Police in Guangdong have raided a factory making Tibetan flags to be sent overseas. Workers and factory owners said they didn't know what the flag meant they just thought it was a colourful flag.

The mistake was noticed when some of the workers saw pictures of the protests and recognised the flag. They raised the alarm with the local authorities who then raided the factory. Workers checked the meaning of the flag by searching for it online.

It is believed that many hundreds of flags made in the factory have already been shipped to Hong Kong and further.

Authorities in the area have increased control over peoples movement, they are searching vehicles heading to Hong Kong.

What have we learnt about China then? The 'Great Fire Wall' is cracking, if workers were able to look up the Tibetan flag and that the protests have been reported in mainland China. And that the CCP just loves to look stupid - so lets help them out!

Mark Bonello is the president of the Tibet Society at Plymouth University, a part of the Students for a Free Tibet network. Mark had put up a hand made poster advertising volunteering opportunities with the group on his university campus, the poster included his phone number. Later that night Mark received a call from someone alleging to be his friend. After Mark asked who the caller was, the caller began to threaten him “Where do you live, I'm going to kill you”. Mark hung up on the caller and immediately phoned the police. The police are treating this as a serious matter and are investigating the case further.

“It was disturbing to receive a call like that, the language was pretty disgusting and they didn't just threaten me, they threatened my family. I am concerned to see that some Chinese people in the west are taking up the mantle of the Chinese government, using fear and intimidation to force their will” said Mark. “I don't believe that it is all Chinese students who feel this way, and I would like to open a dialogue with anyone interested to discuss the Tibetan situation” he added.

Earlier in the day Plymouth University Student's Union was stormed by 120 Chinese students who aggressively demanded that the Tibet group be immediately disbanded. Representatives of the union explained to the students that the group had existed for two years and that they had not broken the rules of the Union. The local police were alerted, though the students had dispersed by the time the police arrived.

The Union held a meeting last week with the president of the Chinese Society, representatives of Plymouth Student's Union and the local police, though Mark and other SFT representatives were not allowed into the meeting. There will be a second meeting this week to try to reolve the matter.

There have been other students who have received death threats over Tibet, around the world. A Chinese student in the USA who tried to negotiate between groups of Tibetan and Chinese students has had her picture posted on Chinese websites with the words 'Traitor to her country' written across her face. She has received death threats from Chinese students around the world and her parents, who live in China, have had to go into hiding in fear of their lives.

Three of the biggest sponsors of the Olympic Torch Relay; Coca-cola, Lenovo and Samsung, have pulled out of the Japanese leg of the international torch relay amid fears that they may be targetted by protestors.

A spokesperson for Coca-cola stated that they would be unable to operate under the 'maximum security' environment of the Torch Relay in Japan. This news comes after monks at the Zenkoji Temple in Nagano said that due to China's violent repression of the protests in Tibet, the Temple could no longer be used as the starting point for the relay in Japan.

This is the first sign of that sponsors of the Olympics have been affected by the situation in China and Tibet, though naturally none of them stated that as their reason. Samsung were concerend about the procssion being too long and Lenovo cited 'budgetary restraints'.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article3771039.ece

Who exactly were those sinister looking men in the blue tracksuits? They wore no ID and were seemingly given free reign by the police to interfere with police duties, such as stopping protestors. If they were private security hired by Beijing or the IOC then by not wearing ID they were operating illegally. If they were not private security then they commited assault on a number of occasions over the course of the relay in London and were not arrested.

It has been revealed that they are operatives of the highest level of Chinese police the People's Armed Police descibed as experts in martial arts, marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, indicating that the Chinese government view protecting the torch as important as protecting a state dignatary.

This is of course incorrect and we can exclusively reveal that those men in blue are infact....... Smurfs!!!

All they were doing was their Smurfing duty to protect the Olympic Smurf on it's round the Smurf relay! So all we need to do is get Gargamel in on the protests and we're sorted!!

46 People have been arrested today during the Olympic Torch Relay, including former Students for a Free Tibet national coordinator Alice Speller. The whole torch route was lined by Free Tibet protesters today as well as Chinese supporters. Many times over the course of the relay protesters tried to block the path of the torch or even put out the flame with a fire extinguisher.

