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Long-standing Australian IOC board member Kevan Gosper has condemned protesters who disrupted the London and Paris legs of the Olympic torch relay, saying they were fuelled by a hatred of China.”All I can say is we are desperately disappointed,” Gosper told reporters in Beijing, adding the torch relay had become a target for people seeking to air grievances about China.

“They just take their hate out on whatever the issues are at the time, and that hate against the host country is being taken out on our torch,” he said.

Gosper, who is a member of the IOC commission advising Beijing on staging the August Olympics, also described the protesters as “professional spoilers” who had no regard for the efforts made by China to prepare for the Games.

“These people (Chinese Olympic organisers) have gone to a huge amount of trouble to prepare for staging one of the great Games of all time,” he said.

“And yet these spoilers, these professional spoilers, don’t think about this. They are just filled with resentment and hate.”

Nevertheless, Gosper said the torch relay would continue through its epic journey across 19 nations before returning to mainland China.

“My belief is the torch relay will stay on course. There might be adjustments, but I think it would be wrong, actually, to try and do anything more than try to get the torch through to its ultimate destination,” he said.

Gosper warned the protesters would only harm their cause.

“When people get to the point where they will break lines, take the torch, try to put the torch out, I think one would argue that does a lot of harm to their own cause,” he said.

‘No force’ could stop the torch relay

Beijing Olympic organising committee (BOCOG) spokesman Sun Weide today said “no force” could stop the torch relay.

He expressed anger at the recent protests, and blamed Tibetans seeking independence for their homeland for most of the chaos.

“(We) strongly condemn the handful of protesters who were trying to sabotage the torch relay in Paris,” he said.

“Tibetan separatists are not peaceful protesters but rather are trying to disrupt and sabotage the smooth running of the torch relay. What we have seen in Paris and London is another example of what these people are.”

The Olympic flame relay was cut short in Paris yesterday due to constant disruptions by hundreds of campaigners protesting over China’s controversial rule of Tibet and a range of other human rights issues.

Widespread protests also disrupted the previous day’s leg in London, while activists have promised more of the same in San Francisco for the next leg tomorrow.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in nearly a month of unrest in Tibet and other areas of China. Tibetans are protesting at what they say is nearly six decades of repression under Chinese rule.

China insists its security forces have killed no one while trying to quell the protests. It says Tibetan “rioters” killed 20 people.
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They have been forced to endure pornographic DVDs, invasive IVF and even a mock wedding to encourage them to breed.
But now sex-shy pandas are to be subjected to a new tactic to spur them on to have more babies - ’sexercise’.
Zoo keepers at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre in the Sichuan province, South West China, are putting their charges through a rigorous exercise scheme - mainly involving apples - with the aim of improving their mating skills.
‘Sexercising’: Zoo keepers claim making pandas dance for an apple improves their stamina and pelvic floor muscles

The fruit is dangled from a string above the panda, luring it to stand on two legs.
Keepers claim the technique teaches the creatures to perform a dance-like routine that strengthens the pelvic and hip area, boosting the animal’s stamina.
Yang Kuxing, keeper of ten pandas in the centre’s maternity ward, said that sexercise should aid the males when mating.
‘After pandas succeed in taking the standing-up exercise, we feed them apples to reward them,’ he added.
Such quirky measures are designed to ensure the survival of one of the world’s most endangered animals.
Last November, China had 239 pandas living in captivity with another 27 overseas. Just 1,569 are believed to live in the wild and remote corners of the South West of China.

Watch and learn: Captive pandas, who normally learn how to mate from other creatures, are having to be taught by videos, dubbed ‘panda porn’

And to combat any female indifference, male pandas with a bit more experience are also being called in to help their more innocent companions.
One official said: ‘We arrange lovemaking between two excellent pandas in front of inexperienced pandas which have never had sex. It does work.’
More than 30 per cent of the 68 pandas at the base are capable of having sex naturally compared with just 10 per cent a decade ago.