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Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics
Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced.
The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees.
Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence.
As a result the team of two rowers, two sprinters, one archer, one weightlifter and one judo competitor cannot attend.
"The deadline for taking up places for Beijing for all sports except athletics has now passed," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.
"The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts."
She added: "Clearly, we'd very much like to have seen Iraq's athletes in Beijing.
"We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government's actions."
The four Iraqi athletes that qualified could have competed under the Olympic flag
BBC Radio 5 Live's Gordon Farquhar
Hussein al-Amidi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, said: "This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.
"It's a final decision, there is no way to appeal. This means that Iraq will not take part in the coming Olympic games.
"It is a blow to Iraq and its international reputation, its athletes and its youth.
"I swear those athletes who have been training - they phoned me today and they were crying and were very upset."
BBC Radio 5 Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar added: "The four Iraqi athletes that qualified could have competed under the Olympic flag but the deadline for confirmation of places has passed."
The committee which the government dismissed was elected in 2004, in line with the Olympic movement's regulations.
Its chairman, Ahmad al-Samarra'i, and several other members were abducted by gunmen while attending a meeting in central Baghdad in July 2006.
They have not been seen since.
The Iraqi government said it took the move because the committee was corrupt and had not been functioning properly. Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced... more -
Big Love in China
In this episode of Sexy Beijing, Su Fei gets sick of the city life and goes to the countryside in search of love.
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China sets aside parks for protests during Olympics
In a significant move, China today said it has set aside designated parks for holding protests with prior approval during Olympics.
Protests are considered a threat to political and social stability in China where Communist party has monopolised power since 1949.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter prohibits demonstrations of "political, religious or racial propaganda" in any Olympic sites, venues or areas.
Asked whether foreign athletes would be allowed to demonstrate their political views through non-violent means at the opening ceremony, a senior security official emphasised the Olympic Charter.
"People participating in the Olympic Games, including athletes and coaches, should observe the regulations of the International Olympic Committee," Liu Shaowu, Director of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) security department said.
He, however, said Beijing had designated several parks for protests.
In a significant move, China today said it has set aside designated parks for holding protests with prior approval during Olympics. ... more -
Beijing to Impose Odd-Even Car Ban During Olympics
In addition to regulating its 3.3 million vehicles, Beijing is temporarily halting construction and operations at industrial plants in an effort to reduce emissions.
Those and further steps to clean the air,
could something like this be started in the USA? In addition to regulating its 3.3 million vehicles, Beijing is temporarily halting construction and operations at industrial plants in... more -
Don't talk about sex, Beijing says
Etiquette experts have long advised hosts to avoid discussing politics and religion. But salaries, love lives and health are also off limits during the Olympics, as Beijing's courtesy campaign reaches its final stages.
For three years or more, officials have been training residents to be on their best behaviour, launching drives against spitting, smoking and swearing and encouraging locals to form orderly queues.
The latest set of instructions is displayed on "Eight don't asks" posters in Dongcheng, a central district of Beijing. They urge residents who meet foreigners to avoid questions on their age, salary, love life, health, income, political views, religious beliefs or personal experiences.
"It is normal for Chinese to ask people they just met such questions, but foreigners respond negatively," said Wang Zhaoqian, a spokeswoman for the Beijing municipal government.
"By educating locals, we hope that they will become more socially sensitive when communicating with visitors."
Another poster warns against using phrases such as "it's up there" when talking to anyone visually impaired, or "it's behind you" to disabled athletes. It recommends comments such as: "You are really great."
Deference to foreign sensitivities is such that volunteers have even been warned against using rap music as the ringtone on their mobile phones lest they offend visitors, China Daily reported.
Officials also warned today that they would not tolerate "obscene, sexual, superstitious or base" adverts over the Olympic period, saying they could affect the national image. Adverts for cigarettes and products that claim to improve sexual performance are off limits.
The etiquette campaign appears to have had some success: a "civic index" created by Renmin University, which measures the manners, goodwill and friendliness of residents, rose from 65.21 in 2005 to 73.4 last year. The target for the games is 80.
Beijingers have also been encouraged to make foreigners feel at home by learning 1,000 English phrases printed in the daily paper. With 16 days to go, this morning's offering, the 984th, read: "Tonight I think I'd like Sichuan food. I prefer the taste."
With such attention to detail, it is perhaps unsurprising that 96% of the Chinese expect the games to be a success, according to a survey published by the Pew Global Attitudes Project this week. Almost as many - 93% - thought they would improve the country's image worldwide, while 90% of Beijingers said the games were important to them.
