8:35 PM
SYDNEY (AFP) - - Australia's military was Friday making plans to examine the suspected remains of a World War II airman found dangling from trees in a dense Papua New Guinea jungle, a spokesman told AFP.
Hikers on the Kokoda Trail, where a bitter World War II battle was fought between allied and Japanese forces, discovered the moss-covered body last week tangled in parachute lines and hanging from trees in thick jungle.
"I couldn't make it out at first. It wasn't until the wind blew that you could really see it is in a harness," said guide David Collins, who was leading a group of Australian hikers.
"There are goggles and it appears to be caught up in cables, so presumably it is an airman," he said.
An Australian Defence Force spokesman told AFP on Friday that the military was planning an inspection of the remains to determine whether they are those of a World War II flyer and, if so, to establish his nationality.
"We are aware of the reports and we are looking at what can be done to identify the remains and establish whether they are of an Australian and if they date back to the Second World War," a spokesman said.
"It's too early to speculate on the nationality of the airman or the circumstances of his death. There were allied -- Australian and American -- and Japanese airmen who would have been flying over the area in the war," he said.
A Defence Department spokeswoman told AFP that the remains were found close to sites used by US aircraft during World War II.
"A number of allied aircraft had been reported as missing in the area, in particular B25 Mitchells and a number of Kitty Hawk aircraft," she said.
The jungle in the area where the airman was found is extremely dense and hikers are warned not to stray off the Kokoda Trail as unexploded ordinance remains strewn in the area more than half a century after fighting ceased.
"Defence is still determining arrangements to mount an expedition to the site," the spokeswoman added.
Some 600 Australian soldiers died in battle near the extremely rugged Kokoda Trail, which was seen by the allies as a crucial point at which to halt the Japanese military's southern advance through the Pacific towards Australia.
Around 6,000 Japanese troops tried to cross the trail, which sits atop the Owen Stanley Range, in a bid to capture the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby, which was seen as a possible launchpad for an invasion of Australia.
Japanese officials in Port Moresby who have viewed a videotape of the remains were unable to determine the flyer's nationality.
8:25 PM
sry 10days since i last posted on blog and 1 week since olympic closing ceremony...lolz...today went to see the rsaf open hse 2008 ,very nice to see the performance seh.still wish to see it but disapointed that nvr see F-15 fighter jet in the oepn hse ,wish the next oepn hse in 2010 can see again.i'm particular very interested in the air force and every air force open hse i sure gt go one lolzz...cos i interested in aviation...hahaha...lolz
Thursday, August 21, 2008
3:15 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - Jamaican Usain Bolt streaked to the 200m gold in world record time Wednesday to complete the sprint double for the first time in 24 years at the Olympic Games and then loudly declared himself "Number One".
Bolt's scintillating run in front of 91,000 people in the packed Bird's Nest stadium came four days after his epic record-breaking victory in the 100m final.
It also put the competition back in focus after the Games were stung earlier in the day when it was revealed Ukraine's heptathlon silver medallist Liudmyla Blonska had become the first high-profile doping failure.
On the eve of his 22nd birthday, Bolt bagged the 100m-200m double last achieved by Carl Lewis in 1984, stopping the clock at 19.30sec to shatter Michael Johnson's 12-year old record.
After an impromptu dance on the track, an ecstatic Bolt repeatedly chanted "I am number one" as the crowd responded with a chorus of "Happy Birthday".
"I feel good. I have just proved to the world I am a true champion and with hard work anything is possible," Bolt told BBC television.
Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles claimed silver and defending champion Shawn Crawford was promoted to third after team-mate Wallace Spearmon was disqualified for running out of his lane.
Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee confirmed the 30-year-old Blonska had failed her A sample and the result of the B sample would be known Thursday.
Blonska faced a lifetime ban if both samples prove positive after serving a previous suspension for taking stanozolol, the anabolic steriod used by disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson.
International Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack confirmed an investigation was underway.
"The procedure is running. The B-sample will no doubt be opened today and a decision taken tomorrow."
If confirmed, Blonska would be the fifth athlete to test positive, although the previous four only involved one podium finisher - North Korean shooter Kim Jong-Su, a minor medallist.
China continues to hold a commanding lead on the medal table with 45 compared to 26 for the the United States and 16 for Great Britain.
Jamaica also scored a psychological edge over the United States in the women's 200m with Veronica Campbell and Kerron Stewart the fastest qualifiers in the semi-finals ahead of Allyson Felix of the United States.
Cuba's world record holder Dayron Robles continued to look unbeatable as he breezed through the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles, with his path eased by the injury withdrawals of Chinese icon Liu Xiang and American Terrence Trammell.
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, who already has the 10,000m gold, cruised into the final of the 5000m to keep his bid afloat for the double last achieved by compatriot Miruts Yifter in the 1980 Moscow Games.
On another successful day for the Games hosts, sailor Yin Jian won the women's windsurfing and Wu Jingyu beat Thailand's unfancied Buttree Puedpong in the women's -48kg taekwondo.
They also entered their first ever women's hockey final with a thrilling 3-2 win over reigning champions Germany.
At the opposite end of the scale to China's runaway medal success, taekwondo produced emerging Afghanistan's first ever Olympic medal when Rohullah Nikpai took the men's -58kg bronze medal. Guillermo Perez of Mexico won the gold.
Russian open water superstar Larisa Ilchenko entered the record books as the first women's 10km swimming marathon champion when the sport made its debut on Wednesday.
South Africa's Natalie du Toit, created a record as the first amputee to qualify for the Olympic Games, finished 16th in the 25-strong field women's swimming marathon and pledged to be back in 2012 to do better.
"I don't even think about not having a leg and if I want to keep competing I will have to continue to qualify with the able-bodied. For me it's not about the disability at all," said du Toit who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident seven years ago.
3:15 PM
MADRID (AFP) - - A Spanish tourist jet carrying 172 people careened off a Madrid airport runway and broke up in flames on Wednesday, killing 153 people in the country's worst air crash in more than 20 years, the government said.
One engine of the Spanair MD-82 caught fire during the attempted take-off from Madrid-Barajas airport on a flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at 2:45pm (1245 GMT), Spanish media said, quoting witnesses.
Smoke billowed from the wreckage of Flight JK 5022. Helicopters dropped water to douse the flames of the jet and grassfires caused by the crash.
The airport cancelled departures after the crash and restricted the number of flights arriving. About 30 incoming flights were delayed by up to seven hours.
Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said 153 people were killed among the 172 people on board, 10 of them crew members.
She told a news conference that 19 people were injured, 17 of whom had been identified.
The head of the emergency and rescue services in Madrid, Ervigio Corral, earlier said the bodies were scattered over a wide area, and some of the survivors were able to "walk away" from the accident.
At least 50 emergency service vehicles were at the scene.
Spanair, Spain's second largest airline after Iberia, said the names of the passengers and crew would only be released after families have been notified.
"Information on the number of people involved is not yet available, but Spanair is doing everything possible to help the Spanish authorities at this difficult time," the company added.
The flight was a codeshare with Lufthansa and the German carrier said four passengers from a Lufthansa flight were registered on the ill-fated Spanair jet and had arrived in Madrid.
The Swedish foreign ministry said two Swedes were among those on board, at least one of whom survived.
At the airport, friends and family members of those on board were escorted into a special room, where priests were present. Dozens more distraught friends and family waited at Las Palmas airport.
Spanair's managing director Marcus Hedblom described it as "the worst thing that could happen" and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.
SAS, the Scandinavian airline which owns Spanair, said a special team had been set up in Madrid. "SAS is doing everything possible to help passengers and next of kin and to assist Spanish authorities."
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holiday to go to the scene, his office said.
The Boeing Co., which owns McDonnell Douglas, offered assistance to Spanish authorities investigating the disaster.
It was the deadliest air accident in Spain since February 1985, when 148 people were killed in a crash in the northern city of Bilbao.
The most deadly accident in Europe's aviation history remains the collision between two Boeing 747s at Tenerife airport in Spain's Canary Islands on March 27, 1977 with 583 victims.
Spanair has had a good safety record until now.
