AP: Moment of silence before torch relay

Right after the earthquake struck, Olympic officials maintained that the torch relay would go on as planned as "the epicenter is not along the route of the torch relay". In fact, one day after the earthquake, China Daily was still offering this really happy and harmonious image of the torch relay. That, unfortunately, did not go down well with people, and after a huge outcry on the Internet which saw Olympic organisers roundly lambasted for being "inhuman", BOCOG , to their credit, has taken a complete about-turn. Apart from this one minute's silence that you see in the video marking the start of the relay, "elaborate ceremonies surrounding the event would be scaled back, procedures simplified and the number of staff reduced".