Delirious Throngs Greet Torch in Beijing

But Yank, Brit protesters busted for 'Free Tibet' banner
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 6, 2008 3:24 AM CDT
Delirious Throngs Greet Torch in Beijing
Runners pass the Olympic flame in front of the portrait of late communist leader Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen Gate.    (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

After a beleaguered relay dogged by Tibet protesters in many of its legs around the world, the Olympic flame finally reached Beijing today. Ecstatic crowds under smog-choked skies shouted "Go Olympics, go Beijing" to greet torchbearers in Tiananmen Square, with Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming holding the torch above "a sea of beaming faces," Reuters reports. Four British and American protesters who unfurled a giant "Free Tibet" banner near the main stadium were quickly arrested. (More Olympic flame stories.)

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