Nine monks arrested for allegedly planting a bomb:

China has arrested nine monks for a bomb attack on a government building in Tibet last month, an official said yesterday.

Tibetan support groups warned that it was impossible to verify the claims because the authorities do not allow independent observers into the region.

The state-run Xinhua news agency alleged that the monks from the Tongxia monastery – around 850 miles east of Lhasa – fled after their homemade bomb exploded in Gyanbe township but later confessed to planting it. There was no mention of casualties or damage.

Beijing works on clearing the air for the Olympics.

The DL asks for Tibet to be opened to the world.

Professor M.D. Nalapat asks, Can the Chinese government control the “Tibet flu”? (Yes, but for how long?)

China and Russia’s support prop up the Burmese junta, says Myat Soe.

China isn’t solely to blame for the survival of the Burmese junta, says an editorial in The Canberra Times.

Susan Kaiser Greenland in HuffPo on China and the media.