Dalai Lama, 83, is taken to hospital

THE Dalai Lama was admitted to hospital last night with a chest infection.

The 83-year-old spiritual leader, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959, is being treated in the capital New Delhi.

‘His holiness felt some discomfort and he was flown to Delhi for a check-up,’ said Tenzin Taklha, his personal secretary. ‘Doctors have diagnosed him with a chest infection and he is being treated for that. His condition is stable. He will be treated for two or three days.’

The Dalai Lama lives in exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.

China, which took control of Tibet in 1950, brands the Nobel peace laureate a dangerous separatist and says its leaders must approve his successor.