World

PARIS — Slowing growth, a return to protectionism, questioning of free trade agreements and doubts over the stability of the EU: the world economy is entering a period of deep uncertainty following Brexit.

"We are moving into completely uncharted territory where the only certainty will be uncertainty," said Jean-Michel Six, chief economist for Europe at SP Global Ratings.

Six suggests that the fallout from Brexit could sap growth in the eurozone in 2017 by 0.5 per cent.

Britain on Thursday voted by 52 per cent to 48 per cent for their country to leave the EU despite dire warnings from world leaders and economic experts.

Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had warned in the months and weeks leading up to the ballot of the dangers for the world economy, especially elsewhere in Europe, should Brexit come to pass.

“A vote by the UK people to leave the EU would have some effect” even on the United States, the world’s largest economy, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in remarks ahead of the vote on Wednesday.

“How large those effects could be is debatable,” she added, noting that a vote to leave would likely lead to a spike in the value of the dollar, hobbling the competitiveness of US exports.

European leaders and markets fear a domino effect as people across Europe lose faith in the supernational project.

Stark warnings

Far-right leaders in France and the Netherlands — two founding members of the EU — have already called for their own referendums on quitting the bloc in the wake of Brexit.

Europe has until now failed to pick up the slack left by the flagging emerging economies that have propped up world growth since 2008, and Brexit is likely to inflict a further blow to confidence on the continent.

The British vote on Friday sent shockwaves as far as Mexico.

Just a few hours after the results emerged, the finance ministry there declared it would slash spending by $1.68 billion (1.51 billion euros) in anticipation of an economic shock.

Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G-7) nations also came together to warn of “adverse implications for financial stability” in the wake of the Leave campaign victory.

“An exit from the crisis and a sustained return to growth now seems to have been compromised after such a succession of events on the financial markets,” said Christopher Dembik, an economist at Danish Saxo Bank.

The British vote increases risks for Europe.

“Before Brexit, the EU was seen as a centre of stability in the international system,” said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations.

“But with the Greek crisis, the migrant crisis, Brexit and the rise of populism, Europe is in the process of switching from a source of stability to source of international instability,” he said.

‘Worst case scenario’

Meanwhile, LudovicSubran, chief economist at credit insurer Euler Hermes, said “the worst case scenario is happening”, even if “it is not the Apocalypse”.

He believes the weakening of the EU as a bloc will be felt quickly on the international level, pointing to the negotiation with the United States on a free trade deal, as well within the G-7.

The situation could “encourage countries like China to establish direct bilateral relations with European countries” rather than negotiate with Brussels, Gomart said.

He believes the Brexit vote undermines the globalisation model.

“In reality, we’re now more in a divergence of models, with probably with a return to protectionism,” said Gomart.

“Already global trade has lagged global growth in recent years,” noted former US treasury secretary Larry Summers.

Canadian asset managers Candriam didn’t rule out Europe slumping into recession if after a few months “it becomes clear that European governments are unable to find an agreement in their negotiation with the UK and to agree on the need to support activity”.

Meanwhile US investment bank Goldman Sachs said it expects “the rest of the EU to reaffirm its desire to make the EU, including the Euro area, more workable” although it noted a lack of follow-up on previous reform pledges means “it is doubtful whether this will have much credibility in financial markets”.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman used his New York Times blog to say that “the consequences will be bad, but not as bad as many are claiming”.

Krugman argued that the seeds of economic uncertainty and political instability in Europe were sown long before the British vote to quit the Union.

“Brexit just brings to a head an abcess that would have burst fairly soon in any case,” he wrote.

BERLIN — The six founding members of the European Union sent a clear message to Britain on Saturday to leave the bloc as soon as possible after Britons voted to quit in the biggest blow to the project since World War II.

Eager to shore up the EU for its other 27 members, foreign ministers from the six founding countries pressed Britain to trigger the process for exiting the bloc so that they are not left in limbo and can concentrate shaping the future of Europe.

“We now expect the UK government to provide clarity and give effect to this decision as soon as possible,” the ministers from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg said in a joint statement.

Separately, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the negotiations with Britain should not be conducted in such a way as to be seen as a deterrent to other countries, and that there was no hurry for London to trigger the process for leaving.

“Quite honestly, it should not take ages, that is true, but I would not fight now for a short time frame,” Merkel told a news conference at a meeting of her party outside Berlin.

