Dalai Lama visa tiff scrubs conference

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, March 25 (UPI) -- A high-profile conference in South Africa has been canceled over the government's refusal to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama, the organizers said Tuesday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was one of five winners of the Nobel Peace Prize scheduled to attend the event in Johannesburg, which The New York Times said was being organized as part of the run-up to next year's World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa.

The Times reported South Africa's two laureates, Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk, chided the government for supposedly caving in to pressure from China to bar the Dalai Lama, who is a symbol of Tibet's independence movement.

A government spokesman said it had been determined that it would "not be in South Africa's best interests" to admit the Dalai Lama because his presence would have drawn too much attention to the debate over Tibet.