Torch in Pakistan and India

Pakistan and India reroute Olympic torch relay
Reuters
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India have changed plans for their Olympic torch runs because of worries about security and anti-China protests on the eve of the start of the torch's tour of Asia and Australia.
The torch, touring the world ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, has become a magnet for protests against China's policies, in particular its crackdown last month on unrest in Tibet.
The torch will arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday on the first leg of its relay in Asia as it makes its way to the Beijing.
Officials in Pakistan, a close ally of China, said that they did not expect anti-China protests but that they had changed the venue for the torch run for security reasons.
"As such there's no threat but, obviously, because of the overall security environment, we didn't want to take a chance," said Lieutenant Colonel Baseer Haider, a spokesman for the Pakistan Olympic Association.
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of suicide bomb attacks by militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban since an army assault on a radical mosque in Islamabad last July in which more than 100 people were killed.
The Olympic association had hoped to hold a torch run along Islamabad's main boulevard in front of Parliament, but the event will now be held inside a nearby sports stadium.
India has also shortened the route of its torch relay on Thursday, fearing that Tibetan protesters might try to disrupt the procession.
The final route is still to be announced, but media reported the torch will travel less than a third of the original 9-kilometer distance, or 5 miles, in a heavily guarded New Delhi neighborhood.'Better World' badge banned
The head of the French National Olympic Committee ruled out allowing athletes to wear a "For a Better World" badge at the Beijing Games, angering athletes and others who had wanted to express their views on human rights, The Associated Press reported from Paris.
French athletes came up with the idea of a badge after China's crackdown on protests in March in Tibet.
Henri Serandour told l'Équipe TV on Monday night that the Olympic Charter must be respected, and blocked the athletes' plan to wear a small badge bearing the five Olympic rings. The Olympic charter rules out any kind of "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda" at all Olympic sites.
The decision to ban the badge "puts into question the fundamental values of the Olympic spirit," Romain Mesnil, a pole vaulter, said Tuesday on radio.
In Frankfurt, an Olympic judo champion, Yvonne Bönisch, said she planned to boycott the opening ceremony for the Beijing Games and that she would wear a wristband to protest China's crackdown in Tibet. But Bönisch, who in 2004 became the first German woman to win a judo gold medal, said she planned to participate in the Games themselves.