On Friday, Former London mayor Boris Johnson, a leading campaigner for Britain to leave the EU and the bookmakers’ favourite to replace David Cameron as prime minister, said nothing would change over the short term following the Brexit vote.

Only Britain can invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty required to set in motion the process to exit the bloc.

The foreign ministers of both France and Luxembourg warned Britain not to play games by drawing out the process.

“There’s no reason to play a cat and mouse game. That would not be respectful after deciding to organise this referendum,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a joint news conference after the meeting of the six in Berlin.

“It’s in Britain’s interest and in the interest of Europeans not to have a period of uncertainty that would have financial consequences, and that could have economic and political consequences,” he said.

Global stock markets plunged on Friday, and sterling saw its biggest one day drop in more than 30 years after Britons voted by 52-48 per cent to exit the EU, which it joined more than 40 years ago.

Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for Britain, saying its creditworthiness was now at greater risk as the country would face substantial challenges to successfully negotiating its exit from the bloc.

In their statement, the six foreign ministers lamented the watershed brought by the “Brexit” vote. They said the EU was losing “not just a member state but history, tradition and experience”. 

The ministers also said they would have to deal with varying appetites for European integration among member states in order to meet voters’ expectations.

In Colmar in eastern France, French President Francois Hollande echoed their sentiment, saying: “It will be painful for Britain but... like in all divorces, it will be painful for those who stay behind too.” 

Merkel also said Britain must say what kind of relationship it wants with the EU before the bloc examines how to respond.

Ayrault, the French foreign minister, said earlier other EU leaders would press Cameron at a summit meeting next week to act quickly: “There will be a lot of pressure on Cameron on Tuesday to move ahead,” he said.

PARIS — Thousands of demonstrators marched under massive police presence in Paris on Thursday to demand that President Francois Hollande scrap labour reform plans that have sparked months of protests marked by serious violence.

More than 2,000 police enforced strict security measures around the capital’s Place de la Bastille square to control the march, checking bags and turning away people with helmets or face masks.

Police said 85 people were arrested as crowds converged on the marching zone.

The Socialist government originally banned the march but, facing a backlash within its own traditional support base, it backed down and allowed it.

But President Francois Hollande said his government would not retreat from labour legislation that will make hiring and firing easier in a contested attempt to tackle an unemployment rate that has been stuck at 10 per cent for most of his time in office.

“We will take this bill to the finish line,” Hollande told reporters as thousands of protesters marched in summer heat along a short protest circuit patrolled by more than one riot police officer per metre.

In a months-long stand-off, neither side wanted to cave in and lose face over a reform plan that opinion polls say is opposed by more than two in three French voters.

“A majority of French people say it [that they oppose the reform]. The majority of unions say it, and there’s no majority in favour of it in the National Assembly [lower house of parliament],” said Philippe Martinez, leader of the hardline CGT labour union.

The march tested police forces already stretched under a state of emergency imposed since deadly attacks by Islamist militants in November and by fan violence at the Euro 2016 football tournament France is hosting.

The protests against a legislative bill that would loosen protection of worker rights pit Hollande’s unpopular government against the CGT, which is also fighting for a place as France’s most powerful union.

Hollande says the reform is key to hauling down double-digit unemployment, something he has promised if he is to run in next year’s presidential election.

CGT leader Martinez accused Prime Minister Manuel Valls of pinning the blame for the escalating disorder on his group. He condemned the rioters but said the government had inflamed passions as unions sought a deal on the labour reforms.

“Every time we try to calm things down the prime minister throws fuel on the flames again.” 

Previous protests have been marred by hundreds of mostly masked youths engaging in running battles with police, hurling paving stones, smashing shops and plastering anti-capitalist slogans on buildings. Police have said some CGT members were involved in the violence.

LONDON — Rival sides threw their efforts into the final day of campaigning Wednesday, on the eve of Britain’s vote on EU membership that will shape the future of Europe.

Prime Minister David Cameron conducted a spate of last-minute interviews to get his pro-EU message to voters before polls open at 0600 GMT on Thursday.

“Nobody knows what is going to happen,” he told the Financial Times. “I believe it will one way or another be decisive. Britain will not want to go through this again.” 

The “Remain” camp has the slimmest possible lead on 51 per cent versus 49 per cent support for the “Leave” side, according to an average of polls compiled by What UK Thinks.

In a final push to win over the undecided voters who could tip the referendum, campaigners will speak at rival “Leave” and “Remain” rallies taking place within hours of each other in London.

