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ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Even before the Olympic flame was lit Monday, a protester of China's human rights policies disrupted the solemn ceremony, foreshadowing the prospect of demonstrations throughout the 85,000-mile torch-relay route right up to the Beijing Games themselves.

Forecasts of clouds and rain had been considered the main threat to the pomp-filled torch-lighting. But in the end, while the sun sparked the flame to life, it was the protesters who turned the joyful bow to the Olympics' roots into a political embarrassment for China over its crackdown in Tibet and other rights issues.

Three men advocating press freedom evaded massive security and ran onto the field at the ceremony in Ancient Olympia before they were seized by police. Minutes later, a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood briefly blocked the path of the torch relay.

The incidents came after International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press in an interview that he was engaged in "silent diplomacy" with the Chinese but wouldn't intervene in politics to try to change their policies.

"We are discussing on a daily basis with Chinese authorities, including discussing these issues, while strictly respecting the sovereignty of China in its affairs," Rogge said.

Protests are bound to follow the torch throughout its 136-day route across five continents and 20 countries. China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the relay won't be marred by protests.LONDON - J.K. Rowling said she contemplated suicide as she suffered from depression before her rise to success, according to an interview with a student journalist.

The Harry Potter author said she had suicidal thoughts in her mid- 20s, when she was a single mother and struggling to establish a literary career.

"Mid-20s life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted," Rowling said, according to an interview posted online by student journalist Adeel Amini.

Rowling said in the interview, parts of which were published in Edinburgh University's student magazine, that she sought help from doctors and spent nine months receiving cognitive behavioral therapy, according to Amini.

"We're talking suicidal thoughts here, we're not talking, 'I'm a little bit miserable,' " Rowling, 42, was quoted as saying.

Amini provided The Associated Press with an audio file of his 29- minute conversation with Rowling.

Christopher Little, Rowling's London-based agent, didn't immediately respond to requests Monday for comment.

Rowling has previously said she suffered depression before her Harry Potter series brought her international success. She has acknowledged that characters featured in the series called Dementors were inspired by her illness.

The author has said she sought medical help following her separation from first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist.

Amini told the AP in an e-mail that he had carried out the interview in Edinburgh last month. He said Rowling granted him an interview after a chance meeting several months ago in a coffee shop in the city.

"I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never," Rowling was quoted as saying in her interview with Amini. "What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

Fortune magazine ranks Rowling, who wrote seven Harry Potter novels, as one of the richest women in Britain, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion.

1634 - English colonists sent by Lord Baltimore arrived in present-day Maryland.

1894 - Jacob S. Coxey began leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington to demand help from the federal government.

1908 - Movie director David Lean ("Brief Encounter," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago") was born in Croydon, England.