But Olympics fatigue appeared to be creeping in, with 46% of the city's residents saying the event was receiving more attention than it should. Reuters reported that new slang has emerged to describe such weariness. "Biyun" usually means contraception, or avoiding pregnancy, but the same pronunciation is now being used to mean avoiding the games, as "aoyun" means "Olympics". Etiquette experts have long advised hosts to avoid discussing politics and religion. But salaries, love lives and health are also off ... more -
Lost in the New Beijing: The Old Neighborhood
HISTORICAL cycles that took a century to unfold in the West can be compressed into less than a decade in today’s China. And that’s as true of Beijing’s preservation movement as it is of the nation’s ferocious building boom.
The explosion of construction activity that has transformed Beijing into a modern metropolis over the past decade also turned many of its historical neighborhoods — known for their narrow alleyways, or hutongs — into rubble. As grass-roots preservationists began sounding the alarm, the aging wood frames and tile roofs of the ancient courtyard houses that give these neighborhoods their identity were being supplanted so quickly by mighty towers that it was hard to pinpoint where they once stood.
Now, as they labor to protect what remains, Chinese preservationists are facing a new, equally insidious threat: gentrification. The few ancient courtyard houses that survived destruction have become coveted status symbols for the country’s growing upper class and for wealthy foreign investors. As more and more money is poured into elaborate renovations, the phenomenon is not only draining these neighborhoods of their character but also threatening to erase an entire way of life.
Meanwhile the intense focus on the fate of the hutongs has eclipsed an equally pressing preservation issue, the demolition of Socialist-style housing from the 1950s and ’60s. The imminent threat is historical censorship: a vision of the past that is so thoroughly edited that it will soon have little relation to the truth. HISTORICAL cycles that took a century to unfold in the West can be compressed into less than a decade in today’s China. And that’s as ... more -
China builds 'protest pens' for Olympic demonstrators
Beijing is to set up three "protest pens" in parks around the city to cater for anyone brave enough to want to stage a demonstration during the Olympic Games.
Plans for the protest areas were announced even as the government made clear that dissent by Chinese citizens would not be tolerated in the next month.
Among the victims was Du Daobin, a prominent internet writer who was detained and then given a suspended sentence in 2004 for subversion. He was arrested this week accused of posting articles to foreign websites and meeting guests in violation of his probation, according to a number of activist groups abroad including Reporters without Borders.
His case comes on top of the jailing in March of Hu Jia, who was among the best known activists among the international community, and the detention last month of Huang Qi, another internet writer who criticised the government about building safety after the earthquake in his home province of Sichuan.
Other dissidents and human rights activists and lawyers have been warned to leave the city during the Games.
The three designated parks are Ritan Park in the east of the city, Shijie or World Park in Fengtai district to the south-west, and Zizhuyuan or Purple Bamboo Park in Haidian district to the north-west.
Ritan, or the Temple of the Sun Park is close to the British and other embassies, and is popular with both tourists and the many expatriates who live in the area.
The authorities have implemented strict security in advance of the Games, citing the dangers of terrorism and social disturbance, but have said this is in line with previous Olympics. This raised the pressure on them to allow a venue for demonstrations, which are strictly banned by the International Olympic Committee at all sporting venues but have customarily been allowed elsewhere.
Liu Shaowu, director of security for the Games, said that Chinese law allowed protests "as long as applications were made and approved in advance", a condition almost never met in the country.
"How to get approval for protests and what requirements are needed for people to participate in the protests will be explained to every applicant in the process of application," he said. "Normally we will ask people to go to the approved places for their demonstrations."
Mr Liu did not answer when asked whether both Chinese and foreign protesters could use the protest venues.
Numerous overseas groups have waged active campaigns around the Games, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders, and a variety of Tibet support groups.
But a tightening of visa restrictions, with some activists even turned back from the supposedly freer Hong Kong during the Olympic Torch relay, has made it more difficult to arrange protests during the Games themselves. Beijing is to set up three "protest pens" in parks around the city to cater for anyone brave enough to want to stage a demonstration d... more -
China set to unveil high-speed train for Games
China - With its swivel seats, spacious, plush interiors and the largest railway station in Asia, China has high hopes for a new express link from Beijing to nearby Tianjin, the fastest rail service on the planet.
The railway will open next Friday, in time for next month's Beijing Olympics, and will shuttle people to soccer events in Tianjin, one of the Games' co-host cities.
