Word: frenchness
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...More than 3,000 French police and security forces formed what was touted as a "hermetic bubble" to protect torch carriers from any intrusion, but the relay came under immediate pressure from well-organized protesters. Just minutes after the 17-mile relay began at the Eiffel Tower, demonstrators carrying Tibetan flags and chanting anti-Chinese slogans moved in so tightly around the torch that officials took it into a bus for protection. Its flame was ultimately extinguished at least twice for what French officials called "technical reasons." Efforts by police to back activists away from the Olympic cortege at times...
...said that "any act to disrupt the Olympic torch relay is shameful and unpopular." He also warned "that competent authorities in countries through which the torch relay will pass have the obligation to ensure a smooth relay." Chinese officials, one presumes, are less than impressed with the efficacy of French and British security officials...
...raucous London and Paris legs appear to have surprised Chinese officials. French popular concern over human rights conditions in China took root only following the brutal suppression of unrest in Tibet last month. Images of that violence prepared the ground for groups like Reporters Without Frontiers, which have called on the French government to use the Beijing Games as a lever to pressure China to increase civil liberties and press freedom. It was in the wake of that spreading disquiet in France that President Nicolas Sarkozy became the first Western leader to suggest he might consider a boycott...
...Scott Baker, then told them he would accept a majority decision of nine jurors. An hour after that, they came back with "unlawful killing." In an inquest of few real surprises, this was one of the biggest. Most observers had thought they would agree with the conclusions of the French and British police, ruling the incident an accident. But the jury decided someone had to take the blame...
...storm that threatens to blow in just when everyone's watching - and deciding whether they want to participate in China's Olympics. The Prime Minister of Poland has already indicated he will boycott the opening ceremony because of events in Tibet; French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he wouldn't rule out a similar move. U.S. President George W. Bush called his Chinese counterpart Hu to urge Beijing to engage the Dalai Lama in a dialogue. Others could seek to distance themselves from the Games, if only as a precaution against "being seen on television dining with Chinese leaders...