On fire

BEIJING (AP) — “Another monk has set himself on fire to protest against China’s tight grip over Buddhist practices in Tibet, an activist group said Monday. Free Tibet said the monk, aged 17 or 18, is from the Kirti monastery in Aba in western Sichuan near the Tibetan border. A statement from the group, which calls for self-determination for Tibet, said it is the fifth such self-immolation incident this year. It said the monk, Kalsang, was holding a picture of Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, and calling for religious rights and freedoms in Tibet when he set himself on fire in a vegetable market in Aba. “It is tragic that a fifth monk has set fire to himself in Tibet this year. … A growing number of Tibetans clearly feel that this is the only way that they can be heard,” Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said in the statement.”