San Francisco

San Francisco police expressed mounting concern about their ability to provide safe passage for the Olympic torch relay after swarms of activists protesting China's human rights record shut down the event in Paris on Monday, forcing officials to repeatedly snuff out the iconic flame.

It was supposed to be on a "Journey of Harmony," but the Olympic torch celebrating the Beijing Summer Games slinked into the city before dawn Tuesday, dogged by controversy both here and abroad. As activists and police readied for a chaotic torch relay expected to produce mass demonstrations and arrests this afternoon, China stood defiant in the face of growing criticism of its human rights policies.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu said Tuesday he supported international protests surrounding the Olympic torch and urged world leaders to boycott the games' opening ceremony in Beijing over China's human rights record. The retired Anglican archbishop from South Africa also called on China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is seeking autonomy for Tibet.

The threat of large-scale protest turned what was to have been a dramatic passing of the Olympic torch Wednesday into a bizarre game of hide-and-seek, with officials hustling the flame onto a secretive and meandering route that baffled and angered many would-be spectators.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A double-edged joke runs through Zhan Wang's exhibition at the Asian Art Museum here. It's about turning rocks into gold. One of many Chinese contemporary artists who have found global fame and fortune in the post-Mao boom, the Beijing sculptor has struck it rich by making stainless-steel facsimiles of the oddly weathered stones known as scholars' rocks.

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who is the greenest of them all? Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a plan to slash his city's planet-warming greenhouse gases to 35% below the 1990 level by 2030, and make L.A. the "cleanest and greenest city in the country." San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has a blueprint to cut his city's greenhouse gases to 20% below the 1990 level by 2012, creating "the greenest large city in the United States of America."

Green cities: In an article in Tuesday's California section about Los Angeles' and San Francisco's rivalry over "green city" programs, the name of the director of the Department of the Environment for the city and county of San Francisco was incorrect. He is Jared Blumenfeld, not Blumenthal.

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres are struggling so badly that they gave up only four hits to the San Francisco Giants, and still lost. Rich Aurilia homered off Chris Young in the seventh inning to keep Tim Lincecum perfect this season and give San Francisco a 1-0 victory Thursday night in another low-scoring game at Petco Park. Young (1-2) yielded two hits in seven innings while striking out 10, but couldn't keep the Padres from tumbling into sole possession of last place in the West Division.

Neighborhood bars: An article in Wednesday's Section A about neighborhood bars closing in San Francisco said Robert "Bobby" Cook, the owner of Bobby's Owl Tree, died last fall. He died in 2006.