It will chop one hour off the current rail journey, reducing it to a 30-minute hop, taking passengers at a top speed of 220 mph on special sleek trains with interiors that look more like aircraft cabins.
Reporters were given a sneak preview of the ultra-modern trains on a government-organized trip on Tuesday, zipping through the lush countryside past massive housing developments and deserted highways.
"This is a revolution in terms of ramping up the speed of Chinese railways," Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping told reporters at the cavernous new Beijing South railway station, which he said was the largest in Asia.
Trains can run on the $2.93 billion new Tianjin line every three minutes, and each train can carry around 600 people between landlocked Beijing and its port city neighbor. China - With its swivel seats, spacious, plush interiors and the largest railway station in Asia, China has high hopes for a new expre... more -
Beijing hotels slash rates after foreign tourists fail to show up
Hotels in Beijing are slashing room rates for next month's Olympics after tighter security — among other measures — dashed an expected windfall of visitors, hotels and travel industry executives said Tuesday.
Fan Runjun, an employee of the press department of popular travel Web site Ctrip.com, said many two- to four-star hotels have reduced prices by 10 percent to 20 percent compared to May and June. Some have slashed rates by as much as 30 percent, said Fan, whose site lists about 500 hotels in its English-language section.
The usual pre-Olympic festive atmosphere host cities experience has not hit Beijing yet, with some hotels feeling empty and listless. In June, the number of visitors to Beijing, including overseas and domestic, declined by 19.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Beijing Tourism Authority.
The government has said the games are a target of terrorism, and has reported breaking up plots to attack the games by Islamic radicals in the western province of Xinjiang. In a show of force, China's military has stationed a ground-to-air missile battery just 300 yards from one Beijing Olympic venue. Hotels in Beijing are slashing room rates for next month's Olympics after tighter security — among other measures — dashed an expected... more -
China's going strong! Me, not so much.
Nationalistic optimism hits its worldwide high in China, a new survey by PEW Global Attitudes Project has found. Eighty-six percent reported being happy with their county’s direction, with 82 percent positive about the national economy.
Chinese national pride may be up, but personal satisfaction isn’t especially high. In areas such as income, family life and career, attitudes square with how China’s per capita income ranks it in the global hierarchy (modestly), and have not improved much over past years.
Concerns over rising prices, the rich-poor gap, corruption and pollution are the issues most commonly sighted as putting a damper on all that China spirit, with at least three-quarters of those surveyed listing them as major problems. We can't say we're too surprised at this individual discontentment... remember those stats about how infrequently the Chinese actually achieve orgasm?
Nationalistic optimism hits its worldwide high in China, a new survey by PEW Global Attitudes Project has found. Eighty-six percent re... more -
Beijing car ban causes subway chaos
The roads in Beijing became less congested but the subways reported a little chaos with signal failures and suspension caused by a woman's probable suicide attempt on Monday, the first working day since the city imposed controls to halve the number of cars on the roads for the Olympic Games.
The city's No. 1 subway line was forced to suspend for 19 minutes after a woman jumped from a platform onto the tracks at about 4:35 p.m. before the afternoon rush hour.
Subway Line 2, another heavily used line, reported a failure at around 8:20 a.m. during the morning travel peak when trains were halted in the tunnel for more than 10 minutes.
Some entrances to the major Jianguomen transfer station were closed.
A subway official denied a Reuters report that quoted a subway worker at the Fuxingmen station as saying the line was closed for "safety reasons" as "there is a big crush of passengers."
About two million vehicles are forced off the roads in a scheme that allows private vehicles to be used on alternate days, according to whether their license plates correspond to the odd or even numbered days of the month. The rules, effective from July 20 to Sept. 20, are intended to free up traffic and cut emissions in the city of 3.29 million vehicles.
The restrictions, however, are expected to force an extra 4 million people on to public transport such as buses and subways every day, said the city government. The roads in Beijing became less congested but the subways reported a little chaos with signal failures and suspension caused by a wom... more -
3,000-year-old Neolithic site found in China
Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for humans hasn't changed. Our weapons and toys have.....
BEIJING - Thousands of ancient artifacts and wooden poles more than 3,000 years old have been unearthed in China's southern Yunnan province, possibly the world's largest site of a Neolithic community, local media reported on Tuesday.
The poles, found standing 4.6 meters underground, were used as part of building structures for an ancient community that may have covered an area of 4 square km, the China Daily reported, citing Min Rui, a researcher at Yunnan Archaeological Institute, who is leading the excavation team.
