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/ 12 April 2008

Olympic torch cruises through Buenos Aires

The Olympic torch, a magnet for anti-China protests, cruised smoothly under heavy guard through Buenos Aires on Friday with nothing more serious than a couple of tossed water balloons threatening the flame. ”We’re really happy to have pulled it off,” a relieved Francisco Irrarrazabal, the city’s deputy sports secretary, said.

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/ 11 April 2008

Anger, terror warnings cloud Olympics

China said it was outraged by a resolution by United States lawmakers urging an end to a crackdown in Tibet as a Beijing-run newspaper linked al-Qaeda to claimed plots to attack the Beijing Olympics. The condemnation came in response to a US House of Representatives resolution urging China to open dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

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/ 1 April 2008

Open the internet during Games, Beijing told

The internet must be open during the Beijing Olympics. That was the message a top-ranking International Olympic Committee (IOC) official delivered on Tuesday to Beijing organisers during the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the host Chinese before the Games begin in just more than four months.

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/ 24 March 2008

Olympics torch lit amid protest

Pro-Tibet demonstrators tried to hijack the Beijing Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia on Monday. In a globally televised ceremony to mark the start of a five-month torch relay, the actress Maria Nafpliotou, playing the high priestess, used a break in the clouds to light the torch in front of the Temple of Hera.