Olympic torch relay draws isolated protests in Malaysia

A Japanese man, his sister and her 5-year-old son were heckled and roughed up by Chinese nationals when they unfurled a Tibetan flag before the start of the heavily guarded relay in Kuala Lumpur.

Police detained the Japanese but released them without charges after about six hours. The Chinese were not detained.

At one point in the relay, a Western man wearing a T-shirt reading "Beijing Torches Human Rights" rushed forward shouting "Shame, shame, shame." He was hustled away by police but not arrested. A British woman wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt and a foreign Buddhist monk were also detained and later released.

Criticism of China's human rights record has turned the Olympic torch run ahead of the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics into one of the most contentious in recent history.

Protests dogged the relay during its stops in Ancient Olympia, Greece, Paris, London and San Francisco, with demonstrators protesting China's crackdown on anti-government riots in Tibet.

Security concerns prompted authorities in Indonesia, Australia and Japan the torch's upcoming stops to change or shorten their routes.

About 1,000 police guarded the Kuala Lumpur route. The only serious incident in the 10-mile run occurred before it began and involved the Japanese family, whom hundreds of Chinese nationals confronted at Independence Square, the relay's start.

Some Chinese hit the Japanese with inflated plastic batons that were intended for banging together in noisy celebration. Some of the Chinese shouted "Taiwan and Tibet belong to China" during the melee, but no one was hurt.

The Chinese many wearing red carried their country's flag and waved banners that read: "The torch will spread around the world," and "No one can split China."