However, five passengers on a Spanair flight from Spain's Basque region to Barcelona were injured in an emergency evacuation on January 9, 2006.
The airline was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations to Spain since then. It has a fleet of 65 jets.
The carrier, a member of the Star Alliance network, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of the fuel price rise crisis and reduced demand.
It posted net losses of 41 million euros (62 million dollars) in the first quarter.
SAS shares plunged 6.41 percent on the Stockholm stock exchange after the crash.
SAS had put Spanair on the block earlier this year but announced in June that it was abandoning the sale plans due to the slowdown in the aviation sector.
10:41 PM
BEIJING - Tyson Gay burst out of the blocks, accelerated to the lead then coasted to the finish.
If there was any twinge of pain in his hamstring, it didn't show.
If he is anything other than healthy, he didn't say.
Racing for the first time since crumpling to the track six weeks ago, America's fastest sprinter enjoyed an uneventful debut at the Beijing Games, coasting to the finish Friday to win his preliminary heat in 10.22 seconds.
"It feels good," Gay said, referring to the left leg that has had the track world wondering. "I felt a little sluggish the first round, but my body is woke up now."
World record-holder Usain Bolt and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell also advanced comfortably, winning their heats.
And with that, track and field was finally under way at these Olympics.
The quarterfinals were set for later Friday. All three are expected to make Saturday's final _ perhaps the most highly anticipated event of the 10-day track and field meet at the Bird's Nest.
Bolt, Powell and Gay are owners of the eight fastest times ever.
Blue skies and wispy white clouds welcomed the runners as they started the day in the 91,000-seat stadium, with the temperature around 80 degrees. Air quality has been a major issue for months, but an overnight rainstorm cleared the air. It was the first nonhazy day in Beijing since the games began.
Entering the day there was concern about Gay's status, though he has been assuring everyone in Beijing he's fine. Rounding the first corner of the 200 at the Olympic trials, the 100 and 200 world champion pulled up, then sprawled out. He needed to be carted off the track _ hardly perfect preparation for his first Olympics.
Gay pulled out of a race in London last month, then skipped the American training camp in Dalian, China, choosing to come directly to Beijing to march in last week's opening ceremony and work out at the U.S. training facility.
Lining up in Lane 2 for his first race since the injury, he got off to a decent start, then pulled ahead about halfway through.
Bolt also turned the first race of his first Olympics into a nonevent. He got off to a bad start and was in last place about 10 strides in, but passed everybody and was jogging when he crossed first, in 10.20.
It was just the kind of energy-saving start everyone expected from the 21-year-old sprinter, who set the world record of 9.72 in a blowout win over Gay on May 31 in New York.
Bolt needs to go easy because he'll be trying for two individual medals. Even though he holds the 100 record, the 200 has been his better race, and it starts Monday. After some hemming and hawing he committed to running the 100, a race he started taking seriously only this year.
"Tonight, tonight, tonight," Bolt said as he hustled through the interview area to get ready for the later heats.
Powell simply gave a thumbs up after winning his heat in 10.16. He held the world record for three years until Bolt broke it.
Powell has overcome a chest injury that sidelined him for much of the season, but insists that's healed and what fans are most interested in is how he responds to pressure. Never known as a big-race performer, he finished fifth at the Athens Olympics and third at last year's world championships, pulling up at the end.
Americans Darvis Patton and Walter Dix also advanced. Dix qualified for the U.S. team in the 200 and it is he, not Gay, who has a chance at two individual medals.
"I felt controlled, good start, did exactly what I wanted to do in that race," Dix said after finishing third, in 10.35.
Dix was set to run in the second-round heat with Powell, while Patton was placed in the same race with Gay. On Saturday, the final 16 go in the semifinals, with the final set later the same day.
The fastest time of the morning was 10.13, run by Tyrone Edgar of Britain.
The first track and field medals were to be handed out later Friday in the shot put, and Americans Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell and Adam Nelson all made it through to preserve the possibility of a sweep.
The 315-pound Hoffa has put out the tantalizing prospect of a gymnastics celebration _ a roundoff back tuck _ if he wins gold in the evening session.
His plans for the midday break?
"Probably play a few video games," he said. "Something like with the Wii, where you don't have to push buttons."
Nelson, meanwhile, was heading straight to physical therapy. He has sore ribs after hurting himself in training Monday. The two-time Olympic silver medalist said he'll tough it out.
"It's a case of mind over matter," Nelson said. "If I breathe or turn the wrong way, it bothers me."
11:16 AM
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - - The UN Security Council failed yet again to agree on a call for an immediate truce in the worsening fighting in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia enclave but agreed to make another attempt Saturday.
At Georgia's request, the 15-member council held a second emergency meeting to try to defuse mounting tension after Russian tanks and troops surged into South Ossetia to repel a Georgian offensive to reclaim the breakaway region amid fighting said to have left hundreds dead.
"Some members of the council need more time ...This negotiation has not come to a halt tonight and will be resumed tomorrow (Saturday)," Belgium's UN envoy Jan Grauls, the council chair this month, said as he emerged from hours of closed-door consultations.
"The expectation around the world is for a ceasefire, for an end to use of (Russian) aerial bombing, missile attacks, use of combat forces,� US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters. "The time has come to cease these attacks."
But he said that his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin also insisted on "the restoration of the status quo ante" that prevailed before Thursday's Georgian offensive .
Diplomats said a Belgian-drafted compromise statement also urges the warring sides to "show restraint and to refrain from any further acts of violence or force," calls for respect by the parties of past accords and for the provision of humanitarian aid to the victims.
As he did during an overnight debate that also proved inconclusive, Churkin again insisted on the need for Tbilisi to agree to a formal renunciation of the use of force by either side.
Tbilisi was entirely to blame for the escalation and was continuing "its treacherous attacks" on South Ossetia "with the connivance of a number of Security Council members," the Russian envoy said.
"A humanitarian catastrophe is in the offing," he added as he accused Georgia of "gross violations of humanitarian law," including reports of ethnic cleansing and attacks on civilians.
Earlier Friday, Russia's defense ministry said more than 10 of its troops deployed in South Ossetia had been killed amid the Georgian offensive in the breakaway region, according to Russian news agencies.
"We will not allow to go unpunished the deaths of our compatriots," Churkin warned as he said Moscow was rushing relief to thousands of South Ossetians fleeing the fighting.
"Historically Russia was and will remain the guarantor of the security of the people of the Caucasus," he added.
Britain's deputy ambassador Karen Pierce made clear that "humanitarian assistance cannot be used as a pretext for the presence of non-Georgian troops."
Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania said his country was acting in "self-defense" and charged that Russia "started a full-scale military invasion" of his country and had even sent strategic bombers to strike targets across Georgia.
He also accused Moscow of "openly challenging the international community" and demanded an immediate end to its "criminal acts."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is "in contact with all the protagonists in the crisis" to try to obtain a ceasefire, his ministry said Friday.
Khalilzad urged "the parties to show the utmost restraint and refrain from actions that would further inflame the situation."
The Security Council had met for several hours overnight at Moscow's request but failed to agree on a Russian statement that would have called on Georgian troops and their separatist foes to renounce the use of force.
Meanwhile the European Union, France, the United States, Britain and NATO pressed for an immediate end to the violence in South Ossetia.
South Ossetia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s and has since been a constant source of friction between Tbilisi and Moscow.
The Tbilisi government accuses Russia of wanting to take over the province, and launched its new assault in an apparent bid to stamp its authority on South Ossetia.
In recent months, Moscow and Tbilisi have sparred repeatedly over South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia.
11:15 AM
BEIJING - Bubbling with pent-up anticipation, the huge crowd counted down the last five seconds to China's biggest moment on the world stage: "Wu! Si! San! Er! Yi!"
Then, crack! Fireworks kicked off the stun-and-awe globally televised extravaganza, opening the Beijing Olympics and giving China's Communist Party the type of feel-good publicity only the Summer Games _ and $40 billion in Olympics-related investments _ can bring.
Wow, the world's most populous nation gave us quite a show, stunning at times, if also a little frightening and overdone in its size, grandeur and naked ambition. With no public dissent allowed of the mounds of money that have been poured into these games, the government stamped an indelible and very expensive mark on Olympic history.
