| China has announced the Olympic Torch relay route | | | | Taiwan agreed to accept the torch from a country |
| for next year's Games in Beijing, with the flame | | | | other than China. Beijing says Taiwan is a renegade |
| scheduled to travel through Tibet and Taiwan on its | | | | province, a status Taipei rejects. |
| way to the Opening Ceremonies. | | | | Wednesday, four activists were detained on Mount |
| Chinese officials said the torch, a red-and-silver tube | | | | Everest after they unfurled a banner calling for |
| shaped like a Chinese scroll covered with a cloud | | | | Tibet's independence. |
| design, begins its journey in Athens and will cover | | | | Chinese troops occupied Tibet in the 1950s, and |
| more than 137,000 kilometers. | | | | Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy |
| Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee head Liu Qi said | | | | hand. China says Tibet has been part of China for |
| the torch will pass through five continents and all | | | | centuries, but many in Tibet say it was an |
| through China. | | | | independent state for much of that time. |
| A video shown at the ceremony announced that | | | | In 1959, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the |
| toward the end of its international leg, the torch will | | | | Dalai Lama, went into exile in India after a failed |
| go from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City to Taipei, | | | | Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. |
| Taiwan's capital. Among its dozens of stops in China | | | | Some information for this report was provided by |
| will be Tibet, including the summit of Mount Everest. | | | | AFP and AP. |