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Recent news coverage of protests along the torch route.

Olympic torch protesters scale Golden Gate Bridge (AP, 4/7/200

Three protesters climbed suspension cables of the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday as part of an advance protest to this week’s Olympic torch relay here and unfurled two large banners that said “One World One Dream. Free Tibet” and “Free Tibet.”

Olympic Torch Relay in Paris Halted as Protests Spread (NYT, 4/8/200

As the relay began in Paris, the French authorities had appeared determined to try to spare China — and France — the disorder that occurred in London, resorting to measures normally reserved for a visiting head of state.

Their efforts drew scorn from protesters, who angrily noted the heavy police presence. Armed officers guarded sensitive Metro exits along the 28-kilometer, or 17-mile, route.

“One would almost think oneself in Lhasa,” said Jean-Paul Ribes, leader of the Support Committee of the Tibetan People in France, who was among the thousands massed on the Trocadéro. “It snowed last night, now the sky is blue — and police are everywhere.”

Many protesters — demonstrating against China’s human rights policies in general or for a free Tibet, or simply advocating a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing — echoed a headline that was emblazoned across the front page of the leftist daily Libération, under a picture of the Olympic rings restyled as handcuffs: “Liberate the Olympic Games!”

Paris Torch Slideshow (NYT)

Thousands protest as Olympic flame carried through London (Guardian, 4/7/200 “Campaigners complained of heavy-handed police tactics during the Olympic torch relay yesterday as officers were seen pulling down Tibetan flags, barging bystanders away from the route, threatening arrest under anti-terrorist legislation and telling protesters to remove “Free Tibet” T-shirts.”

Numbers low for S.F. Human Rights Torch rally (SF Chronicle, 4/6/200

About 200 people gathered Saturday at San Francisco’s Union Square for a Human Rights Torch rally, the first of the city’s two alternative torch protests called in advance of Wednesday’s visit of the official Olympic torch in the city.

San Francisco is the only North American stop in the global Olympic torch celebration that precedes the Olympics’ Aug. 8 opening in Beijing. Critics of China in the United States and other countries are urging the world to stage protests and boycott the Summer Games to punish China for its human-rights record.

Saturday’s demonstration was part of the Human Rights Torch Relay, an international campaign organized by supporters of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based on meditation and exercise that was banned in China in 1999. The group says its members have been persecuted and tortured in China.

Long-awaited Olympic torch route announced; city leaders condemn China in statement (SF Chronicle, 4/2/200

The Beijing Olympic torch will be carried along San Francisco’s waterfront and briefly pass through the Marina District, according to city officials who announced the specific route today.

The long-anticipated announcement about the torch’s planned route came moments before the city’s Board of Supervisors this afternoon passed a strongly worded resolution condemning China’s human rights record. The seven-page resolution also demands an international investigation into China’s record and calls for the local official who receives the torch in San Francisco to do so with “alarm and protest.”

Video of the Golden Gate Bridge climbers: