China: Tibetan Dies in Protest Fire.

A Tibetan herder in China's northwest Qinghai Province died Friday after setting himself on fire to protest government policies in the region, according to exile groups and Radio Free Asia. The herder, Tamdin Thar, thought to be in his early 60s, set himself on fire in Markethang, in the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, said the group Free Tibet. Since 2009, at least 39 Tibetans have set themselves on fire. Of those, 30 have died, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group in Washington. ''If the human rights situation doesn't improve, such tragic incidents will keep happening,'' said Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan writer in Beijing. ''Many Tibetans think the pain of self-immolation is nothing compared to the pain of living without religious freedom.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]