[During a session with the Dalai Lama on Sunday, one novice monk got distracted. The religious leader has been at the Sera Monastery delivering the ten-day-long series of Jangchup Lamrim teachings since Wednesday. Image by Abhishek N. Chinnappa via AP.]

Recently on Australia's version of the Today show, anchor Karl Stefanovic sat down for an interview with the Dalai Lama, during which he attempted a joke about the religious leader going into a pizza shop. That's when things got really awkward. [via Reddit]

We'll never know for certain what Martin Luther King, Jr. would have said about the killing of Osama bin Laden — but luckily, we still have the 14th Dalai Lama to turn to for spiritually elevated words of pacifism and tolerance in these rootin' tootin' times. So what are those words? Well, that Bin Laden kind of had it coming.

Speaking to the exiled Tibetan Parliament today, the 75-year-old Dalai Lama asked to be relieved of his political duties, so that a democratically elected leader could take charge. Currently, the constitution won't let him step down. Let the guy relax!

The 76-year-old Dalai Lama today said that he will ask the Tibetan parliament in exile to amend the constitution so that he can leave his post as political leader of Tibet within days. In a speech in India he said: "My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility. It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run." He'll remain the spiritual leader of Tibet. China still hates the Dalai Lama, and today said that he was up to dirty "tricks." [Guardian; image via AP]

If you thought China might be worried about what will happen in Tibet once the 76-year-old Dalai Lama dies, well, think again! The former "governor" of Tibet, Qiangba Puncog told reporters today:

China's beef with the Nobel Committee over its selection of dissident Liu Xiaobo for this year's Peace Prize has turned comical, with the government creating its own "Confucius Peace Prize," which will go to Taiwan's former VP this week.

Today's edition of the Toronto Star is actually worth reading for one reason: It was guest edited by the Dalai Lama. Here's a video of His Holiness' thought process while deciding what went into the paper's Sunday edition.

[Tibetan monks prepare to serve sweetened rice at the 75th birthday party for the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, today. He has been living in Dharmsala since 1959, when he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against China. AP]

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is holding court in New York, where yesterday he said Marxism has "moral ethics" and capitalism is solely about "how to make profits." Event tickets were between $20-$60. He's holding a Twitter Q&A today, too!

[Richard Gere is the one thing not like the others sitting with a bunch of monks listening to the Dalai Lama speak at Radio City Music Hall this afternoon. Image via Getty]

Tonight, Larry King talked to a bald guy who apparently is the leader of a religion? The Dalai Lama? Anyway, King managed to get him to shut up about world peace for long enough to talk about Tiger Woods.

Well, well. Liberals and lefties try to claim President Obama's far more progressive than George W. Bush. That may not entirely be the case, because, unlike Bush, Obama can't bring himself to meet with the Dalai Lama...

China spent $44 million renovating the Dalai Lama's palaces. If only he could live there!

50 Cent turns 34 today. George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, is turning 63. Nancy Reagan is 88. Sylvester Stallone is turning 63. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 58. Former Mets manager Willie Randolph turns 55. Ex-Barneys CEO Howard Socol is 64. Brazilian model Caroline Trentini is turning 22. Robin Antin, the Pussycat Dolls founder and sister of hairstylist Jonathan Antin, is 48. And the Dalai Lama turns 74 today.

GhostNet, a "cyber espioniage network," has broken into 1,295 computers in 103 countries. Canadian researchers have traced the operation to China. The Dalai Lama and NATO were among its targets.

This, from the Columbia Spectator, is a truly beautiful correction. Turns out there's no evidence to support the claim that "one Dalai Lama" had sex with hundreds of men even though he knew he had AIDS. The fact that the current Dalai Lama has held the position since 1950 certainly narrows down the candidates there, doesn't it. Beautiful. [Spectator]

"The Dalai Lama threatened Tuesday to step down as leader of Tibet's government-in-exile if violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland spirals out of control." [AP]

You thought the plan to turn the Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue into a new Penn Station had a powerful backer in Pat Moynihan. After he died, you thought it had an even more powerful backer in the politically savvy Moynihan family's invoking of his memory. But, reports the Sun the plan just picked up its most powerful backer yet.

Celebrity photographer Herb Ritts died yesterday in an L.A. hospital after a bout with pneumonia that resulted in fatal complications. A contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair for over 15 years, Ritts photographed subjects ranging from Madonna to the Dalai Lama. His latest series for Vogue, including shots of Kofi Annan and track star Marion Jones, will appear in the February issue.
Herb Ritts, celebrity photographer, dies at 50 [NYT]
Ritts, R.I.P. [Page Six]