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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...

April 1, 2008 Olympic Torch Begins Its Journey in Beijing By JIM YARDLEY BEIJING — President Hu Jintao of China waved the Olympic torch at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Monday, smiling broadly as balloons, streamers and confetti rose into a mostly blue sky. Then came the uncertain part. Mr. Hu sent the torch on a 130-day journey around the globe where protests and controversy likely await. First stop on what Beijing is calling a “Journey of Harmony” will be Lhasa, the Tibetan capital still simmering from violent anti-government protests. “I now declare the launch of the torch relay...

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Even before the Olympic flame was lit Monday, a protester of China’s human rights policies disrupted the solemn ceremony, foreshadowing the prospect of demonstrations throughout the 85,000-mile torch-relay route right up to the Beijing Games themselves. Forecasts of clouds and rain had been considered the main threat to the pomp-filled torch-lighting. But in the end, while the sun sparked the flame to life, it was the protesters who turned the joyful bow to the Olympics’ roots into a political embarrassment for China over its crackdown in Tibet and other rights issues.

Licensed scale model of Beijing Olympic torch to go on sale March 8 BEIJING, March 6 -- In celebration of the upcoming start of the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay, a new Beijing Olympic licensed product, a scale model of the Beijing Olympic Torch, was unveiled Thursday morning. Measuring 29 cm in height, the scale model of the torch is made of steel left over from the construction of the "Bird's Nest." It is the first 3-D model of an Olympic torch that has been authorized by the International Olympic Committee. The Olympic Flame has brought the joy and fervor of...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Vowing "Revenge against Crusaders who attack the symbol of Islam," dozens of Jordanian Islamists burned the Danish flag on Monday to protest the reprinting of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad in Danish newspapers. The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's main licensed opposition party and the political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, demanded the government expel the Danish envoy until his government offered an official apology. "Oh government, expel the Danish ambassador: Oh Dane... listen the Prophet is the symbol of our Islam. We will die for his sake and eradicate anyone who humiliates him," chanted angry protesters in...

ATLANTA - When the 300 millionth American is born or immigrates this week, Bobby Woo will welcome a new milestone that surpasses an unofficial distinction he has held for nearly 39 years. When Woo was born in 1967, Life magazine heralded him as the 200 millionth American. Growing up, he didn't understand the special distinction until his parents told him it was because he represented "the average American." While the Atlanta attorney, born of a Chinese immigrant, considers it an honor, he now laughs at the whole concept of average for this diverse nation. "There's no typical American," he said...

Charles Kushner, the Port Authority commissioner who is New Jersey Governor James McGreevey’s choice to be the agency’s next chairman, may soon find the dreaded appellation "embattled" attached to his name. Mr. Kushner is facing a whistle-blower lawsuit that could jeopardize his appointment to head the Port Authority—an appointment he doubtless helped to secure through generous contributions to New Jersey Democrats. He was the single largest donor to Mr. McGreevey’s campaign fund last year; to Hillary Clinton’s in 2000 and 2001; and to Senator Robert Torricelli’s in 1999 and 2001. Kushner companies collectively provided the largest bundle of contributions to...

The US Senate is looking into allegations that a former US senator urged Baghdad to give a US company lucrative contracts under the much-criticised United Nations oil-for-food programme. This is the first time that a leading US lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN programme, whose shortcomings have been an important element of the Bush administration's critique of the UN. The investigation involves one of the most vivid figures in US east coast politics, former senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate...

Former Gov. Christie Whitman believes the Republican Party is in deep trouble. The GOP, she says, is now where the Democrats were a dozen years ago in Washington when they lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. President Bush's popularity is at a low ebb and several GOP leaders have been snared in ethics scandals. "We're at a critical point," she said. "We're starting to see polls that look just like the polls looked to Democrats in '94." From a converted hayloft of the barn on her family estate in Oldwick, Whitman works each day...

The protesters here certainly know what they don't like: war, globalization, capitalism, drug laws, immigrant detention centers, a high-speed train line and, inexplicably, the Olympic torch. "This is a discussion of war," said Claudio Robba, 25, one of maybe 150 protesters at a piazza, referring, in fact, to a well-designed stick with a little flame on top.

MIDI - (They) CALL THE WIND MARIAH Get ready for what is in store from our peaceful religion Cartoonists, we are watching you...we'll respond as is tradition If you're Norwegian or a Dane, your actions drive us wild Compared to riots in L.A., you'll find out they were mild Moe Hammid...Moe Hammid...we'll torch you for Moe Hammid Your embassies are firewood...if that is what we're choosing In Europe the great war is on...Europeans will be losing You do not get a second chance...you're subject to beheading If you should draw the prophet, then that is what you'll be getting...

<p>September 17, 2002 -- NEW Jersey voters already concerned about Sen. Robert Torricelli's low ethical threshold now learn that he's been a paid shill for a group the government identifies as a terrorist organization. Called on this by his Republican opponent, Douglas Forrester, in a debate Thursday, Torricelli said the group had been pulled from the State Department's global terror list and given a clean bill of health. Not true.</p>

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

Beijing has high hopes for Olympic flame on Everest Thu 26 May, 9:42 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - China has high hopes for the 2008 Olympic Games -- 8,850 metres (29,035 ft) high, to be exact. Beijing is investigating how to haul the Olympic torch to the peak of Mount Everest and broadcast the event live during the pre-Games torch relay, a senior Olympics official said on Thursday. "We have organised a research team and they are assessing it," said Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, told Reuters. "It depends on the weather at...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC's broadcast of the 2004 Olympics has gotten off to as bumpy a start as the U.S. Olympic team itself, with prime-time ratings for the first three days of the Summer Games down slightly from four years ago, according to figures released on Monday. NBC's prime-time Olympics coverage still towered over the usual summer sitcoms, reality shows and reruns offered on rival U.S. networks during the first three days of the Athens Games, posting a hefty household rating of 14.1 and a full quarter share of all viewers watching TV on those evenings. But compared with...

<p>WASHINGTON — Federal employees who persuaded JetBlue Airways to give a defense contractor personal information about 1.5 million passengers — without their knowledge or permission — will have to undergo training about privacy issues. Employees of the Transportation Security Administration broke the spirit, but not the letter, of federal privacy laws, Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said Friday. She said fewer than six current employees were involved.</p>

WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli remains a polarizing political figure more than a year after leaving office. Both courted and reviled, the New Jersey Democrat who gave up his seat under an ethical cloud continues to shape the political landscape through his involvement in campaigns nationwide. His $50,000 donation to a group that ran anti-Howard Dean television ads triggered an angry retort this week from the former Vermont governor about the ``ethically challenged'' ex-senator. And his public pronouncement that he's raising tens of thousands of dollars for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has detractors calling for the Massachusetts...