John Ackerly, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, will be retiring from that position at the end of the year. However, John will continue to remain involved with ICT's Rowell Fund For Tibet that the 50 For Tibet project helps support.

John's success as President of ICT has been monumental. When he took over as President in 1981, ICT had only 12,400 members. Today, there are over 100,000 active members with four times as many non-contributing supporters. Under John's leadership, ICT has opened up offices in Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels as well as hiring staff in the critical countries of India and Nepal. He also has worked closely with the U.S. Congress and United Nations bodies to address the crisis in Tibet and has conducted five fact-finding trips to Tibet to investigate conditions. Without question, John has been a prime factor in the effort to educate and motivate the world community to defend the people and ancient culture of Tibet.

For the 50 For Tibet project and more specifically, Team HighPoint, John is not only a fellow member on the Advisory Board for The Rowell Fund For Tibet, but a major supporter of this unique fundraiser. Further, his friendship and advice is something that all five members of Team HighPoint have enjoyed and valued. While we - as well as many thousands others - will miss his leadership at ICT, John's spirit for this cause will endure through the course of time.

If you would like to read more about the U.S. Presidential candidates and their respective positions on their support for Tibet, please go to the International Campaign For Tibet's web site of ...

http://www.savetibet.org/campaign2008/

Strong earthquake hits Tibet
Reuters
August 25th, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - A strong earthquake measuring 6.8 magnitude struck Tibet on Monday, but no loss of life was immediately reported, the Tibet Earthquake Bureau said on Monday.

The quake struck at 9:22 p.m. (9:22 a.m. EDT) and was centered in Zhongba county, a remote region near the China-Nepal border, the bureau said on its website (www.eq-xz.net).

A number of aftershocks followed and the Tibetan government had dispatched earthquake officials to the sparsely populated region, it said.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the tremor, which was felt as far as New Delhi, at 6.3 magnitude and at a depth of 21.7 miles.

The quake was strongly felt in some townships and cracks had appeared in some buildings, Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed official from Zhongba county, part of Xigaze Prefecture in Tibet, which has a population of about 18,000.

It said local authorities were still assessing the situation in remote townships.

The quake was felt in Nepal and in New Delhi, where witnesses said buildings swayed. In Nepal, authorities said they were trying to find out whether there was any loss of life.

People ran out of their houses in Nepalgunj, 321 km (200 miles) southwest of the capital Kathmandu, they added.

A string of tremors in southwest Yunnan province last week killed at least five people, injured dozens and prompted the evacuation of over 120,000 people, state media reported.

At least 70,000 people were killed in China by the devastating May 12 earthquake in mountainous Sichuan province.

(Reporting by Bappa Majumdar and Gopal Sharma in New Delhi and Ian Ransom in Beijing; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou)

From www.savetibet.org ...

Dalai Lama and McCain meet
International Campaign for Tibet
July 25th, 2008

Aspen, Colorado, July 25, 2008: Arizona Senator John McCain, presumptive US presidential nominee of the Republican Party, accompanied by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican of South Carolina), met in a private residence with the Dalai Lama this afternoon to discuss Tibet. The Dalai Lama frequently meets with US Senators but it is unusual for such meetings to take place out of Washington, DC. This is his first meeting with Senator McCain.

This spring Senator McCain was quick to condemn the Chinese government's crackdown following demonstrations across Tibet. Addressing the media after a meeting with French President Sarkozy in Paris on March 21, 2008, the Senator said, "That is not acceptable conduct from a world power, which China is." After meeting British Prime Minister Brown in London on March 20, 2008, McCain said. "There's a long history of Chinese treatment of the people in Tibet which is certainly not one that I think the Chinese should be proud of, and I hope that they would quickly respect the human rights of the people there."

Following the meeting, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Special Envoy of the Dalai Lama, said: "The Senator remains gravely concerned for those who have been imprisoned for expressing their political and religious beliefs and asked to be kept informed about the situation in Tibet. The meeting provided His Holiness an opportunity to express his gratitude for all the heartfelt support we are receiving and the serious efforts the international community is making to help resolve the situation. He also repeated that he is seeking autonomy for Tibet within the People's Republic of China."

Senator Barack Obama, presumptive 2008 US presidential nominee from the Democratic Party, met the Dalai Lama in 2005 at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee event, and has been in contact with the Dalai Lama recently.

Team HighPoint is ready to roll in it's quest to reach all 50 state highpoints with plans to travel to Arkansas and Wyoming within the next month. The top of Arkansas, Magazine Mountain (elevation 2,753 feet), is the 34th tallest state highpoint and is located in the Ozark National Forest in the west central part of the state. Two weeks after visiting Arkansas, Team HighPoint will be in the State of Wyoming taking on the 5th highest state highpoint, Gannett Peak (elevation 13,804 feet). The backpack approach hike to the base of the Wind River mountain range's tallest peak is the longest of any of the state highpoints (including Alaska). Team HighPoint hopes to arrive at the Gannett Peak high camp on the day of the opening Olympics ceremony in Beijing.

For more information about how the world community is in debate about China's hosting of the Olympics, please go to...

http://savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1335