Representatives from both sides will then meet in a final television debate on Channel 4 featuring anti-EU UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond for “Remain”.

The prospect of Britain becoming the first state to defect from the EU in the bloc’s 60-year history has raised fears of a domino-effect collapse of the European project.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker earlier urged Britain against “an act of self-harm” he said would endanger everything Europeans had worked together to achieve.

Lies. Greedy elites

Two newspapers used their Wednesday front pages for last-minute endorsements of opposite sides of the campaign.

“Lies. Greedy elites. Or a great future outside a broken, dying Europe,” wrote the Daily Mail. “If you believe in Britain vote Leave.” 

But the Daily Mirror urged readers to back EU membership “for your jobs... for your children... for Britain’s future”.

The campaign has been fought over the two key issues of the economy and immigration, with both sides accusing the other of “scaremongering”.

The Mirror described it as “the most divisive, vile and unpleasant political campaign in living memory”. 

Around the world, events will be held to mark what would have been the 42nd birthday of lawmaker Jo Cox, who was murdered last week on a village street in her electoral district in northern England, upending the campaign.

Her alleged killer, Thomas Mair, is due to appear in court for a preliminary hearing. In his first court appearance, he gave his name as “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.

The murder raised concerns that the debate had stirred ugly currents.

Cox’s widower Brendan said his wife, a noted pro-EU campaigner who advocated for refugee rights, had been killed because of her political views.

“She worried about the tone of the [referendum] debate... The tone of whipping up fears and whipping up hatred potentially,” he told the BBC.

Project Fear

The campaign has been closely watched by financial markets, and the world’s leading central backs have consulted about the potential impact of a Brexit, according to European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

Hundreds of business leaders including Virgin boss Richard Branson and US media mogul Michael Bloomberg published a warning in The Times newspaper that Britain leaving the EU could cause an “economic shock”.

As the message “vote remain” was projected onto landmarks including London’s Tate Modern, the rival camps faced off in a heated debate in front of an audience of six thousands the Wembley concert arena.

“Leave” campaigner Boris Johnson accused “Remain” rivals of running a “Project Fear” by warning that leaving would damage Britain’s economy.

“They say we have no choice but to bow down to Brussels. We say they are woefully underestimating this country and what it can do,” Johnson said.

The Conservative lawmaker concluded the night with by promising Britain an “independence day” on Thursday if it voted to leave, which brought sections of the audience to their feet in prolonged applause.

CHANDIGARH, India — Millions across India on Tuesday celebrated the International Day of Yoga, the country's signature cultural export, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining 30,000 participants in a mass session of exercise and meditation.

Modi pushed for the annual event to be celebrated worldwide soon after winning power in 2014, lending his political weight to an industry that has grown up around the ancient physical and spiritual discipline and is estimated to be worth $80 billion.

The 65-year-old premier, who is reputed to rise at dawn to do yoga exercises before starting work, joined school children, residents and government employees in the northern city of Chandigarh for an early-morning mass yoga session.

"With zero budget, yoga provides health assurance and it does not discriminate between rich and poor," Modi said in his speech before the session.

He also called for a focus on mitigating diabetes through yoga. The number of adults with diabetes has quadrupled worldwide in less than four decades to 422 million, and the condition is fast becoming a major problem in poorer countries, a World Health Organisation study showed in April.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and spiritual gurus Sri Sri Ravishankar and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev all supported the yoga initiative, with several events.

Modi's ministers joined in at sessions across India, with several of them posting tweets and pictures.

"Extremely happy to be amongst you all to participate and practice yoga," tweeted Urban Development and Housing Minister Vekaiah Naidu.

Hundreds of thousands gathered at spots across New Delhi to join in the government-organised mass yoga sessions in parks and on Rajpath, a central avenue.

Last year, the Indian capital set a world record for the largest yoga demonstration at a single site.

"I like the idea of yoga becoming the norm in our homes. Seems like fun, and with phenomenal consequences," Tarot card reader Ruchira Mittal tweeted on social media.

BEIJING — China is restricting TV shows that use formats from abroad such as “The Voice of China”, which is based on a Dutch talent show, in a move it says is intended to lead to more innovation and original programming among Chinese TV channels.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has issued similar orders in the past to satellite TV channels, limiting variety shows, reality programmess and, most recently, programmes that employ celebrities’ children.

