~!~ Olympics 2008 ~!~

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BEIJING: The Beijing Olympics 2008 has been declared open amid a colourful ceremony, which was promised to be a spectacular Olympic opening gala, here today.

The three-hour show at Beijing's iconic "Bird's Nest" national stadium is being attended
by many international personalities including Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and President of the United States George W. Bush.

With the beginning of the greatest show on earth the world’s dream will come true as athletes from 205 countries will compete for 17 days to win 312 medals.

The mega event has begun at 8:08 pm, on the eighth day of the eight month of 2008 -- a tribute to the number eight that many Chinese deem lucky as it represents prosperity.

On this occasion, more than 10,000 performers showcase the nation's ancient history
and its rise as a modern power before an audience of 160,000 people.

The opening ceremony has been marked with spectacular performance of acrobatics, cultural shows and enormous fireworks display across the city.

As China claims the history will view the 2008 Olympics as a significant milestone in the country's remarkable transformation.

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BEIJING: Let the Olympics, and the medal rush, begin.

The first seven of 302 gold medals to be presented over the next 16 days at the Beijing Games will be contested Saturday, including the high-profile men's cycling road race where Italian and Spanish riders are favored, and two each in shooting and judo.

The host country could win the first gold medal presented Du Li is favored to win the women's 10-meter air rifle and could be standing on the podium.

Other golds will be awarded in women's weightlifting, where another Chinese competitor, Chen Xiexia, is favored, the men's 10-meter air pistol and the women's individual saber in fencing, where Americans are favored to sweep the medals.

There are also qualifying heats in swimming, where Michael Phelps will begin his quest for a record eight Olympic gold medals while qualifying for the 400-meter individual medley. The final is Sunday morning.

Phelps is expected to be pushed by American teammate Ryan Lochte. The pair swam a memorable 400 IM final at the U.S. trials in June, when Phelps won in 4 minutes, 5.25 seconds, Lochte finished second and both went under world-record time.

Other preliminary competition begins Saturday in archery, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, men's artistic gymnastics, rowing, sailing, and women's basketball, where last year's WNBA MVP, Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm, leads Australia against Belarus.

Spain has five cyclists in the road race, and five with hopes of victory, 2008 Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre; 2007 champion Alberto Contador; Dauphine Libere champion Alejandro Valverde; three-time world champion Oscar Freire; and Samuel Sanchez, third in last year's Spanish Vuelta and a multiple stage winner.

Olympic and world champion Paolo Bettini of Italy is hoping to benefit from the lack of a front-runner in the Spanish team.

The 245-kilometer (151-mile) race is the longest in Olympic history and is expected to take seven hours to complete.

The mass start begins at Yongdingmen Gate, the largest among seven gates in the outer city of Beijing. Construction began during the Ming dynasty in 1553 and took 215 years to complete.

The race finishes at Juyongguan, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) outside Beijing, with a grueling climbing circuit near the Great Wall. The route also passes through the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, the National Stadium and the Olympic Tower.

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UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appealed for cessation of hostilities across the globe during the duration of Beijing Olympics.

Ban asserted that this truce will have unlimited potential as it can provide a pause to reconsider the heavy cost of war and an opening to initiate a dialogue among warring parties.

"I join the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations General Assembly in calling on all those who are at war to observe this truce. Let them lay down their weapons, if only temporarily, so that humanity can lay claim to gold even before the Games begin," he said.

Besides, it provides a window of relief for the suffering populations and demonstrates that peace is possible in even most "seemingly intractable" situations, he added.

In a message on the eve of the opening of games, Ban said the most visible and immediate manifestation of teamwork between United Nations and the Olympic movement is the Olympic truce, which calls for worldwide cessation of all hostilities for the duration of games.

"The Olympic Games celebrate the human spirit. They bring together athletes from myriad backgrounds, all cultures and every nationality in a common endeavor to excel -- to run faster, reach further, and aim higher," he said.

The UN Secretary-General added that the true excellence of the Games rests in their ability to unite humanity around universal aspirations of equality, fair play, sportsmanship, tolerance and, above all, peace.

"Taken together, the Olympic Movement and the United Nations constitute a gold medal team in the race to

advance humanity's most cherished ideals," he emphasized.

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BEIJING: Describing the Olympics as an opportunity for both China and the world, Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday said the Games would help deepen mutual understanding, enhance friendship and allow people to rise above differences.

At a banquet hosted in honour of international leaders attending the Olympics opening ceremony including Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Hu said there had never been a greater need for people in the world to understand, accommodate and cooperate with each other.

"We should carry forward the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship and peace, facilitate sincere exchanges among people of all countries deepen mutual understanding, enhance friendship and rise above differences and promote the building of a harmonious world featuring lasting peace and common prosperity," Hu said
.
He said the Beijing Olympics "is an opportunity not only for China but also for the whole world." He said that mutual co-operation was need of the hour "as the world faces both unprecedented development opportunities and grave challenges."

"The Olympic Games is a great sporting event and it also offers a platform for cultural exchanges." Hu

He said by bringing people of different countries, ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds, the Olympic Movement has helped enhance mutual understanding and friendship among all peoples and made significant contribution to the noble cause of peace and development.

