Japan says no to Chinese torch guards: reports

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Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:15am EDT<hr>
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will not allow the squad of Chinese flame guards to intervene with the Beijing Olympic torch's progress when it arrives in a Japanese city this month, the national police head was quoted as saying on Friday.

"We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security," Kyodo news agency quoted Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission, as saying.

"We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in," Izumi was quoted as saying. "If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role."

The torch is set to arrive in Nagano, central Japan, where the Winter Games were hosted in 1998, on April 26, after passing through Buenos Aires, Mumbai, and Canberra, among other cities.

More (http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_2_MOLT/idUST21452620080411)

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Rather than start a new thread on this topic, I'll add this to the present thread:

By Emma Graham-Harrison
Reuters - Friday, April 11 10:58 am<br>
BEIJING (Reuters) - A wheelchair-bound Chinese torch bearer has rocketed to national fame after fending off protesters in Paris, becoming a symbol of China's defiance of global demonstrations backing Tibet.

Jin Jing, a 27 year-old amputee and Paralympic fencer has been called the "angel in a wheelchair" and is being celebrated by television chat shows, newspapers and online musical videos after fiercely defending the Olympic torch during the Paris leg of the troubled international relay.

Protesters denouncing Chinese policy in Tibet threw themselves at Jin. Most were wrestled away by police but at least one reached her wheelchair and tried to wrench the torch away.

Jin clung tenaciously to what has become a controversial icon of the Beijing Olympic Games until her attacker was pulled off.
More (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080411/tpl-uk-china-olympics-rage-43a8d4f.html)

How much do you want to bet this "attack" was staged by the Chicoms "gin up" (if you'll pardon the pun) antipathy for the Tibetans and other critics?