Dalai Lama wrote to Cameron over London riots

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says he wrote to Britain’s Prime Minister to offer condolences in the wake of England’s riots last August.

Speaking at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday, he said he had been shocked by the four nights of riots in London and other English cities, the country’s worst civil unrest in a generation.

Looters trashed shops, damaged vehicles and torched buildings, while five deaths were linked to the riots — including the killing of a man who attempted to extinguish a blaze.

The Dalai Lama said the incidents were a concern, because he had “always thought that Englishmen were mature people, sensible people and law-abiding people.”

He said he wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron “expressing my sadness and my condolences.” (nvn)