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POPSThe fallen hero of the modern Olympics A century ago, in 1908 at London, Dorando Pietri's stumbling, staggering finish in the marathon provided a dramatic spectacle that may have rescued a floundering Olympic movement.
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POPSFalun Gong Targeted Ahead Of Beijing Olympics authorities have instead been using the Olympics as a pretext to escalate persecutions of religious and political dissidents. Chinese authorities fear that Falun Gong, along with Tibetans, Uighurs, and other dissidents, may use the international media presence during the games to draw attention to their causes. "It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions, lest the legacy of the 2008 Olympics be hundreds of Beijing residents languishing in labor camps," Zhang said. The apparent animosity towards Falun Gong on the part of the Beijing Olympics organizer is hardly new. In 2004, the head of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, Liu Qi, was found liable in a U.S. federal court for his role in the torture of Falun Gong practitioners while he was serving as mayor of Beijing.
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POPSrailway station A security guard keeps watch in front of an artist's rendering of the Beijing South Railway Station that is still under construction July 22, 2008. Foreign journalists were invited on a media tour on board the CRH high-speed train with a top speed of 350km/hour via the 120 kilometre line Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway. The train will be put into use before the Beijing Olympic Games. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV (CHINA) (BEIJING OLYMPICS 2008 PREVIEW)
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POPSCTH The new China Central Television headquarters building is seen in Beijing Thursday July 17, 2008. The building consists of two angled towers connected at the top to form a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections. The spectacular 230 meter (755 foot) building, one of Beijing's tallest, will house more than 10,000 staff. The building is one of a series of landmarks, notable for their futuristic design, that will greet visitors to the Olympics Games, which open Aug. 8.
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POPSAt the Olympics, Age Is Just a Number "Six-time Olympian trap shooter Susan Nattrass of Canada is 57. Canadian fencer Luan Jujie, 50, will be at her fourth Olympics. French cyclist Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli will be back for her eighth Games at age 49. And Israeli marathoner Haile Satayin will make his second Olympic appearance at age 48 or 53" Age no longer such barrier, we are into the future already!
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POPSBeijings Iconic Landmarks' Very Western Look
The eye-catching building, which is nearly finished, will be the headquarters of China Central Television, the staid propaganda arm of China's ruling Communist Party, and it's perhaps the boldest and most daring of several new buildings that have given Beijing a stunning new appearance for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games. The last of them is the new television building, the CCTV headquarters, and it can nearly make one dizzy standing on the ground and looking up at its odd, teetering 49-story towers connected by a multistory, cantilevered, jagged cross section over open space at a vertiginous 36 stories up in the air. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the building has been called an "angular marvel" and a "dazzling reinvention of the skyscraper." Its engineering is so complex that the designers say such a building couldn't have been built a few years ago. That's because it took immense computing power. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/264/story/44618.html
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POPSDog removed from Beijing menus during Olympics Looks like Dog lovers will have to go to other provinces for a few months. Guangdong and Hunan will have many delectable doggie dishes to be enjoyed along with cat, snake, and even bat. A popular dish in Guangzhou was called "Tiger Fights Dragon", a soup with wild cat and snake. A restaurant on People's Middle Road called Zhao Lu, specializes in rat dishes. Bon apertit!