The site could be older than the Hemudu community in Yuyao, in Zhejiang province, which is among the most famous in China and is believed to be the birthplace of society around the Yangtze River.
An area of 1,350 sq m has already been uncovered and excavation is ongoing.
"I was shocked when I first saw the site. I have never seen such a big and orderly one," Yan Wenming, history professor at Peking University, was quoted as saying.
Excavation began in January, but the site was actually discovered five decades ago during the construction of a canal along the banks of the Jianhu Lake, about 500 km northwest of the provincial capital Kunming.
Archaeologists have found more than 3,000 artifacts made of stone, wood, iron, pottery and bone, as well as more than 2,000 of the wooden posts. Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for humans hasn't changed. Our weapons and toys have....... more -
Secret ban on blacks in Beijing bars during the Olympics?
SAY WHAT? Alright ... now before I break fly and act a fool - let me retort in saying that this piece of news that surfaced via crackberry this morning was really baffling to the tenth power! While many of us find ourselves hyped up for next months 2008 Olympic Summer Games, it looks as though there is a rumor running around the web that selected Beijing ‘hot spots’ are preparing throw a some shade during the summer game festivities.
According to reports from Huffingtonpost.com & Beijing Boyce , Hong Kong’s English newspaper The South China Morning Post reported last Friday that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians, and other ‘social undesirable’ from local Beijing bars during the Olympic games. The Chinese online news source is only available for subscribers only - lucky enough Beijing Boyce brings fourth an excerpt from the online new source:
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, “One World, One Dream”.
Bar owners near the Workers’ Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises….
Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organizers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.
The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.
This past Saturday Beijing Boyce updates on the story reporting:
* An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar reps and told them to monitor black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners to ban blacks.
* Several Sanlitun area bar owners said they had not been told by police to ban blacks or Mongolians.
* I also spoke to several people in the restaurant business and they told me they have not heard of police telling city eateries to ban people.
* Most interesting, two people working at one bar had different perspectives on the terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to describe criminals).
Ok…so will this stop me from watching the Olympics next month? Hell No! But I am curious as to know how you ladies feel about the issue at hand? It’s time to get LIVE & Direct this Tuesday morning. SAY WHAT? Alright ... now before I break fly and act a fool - let me retort in saying that this piece of news that surfaced via crack... more -
Beijing gets its Eiffel Tower, of sorts
BEIJING — London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower , San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge and now Beijing has an iconic structure that's likely to identify the city forever.
It's an audacious monolith that looks like two drunken high-rise towers leaning over and holding each other up at the shoulders.
The eye-catching building, which is nearly finished, will be the headquarters of China Central Television, the staid propaganda arm of China's ruling Communist Party , and it's perhaps the boldest and most daring of several new buildings that have given Beijing a stunning new appearance for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.
In keeping with the playful nature of the new buildings, all have weird popular names. There's "the egg" and the "bird's nest." The "water cube" isn't far away, and lastly there's "short pants," also known as the "twisted doughnut."
The last of them is the new television building, the CCTV headquarters, and it can nearly make one dizzy standing on the ground and looking up at its odd, teetering 49-story towers connected by a multistory, cantilevered, jagged cross section over open space at a vertiginous 36 stories up in the air.
Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the building has been called an "angular marvel" and a "dazzling reinvention of the skyscraper."
Its engineering is so complex that the designers say such a building couldn't have been built a few years ago. That's because it took immense computing power to ensure that the design could withstand huge pressures in the earthquake-prone capital. Some 10,000 tons of steel were used in its construction.
As much as it's a challenge to gravity, the building is a challenge to the mind, critics say, defying conventions of skyscrapers as vertical shafts thrusting straight up.
---more at link below--
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080720/wl_mcclatchy...
---for some reason it won't let me link it in the URL....---
At the link above picture is more buildings. BEIJING — London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower , San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge and now Beijing has an iconic str... more -
Longest Time Living on Wire walking World Record
Chinese Uygur Adili completed a remarkable feat on Saturday by staying on a wire for 600 hours and wirewalking for a total of 123 hours and 48 minutes, breaking the world Guinness records held by Canadian Jay Cochrane.
In 25 days, the 31-year-old Adili lived in a cabana at an end of the wire, hung above the Jinhai Lake at Pinggu District of Beijing, and walked five to nine hours a day on a 416-meter-long and 35-meter high wire, an accomplishment recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest living-on-wire in history.