Hu hailed the Olympic Movement, started 2,800 years ago in Olympia in Greece, as a "valuable spiritual and cultural asset offered to humanity by the people of ancient Greece."

Noting that hosting the Olympic Games was a century-old dream of China and the shared aspiration of all Chinese people, he said since Beijing won the bid in 2001, the Chinese government and the people had been working earnestly to "honour the solemn commitment we have made to the international community."

Guided by the concept of "green Olympics, high-tech Olympics and people's Olympics," the Chinese people had done their utmost in preparation for the Games, he said, adding, "I am confident that, with the support of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic family, and together with you, we will deliver a high-standard distinctive Olympics Games."

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Zeeshan to lead Pakistan at Beijing Olympics opening
BEIJING: Pakistan contingent pinned their glimmered hopes for a medal in hockey event of the 29th Olympic games that open at a glittering ceremony at the gigantically imposing National Stadium here, famous as “Birds Nest” today. Reflection of Chinese culture and its thousand years’ old history will be a part of the opening ceremony which will be watched by more than 160,000 audience inside the state of the art stadium and billions around the globe. According to estimates more than US$ 100 million are being spent on staging the opening ceremony and the Chinese are expected to earn four trillion dollars, reports said here. Pakistan hockey captain Zeeshan Ashraf will be leading a 35-member Pakistan contingent as flag-bearer at the march-past of the opening ceremony of the Summer Games, the first being held in China. The Beijing Olympic Committee’s Organising Committee has announced a special salute for the Pakistan contingent for their country’s grand support during the earthquake in China in May last. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is expected to be among the nearly 100 heads of states and dignitaries from across the world to attend the showpiece opening ceremony. Three-time Olympic gold medalist Pakistan is hoping for the best from fullback Zeeshan Ashraf’s hockey squad. However, it will be a gigantic task for the team to reach the podium after having finished a poor sixth in Athens four years ago. For the first time in 48 years, not a single Pakistani boxer is appearing in the Games after failing to qualify the fist-fighting gala. Pakistan’s archrival India too will be missing in field hockey after they failed to qualify for Olympic for the first time in 84 years. Pakistan too qualified for the hockey event on default after the second finish Asian Games team China qualified as the hosts, leaving Pakistan to qualify as the second Asian team behind South Korea. Pakistan got wild-card entries in athletics with Abdul Rashid and Sadaf Siddiqui, swimming with Adil Baig and Kiran Khan and shooting with Muhammad Siddique Umar. The mere participation of athletes, swimmers and shooter will be greatest-ever exposure, experience and honour for them as they rub their shoulders alongside best athletes of the globe. More than 10,500 athletes, 5500 coaches and officials and just under 3000 referees or judges are representing 205 countries from across the globe, which are taking part in the games. Athletes will be battling for 302 gold medals at stake during the 18-day sporting extravaganza. In all 38 disciplines including archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoeing or kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, swimming, synchronised swimming, water polo, table tennis, Taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, sailing, shooting, softball, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling will be held at 37 venues across China and equestrian in Hong Kong. Sporting superpowers United States will face a tough resistance from host China, which finished second behind the USA at Athens in 2004. The talk of smog and haze over Beijing is now a thing of the past as the world waits for the Games to open today.

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China kills 500,000 cats for Beijing olympics
BEIJING: Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around. Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.China’s leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003.But the crackdown on cats is seen by animal campaigners as just one of a number of extreme measures being taken by communist leaders to ensure that its capital appears clean, green and welcoming during the Olympics.Polluting factories in and around the city are being ordered to shut down or relocate during the Games to ease Beijing’s choking smog and drivers are allowed out on to the roads only three times a week.

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Olympics: Doping could be criminalised in UK before 2012
LONDON: London Olympic organisers have revealed doping in sport could become a criminal offence in the United Kingdom before the 2012 Games take place. New legislation brought into force in Italy ahead of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics criminalised all drug users. France also classes drugs in sport as a criminal offence. Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London 2012 organising committee, told the International Olympic Committee that talks were taking place about possible law changes. Deighton said: "We are working on a new UK anti-doping agency and legislation is certainly a possibility. "That is something we are currently discussing with our Home Office, that is something that could be evolving in the next couple of years. "There are discussions between UK Sport, which is changing its anti-doping role, the Home Office and the police about how this might be taken forward, and legislation is one of the areas that might be looked at."

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Chinese Islamic group threatens Olympic transport
BEIJING: A Chinese Islamic faction that has threatened attacks during the Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to stay away from the Beijing Games and avoid buses, trains, planes and buildings used by Chinese, a U.S. group that monitors militant organizations said Thursday. On the six-minute video issued Wednesday, two days before the games open, a representative of the Turkistan Islamic Party reiterated the group''s threats against the Olympics made in a video last month, according to Intelligence Group. It shows images of the Beijing Olympics logo in flames and an explosion over an Olympics venue. “Choose your side,'''' says the speaker, grasping a rifle and dressed in a black turban and camouflage with his face masked. “Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are,'''' he warns Muslims, according to Intelligence. The video accuses China of using the Olympics to hide its actions from the world.

[Sadaf Gondal]

hmmmmmmm

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