The directive, the text of which was published last week on China.com, a news portal run by the Cabinet’s information office, said that some channels were “still too dependent on broadcasting foreign programmes” and had few original ideas.

The directive called on broadcasters to heed President Xi Jinping’s call “to establish cultural self-confidence” and “make quality programmes with Chinese cultural characteristics”. 

Authorities are keen for China’s film and TV industry to make products capable of attracting a global audience. They are also keen to wrest back Communist Party control over cultural industries to make sure they still have the power to dictate public opinion.

In the published directive, satellite TV channels who want to broadcast programmes with foreign rights must submit them for examination to provincial broadcasting regulators.

Satellite TV channels are only allowed to broadcast two programmes with formats from abroad during evening prime time each year. Only one such programme being shown in China for the first time may be broadcast in a year, and not during the 7:30pm to 10:30pm prime time.

Channels that broadcast newly imported TV programmes without approval will be banned from showing any foreign-inspired programmes for one year.

The national regulator has frequently criticised reality shows and earlier this year banned the children of celebrities from appearing on such shows, taking the sail out of the wings of “Where Are We Going, Dad?” — a South Korean-inspired show that was such a hit in China that one episode was shown in cinemas.

NAHA, Japan — Tens of thousands of demonstrators prepared to rally on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday in protest against the heavy US military presence and violent crimes by American personnel that have angered residents for decades.

Set to gather in the prefectural capital Naha at 2:00pm (0500 GMT), the more than 50,000 expected protestors are infuriated with the United States after a former Marine employed as a civilian base worker allegedly raped and murdered a young local woman in April.

The case has intensified longstanding opposition to the military bases — a key part of the US-Japan security alliance — on the sub-tropical southern outpost, a popular holiday destination for Japanese and, increasingly, China and other Asian countries.

The rally will also call for the scrapping of plans by Washington and Tokyo to move a major US Marine facility in the centre of the island to pristine waters off the northern coast.

Protesters also plan to simultaneously gather outside the Japanese parliament in Tokyo in sympathy.

Okinawa’s governor Takeshi Onaga, who is expected to attend the Okinawa rally, opposes the plan and instead wants Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which sits in the middle of a crowded city, moved off the island altogether.

He has revoked approval for work on the facility, in a setback to the plan, though Washington and Tokyo vow to push forward.

The idea to move the base was sparked by the 1995 rape by three American personnel of a 12-year-old girl and though the project was to have been completed years ago it remains held up by local opposition and legal maneuvring.

“Japan is still a military colony of the United States,” said teacher Noboru Kitano, 59, standing at an observation point overlooking the Futenma base, widely seen as a danger to nearby residents.

“This base symbolises that.” 

The roots of the presence goes back to the end of World War II when Okinawa was the site of a battle between Japan and the US, followed by a 27-year American occupation. 

High-profile crimes have sparked large-scale protest rallies before on Okinawa, now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the US-Japan alliance, but where pacifist sentiment runs high.

In 1995, tens of thousands rallied following the rape of the girl, which prompted Washington to pledge to reduce the US footprint on the fortified island. Nearly 100,000 people joined a protest in 2010 against the construction of the new base off the northern coast. 

US officials have grown increasingly concerned that the behaviour of its troops on the island could jeopardise support among Japanese for the security relationship and have imposed restrictions including on off-base alcohol consumption after an intoxicated sailor injured two locals while driving this month.

President Barack Obama received the equivalent of a diplomatic tongue-lashing over the death of the 20-year-old woman from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a visit to Japan last month.

Obama called it a “tragedy” and expressed “deepest regrets” at a joint press conference. 

LONDON — The man charged with murdering British lawmaker Jo Cox gave his name as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain” when he appeared in court on Saturday accused of a killing that could be a defining moment in a vote on European Union membership. 

The murder of Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, has shocked Britain, elicited condolences from leaders around the world and raised questions about the tone of campaigning before the EU referendum which takes place next Thursday. 

Cox, an ardent supporter of EU membership, was shot and stabbed in the street in her electoral district in northern England on Thursday. 

Wearing a grey sweat shirt and trousers and flanked by two security guards, 52-year-old Thomas Mair was asked his name by a clerk at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. 

“Death to traitors, freedom for Britain,” Mair said. When asked again what his name was, Mair calmly repeated: “My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain.” 

“Bearing in mind the name he has just given, he ought to be seen by a psychiatrist,” Deputy Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot told the court. 

