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The organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games in China have put the Bible on the list of items that athletes are banned from bringing with them to Beijing, we learn from a report in the Catholic News Service, picking up an item in the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. ... As it so happens one of the great challengers of the Beijing regime, the James Madison of Hong Kong, Martin Lee, was in our office recently. The topic of the Olympics came up, and Mr. Lee said he and his pro-democracy allies had weighed the pros and cons and...

On September 9th, actress and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow kicked off a symbolic torch relay on behalf of Olympic Dream for Darfur from Dag Hammerskjold Plaza across the street from the Sudanese Mission to the United Nations. Genocide and holocaust survivors from Darfur, Armenia, Auschwitz, Berlin, Cambodia and Rwanda passed the torch to each other until the relay reached the Chinese Mission to the U.N. for a candle lighting ceremony.The torch relay will travel through more than 30 U.S. states "to raise awareness about the atrocities in Darfur and to urge China, as the next Olympic host, to use...

Pollution Becoming Olympic-Sized Concern Athletes Not Sure How to Train for Olympic-Sized Pollution Problem in Beijing By STEPHEN WADE The Associated Press OSAKA, Japan Athletes will have a tricky choice next year if Beijing's polluted air doesn't improve in time for the Olympics: stay away as long as possible, or come in early and get used to it. "We know how to train for heat and humidity, but not a lot of research has been done on running in the polluted atmosphere we think we'll find in Beijing," Kyle O'Brien, an American marathoner who ran at the track and field...

THE son of Hitler’s favourite architect, who was ordered by the Führer to turn Berlin into the greatest city in the world, has designed a key route to the Beijing Olympic site. Albert Speer Jr, who was born a year after Hitler came to power, was recruited by the Chinese authorities as lead designer on the huge architectural project to redesign the sprawling city ahead of the 2008 Games. Their choice has stirred ghosts from the past. More than 70 years ago Speer’s father, dubbed the “Devil’s Architect”, was charged with a similar task of rebuilding the Reich capital and...

In the first of a series of features to mark one year to go before the Beijing Olympics, the BBC's Michael Bristow finds China determined to win gold on home soil. The school is training some of China's best young sporting talent At Beijing's Shichahai Sports School, children as young as six are training hard to be the Olympic stars of tomorrow. Along with several thousand others, the school is part of a sports machine that aims to bring glory to China through sporting success. And success comes no more glorious than the Olympic Games, to be held in...

BEIJING (AP) -- Despite food safety problems, China says athletes, coaches and officials at the 2008 Beijing Olympics can be assured of healthy meals. "All the procedures involving Olympic food, including production, processing, packaging, storing and transporting will be closely monitored," Sun Wenxu, an official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said Tuesday. China has come under international pressure to boost food safety and monitoring mechanisms following repeated scandals over contaminated Chinese food exports. That has underscored chronic problems with adulterated ingredients and fake products in the domestic food supply, raising questions of how well China can guarantee...

President Hu (l) met honorary KMT head Lien Chan (r) at the forum Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for closer economic and cultural exchanges between China and Taiwan. Mr Hu was speaking at a China-Taiwan forum in Beijing, aimed at improving ties between the two rival neighbours. More than 30 MPs from Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), are taking part in the two-day event. It comes just days after Taiwan, seen by China as part of its territory, rejected Beijing's plan for the Olympic torch to pass through the island. President Hu told some 500 participants...