The amassed VIPs _ never have so many foreign leaders gathered here or at any single Olympics _ were a pat on the back for China in response. They dared not rain on China's party by staying away. But nor did leaders like President George W. Bush want to look like vassals coming to pay tribute at the Chinese court. He conditioned his attendance with swipes at China's human rights record. China, he said earlier in the day, should "let people say what they think."
But for four hours, those differences were set aside, as China realized a century-old ambition of holding the games.
After such a long wait, it made the most of the spotlight and the television audience of a few billion.
Behind the dancers and the 2,008 pounding drums that tore the air, the opening ceremonies sent this message: We Chinese are an ancient, proud civilization, and our time has come to be fully accepted again into the family of nations.
As the show's theme song said, "You and me, from one world."
In China's case, that has never been truer. As it has moved from revolution to capitalism, the links between this century's new power and the world have become as interwoven and dense _ although not as sturdy _ as the steel girders that form the 91,000-seat "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, which hosted the ceremonies.
Forty years ago, under Chairman Mao Zedong, China still largely shunned the world. But on Friday, some of the biggest cheers erupted when NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki _ who will compete here and marched with their countries' squads _ were shown on the stadium's giant screens.
But for all the good will that radiated from the Bird's Nest on this hot and sticky night, old and new rivalries still showed through the careful choreography. The largely Chinese crowd gave a frosty reception to the Japanese team as it marched in. Downtown, on Beijing's biggest shopping mall, there were boos from spectators watching on a giant screen.
Otherwise, there were no apparent glitches. The highlight was the lighting of the stadium's giant Olympic torch by former gymnast Li Ning. The winner of six medals, three gold, at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he is now the mogul of a sportswear company that bears his name. As such, he is a symbol of China's rise as an economic power.
But the show also had authoritarian tinges, and lacked spontaneity at times. Cheerleaders frequently bounded up and down the aisles, telling spectators when to wave their flags and electric sparklers. Security men in dark suits, ear pieces and buzz cuts sat among the crowd, keeping watch.
If it hadn't been for the cheers, it might almost have been possible to hear the Chinese organizers' sighs of relief. The seven years since the hotly contested decision to award the games to Beijing have focused attention on China as never before. The communist government has faced the heat of criticism over its human rights record, its repression of Tibet, its support of the Sudanese regime tied to murder in Dafur.
Now, the focus should shift, although perhaps not fully, to the sports that begin Saturday.
The creative mind behind Friday's show, film director Zhang Yimou, crafted a tapestry that spanned from China's ancient past to its modernizing present. There were astronauts lowered from the skies, seas of performers in suits covered with glittering electric lights.
This was all about portraying a nation growing stronger, with proud roots in history and a shining future, joined in peace with the world.
Wang Yaxiong, 18, who came dressed with a Chinese flag draped over his back and another painted on his forehead, bought into the show's message. Like the Communist Party, he wants the rest of the world to buy into it, too.
"These Olympics are a window on our country," he said. "I hope people will take a fresh look at China."
11:12 AM
yesterday was the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic,Today is Singapore 43rd Birthday,i wish Singapore a 43rd National day and happi birthday singapore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
4:01 PM
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) - - The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack amid hope the next US president will work for the abolition of atomic weapons.
Some 45,000 people, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, gathered at a memorial to the dead within sight of the A-bomb dome, a former exhibition hall burned to a skeleton by the bomb's incinerating heat.
They stood up and offered silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.
Delivering a speech at the memorial, Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba noted the United States was one of only three countries which oppose a UN resolution submitted by Japan calling for the abolition of nuclear arms.
"We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival," he said.
Akiba said the effects of the atomic bombing on the minds of survivors had been underestimated for decades, adding that "the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell" never left the hearts of survivors.
With the average age of survivors now over 75, he said the city would launch a two-year scientific study of the psychological impact of the experience.
"This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished," the mayor told the service, which was also addressed by local school children.
"Children who evacuated buildings or went to work at factories on that day have not returned 63 years on... the atomic bomb deprived them of normal life," said 11-year-old Honoka Imai.
A Chinese representative, a diplomat, attended the annual ceremony for the first time in a move welcomed by the city, which each year invites representatives of the world's eight declared nuclear powers to the event.
Previously India, Pakistan and Russia were the only nuclear powers that had sent representatives to the ceremony. The other declared nuclear states -- Britain, France, North Korea and the United States -- have never come.
Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 70,000 people in the southern port city.
Japan surrendered in World War II on August 15. The nation has since been officially pacifist and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.
Dozens of atomic bomb survivors and activists gathered in Nagasaki this week to protest against the arrival of a US nuclear-powered submarine, just days after it emerged another vessel may have leaked a small amount of radiation earlier this year.
4:00 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - The Olympic torch began its final leg in the heart of Beijing on Wednesday, with genuine excitement among the city's millions replacing the controversy that often surrounded its global journey.
Thousands of people waving Chinese flags gathered in historic Tiananmen Square in an event that was broadcast on national television and showcased national fervour for the Games, now just two days away.
Astronaut hero Yang Liwei was the first to carry the flame, followed minutes later by basketball icon Yao Ming, who was mobbed by enthusiastic fans under the portrait of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China.
By the end of the day's four-hour relay, 433 people were to have taken the torch through the streets of the capital, including 29 foreigners, the Beijing Times said.
The final stages in Beijing mark an end to the most ambitious and controversial torch relay in Olympic history, after protests dogged its global journey and the domestic leg was overshadowed by the Sichuan earthquake.
But for many Chinese the torch relay, and in particular its final moments in Beijing, were a time for celebration.
"I feel very excited and very proud because the Olympic Games is a 100-year dream of China's. I'm very happy to see the torch relay," said Jiang Rong, a 60-year-old Beijinger at Tiananmen with 30 colleagues to watch the torch.
"We've had 30 years of reform and opening up. I hope foreigners will understand China," he said.
Even as the majority of the city's 17 million carried on their daily lives, they found it hard to conceal their pride.
"I feel excited and proud because it's the first time China will hold the Olympics, and China has been looking forward to it for a long time," said Ge Yanzeng, a 24-year-old on his way to work at a downtown company.
"Amid the aspirations and well-wishes of the people of the entire city, it will complete its harmonious journey welcoming the grand opening of the Games," Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong said at a ceremony in Tiananmen to start the leg.
The choice of Yang Liwei and Yao Ming in the first group of torch-bearers was highly symbolic of China's newfound place in the world.
Yang was China's first man in space in 2003, while Yao, a bona fide NBA star, has made it to the global sports elite like few other Chinese athletes.
But the more than 400 other torch-bearers seemed picked to reflect the breadth of China's recent achievements in fields as far apart as culture, sports and science.
Acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou, who is orchestrating the much anticipated Olympic opening ceremony, was number 86, jogging down the street sporting a relaxed smile and his trademark crew cut.
Torch-bearers also included senior International Olypic Committee executive board member Kevan Gosper from Australia, and Lang Lang, a Chinese piano virtuoso famous far beyond the borders of China.
The youngest on the list, 14-year-old high school student Ren Yi, was the fourth person to carry the torch through the streets of Beijing.
"I will only run a few metres, but the experience will remain with me throughout my life," she told the China Daily newspaper.
The 130-day relay crossed 19 countries before returning to China for a three-month tour that included a historic ascent of Mount Everest, in what Chinese authorities had hoped would be a celebration of the nation's global rise.
However overseas activists seeking to pressure China over human rights and other sensitive issues staged protests in Paris, London, San Francisco and Asian cities, deeply angering the Chinese government.
In China, the torch relay was briefly suspended and the route was altered after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, which left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing.
3:59 PM
BEIJING - Football is set to break from its traditionally low Olympic profile in Beijing thanks to the presence of Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Ronaldinho, two of the game's top players.
The tournament, which kicks off on Thursday with all 16 teams in action, boasts one of the most impressive line-ups in its 100-year history with Argentine forward Sergio Aguero, Brazilian teenager Alexandre Pato and U.S. prodigy Freddy Adu among the other players set to take part.
