calm the young hotheads who would prefer armed resistance. In his speech in Seattle, the Dalai Lama reiterated his support of the Summer Olympics and his opposition to a boycott.

China, he said, "deserves to be a superpower."

"He [the Dalai Lama] has already made historical concessions," Gyari said, noting that the spiritual leader had accepted the conditions set by the Chinese. "None of them is an obstacle if they have the political will for dialogue."

In a briefing for the foreign press Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu blamed the Dalai Lama for the failure to negotiate.

"The Dalai has never shown any sincere interest in dialogue. . . . We are ready to have dialogue and contact with him," Jiang said.

Robbie Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, says that the events of the last month have taught the Chinese several important lessons: that they do have a problem and that it will not disappear so quickly without the Dalai Lama's help.

"When the Chinese are done with all the public displays of anger, they are likely to turn to political solutions," Barnett said. "The reality is that this issue has been significantly elevated. The Tibetans on the ground have burned, marched, protested and pushed their way into significance. It could play out in a way that could get the two sides to talk to each other."

barbara.demick@latimes.com

One of the great world religions, which originated in India in the 5th century BC. It derives from the teaching of the Buddha, who is regarded as one of a series of such enlightened beings. The chief doctrine is that all phenomena share three characteristics: they are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and lack a permanent essence (such as a soul). All beings, including gods, are subject to these characteristics, but can achieve freedom through enlightenment. The main forms of Buddhism are Theravada (or Hinayana) in Southeast Asia and Mahayana in North and East Asia; Lamaism in Tibet and Zen in Japan are among the many Mahayana forms of Buddhism. There are over 300 million Buddhists worldwide (1994).

Scriptures
The only surviving complete canon of the Buddhist scriptures is that of the Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) Buddhists, in Pali, but other schools have essentially the same canon in Sanskrit. The scriptures are divided into three groups, known as pitakas (baskets): vinaya (discipline), listing offences and rules of life; the sutras (discourse), or dharma (doctrine), the exposition of Buddhism by the Buddha and his disciples; and abhidharma (further doctrine), later discussions on doctrine.

Beliefs
The self is not regarded as permanent, as it is subject to change and decay. It is attachment to the things that are essentially impermanent that causes delusion, suffering, greed, and aversion, and reinforce the sense of self. Actions which incline towards selflessness are called 'skilful' and constitute the path leading to enlightenment. In the Four Noble Truths the Buddha acknowledged the existence and source of suffering and showed the way of deliverance from it through the Eightfold Path. The aim of following the Eightfold Path is to attain nirvana ('blowing out') – the eradication of all desires. Supreme reverence is accorded to the historical Buddha (Sakyamuni, or, when referred to by his clan name, Gautama), who is seen as one in a long and ongoing line of Buddhas, the next one (Maitreya) being due c. AD 3000.

Theravada Buddhism, the School of the Elders, also known as Hinayana or Lesser Vehicle, prevails in Southeast Asia (Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar), and emphasizes the mendicant, meditative life as the way to break the cycle of samsara, or death and rebirth. Its three possible goals are arahat: one who, under the guidance of a Buddha, has gained insight into the true nature of things; Paccekabuddha: an enlightened one who lives alone and does not teach; and fully awakened Buddha. Its scriptures are written in Pali, an Indo-Aryan language with its roots in northern India. In India itself Buddhism had virtually died out by the 13th century, under pressure from Islam and Hinduism. However, it has 5 million devotees in the 20th century and is growing.

Mahayana Buddhism, or Greater Vehicle, arose at the beginning of the Christian era. It exhorts the individual not merely to attain personal nirvana, but to become a trainee Buddha, or bodhisattva, and so save others. Cults of various Buddhas and bodhisattvas arose. Mahayana Buddhism also emphasizes sunyata, or the experiential understanding of the emptiness of all things, even Buddhist doctrine.

Mahayana Buddhism prevails in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet. In the 6th century AD Mahayana spread to China with the teachings of Bodhidharma and formed Ch'an, which became established in Japan from the 12th century as Zen Buddhism. Zen emphasizes silent meditation with sudden interruptions from a master to encourage awakening of the mind. Japan also has the lay organization Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society), founded 1930, which equates absolute faith with immediate material benefit; by the 1980s it was followed by more than 7 million households.

Esoteric, Tantric, or Diamond Buddhism became popular in Tibet and Japan, and holds that enlightenment is already within the disciple and with the proper guidance (that is privately passed on by a master) can be realized.