China’s president, Hu Jintao, hosted a tightly guarded ceremony for the Olympic torch in Tiananmen Square. The torch is to be carried around the world and through Tibet before the Beijing Olympics in August. It is expected to draw protests in many countries after the quelling of the recent anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa.

Hu Jia, a well-known Chinese human-rights campaigner, was given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for subversion. Last month another activist, Yang Chunlin, was jailed on similar charges.