But far from calming the controversy over whether football should be part of the Games, the presence of so many top players has stirred it up.
Three clubs have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a FIFA rule which obliges them to release under-23 players including Barcelona, who want Messi to return to Spain.
CAS is due to decide before Thursday's games.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday that directors from football's governing body would meet with their counterparts from the International Olympic Committee after Beijing to discuss football's Olympic future.
"To avoid any misunderstandings for 2012, it has been decided that each item relating to the presence of football at the Olympic Games shall be discussed immediately after the 2008 tournament," he said.
Blatter did not enlarge on what alternative suggestions would be put forward to the current format which restricts the tournament to under-23 teams with three overage players allowed per side.
IOC president Jacques Rogge has already said he wants a new deal for the sport.
"My dream is for all the stars of football to be at the Olympics, because in all the other sports the best are there," he told the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper in March.
EASTERN EUROPE
Despite being an Olympic sport since 1908, football has often sat uneasily at the Olympics and many feel its presence is an anomaly.
Until 1980, the Olympic tournament was officially amateur but, in the period after the Second World War, Eastern Europe countries fielded their strongest national teams, saying that their top players were not professionals.
When professionalism came to the Olympics, FIFA were faced with the possibility of a rival to their own World Cup and responded by imposing an under-23 age limit.
Argentina, who play Ivory Coast in Group A in Shanghai, are strong candidates to retain their title while their arch-rivals Brazil stand out as their main challengers.
Brazil have never won an Olympic gold and are so determined to put that right that senior coach Dunga has taken charge of their team.
They face Belgium in Group C in Shenyang in the first half of a double bill which will be completed with hosts China facing New Zealand.
Thursday's games also see 1996 champions Nigeria face European under-21 champions Netherlands in a Group B match in Tianjin while 2000 winners Cameroon take on South Korea in Qinhuangdao in Group D.
7:06 PM
GILGIT, Pakistan (AFP) - - Pakistani rescuers Monday saved one climber stranded on K2 and tried to help another after a catastrophic ice avalanche on the world's second highest peak killed 11 mountaineers.
Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman were killed when a chunk of ice swept away ropes near the summit of the 28,251-foot (8,611-metre) peak on Friday, officials said.
A Dutch climber was rescued by helicopter and a missing Italian had been located but was still stuck on the mountain, widely-acknowledged by climbers to be more difficult to scale than Everest, said officials.
"At least 11 climbers have died. This is one of the worst incidents in the history of K2 climbing," Sultan Alam, a Pakistani mountaineering guide, told AFP from the peak's base camp located at an altitude of 5,200 metres.
The exact number of climbers affected remains unclear but Alam said he was aware of 17 whose ropes were swept away, with 11 dead, two stuck on the mountain and three back at Base Camp.
"One Dutch was rescued by helicopter from K2 this morning while an Italian is still at an altitude of 7,200 metres," Alam said as the roar of a helicopter could be heard in the background.
Another chopper went up to help the stranded Italian but could not touch down and returned after a brief contact with the climber, said Alam.
"Our four high altitude porters left a while ago and it is expected that they will bring the Italian climber down this evening," he said.
The avalanche happened when a pillar of ice broke away in a steep gully known as the Bottleneck about 1,300 feet below the summit and swept away fixed lines used by the mountaineers as they made their descent.
"The three mountaineers who survived are suffering from severe frostbite," said Alam, who works for Adventure Tours Pakistan, which operated one of the expeditions caught up in the disaster.
"They are badly affected and it appears that at least one of them would have his hand and leg chopped off. This is what our high altitude doctors believe," the guide said.
He said that the place where the accident happens was "dangerous" and needed great technical skill to cross.
Citing the climbers, he said that a Spanish climber had just got past the Bottleneck when the avalanche happened.
"The rope collapsed and the climbers started falling in various directions, some fell in (neighbouring) China, some in Pakistan," he said.
The incident was the worst since 1986 when 12 climbers died, said Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani mountaineer who scaled K2 in 1981.
The pyramid-shaped K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China in the towering Karakoram range, is considered by mountaineers to be by far the hardest of the 14 summits over 8,000 metres to scale.
"I have carried down both living and dead people from the mountain," the climber, Fredrik Straeng, told the Swedish news agency TT, explaining how he feared for his life when a Pakistani fell on top of him.
He also put the death toll at 11.
"I was terrified that he would pull us all off the cliff and screamed to him to use his ice axe, but he lost his grip and plummeted off a 300-metre cliff," Straeng said.
He said a large number of climbers decided to leave their camp at just over 7,000 metres to try to reach the summit after the skies cleared following a long period of poor weather.
"We had a feeling this would not turn out well and decided to turn around. The accident could have been prevented. These mountains lure out way too inexperienced and naive people," he said.
Missing Irishman Gerard McDonnell, 37, an Alaska-based oil worker who has climbed Everest, was given up for dead by experienced mountaineering friend, Pat Falvey.
Norwegian media reported that Rolf Bae, 33, died in the disaster, while his wife was reportedly trying to make her way down with two other Norwegians.
Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli first scaled the mountain on July 31, 1954. Between that first ascent and 2007, there were 284 successful ascents and 66 fatalities.
In the same period, Everest was summited 3,681 times, with 210 deaths
7:05 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - China's Olympic run-up stuttered again Monday as it reported that terrorists killed 16 policemen in the nation's far northwest, while pollution returned to fill athletes' lungs in Beijing.
The attack in the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region raised the security temperature ahead of the Games, which begin on Friday, as authorities had repeatedly warned that militants there were planning to sabotage the Games.
It also follows deadly bomb blasts in the southwestern city of Kunming last month and in Shanghai in May, killing a total of five people, which a Muslim militant group with ties to Xinjiang claimed responsibility for.
The Chinese organisers of the Games said they were checking for any link between Monday's attack and the Olympics, but immediately sought to reassure the world about security arrangements for the event.
"We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games," Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.
According to the official version of the attack published in the state-run media, two assailants in Xinjiang's famed Silk Road city of Kashgar killed 16 policemen and injured another 16.
The pair drove a truck at the police officers who were jogging near their barracks, the Xinhua news agency said.
After the truck hit a roadside pole, the two got off and threw home-made explosives at the barracks, then moved in to hack at police officers with knives, Xinhua reported, adding that both attackers were arrested.
Kashgar is 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Beijing, close to the Tajikistan border.
Xinhua did not identify who the terrorists may be affiliated to, but China has said previously that Muslim groups seeking independence for Xinjiang and the creation of "East Turkestan" were a major security threat.
Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million ethnic Muslim Uighurs , and many are unhappy with what they say has been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which reportedly operates inside Xinjiang and in neighbouring Afghanistan, is listed by China, the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.
However exiled Uighur dissidents and some human rights groups say China's claims that the ETIM is a major threat are exaggerated.
Last month, a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) claimed credit for the deadly bus blasts in Shanghai and Kunming. Some experts believe TIP is part of ETIM.
After raising the alarm about Olympic terrorist attacks, China denied the TIP carried out those attacks, but said nothing more as to who may be responsible.
One of the other problems for China in the Olympics run-up has been Beijing's notorious pollution, which International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said last year could lead to some endurance events being postponed.
After relatively clear skies over the weekend that led Chinese officials to trumpet the success of drastic anti-pollution measures, a familiar heavy smog permeated the city on Monday.
One million of the city's 3.3 million cars were taken off the roads from July 20, and more than 100 heavily polluting factories and building sites were closed down.
Chinese authorities have said they could take further measures if air quality remained poor, and officials were quoted in the state press on Monday as saying those emergency plans may kick in soon.
"Should environmental departments foresee serious air pollution during the Olympics, Beijing and neighbouring areas will temporarily close more factories and pull more cars off the road," Fan Yuansheng, director of pollution control at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, was quoted as saying.
7:04 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - Sixteen policemen in China's Muslim-majority northwest were killed on Monday in a suspected terrorist attack, state media said, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics.
In one of the deadliest reported attacks in China in years, two men aimed a lorry at police officers jogging near their barracks in Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region, the Xinhua news agency said.
