TIBETAN ACTIVISTS CHAIN THEMSELVES TO UN OVER SILENCE ON LOBGA RANGZEN

Three Tibetan activists were detained by police outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday (July 9) after chaining themselves to the gates to demand international intervention. The protest, which also marked one week since the self-immolation of activist Lobga Rangzen, aimed to draw attention to decades of Chinese repression. Activists strongly criticized China's new Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, warning that state-run, Mandarin-only boarding schools are putting Tibetan identity "on the brink of extinction." Protesters called on U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk to end the organization's silence and demand unfettered investigative access inside Tibet.