Furore over ban on pro-human rights badge

PARIS: French Sports Minister Bernard Laporte said yesterday that he ‘‘regretted” the decision by the French National Olympic Committee to forbid the country's athletes from wearing a pro-human rights badge at this summer's Games in Beijing.

‘‘First of all, I don't find the badge very aggressive,” Laporte told Radio Classique. ‘‘It attacks neither China nor anything else. It displays an Olympic phrase, it displays the Olympic rings.”