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Olympic Torch Relay in Paris;
Flame Put Out, AP Says
Gregory Viscusi
Bloomberg
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Olympic flame was carried from the first floor of the Eiffel
Tower to cross Paris on its way to the Beijing games as police
kept demonstrators planning to protest China's rights record well
away. Officials interrupted the relay, extinguished the flame
and put the torch aboard a bus, the Associated Press reported.
The first person to bear the torch on today's 28-kilometer (18-mile)
run through the French capital was Stephane Diagana, the 1997
400-meter world champion hurdler. Four people were arrested amid
the protests, Agence France-Presse said.
The Paris leg of the relay was accompanied by 48 police cars,
65 motorcycles, 100 policemen on roller blades, and 100 jogging
firemen as French authorities tried to avert protests such as
those that held up the flame's progress through London yesterday.
No spectators will be allowed within 200 meters of the flame,
Paris police said.
(Article continues below)
Robert Menard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders,
a Paris-based rights group that disrupted the lighting of the
Olympic flame in Greece on March 24, called the Paris security
measures ``shameful.'' He called in a statement for protests that
won't block the relay.
Paris City Hall, which is on the route, has hung a banner saying
``Paris Defends Human Rights Throughout the World.'' Only a handful
of demonstrators gathered near the foot of the Eiffel Tower for
the start of the relay.
China is facing international criticism for its crackdown in
Tibet in response to last month's riots in the capital, Lhasa,
and neighboring provinces, the most serious protests in 20 years.
Full
article here.
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INFOWARS:
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