Olympics-Torch begins COVID-shortened trek past Beijing landmarks

Reuters By Yew Lun Tian BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing's COVID-shortened Olympic torch relay began on Wednesday with basketball great Yao Ming and a Chinese soldier wounded in a bloody 2020 border clash with India among the first to carry the symbolic flame on a journey that will last just three days. The route taking the flame to landmarks including the Great Wall and Summer Palace is far more modest than the globe-spanning tour ahead of Beijing's 2008 Summer Games that was disrupted by protests along the way. Because of COVID-19, only selected members of the public will witness this week's…