Olympic Committee May Cancel Torch Relay

The International Olympic Committee has scheduled an extraordinary meeting to discuss whether the remainder of this year's torch relay should be canceled. In the face of massive protests against China's human rights abuses, the committee is considering a plan to limit the remainder of the relay to China, reports AFP. But Beijing officials have insisted that the relay will continue as planned.

In Paris yesterday the Olympic flame was snuffed out five times in the midst of overwhelming protests, and demonstrations in San Francisco, the next leg of the relay, are already under way. Opinion differs on the IOC board about whether the relay should be canceled, but the issue will be debated at a meeting in Beijing on Thursday. (More Olympic torch stories.)