China has ended the quarantine blockage imposed 30th July, after Reuters citing Xinhua news agency reported an outbreak of pneumonic plague, which reportedly killed three villagers in a town in the Tibetan area of Qinghai province in China's mountainous northwest.

The Dalai Lama feels snubbed by the refusal by South Africa to grant him a visa for last Friday's planned peace conference, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.

The Dalai Lama expressed his regret about the denial in a letter to the archbishop, Tutu told the Saturday Star newspaper.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, advocated autonomy for Tibet and asserted in a speech delivered Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule that the cause will prevail.

"We need to look to the future and work for our mutual benefit. We Tibetans are looking for a legitimate and meaningful autonomy, an arrangement that would enable Tibetans to live within the framework of the People's Republic of China," he said in India's northern hill town of Dharamsala.

Washington - From ages 13 to 24, the young Tibetan nun suffered daily beatings and deprivations from her Chinese jailers in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Ngawang Sangdrol's original crime - chanting slogans like "Free Tibet" - earned her a three-year sentence in 1992. A year later, it grew to 23 years after she and other jailed nuns smuggled out a secret recording of activist songs.

Family visits during the 11 years were limited to one relative for no more than five minutes a month, she told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Dharamsala, India - Two callow Tibetans waited this month outside the Tibetan Reception Centre, which receives new refugees from Tibet, on one of the main streets that runs through McLeodganj, a suburb of Dharamsala, nestled near the edge of the snow-capped Dhauladhar range.

Their weather-beaten faces betrayed their arduous journey to McLeodganj, where Tibet flags adorned with snow lions flutter at key intersections.

China on Saturday accused the Dalai Lama of making unrealistic demands that go beyond his public commitment to greater autonomy for Tibet, rather than independence, in the latest reflection of the gulf between the two sides.

"The Dalai side still insists on establishing a so-called greater Tibet on a quarter of Chinese territory," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters in Beijing.

"They want to drive away Chinese troops from Chinese territory," Yang charged.

Tibetan legislators proposed Friday to set aside March 28 as Serfs Emancipation Day, to commemorate the emancipation of millions of serfs in the region 50 years ago, state news agency Xinhua reported.