Real Full story at http://www.worldamazingrecords.com Chinese Uygur Adili completed a remarkable feat on Saturday by staying on a wire for 600 hours and wirewalking for a total of 123 hour... more -
A Western ad blitz for Beijing Olympics
It is becoming increasingly clear which nation global corporations will be rooting for at this summer's Olympics: China.
Or at least that's what it looks like from advertisements here. McDonald's is running a "Cheer for China" television ad. Nike ads feature China's star hurdler, Liu Xiang, and other Chinese athletes besting foreign competitors. Earlier this year, Pepsi even painted its familiar blue cans red for a limited edition "Go Red for China" promotion.
The campaigns for Western companies are part of an advertising blitz the likes of which this ostensibly communist nation has never seen. Ads are papered over bus shelters, projected on giant outdoor television screens and plastered on billboards. Commercials even flicker at commuters as they zoom through subway tunnels.
China, already the world's second-largest advertising market, after the United States, is a dream for consumer product companies. "For most international brands here, China is the growth market for the next 10 years," said Jonathan Chajet, strategic director at Interbrand, which consults on brands.
A record 63 companies have become sponsors or partners of the Beijing Olympics. Olympic-related advertising in China could reach $4 billion to $6 billion this year, according to CSM, a Beijing marketing research firm. It is becoming increasingly clear which nation global corporations will be rooting for at this summer's Olympics: China. ... more -
TV networks fight shorter Olympic leash
For several years now NBC has meticulously planned all the details for its coverage of the many sports events at the Summer Olympics in China.
But with the Games only 19 days away, many at the network are concerned about how they will permitted to cover any unscheduled events, like political protests or government crackdowns — or whether the Chinese government will allow them to cover such things at all.
One of the most common hypothetical questions NBC officials have bandied about involves the opening ceremonies on Aug. 8.
Hundreds of athletes will parade into a stadium in front of world leaders, including President George W. Bush, and a huge global television audience. If an athlete holds a protest sign or waves a Tibetan flag, how will the Chinese hosts react? Will the television networks show the scene? How will the Chinese handle the media for the rest of the Games?
The stakes are high for both the network, which paid $900 million for broadcast rights for the Olympics, and the reputation of NBC News. If it covers any controversies aggressively, it risks drawing the ire of the Chinese and interfering with coverage of sports events. But if it shies from coverage of any protests, NBC risks being criticized in the West for kowtowing to China — particularly since its corporate parent, General Electric, is aggressively expanding its investments in China. For several years now NBC has meticulously planned all the details for its coverage of the many sports events at the Summer Olympics i... more -
Beijing traffic cut to help clear air for Olympics
Morning haze hung over Beijing on Monday, the first workday for restrictions on car use under a bold plan to clear the Olympic city of its notorious smog-choked skies.
Under a two-month plan that started Sunday, half of the capital's 3.3 million cars will be removed from city streets on alternate days, depending on whether the license plate ends in an odd or even number.
It could be several days before the impact of the cleanup plan, which also includes cutbacks on construction and factory closures, is noticeable. The government has not made public a specific target for vehicle emission levels, one of the city's biggest sources of pollution, or said how it will measure air quality.
Experts say the plan could still go wrong because unpredictable winds could blow pollution into Beijing from other provinces or the lack of wind — common in August — could enable local pollution to build up.
However, Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, was optimistic. Morning haze hung over Beijing on Monday, the first workday for restrictions on car use under a bold plan to clear the Olympic city of... more -
Olympic dope labs misclassifying cheaters' samples
Just two weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics, a BBC investigation is questioning whether key anti-doping tests are being tampered with.
According to the BBC there have been signs that labs are classing athletes who test positive for the blood-boosting drug EPO as clean.
Some samples have been described as suspicious - giving rise to fears that no action will be taken against cheats.
One sport drug expert told the BBC that many of the finalists in Olympic endurance events would be using EPO.
"Copycat" versions of the drug are available on the internet for as little as $50 - and according to experts are often undetectable. Just two weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics, a BBC investigation is questioning whether key anti-doping tests are being ta... more -
Beijing Non-Olympics Part 2: Hip Hop Grannies
This is the second part in a series of films taking a quirky look at the wonderful sporting habits of real Beijingers. From hip hop dancing grandmas, to pigeon racers and winter lake swimmers, these local legends are carrying the torch for a different kind of sport... This is the second part in a series of films taking a quirky look at the wonderful sporting habits of real Beijingers. From hip hop da... more
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