Big news on the internet wires is about the failure of Beijing’s much-touted pollution controls and the more extreme measures government is planning on introducing, if the pollution does not dissipate in the coming days. These measures include further vehicular restrictions in Beijing itself, and expanding the current restrictions to the entire province of Hebei [...]
Says Canada’s CTV:
A deal between the International Olympic Committee and China will allow the communist country to block journalists from sensitive websites during the Beijing Games in August.
IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said Wednesday that the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) will impose “limitations on website access.”
Neither this article, nor any [...]
News reports have surfaced that Tian Liang 田亮, a diver who won gold and bronze medals at the Athen’s 2004 Olympics, will not be included on China’s 2008 team. According to China Daily, the government’s English-language mouthpiece, Tian was removed from the national diving team in 2005 “for violating state sport regulations and taking [...]
Scuffles broke out and at least one person fainted within the mile-long line that occurred to secure an Olympic ticket in the last round of tickets to be sold to the public. According the Bloomberg.com:
“Things got rough at 4 a.m. and a fight broke out,” said Gao, a 34-year-old real estate agent, in an interview. [...]
A picture from Denver, where John McCain had a brief meeting (read: photo opp) with His Holiness:
Of course, everybody gets something here: McCain gets a much needed international diplomacy photo in the papers, after a week where most of America became comfortable with the idea of a President Obama as the presumptive democratic nominee made [...]
From the New York Times:
The Chinese government will permit public protests inside three designated city parks during next month’s Olympic Games, but demonstrators must first obtain permits from the local police and also abide by Chinese laws that usually make it nearly impossible to legally picket over politically charged issues.
It seems that the central government [...]
A Reuters UK article published two days ago relating the story of a riot sparked by local suspicions of a government cover-up in the death of a teenage girl, disclosed some interesting figures:
Petitioners often pressure local officials by journeying to provincial capitals or the national capital with complaints about lost land and corruption.
Over [...]