NightBlogger

Once every four years athletes from around the world come together to compete in the summer Olympics. This year they have traveled to Beijing, China, and with the games about to begin, we’ve gathered 25 sites to help you experience them and learn more. More

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed a ban on Iraq from competing in the Beijing Games in a major blow to seven Iraqi athletes who had hoped to travel to China this August, an IOC letter said. In the letter dated July 23 and addressed to the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports, Jassim Mohammed Jaffer, the IOC said it was moving ahead with a ban first imposed on Iraq’s athletes last month. More

Liz Jackson
Four Corners
Olympics organisers have hit the home straight in full stride. Games venues are getting their final touches. Beijing’s stunning “bird’s nest” stadium has been unveiled to international acclaim. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers wait impatiently as the torch teasingly approaches.

With about 80 days to go, China is seizing its chance to showcase the Olympics - and its own economic marvel - to the world. Nothing can quell the excitement or spoil the nation’s finest hour… not even the horrific earthquake in China’s southwest – and certainly not a small group of activists for human rights. After all, the Games slogan “One World, One Dream” implies little room for dissent.

But when China pitched for the Olympics, it promised to promote human rights. So far, as Four Corners discovers on a journey to China, that promise remains unfulfilled. Read more
You can now watch Liz Jackson’s report “Voices of Dissent” online. Windows Media/broadband

“All people know Russia is a Northern country with snow, frost, cold winter….we all know now that 65% of Russia is covered with permafrost, but there is one fact less people know: Russia has a territory that is located more to the South than Milano, Nice, Monte Carlo and other places of the European South. And this territory occupies more square [miles] than France or Germany. Meet Sochi, the Winter Olympics 2014 host. This Russia doesn’t look like Russia at all, and maybe the next place for your vacation”.
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