Dalai Lama's presence at India event upsets China

BEIJING • China expressed anger after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama attended a Buddhist conference supported by India's Culture Ministry, the latest spat with Delhi over a man whom Beijing brands a dangerous separatist.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, opened the conference last Friday in eastern India.

REUTERS

Chinese police boss jailed 17 years for graft

SHANGHAI • A Chinese court has sentenced a senior police officer to 17 years in prison for his part in a bribes-for-projects scandal, proceeds from which were used to buy two homes in Australia, according to court documents.

The 59-year-old police boss of Guta district in Jinzhou City, in Liaoning province, accepted a total of 6.8 million yuan (S$1.38 million) in bribes. Wang Junren doled out construction projects in return.

REUTERS

Pakistan reopens border with Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD • Pakistan ordered the border with Afghanistan to be reopened "immediately", a month after it was closed amid soaring tensions as Islamabad and Kabul accused each other of providing safe haven for militants.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday ordered the two main crossings on the long, porous border be reopened as a gesture of "goodwill". The crossings - Torkham at the famed Khyber Pass, and Chaman in Balochistan province - were closed last month after a wave of militant violence in Pakistan.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE