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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine runners relayed the Olympic torch past fenced-off protesters on Friday, as hundreds of China supporters in red windbreakers tried to reverse weeks of bad publicity for the host of the Summer Games. Activists opposing China's human rights record unfurled banners and promised "entertaining surprises" but pledged to keep their demonstrations peaceful after protests marred stops in London, Paris and San Francisco. Hundreds of spectators cheered as Chinese delegates wearing Argentina's blue-and-white lit the torch from a lantern that has carried the flame from the site of the ancient Olympic games in Greece. Mayor Mauricio Macri...

What a letdown. The Olympic torch run turned into a barely seen security entourage that dodged the thousands who turned out to watch. The sudden re-routing of the relay along near-empty sidewalks invites the question: Is City Hall unclear on the concept of a public event? Clearly, organizers were worried about the crowds who turned out along the Embarcadero, an assemblage that included both China boosters and critics. The surprise switch in directions succeeded in dodging the worst-case scenario of police scuffles with angry protesters, as happened in London and Paris. But it did little to showcase the Olympics or...

SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of people carrying Tibetan and Chinese flags packed the relay route of the Olympic torch Wednesday and police sought to keep demonstrators from disrupting the flame's symbolic journey to the Beijing Games. Farther along the six-mile route, about 200 Chinese college students mobbed a car carrying two people waving Tibetan flags in front of the city's Pier 39 tourist destination. The students, who arrived by bus from the University of California, Davis, banged drums and chanted "Go Olympics" in Chinese. "I'm proud to be Chinese and I'm outraged because there are so many people who are...

The head of the International Olympic Committee has said the Beijing Games will rebound from "crisis" after days of protests along the torch route. Jacques Rogge told a meeting of national committees in the Chinese capital that they should assure their countries the Games would succeed. The US stage of the torch relay passed off amid confusion and tight security in San Francisco on Wednesday. The route was changed amid protests against China's human rights record. Torch-bearers were immersed in a cocoon of security, surrounded by dozens of police officers and Chinese guards in track-suits

I was on the ground today in San Francisco with the protestors. This was a first for me - I haven't protested anything or anybody since Ted Kennedy's visit to my university many years ago (I had far less company then, being the only person holding a "Justice for Mary Jo" sign - but I digress). I arrived at the Ferry Building around 1pm. The area was packed with thousands of protestors. I would estimate that there were 100 protestors for every 1 of the Chicom supporters. It probably didn't appear to be quite that lopsided on TV because the...

The Olympic flame’s procession through San Francisco drew world-wide ridicule when the torch-bearers ran only a few yards before disappearing into a warehouse, only to re-emerge on a bus half an hour later. After furious clashes between Free Tibet protesters and pro-China demonstrators, the authorities seemed to panic and abruptly changed the route, cutting it by half and scrapping the closing ceremony. What Chinese Olympic organisers have called a “Journey of Harmony” quickly became the mystery tour of the missing flame. By 1.20pm local time — 20 minutes after the scheduled start— even the TV news helicopters had lost track....

SAN FRANCISCO - Officials say the planned closing ceremony for the Olympic torch at the San Francisco Bay waterfront is canceled and another one will take place at an undisclosed location. The ceremony had been slated to take place Wednesday at Justin Herman Plaza, where thousands had gathered to support and protest the Beijing-bound flame's visit to the city. Just before the relay began, the torch was rerouted about a mile away from the demonstrators and spectators. Officials say they changed the path because of security concerns. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom tells The Associated Press that a closing ceremony...

Olympic Games torch rushed into hiding Daily News[Wednesday, April 09, 2008 15:03] Tibetans and supporters hold up flags at a rally in protest of China's Olympic torch at the U.N. Plaza in San Francisco as the torch arrived there Tuesday. (Chiu/AP) San Francisco officials were playing hide-and-seek with the Olympic torch on Tuesday to keep it safe from protesters for Wednesday's 6-mile trek through the city's hilly streets. The torch arrived in the San Francisco Bay area in the morning and was whisked off to a secret location as demonstrators vowed to douse the clarion call of the Summer Games...

April 9, 2008 is the date of the Official Beijing Olympic Torch Run in San Francisco. This is the only U.S. city on the Torch's world tour. The national and international media will be here. A nude torch run is being planned to coincide. We are inviting you and your nude friends to join us. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an indelible statement for human rights. Meet: 12:30 pm sharp near the front of Tacqueria Pancho Villa Pier 1, the Embarcadero (waterfront side) [ the next building north from the Ferry Building] Look for faux "torch" labeled "Human...

The global Olympic torch run has descended into chaos and China has only itself to blame, write German media commentators. The protests have even created a new sport -- "Flame Extinguishing." Authorities in San Francisco, the next destination for the troubled Olympic torch relay, are gearing up for the same kind of pro-Tibet protests that disrupted the relays in London and Paris in recent days. Signs of protest are already visible after three people climbed the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday to unfurl a Tibetan flag and two protest banners. Billboards protesting China's human rights record have already gone up...

Tibetans have a strong case against Beijing. But mixing it in with the Olympics and Darfur is a red rag to a wounded young bull. Nationalism is more often aroused by setbacks than success, so the Tibet problems and the possible threats to a triumphal Olympics are stirring it in China. On the horizon is the possibility that these will combine with high inflation, stagnating exports and trade tensions with the United States to create a perfect nationalistic storm. The Chinese leadership faces a difficult balancing act. As its legitimacy is now based on national achievement, not communist ideology, it...

Tibetan community mobilizes for protests Mercury News[Tuesday, April 08, 2008 15:01] RALLIES SET AS OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY COMES TO S.F. By Jessie Mangaliman Usha Lama is expecting eight or nine people at her home in Fremont. Jamyang Nordup is ready for up to 50 people at his 3,500-square-foot home in Richmond and has been collecting bedding for months. Stanford University graduate Yangchen Lhamo is sharing her small one-bedroom in San Francisco's Sunset district with four cousins from Portland and Seattle. Sunnyvale resident Tenzin Tethong is expecting a guest or two from New York. An army of 2,000 exiled Tibetans from...

See how French and Tibet protesters welcomed China's olympic games... !!

PARIS (AP) — Security officials canceled the final run of the Olympic relay through Paris after chaotic protests Monday, sending a snuffed-out torch to its destination on a bus in a humiliating concession to protesters decrying China's human rights record. The bus stopped right outside the final stop, a stadium, so a runner could finish the last 15 feet of the relay. At least two activists got within almost an arm's length of the flame earlier in the day before they were grabbed by police. Another protester threw water at the torch but failed to put it out before being...

Police in jogging gear put the torch out and brought it aboard a bus, apparently to move it away from protesters. The flame was being carried down a road along the Seine River amid demonstrators carrying Tibetan flags when the relay was stopped. It is not immediately clear what police plan next.

(CNN) -- The Olympic torch has been extinguished by officials and put on a bus during the Paris leg of its relay amid anti-China protests, The Associated Press has reported. The incident came one day after anti-Chinese demonstrators made its journey through London more like running the gauntlet than a journey of celebration. An anti-China protester is restrained by French police before Monday's Olympic torch relay begins in Paris 1 of 3more photos » Thousands of French police are on duty to protect the Olympic torch after it departed from the Eiffel Tower at around 1030 GMT (0630 ET). It...

PARIS - The relay of the Olympic torch through the streets of Paris by runners was cancelled on Monday and the flame was put on a bus at the request of Chinese authorities after huge pro-Tibetan protests, French television reported. France's BFM television said the flame was carried onto the bus in front of the National Parliament and would be driven down to the final stage of the relay on the southern edge of Paris, rather than be taken there by runners. Earlier, security officials snuffed out the Olympic torch and carried it through Paris in the safety of a...

The Olympic torch relay in Paris has been cut short after chaotic protests by anti-China demonstrators. Torch had to be put outThe flame had already been extinguished four times by security forces after repeated clashes with pro-Tibet and human rights campaigners. The city's mayor also cancelled a ceremony to mark the torch's passing as officials draped a Tibetan flag over the city hall's facade. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe announced the cancellation after Green party members of the city council flew the flag. Thousands of police sent on to the streets to protect the torch relay as it made its way around...

PARIS - Security officials snuffed out the Olympic torch and carried it through Paris in the safety of a bus at least five times Monday before canceling the final run of a relay repeatedly disrupted by chaotic protests against China's human rights record. Security officials put the torch on the bus for the last stretch but stopped right outside its destination, a Paris stadium, so a runner could finish the last 15 feet. At least two activists earlier got within almost an arm's length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. A protester threw water at the torch...

Officials put out Olympic torch 3 times By JEROME PUGMIRE and ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 12 minutes ago Security officials extinguished the Olympic torch three times Monday as protests against China's human rights record turned a relay through Paris into a chaotic series of stops and starts. Despite massive security, at least two activists got within almost an arm's length of the flame before they were grabbed by police. Officers tackled many protesters and carried off some of them. A protester threw water at the torch but failed to extinguish it and was also taken away. At...