Run down of protests/events:
10:00 Wembley Park, 3 Tibetans arrested attempting to board the bus which would carry the Olympic torch
11:00 Ladbroke Grove, 1 western man attempted to take the Torch from Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq
11:30 Bayswater Road, 1 Tibetan attempted to block the path of the Olympic Torch with a flag on his back

11:45 Bayswater Road, 1 Tibetan attempted to block the path of the Olympic Torch with a flag
12:00 Notting Hill, 1 Western man dressed in a high-visibility jacket tries to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher
12:20 Bloomsbury Square, Large protest behind barriers
12:50 Trafalgar Square, Several Tibetans ran out onto the torch route and were quickly dragged away by police
12:50 Trafalgar Square, 2 Tibetan women stood on top of the fountain waving Tibetan flags and shouting "No Torch Through Tibet"
12:50 Trafalgar Square, Scuffle between Chinese supporters and Tibet protesters, Chinese rip Tibetan flag out of the hands of Tibetans
1:00 Downing Street, Large protest outside as the torch is taken to meet Gordon Brown

1:10 Westminster, Many protesters detained and arrested as the torch is brought out of Downing street.

2:00 Kings Cross, Rally at Argyle Square

2:15 Ludgate Hill, Protesters lined the road up to St. Paul's Cathedral
2:30 St Paul's Cathedral, Tibet protesters surround the torch bearer and security detail, police decide to take the torch on to a bus and change the route
3:00 Tower Bridge, 1 Tibetan man jumped over the barrier and ran out to meet the torch shouting "No Torch Through Tibet" and waving a Tibetan flag, he was dragged away by police
3:00-5:00 Tibetan supporters line the route of the torch relay
5:00 Torch boards boat to Greenwich
6:00 Greenwich, At least 10 arrested for various protests at the O2 Stadium at the Millennium Dome

Total arrested:46
Pretty much all arrests have been released without charge. No-one was seriously injured despite one protester being rugby-tackled into a metal fence and others being thrown to the ground and knelt on by police.

Gordon Brown has given his official support to China's Olympic Torch as it was brought to Downing street today. By Meeting the Torch he is clearly showing his support for China's Olympic games and their attempt to legitimise their occupation of Tibet and the brutal suppression of peaceful independence protesters. This demonstrates Gordon Brown's weak stance on China, more concerned with preserving economic ties than protecting human rights.
The torch left downing street as more protesters ran into the road trying to block the torch and running along side. Further along, the torch was surrounded by Free Tibet protesters chanting "Shame on China" and "Free Tibet".

Several Free Tibet protestors have been detained after numerous attempts to get in front of the Olympic torch.
Ona man managed to get his hands on the torch and pull it away from Konnie Huq as she was running with the torch.
A second protestor attempted to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher, covering the group of police and private security with white smoke.
There have so far been around 6 attempts to get past the security and protest the torch being run through London.

Four Tibet independence activists were detained this morning after
two of them abseiled off Westminster Bridge and unfurled a 74 square meter
banner reading, "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet 2008," mocking
China's Olympics slogan "One World, One Dream." The action took place on
the eve of the controversial arrival of China's Olympic torch relay in
London, amidst mounting pressure on the International Olympic Committee to
remove all Tibetan areas from the relay route.

Click here for the press release and footage of the protest.

FRIDAY 4th APRIL

Night of Solidarity - details unchanged, see flyer below.

SUNDAY 6th APRIL

1. The Olympic torch will be passing through London on April 6th on a route from Wembley Stadium to North Greenwich. Tibetans and their supporters will hold protests as the torch passes along the route. These are:

a) Queensway – Gather at 11:00 at the junction of Queensway and Bayswater Road. The torch is due to pass through at 11:30. (Nearest tube: Queensway or Bayswater)

b) Bedford Place – Gather at 11:45 at the junction of Bedford Place and Great Russell Street. The torch is due to pass through at 12:20. (Nearest tubes: Russell Square and Holborn)

c) Whitehall – Gather at 12:30 at junction of Richmond Terrace and Whitehall) opposite Downing Street). The torch will pass through at approx. 13:00 on Whitehall (nearest tubes: Westminster and Charing Cross) before making their way to King’s Cross for the Tibetan Freedom Torch Rally.

2. Gather at 14:15 for the rally at Argyle Square (see flyer below for details).

Please turn up well ahead of the specified times. The relay organisers may try to get the flame through ahead of the advertised times in order to circumvent protesters.