Mair, balding with a grey goatee beard, made no further comment in the 15-minute hearing, his first appearance in public since police arrested him in the town of Birstall, Yorkshire, where Cox was killed. 

His brief comment in court furthered suggestions that the attack was politically-motivated as it echoed the message put forward by those supporting a so-called Brexit that leaving the EU would be a vote for freedom. 

The case is also being handled by the counter-terrorism unit of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service. 

Prosecutor David Cawthorne told the court that those who witnessed the attack said Cox had been repeatedly stabbed and then shot three times as she lay on the ground. 

Her attacker was heard saying “Britain first, Keep Britain independent, Britain always comes first,” Cawthorne said. When he was arrested by police he told them “I’m a political activist”, the prosecutor told the court. 

Material relating to far right ideology was found in a search of his home, Cawthorne said. 

Mair is charged with murder, causing grievous bodily harm, and possession of a firearm and a knife. He was remanded in custody and will appear at London’s Old Bailey court on Monday. 

The killing has shocked the nation. Both sides have temporarily suspended campaigning ahead of Thursday’s vote, which has far reaching implications for both the EU and Britain. 

A British exit from the EU would rock the bloc — already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone — by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial centre. 

Pro-Europeans, including former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major, have warned that an exit could also trigger the break-up of the United Kingdom by prompting another Scottish independence vote if England pulled Scotland out of the EU. 

Vile act

Prime Minister David Cameron joined Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday to lay flowers in Birstall. 

“It is a vile act that has killed her,” Corbyn said. 

Cameron has agreed to recall parliament on Monday to allow lawmakers to pay tributes to the popular member of parliament (MP), who was only elected in 2015. 

The murder has sparked debate in Britain, which has strict gun controls, about the safety of lawmakers, the heightened tempo of political confrontation and any impact on the EU vote. 

Both sides in the referendum contest have put on hold their national campaigns until at least Sunday. 

Polls have suggested the vote hangs in the balance, but in the last week a series of surveys have indicated that the campaign to leave had been taking the lead. 

A telephone survey by BMG for Scotland’s The Herald newspaper on Saturday showed the “In” camp on 53 per cent and “Out” on 47 per cent, although a separate online poll by BMG showed Out leading by 10 points, with 55 per cent support compared to In’s 45 per cent. 

Both polls were carried out before the killing of Cox. Those wanting to stay in the EU can count on the support of many of Britain’s biggest businesses, most economists and foreign leaders such as US President Barack Obama, who spoke to Cox’s husband on Friday to offer condolences. 

The International Monetary Fund, which has previously warned that Britain and the world economy could be hit by a so-called Brexit, said on Saturday an exit could leave Britain’s economy more than 5 per cent smaller by 2019. 

However, the “Out” campaign’s message that EU membership is responsible for a loss of political control as well as uncontrolled immigration appears to have struck a chord. 

Members of the “Out” campaign say Britain would prosper if it broke free from what they say is a doomed German-dominated bloc that punches way below its weight beside rivals such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Both sides have accused each other of making up facts to support their case, and debates had become more heated and personal in the days before Cox’s death, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan telling Sky News politics had become “poisonous”.

“The referendum was always about more than Europe; it was always about what kind of Britain we are and what we aspire to be,” former prime minister Gordon Brown wrote in Saturday’s Guardian newspaper. 

“But some have attempted to hijack a decision on the future of Britain in Europe and turn it into a vote on immigration, and then on immigrants and those who support immigrants.” 

Lawmakers fears

Cox had arrived in Birstall for an advice session with constituents in a public library. 

Bernard Carter-Kenny, a 77-year-old who had taken his wife to the library, intervened to try to protect Cox after she was attacked and is in hospital after being stabbed in the stomach. 

Armed police patrol Westminster, where lawmakers do much of their work in parliament, but there is often no security in their home electoral districts, or constituencies. 

The last British lawmaker to have been killed was Ian Gow, who died after an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded under his car at his home in 1990.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that women MPs had repeatedly raised concerns about their security with Cameron’s office, with one writing to say if it was not improved there would be a “tragic fatality”.

Police have said they had reiterated advice and guidance to MPs, some of whom have cancelled surgeries after the killing of Cox, a former charity worker whose job took her to countries such as Afghanistan and Darfur. 

In Birstall, hundreds of bouquets of flowers were laid in the town centre with locals still stunned by what had happened. 

“Over the last few weeks the debate about Europe has not been what it should be,” local vicar Paul Knight told Reuters. 