After the lorry hit a roadside pole, the two got off and threw home-made explosives at the barracks, moving in to hack at police officers with knives, the agency reported.
It said 14 police were killed on the spot and two died from their wounds on the way to hospital, while 16 others were injured.
Both attackers were arrested, one of them with a leg injury sustained during the raid, according to the news agency. Xinhua said debris from five explosives was found near the barracks.
"The raid... was suspected as a terrorist attack," the agency said, citing local police in the city, which is close to the Tajikistan border and around 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Beijing.
The incident threw a shadow over the Olympic countdown, after government warnings that members of Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people, were planning to stage attacks to wreck the Games.
Dilxat Raxit, a Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said he had been in touch with several people in Kashgar who confirmed an attack had taken place.
Anger was rising among the Uighurs about a pre-Olympic crackdown by Chinese authorities, involving numerous arrests, he said, but he could not confirm if the attack was carried out by Uighurs.
"The police and soldiers just arrest them without any rules," he told AFP by telephone.
Beijing Olympic organisers said it did not know yet if there was a direct connection to the showpiece sporting event, which begins on Friday.
"We have to check," spokesman Sun Weide said.
In line with the flow of information in China surrounding security issues, reports were released only through official channels, while local authorities denied any knowledge of the event.
"Everything has returned to normal," an official with the Kashgar People's Armed Police said by telephone. He declined any other comment.
China has said repeatedly that a major terrorist threat emanates from Xinjiang.
"The Beijing Olympics is facing a terrorist threat unsurpassed in Olympic history," the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial last month.
China has deployed more than 100,000 security personnel to provide security for the Games, which run from August 8 to 24.
A senior official said last week the main Olympic threats were from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang, forces seeking Tibetan independence, the banned Falungong spiritual group and overseas pro-democracy forces.
China's state media carries only sporadic reports about violence in Xinjiang, making it difficult to determine the extent of the terrorist threat in the region.
Rights groups and members of the ethnic Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang have accused the government of exaggerating the terrorist threat as a cover to crack down on all forms of dissent.
It was thought to be one of the deadliest such attacks ever reported in Xinjiang.
"If 16 people died, I would think that this is the highest casualty ever reported for an incident," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch and an expert on Xinjiang.
Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million Uighurs, and many are unhappy with what they say has been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.
Two short-lived East Turkestan republics emerged in Xinjiang in the 1930s and 1940s, at a time when central government control in China was weakened by civil war and Japanese invasion.
7:03 PM
SYDNEY (AFP) - - Scores of Australians have been caught in an alleged global scam believed to have conned people worldwide into buying non-existent tickets to the Beijing Olympics, reports said Monday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said one Brisbane man had spent 46,000 dollars (42,876 US) for tickets which never arrived while a Sydney man had lost 10,000 dollars the same way.
Just days ahead of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Games, officials conceded that it appeared many Australians were victims of an elaborate global swindle.
"This appears to be a worldwide scam," Consumer Affairs Minister for the southern state of Victoria, Tony Robinson, said.
"We're very concerned that a lot of people, it would appear, have been taken in by a very professional scam and there's a lot of money that appears to have gone under."
A hotline was established by the New South Wales government Monday to deal with complaints about tickets purchased via websites including the US-based beijingticketing.com, which was still operating Monday.
Within hours of opening, the hotline had received 22 complaints from people who had spent a combined 60,000 dollars (55,927 US) buying tickets which had not been delivered, a state government spokeswoman told AFP.
New South Wales Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney said information taken from the hotline would be provided to Australian and international authorities.
"We'll collect as much information as possible for the ACCC (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) as well as international law enforcement agencies," she said.
Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates said the families of Olympic athletes and even Olympic officials were caught up in the scam.
"Our sympathy goes out to them," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We certainly aren't in a position to step in, compensate, find substitute tickets or whatever."
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Olympic officials would ask a judge in San Francisco to shut down www.beijingticketing.com later Monday after the International Olympic Committee had been flooded with complaints about it from around the world.
8:35 PM
SYDNEY (AFP) - - Australia's military was Friday making plans to examine the suspected remains of a World War II airman found dangling from trees in a dense Papua New Guinea jungle, a spokesman told AFP.
Hikers on the Kokoda Trail, where a bitter World War II battle was fought between allied and Japanese forces, discovered the moss-covered body last week tangled in parachute lines and hanging from trees in thick jungle.
"I couldn't make it out at first. It wasn't until the wind blew that you could really see it is in a harness," said guide David Collins, who was leading a group of Australian hikers.
"There are goggles and it appears to be caught up in cables, so presumably it is an airman," he said.
An Australian Defence Force spokesman told AFP on Friday that the military was planning an inspection of the remains to determine whether they are those of a World War II flyer and, if so, to establish his nationality.
"We are aware of the reports and we are looking at what can be done to identify the remains and establish whether they are of an Australian and if they date back to the Second World War," a spokesman said.
"It's too early to speculate on the nationality of the airman or the circumstances of his death. There were allied -- Australian and American -- and Japanese airmen who would have been flying over the area in the war," he said.
A Defence Department spokeswoman told AFP that the remains were found close to sites used by US aircraft during World War II.
"A number of allied aircraft had been reported as missing in the area, in particular B25 Mitchells and a number of Kitty Hawk aircraft," she said.
The jungle in the area where the airman was found is extremely dense and hikers are warned not to stray off the Kokoda Trail as unexploded ordinance remains strewn in the area more than half a century after fighting ceased.
"Defence is still determining arrangements to mount an expedition to the site," the spokeswoman added.
Some 600 Australian soldiers died in battle near the extremely rugged Kokoda Trail, which was seen by the allies as a crucial point at which to halt the Japanese military's southern advance through the Pacific towards Australia.
Around 6,000 Japanese troops tried to cross the trail, which sits atop the Owen Stanley Range, in a bid to capture the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby, which was seen as a possible launchpad for an invasion of Australia.
Japanese officials in Port Moresby who have viewed a videotape of the remains were unable to determine the flyer's nationality.
8:25 PM
sry 10days since i last posted on blog and 1 week since olympic closing ceremony...lolz...today went to see the rsaf open hse 2008 ,very nice to see the performance seh.still wish to see it but disapointed that nvr see F-15 fighter jet in the oepn hse ,wish the next oepn hse in 2010 can see again.i'm particular very interested in the air force and every air force open hse i sure gt go one lolzz...cos i interested in aviation...hahaha...lolz
Thursday, August 21, 2008
3:15 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - Jamaican Usain Bolt streaked to the 200m gold in world record time Wednesday to complete the sprint double for the first time in 24 years at the Olympic Games and then loudly declared himself "Number One".
Bolt's scintillating run in front of 91,000 people in the packed Bird's Nest stadium came four days after his epic record-breaking victory in the 100m final.
It also put the competition back in focus after the Games were stung earlier in the day when it was revealed Ukraine's heptathlon silver medallist Liudmyla Blonska had become the first high-profile doping failure.
On the eve of his 22nd birthday, Bolt bagged the 100m-200m double last achieved by Carl Lewis in 1984, stopping the clock at 19.30sec to shatter Michael Johnson's 12-year old record.
After an impromptu dance on the track, an ecstatic Bolt repeatedly chanted "I am number one" as the crowd responded with a chorus of "Happy Birthday".
"I feel good. I have just proved to the world I am a true champion and with hard work anything is possible," Bolt told BBC television.
Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles claimed silver and defending champion Shawn Crawford was promoted to third after team-mate Wallace Spearmon was disqualified for running out of his lane.
Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee confirmed the 30-year-old Blonska had failed her A sample and the result of the B sample would be known Thursday.
Blonska faced a lifetime ban if both samples prove positive after serving a previous suspension for taking stanozolol, the anabolic steriod used by disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson.
International Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack confirmed an investigation was underway.
"The procedure is running. The B-sample will no doubt be opened today and a decision taken tomorrow."
If confirmed, Blonska would be the fifth athlete to test positive, although the previous four only involved one podium finisher - North Korean shooter Kim Jong-Su, a minor medallist.
China continues to hold a commanding lead on the medal table with 45 compared to 26 for the the United States and 16 for Great Britain.
