Hong Kong: Runners carried the Olympic torch through Hong Kong in a steady drizzle today, with a large flag-waving crowd outnumbering protesters who held Tibetan flags and signs calling for democracy and human rights in China.
About 30 torch supporters pushed and shoved a dozen police surrounding a university student holding a Tibetan flag.
Police eventually put the student into a police van and took her to a police station to protect her from the crowd, which was also yelling obscenities at her.
The eight-hour relay through canyons of skyscrapers was expected to be a big challenge for the leaders and police in the Chinese territory.
The torch was finally back on Chinese soil, and Beijing wanted no repeat of the protests and chaos that disrupted the flame during its 20-nation overseas tour.
Everyone was encouraged to wear red to show their support for the torch and about 3,000 police were deployed to defend the flame.
Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang kicked off the relay with a speech at a ceremony with Victoria Harbor and the stunning skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island as a backdrop.
"We are a world in a city, where different people with different beliefs and different views have thrived in a spirit of diversity, tolerance and respect," Tsang said.
Tsang said that as the torch works its way through China toward Beijing in the next three months, "it will continue to blaze a trail, a trail of unity and peace for all people and all nations".