“We all recognise the exaggerations, hyperbole, and anger. And unless that changes, and we’ve only got a few days for that to change, then it’s very sad. 

“I hope people reflecting on this will realise democracy actually means speaking, and not violence and not anger.”

BEIJING — China criticised US President Barack Obama on Thursday for hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House, despite efforts to avoid irking Beijing by holding the meeting off-camera and out of the public eye.

Obama carried out what has become a political rite in Washington, spiriting the exiled Tibetan religious leader into the White House through the back door — and prompting the usual Chinese denunciations.

“No matter in what way the US leader met with the Dalai Lama, the meeting violated the US promises of acknowledging Tibet as a part of China, not supporting Tibet independence and not supporting separatist activities,” Lu Kang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters in Beijing.

“Such a meeting will hurt China-US mutual trust and cooperation.” 

Since coming to office, Obama has hosted the Dalai Lama four times. Each time, Obama has tried to limit the fallout by holding the meeting behind closed doors.

Obama was criticised in 2010 for obliging the 80-year-old, clad in his characteristic red robes and flip flops, to leave the White House through a rear entrance and walk past piles of snow and bags of rubbish.

This latest confab took place in the Map Room, not the Oval Office, and the press was not invited — which meant no images of the two Nobel peace laureates emerged from the meeting.

“The personal nature of their meeting would explain why the president received the Dalai Lama in the White House residence, as opposed to the Oval Office,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

Obama calls the monk, who is revered by Tibetans but portrayed by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, “a good friend”.

He made a highly-publicised public appearance with the Dalai Lama last year at a prayer breakfast in Washington, calling him “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion”.

Strong stand

The spiritual leader — who has lived in exile in the north Indian town of Dharamsala since a failed 1959 uprising — has for decades called for more Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.

Beijing maintains he is a “wolf in monk’s clothing” and vigorously lobbies — often successfully — against foreign leaders meeting him.

In a statement after the meeting, the White House said Obama had “encouraged meaningful and direct dialogue between the Dalai Lama and his representatives with Chinese authorities to lower tensions and resolve differences”.

Obama also “emphasised his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions, and the equal protection of human rights of Tibetans in China”, according to the White House statement.

But some exiled Tibetans questioned the value of such meetings, urging bolder action from Washington.

“This will be the fourth time President Obama and his holiness the Dalai Lama are meeting, yet there has been no significant change on the issue of Tibet,” said Tenzing Jigme, head of the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Youth Congress, which lobbies for independence rather than greater autonomy.

“The situation inside Tibet is dire and requires immediate intervention and so I urge President Obama to take a strong stand and pressure the Chinese government to resolve the issue of Tibet.” Many Tibetans consider any criticism of the Dalai Lama to be heresy, but some younger exiles argue that his long campaign of diplomacy has achieved little and call for more assertive policies.

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s and many Tibetans say Beijing represses their Buddhist religion and culture — charges China denies.

More than 130 ethnic Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest at Beijing’s rule, campaign groups and overseas media have said. Most of them have died.

The Dalai Lama has described the protests as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.

BRUSSELS — A fresh wave of Daesh terror group’s militants has left Syria and could commit attacks imminently in France and Belgium, Belgian police have been warned, according to media reports on Wednesday.

“Fighters travelling without passports left Syria about a week and a half ago in order to reach Europe by boat via Turkey and Greece,” a memo sent to police and security services across Belgium said, according to La Derniere Heure newspaper.

The militants were travelling armed and planning to carry out attacks in groups of two, the memo is reported to have said.

“Their action is imminent,” the memo added, without giving the total of suspected attackers.

Belgium’s OCAM national crisis centre in a statement did not deny the report, but said the information needed to be looked at further.

The information reported by the media “is non-contextualised and, as such, has not made a direct impact on the current level of threat” in Belgium.

Belgium’s terror alert is currently at the second-highest level of three, which means a threat is possible and likely.

Belgium is still reeling from Daesh suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on the city’s metro on March 22 which killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more.

They came five months after militants, many of them from Brussels, carried out gun and bombing attacks in Paris on November 13, killing 130 people and wounding hundreds more.

France, which is hosting the Euro 2016 football championships, is on maximum alert after an assailant previously convicted for jihadism killed a police officer and his partner on Monday.

The attacker told police negotiators before being gunned down that he had sworn loyalty to Daesh three weeks earlier.