Jamaica also scored a psychological edge over the United States in the women's 200m with Veronica Campbell and Kerron Stewart the fastest qualifiers in the semi-finals ahead of Allyson Felix of the United States.
Cuba's world record holder Dayron Robles continued to look unbeatable as he breezed through the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles, with his path eased by the injury withdrawals of Chinese icon Liu Xiang and American Terrence Trammell.
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, who already has the 10,000m gold, cruised into the final of the 5000m to keep his bid afloat for the double last achieved by compatriot Miruts Yifter in the 1980 Moscow Games.
On another successful day for the Games hosts, sailor Yin Jian won the women's windsurfing and Wu Jingyu beat Thailand's unfancied Buttree Puedpong in the women's -48kg taekwondo.
They also entered their first ever women's hockey final with a thrilling 3-2 win over reigning champions Germany.
At the opposite end of the scale to China's runaway medal success, taekwondo produced emerging Afghanistan's first ever Olympic medal when Rohullah Nikpai took the men's -58kg bronze medal. Guillermo Perez of Mexico won the gold.
Russian open water superstar Larisa Ilchenko entered the record books as the first women's 10km swimming marathon champion when the sport made its debut on Wednesday.
South Africa's Natalie du Toit, created a record as the first amputee to qualify for the Olympic Games, finished 16th in the 25-strong field women's swimming marathon and pledged to be back in 2012 to do better.
"I don't even think about not having a leg and if I want to keep competing I will have to continue to qualify with the able-bodied. For me it's not about the disability at all," said du Toit who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident seven years ago.
3:15 PM
MADRID (AFP) - - A Spanish tourist jet carrying 172 people careened off a Madrid airport runway and broke up in flames on Wednesday, killing 153 people in the country's worst air crash in more than 20 years, the government said.
One engine of the Spanair MD-82 caught fire during the attempted take-off from Madrid-Barajas airport on a flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands at 2:45pm (1245 GMT), Spanish media said, quoting witnesses.
Smoke billowed from the wreckage of Flight JK 5022. Helicopters dropped water to douse the flames of the jet and grassfires caused by the crash.
The airport cancelled departures after the crash and restricted the number of flights arriving. About 30 incoming flights were delayed by up to seven hours.
Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said 153 people were killed among the 172 people on board, 10 of them crew members.
She told a news conference that 19 people were injured, 17 of whom had been identified.
The head of the emergency and rescue services in Madrid, Ervigio Corral, earlier said the bodies were scattered over a wide area, and some of the survivors were able to "walk away" from the accident.
At least 50 emergency service vehicles were at the scene.
Spanair, Spain's second largest airline after Iberia, said the names of the passengers and crew would only be released after families have been notified.
"Information on the number of people involved is not yet available, but Spanair is doing everything possible to help the Spanish authorities at this difficult time," the company added.
The flight was a codeshare with Lufthansa and the German carrier said four passengers from a Lufthansa flight were registered on the ill-fated Spanair jet and had arrived in Madrid.
The Swedish foreign ministry said two Swedes were among those on board, at least one of whom survived.
At the airport, friends and family members of those on board were escorted into a special room, where priests were present. Dozens more distraught friends and family waited at Las Palmas airport.
Spanair's managing director Marcus Hedblom described it as "the worst thing that could happen" and expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.
SAS, the Scandinavian airline which owns Spanair, said a special team had been set up in Madrid. "SAS is doing everything possible to help passengers and next of kin and to assist Spanish authorities."
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holiday to go to the scene, his office said.
The Boeing Co., which owns McDonnell Douglas, offered assistance to Spanish authorities investigating the disaster.
It was the deadliest air accident in Spain since February 1985, when 148 people were killed in a crash in the northern city of Bilbao.
The most deadly accident in Europe's aviation history remains the collision between two Boeing 747s at Tenerife airport in Spain's Canary Islands on March 27, 1977 with 583 victims.
Spanair has had a good safety record until now.
However, five passengers on a Spanair flight from Spain's Basque region to Barcelona were injured in an emergency evacuation on January 9, 2006.
The airline was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations to Spain since then. It has a fleet of 65 jets.
The carrier, a member of the Star Alliance network, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of the fuel price rise crisis and reduced demand.
It posted net losses of 41 million euros (62 million dollars) in the first quarter.
SAS shares plunged 6.41 percent on the Stockholm stock exchange after the crash.
SAS had put Spanair on the block earlier this year but announced in June that it was abandoning the sale plans due to the slowdown in the aviation sector.
10:41 PM
BEIJING - Tyson Gay burst out of the blocks, accelerated to the lead then coasted to the finish.
If there was any twinge of pain in his hamstring, it didn't show.
If he is anything other than healthy, he didn't say.
Racing for the first time since crumpling to the track six weeks ago, America's fastest sprinter enjoyed an uneventful debut at the Beijing Games, coasting to the finish Friday to win his preliminary heat in 10.22 seconds.
"It feels good," Gay said, referring to the left leg that has had the track world wondering. "I felt a little sluggish the first round, but my body is woke up now."
World record-holder Usain Bolt and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell also advanced comfortably, winning their heats.
And with that, track and field was finally under way at these Olympics.
The quarterfinals were set for later Friday. All three are expected to make Saturday's final _ perhaps the most highly anticipated event of the 10-day track and field meet at the Bird's Nest.
Bolt, Powell and Gay are owners of the eight fastest times ever.
Blue skies and wispy white clouds welcomed the runners as they started the day in the 91,000-seat stadium, with the temperature around 80 degrees. Air quality has been a major issue for months, but an overnight rainstorm cleared the air. It was the first nonhazy day in Beijing since the games began.
Entering the day there was concern about Gay's status, though he has been assuring everyone in Beijing he's fine. Rounding the first corner of the 200 at the Olympic trials, the 100 and 200 world champion pulled up, then sprawled out. He needed to be carted off the track _ hardly perfect preparation for his first Olympics.
Gay pulled out of a race in London last month, then skipped the American training camp in Dalian, China, choosing to come directly to Beijing to march in last week's opening ceremony and work out at the U.S. training facility.
Lining up in Lane 2 for his first race since the injury, he got off to a decent start, then pulled ahead about halfway through.
Bolt also turned the first race of his first Olympics into a nonevent. He got off to a bad start and was in last place about 10 strides in, but passed everybody and was jogging when he crossed first, in 10.20.
It was just the kind of energy-saving start everyone expected from the 21-year-old sprinter, who set the world record of 9.72 in a blowout win over Gay on May 31 in New York.
Bolt needs to go easy because he'll be trying for two individual medals. Even though he holds the 100 record, the 200 has been his better race, and it starts Monday. After some hemming and hawing he committed to running the 100, a race he started taking seriously only this year.
"Tonight, tonight, tonight," Bolt said as he hustled through the interview area to get ready for the later heats.
Powell simply gave a thumbs up after winning his heat in 10.16. He held the world record for three years until Bolt broke it.
Powell has overcome a chest injury that sidelined him for much of the season, but insists that's healed and what fans are most interested in is how he responds to pressure. Never known as a big-race performer, he finished fifth at the Athens Olympics and third at last year's world championships, pulling up at the end.
Americans Darvis Patton and Walter Dix also advanced. Dix qualified for the U.S. team in the 200 and it is he, not Gay, who has a chance at two individual medals.
"I felt controlled, good start, did exactly what I wanted to do in that race," Dix said after finishing third, in 10.35.
Dix was set to run in the second-round heat with Powell, while Patton was placed in the same race with Gay. On Saturday, the final 16 go in the semifinals, with the final set later the same day.
The fastest time of the morning was 10.13, run by Tyrone Edgar of Britain.
The first track and field medals were to be handed out later Friday in the shot put, and Americans Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell and Adam Nelson all made it through to preserve the possibility of a sweep.
The 315-pound Hoffa has put out the tantalizing prospect of a gymnastics celebration _ a roundoff back tuck _ if he wins gold in the evening session.
His plans for the midday break?
"Probably play a few video games," he said. "Something like with the Wii, where you don't have to push buttons."
