Public Barred From Delhi Torch Run

The Olympic torch was carried through New Delhi today, escorted by 15,000 police on a route shortened to less than two miles through a locked-down city center, the AP reports. Some 70 runners each held the torch for just seconds before handing it off. Only a few hundred, sitting in bleachers, saw the event, which was closed to the public

Meanwhile, thousands of Tibetans staged their own torch run, beginning at the site of Mohandas Gandhi’s cremation, and celebrated with prayer and traditional dancing. A number of prominent Indians, including the country’s former defense minister, joined in; public sentiment in the country supports the Tibetan cause. (More Olympic torch stories.)