08 May 2008
Olympic torch on Everest
(AP; Der Spiegel) Live television footage showed a Chinese mountaineering team holding up a specially designed Olympic torch along with Chinese and Olympic flags on the top of Mount Everest. "One World, One Dream", team captain Nyima Cering yelled as the torch was lit on the final incline leading to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Beijing Olympics. "We have lit the torch on top of the world", another climber said. The 19-member team was dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos. Organisers hope the dramatic image of the torch atop Everest will counter some of the damaging publicity from protests during the international leg of the torch relay. The Dalai Lama says he understood why Tibetan exiles were angry that the Olympic torch reached the top of Everest but had advised them against protesting. "If the times were quiet, I would not get excited about it. But as things are, I understand the protests, of course without supporting them", the Dalai Lama told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. He made the comments in an interview and said that he had been worried about border clashes between protesters and armed guards and so advised exiles against holding demonstrations.