Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney's husband, Clifton Maloney,passed away Friday during a mountain climbing trip in Tibet. A spokesman for Congresswoman Maloney reported that he died from natural causes in his sleep after he summited the mountain at 27,000 feet. Clifton Maloney was 71.

"Candle for Tibet" an initiative launched by an Israeli national has managed to enlist the support of 100 million people across the globe who will be lighting a candle on the eve of Beijing Olympics, to express support for freedom of Tibet.

With the Beijing Olympics set to begin on August 8 (day of the opening ceremony), LoyalTV -- the new peer-to-peer video-sharing Web site where people post videos about what they're most passionate about -- has joined forces with the Dalai Lama-blessed campaign, 'Candle for Tibet,' that promises to be the greatest light protest on Earth.

Tibet would be reopened to foreign tourists from Wednesday, more than three months after the violent anti-China protests rocked the remote Himalayan region.

If the Chinese state television CCTV had not announced that the images were being broadcast from Tibet, the average viewer could have thought the Olympic flame was being carried through a typical Chinese city in the mountains. The Olympic torch was carried by Chinese athletes and the spectators were also Chinese. There was not a Tibetan in sight.

The Olympic torch set out from Norbulingka, starting its journey in Tibet's capital Lhasa, literally means "place of the gods", on Saturday.

About 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.

The United States and the European Union will call on China on Tuesday to have "results-orientated" talks on Tibet with the Dalai Lama's representatives, according to a draft joint declaration.

Maintaining that Tibetans are not "anti-Chinese", Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama has said the Chinese need to be educated to help remove their misconceptions on the vexed Tibet issue.

The stage is set for the first talks between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and China since the massive anti-government protests erupted in Tibet even as a combative Beijing heaped more scorn on the Tibetan spiritual leader, accusing him of committing a "litany of crimes".

The Dalai Lama has ruled out any more "concessions" to China on Tibet and threatened to resign as leader of Tibet's exiled government if violence in his Himalayan homeland went "out of control."

Chinese President Hu Jintao says Tibet is not a human rights problem and is an issue for China alone to handle.