Olympics: 2012 torch relay 'will not leave Britain': report

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — The Olympic torch relay before the 2012 Olympics in London will be restricted to Britain after protests marred the worldwide relay ahead of the Beijing Games, a report said Sunday.

Tessa Jowell, the British minister with responsibility for the Olympics, told The Sunday Times newspaper she had "a lot of enthusiasm" for the idea of the torch being taken round the "villages, towns and cities in the UK".

"There would be no more powerful way of making them feel part of the Olympics, would there?" Jowell said in an interview.

The weekly said that Jowell would announce that the relay would take place only in Britain, although it did not quote the minister as saying this.

China's decision to take the torch around the world turned into a global...