Nelson, meanwhile, was heading straight to physical therapy. He has sore ribs after hurting himself in training Monday. The two-time Olympic silver medalist said he'll tough it out.
"It's a case of mind over matter," Nelson said. "If I breathe or turn the wrong way, it bothers me."
11:16 AM
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - - The UN Security Council failed yet again to agree on a call for an immediate truce in the worsening fighting in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia enclave but agreed to make another attempt Saturday.
At Georgia's request, the 15-member council held a second emergency meeting to try to defuse mounting tension after Russian tanks and troops surged into South Ossetia to repel a Georgian offensive to reclaim the breakaway region amid fighting said to have left hundreds dead.
"Some members of the council need more time ...This negotiation has not come to a halt tonight and will be resumed tomorrow (Saturday)," Belgium's UN envoy Jan Grauls, the council chair this month, said as he emerged from hours of closed-door consultations.
"The expectation around the world is for a ceasefire, for an end to use of (Russian) aerial bombing, missile attacks, use of combat forces,� US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters. "The time has come to cease these attacks."
But he said that his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin also insisted on "the restoration of the status quo ante" that prevailed before Thursday's Georgian offensive .
Diplomats said a Belgian-drafted compromise statement also urges the warring sides to "show restraint and to refrain from any further acts of violence or force," calls for respect by the parties of past accords and for the provision of humanitarian aid to the victims.
As he did during an overnight debate that also proved inconclusive, Churkin again insisted on the need for Tbilisi to agree to a formal renunciation of the use of force by either side.
Tbilisi was entirely to blame for the escalation and was continuing "its treacherous attacks" on South Ossetia "with the connivance of a number of Security Council members," the Russian envoy said.
"A humanitarian catastrophe is in the offing," he added as he accused Georgia of "gross violations of humanitarian law," including reports of ethnic cleansing and attacks on civilians.
Earlier Friday, Russia's defense ministry said more than 10 of its troops deployed in South Ossetia had been killed amid the Georgian offensive in the breakaway region, according to Russian news agencies.
"We will not allow to go unpunished the deaths of our compatriots," Churkin warned as he said Moscow was rushing relief to thousands of South Ossetians fleeing the fighting.
"Historically Russia was and will remain the guarantor of the security of the people of the Caucasus," he added.
Britain's deputy ambassador Karen Pierce made clear that "humanitarian assistance cannot be used as a pretext for the presence of non-Georgian troops."
Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania said his country was acting in "self-defense" and charged that Russia "started a full-scale military invasion" of his country and had even sent strategic bombers to strike targets across Georgia.
He also accused Moscow of "openly challenging the international community" and demanded an immediate end to its "criminal acts."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, is "in contact with all the protagonists in the crisis" to try to obtain a ceasefire, his ministry said Friday.
Khalilzad urged "the parties to show the utmost restraint and refrain from actions that would further inflame the situation."
The Security Council had met for several hours overnight at Moscow's request but failed to agree on a Russian statement that would have called on Georgian troops and their separatist foes to renounce the use of force.
Meanwhile the European Union, France, the United States, Britain and NATO pressed for an immediate end to the violence in South Ossetia.
South Ossetia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s and has since been a constant source of friction between Tbilisi and Moscow.
The Tbilisi government accuses Russia of wanting to take over the province, and launched its new assault in an apparent bid to stamp its authority on South Ossetia.
In recent months, Moscow and Tbilisi have sparred repeatedly over South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia.
11:15 AM
BEIJING - Bubbling with pent-up anticipation, the huge crowd counted down the last five seconds to China's biggest moment on the world stage: "Wu! Si! San! Er! Yi!"
Then, crack! Fireworks kicked off the stun-and-awe globally televised extravaganza, opening the Beijing Olympics and giving China's Communist Party the type of feel-good publicity only the Summer Games _ and $40 billion in Olympics-related investments _ can bring.
Wow, the world's most populous nation gave us quite a show, stunning at times, if also a little frightening and overdone in its size, grandeur and naked ambition. With no public dissent allowed of the mounds of money that have been poured into these games, the government stamped an indelible and very expensive mark on Olympic history.
The amassed VIPs _ never have so many foreign leaders gathered here or at any single Olympics _ were a pat on the back for China in response. They dared not rain on China's party by staying away. But nor did leaders like President George W. Bush want to look like vassals coming to pay tribute at the Chinese court. He conditioned his attendance with swipes at China's human rights record. China, he said earlier in the day, should "let people say what they think."
But for four hours, those differences were set aside, as China realized a century-old ambition of holding the games.
After such a long wait, it made the most of the spotlight and the television audience of a few billion.
Behind the dancers and the 2,008 pounding drums that tore the air, the opening ceremonies sent this message: We Chinese are an ancient, proud civilization, and our time has come to be fully accepted again into the family of nations.
As the show's theme song said, "You and me, from one world."
In China's case, that has never been truer. As it has moved from revolution to capitalism, the links between this century's new power and the world have become as interwoven and dense _ although not as sturdy _ as the steel girders that form the 91,000-seat "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, which hosted the ceremonies.
Forty years ago, under Chairman Mao Zedong, China still largely shunned the world. But on Friday, some of the biggest cheers erupted when NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki _ who will compete here and marched with their countries' squads _ were shown on the stadium's giant screens.
But for all the good will that radiated from the Bird's Nest on this hot and sticky night, old and new rivalries still showed through the careful choreography. The largely Chinese crowd gave a frosty reception to the Japanese team as it marched in. Downtown, on Beijing's biggest shopping mall, there were boos from spectators watching on a giant screen.
Otherwise, there were no apparent glitches. The highlight was the lighting of the stadium's giant Olympic torch by former gymnast Li Ning. The winner of six medals, three gold, at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he is now the mogul of a sportswear company that bears his name. As such, he is a symbol of China's rise as an economic power.
But the show also had authoritarian tinges, and lacked spontaneity at times. Cheerleaders frequently bounded up and down the aisles, telling spectators when to wave their flags and electric sparklers. Security men in dark suits, ear pieces and buzz cuts sat among the crowd, keeping watch.
If it hadn't been for the cheers, it might almost have been possible to hear the Chinese organizers' sighs of relief. The seven years since the hotly contested decision to award the games to Beijing have focused attention on China as never before. The communist government has faced the heat of criticism over its human rights record, its repression of Tibet, its support of the Sudanese regime tied to murder in Dafur.
Now, the focus should shift, although perhaps not fully, to the sports that begin Saturday.
The creative mind behind Friday's show, film director Zhang Yimou, crafted a tapestry that spanned from China's ancient past to its modernizing present. There were astronauts lowered from the skies, seas of performers in suits covered with glittering electric lights.
This was all about portraying a nation growing stronger, with proud roots in history and a shining future, joined in peace with the world.
Wang Yaxiong, 18, who came dressed with a Chinese flag draped over his back and another painted on his forehead, bought into the show's message. Like the Communist Party, he wants the rest of the world to buy into it, too.
"These Olympics are a window on our country," he said. "I hope people will take a fresh look at China."
11:12 AM
yesterday was the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic,Today is Singapore 43rd Birthday,i wish Singapore a 43rd National day and happi birthday singapore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
4:01 PM
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) - - The Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack amid hope the next US president will work for the abolition of atomic weapons.
Some 45,000 people, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, gathered at a memorial to the dead within sight of the A-bomb dome, a former exhibition hall burned to a skeleton by the bomb's incinerating heat.
They stood up and offered silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.
Delivering a speech at the memorial, Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba noted the United States was one of only three countries which oppose a UN resolution submitted by Japan calling for the abolition of nuclear arms.
"We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival," he said.
Akiba said the effects of the atomic bombing on the minds of survivors had been underestimated for decades, adding that "the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell" never left the hearts of survivors.
With the average age of survivors now over 75, he said the city would launch a two-year scientific study of the psychological impact of the experience.
"This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished," the mayor told the service, which was also addressed by local school children.
"Children who evacuated buildings or went to work at factories on that day have not returned 63 years on... the atomic bomb deprived them of normal life," said 11-year-old Honoka Imai.
A Chinese representative, a diplomat, attended the annual ceremony for the first time in a move welcomed by the city, which each year invites representatives of the world's eight declared nuclear powers to the event.
