The Tibetan parliament-in-exile opened debate Tuesday on the Dalai Lama's decision to give up his political role with a plea by some members for the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader to reconsider.

A moderate quake jolted the eastern part of Tibet on Tuesday, with no casualties reported.

Demonstrations have spread among Tibetan students angered by reports that Beijing plans to make Chinese the only language of instruction in schools, an activist group said Friday.

Chinese police fatally shot a Tibetan protester during a demonstration last week, state media reported Monday, saying the man was hit by stray warning rounds.

One of Tibet's richest businessmen has been sentenced to life in prison for helping exile groups, a human rights organization said Thursday, the latest case in a surprising crackdown on well-known Tibetans once praised by Chinese authorities.

A Tibetan writer who had signed an open letter critical of the Chinese government's quake relief efforts in western Qinghui province has been detained by police, according to a family friend.

Rescuers pulled out a 4-year-old girl and a Tibetan woman alive from the rubble of an earthquake more than five days after they were trapped, as trucks carrying aid and equipment rolled into this shattered town in western China.

Twenty-six people were killed and nine injured after a truck crashed in Tibet on Saturday, Chinese state media reported.

At least 29 people were injured and hundreds of buildings damaged in an earthquake in southwestern China's Yunnan province, reports said Friday.

New talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys are highlighting subtle shifts in China's approach to its restive, riot-scarred western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.