China reverses position, now says it will censor internet access during Olympics

From the AFP…
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China will censor the Internet used by foreign media during the Olympics, an organising committee official confirmed Wednesday, reversing a pledge to offer complete media freedom at the games.

“During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters,” said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee.

He confirmed, however, that journalists would not be able to access information or websites connected to the Falungong spiritual movement which is banned in China.

Other sites were also unavailable to journalists, he said, without specifying which ones.

Incredible photos of China as it prepares for the 2008 Olympics

From Boston.com…
(All photos by AFP/Reuters/AP… 24 photos in total, definitely worth a closer look)

Earthquakes, Algae, and…. Locusts? China prepares for potential locust invasion during Olympics

By Grant Clark
Bloomberg.com
July 4, 2008
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July 4 (Bloomberg) — Beijing Olympic organizers, struggling to clear their algae-choked sailing venue and facing a possible locust invasion, say these latest challenges to next month’s games are no “major problem.”

About 10,000 people are scooping algae out of the sea at the eastern city of Qingdao, while officials in Inner Mongolia are preparing to fight off a plague of locusts that may arrive in the capital city during the Olympics.

“There’s an old saying in China that good things only come after enduring a lot of hardship,” Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, said yesterday in Beijing. “We expected to face many challenges so it’s not a surprise. These issues aren’t major problems.”

So far this year, the world’s most populous nation has faced the worst winter snowstorms in 50 years, riots in Lhasa, violent protests about government policies toward Tibet along the Olympic torch relay route in Europe and North America, an earthquake and flooding…

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How many signs do we need to realize that Beijing is gonna screw up the Olympics?

By John Yardley
IHT.com
June 30, 2008
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With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition.

Local officials have initiated an all-out effort to clean up the algae by mid-July. Media reports estimate that as many as 20,000 people have either volunteered or been ordered to participate in the operation, while 1,000 boats are scooping algae out of the Yellow Sea. The official news agency, Xinhua, reported that algae currently covered a third of the coastal waters designated for the Olympic races…

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New 2008 Olympics Commercial About Derek Redmond.. Best Commercial Ever.

This is quite possibly the best Olympic commercial I have ever seen– and narrated by Morgan Freeman? Come on!! SO GOOD… Sorry the video’s not very good quality, you can visit the Visa website and watch it there in good quality but they don’t let you embed it.

Here’s a 3 minute documentary about the incident, produced by BBC Sports:

Click here to see Derek Redmond’s Wikipedia article