A Tibetan mother of three has died in the latest in a recent wave of self-immolations to protest against Chinese rule, according to reports.

One man died and the other was taken to hospital after they set themselves on fire yesterday outside the Jokhang Temple, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's national treasure, the giant panda, will become even more precious if one businessman succeeds in using its dung to grow organic green tea which he intends to sell for more than £125 a cup.

Chinese officials sought today to discredit Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest China's rule over their region, calling them outcasts, criminals and mentally ill people manipulated by the exiled Dalai Lama.

A young Tibetan Buddhist monk has set himself on fire to protest against Chinese rule – the 21st to do so in the past year.

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China vowed yesterday to crack down on unrest in Tibetan areas and accused overseas activist groups and the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the recent violence.

Three more people have set themselves on fire to protest about China's policies toward Tibetans in a politically sensitive area that already has seen ethnic violence this year.

A human rights advocate was jailed for nine years after a brief hearing yesterday in which he pleaded not guilty to subverting state power.

The Dalai Lama has said the desperate conditions Tibetans faced under Beijing's rigid controls, in what amounted to "cultural genocide", were behind a spate of self-immolations in southwest China.

A child has been shot dead by police during clashes between supporters of rival political camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of next month's election, according to the government and the UN.

The complex network of flood defences shielding Thailand's capital from the worst floods in nearly 60 years mostly held today as coastal high tides hit their peak. While the city centre was protected, Bangkok's northern outskirts remained inundated along with much of the rest of the country.

The threat of floods inundating Thailand's capital could ease by early next month as record-high water levels in the river carrying torrents downstream from the country's north begin to decline, officials said yesterday.