Previously India, Pakistan and Russia were the only nuclear powers that had sent representatives to the ceremony. The other declared nuclear states -- Britain, France, North Korea and the United States -- have never come.
Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 70,000 people in the southern port city.
Japan surrendered in World War II on August 15. The nation has since been officially pacifist and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.
Dozens of atomic bomb survivors and activists gathered in Nagasaki this week to protest against the arrival of a US nuclear-powered submarine, just days after it emerged another vessel may have leaked a small amount of radiation earlier this year.
4:00 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - The Olympic torch began its final leg in the heart of Beijing on Wednesday, with genuine excitement among the city's millions replacing the controversy that often surrounded its global journey.
Thousands of people waving Chinese flags gathered in historic Tiananmen Square in an event that was broadcast on national television and showcased national fervour for the Games, now just two days away.
Astronaut hero Yang Liwei was the first to carry the flame, followed minutes later by basketball icon Yao Ming, who was mobbed by enthusiastic fans under the portrait of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China.
By the end of the day's four-hour relay, 433 people were to have taken the torch through the streets of the capital, including 29 foreigners, the Beijing Times said.
The final stages in Beijing mark an end to the most ambitious and controversial torch relay in Olympic history, after protests dogged its global journey and the domestic leg was overshadowed by the Sichuan earthquake.
But for many Chinese the torch relay, and in particular its final moments in Beijing, were a time for celebration.
"I feel very excited and very proud because the Olympic Games is a 100-year dream of China's. I'm very happy to see the torch relay," said Jiang Rong, a 60-year-old Beijinger at Tiananmen with 30 colleagues to watch the torch.
"We've had 30 years of reform and opening up. I hope foreigners will understand China," he said.
Even as the majority of the city's 17 million carried on their daily lives, they found it hard to conceal their pride.
"I feel excited and proud because it's the first time China will hold the Olympics, and China has been looking forward to it for a long time," said Ge Yanzeng, a 24-year-old on his way to work at a downtown company.
"Amid the aspirations and well-wishes of the people of the entire city, it will complete its harmonious journey welcoming the grand opening of the Games," Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong said at a ceremony in Tiananmen to start the leg.
The choice of Yang Liwei and Yao Ming in the first group of torch-bearers was highly symbolic of China's newfound place in the world.
Yang was China's first man in space in 2003, while Yao, a bona fide NBA star, has made it to the global sports elite like few other Chinese athletes.
But the more than 400 other torch-bearers seemed picked to reflect the breadth of China's recent achievements in fields as far apart as culture, sports and science.
Acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou, who is orchestrating the much anticipated Olympic opening ceremony, was number 86, jogging down the street sporting a relaxed smile and his trademark crew cut.
Torch-bearers also included senior International Olypic Committee executive board member Kevan Gosper from Australia, and Lang Lang, a Chinese piano virtuoso famous far beyond the borders of China.
The youngest on the list, 14-year-old high school student Ren Yi, was the fourth person to carry the torch through the streets of Beijing.
"I will only run a few metres, but the experience will remain with me throughout my life," she told the China Daily newspaper.
The 130-day relay crossed 19 countries before returning to China for a three-month tour that included a historic ascent of Mount Everest, in what Chinese authorities had hoped would be a celebration of the nation's global rise.
However overseas activists seeking to pressure China over human rights and other sensitive issues staged protests in Paris, London, San Francisco and Asian cities, deeply angering the Chinese government.
In China, the torch relay was briefly suspended and the route was altered after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, which left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing.
3:59 PM
BEIJING - Football is set to break from its traditionally low Olympic profile in Beijing thanks to the presence of Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Ronaldinho, two of the game's top players.
The tournament, which kicks off on Thursday with all 16 teams in action, boasts one of the most impressive line-ups in its 100-year history with Argentine forward Sergio Aguero, Brazilian teenager Alexandre Pato and U.S. prodigy Freddy Adu among the other players set to take part.
But far from calming the controversy over whether football should be part of the Games, the presence of so many top players has stirred it up.
Three clubs have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a FIFA rule which obliges them to release under-23 players including Barcelona, who want Messi to return to Spain.
CAS is due to decide before Thursday's games.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday that directors from football's governing body would meet with their counterparts from the International Olympic Committee after Beijing to discuss football's Olympic future.
"To avoid any misunderstandings for 2012, it has been decided that each item relating to the presence of football at the Olympic Games shall be discussed immediately after the 2008 tournament," he said.
Blatter did not enlarge on what alternative suggestions would be put forward to the current format which restricts the tournament to under-23 teams with three overage players allowed per side.
IOC president Jacques Rogge has already said he wants a new deal for the sport.
"My dream is for all the stars of football to be at the Olympics, because in all the other sports the best are there," he told the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper in March.
EASTERN EUROPE
Despite being an Olympic sport since 1908, football has often sat uneasily at the Olympics and many feel its presence is an anomaly.
Until 1980, the Olympic tournament was officially amateur but, in the period after the Second World War, Eastern Europe countries fielded their strongest national teams, saying that their top players were not professionals.
When professionalism came to the Olympics, FIFA were faced with the possibility of a rival to their own World Cup and responded by imposing an under-23 age limit.
Argentina, who play Ivory Coast in Group A in Shanghai, are strong candidates to retain their title while their arch-rivals Brazil stand out as their main challengers.
Brazil have never won an Olympic gold and are so determined to put that right that senior coach Dunga has taken charge of their team.
They face Belgium in Group C in Shenyang in the first half of a double bill which will be completed with hosts China facing New Zealand.
Thursday's games also see 1996 champions Nigeria face European under-21 champions Netherlands in a Group B match in Tianjin while 2000 winners Cameroon take on South Korea in Qinhuangdao in Group D.
7:06 PM
GILGIT, Pakistan (AFP) - - Pakistani rescuers Monday saved one climber stranded on K2 and tried to help another after a catastrophic ice avalanche on the world's second highest peak killed 11 mountaineers.
Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman were killed when a chunk of ice swept away ropes near the summit of the 28,251-foot (8,611-metre) peak on Friday, officials said.
A Dutch climber was rescued by helicopter and a missing Italian had been located but was still stuck on the mountain, widely-acknowledged by climbers to be more difficult to scale than Everest, said officials.
"At least 11 climbers have died. This is one of the worst incidents in the history of K2 climbing," Sultan Alam, a Pakistani mountaineering guide, told AFP from the peak's base camp located at an altitude of 5,200 metres.
The exact number of climbers affected remains unclear but Alam said he was aware of 17 whose ropes were swept away, with 11 dead, two stuck on the mountain and three back at Base Camp.
"One Dutch was rescued by helicopter from K2 this morning while an Italian is still at an altitude of 7,200 metres," Alam said as the roar of a helicopter could be heard in the background.
Another chopper went up to help the stranded Italian but could not touch down and returned after a brief contact with the climber, said Alam.
"Our four high altitude porters left a while ago and it is expected that they will bring the Italian climber down this evening," he said.
The avalanche happened when a pillar of ice broke away in a steep gully known as the Bottleneck about 1,300 feet below the summit and swept away fixed lines used by the mountaineers as they made their descent.
"The three mountaineers who survived are suffering from severe frostbite," said Alam, who works for Adventure Tours Pakistan, which operated one of the expeditions caught up in the disaster.
"They are badly affected and it appears that at least one of them would have his hand and leg chopped off. This is what our high altitude doctors believe," the guide said.
He said that the place where the accident happens was "dangerous" and needed great technical skill to cross.
Citing the climbers, he said that a Spanish climber had just got past the Bottleneck when the avalanche happened.
"The rope collapsed and the climbers started falling in various directions, some fell in (neighbouring) China, some in Pakistan," he said.
The incident was the worst since 1986 when 12 climbers died, said Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani mountaineer who scaled K2 in 1981.
The pyramid-shaped K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China in the towering Karakoram range, is considered by mountaineers to be by far the hardest of the 14 summits over 8,000 metres to scale.
"I have carried down both living and dead people from the mountain," the climber, Fredrik Straeng, told the Swedish news agency TT, explaining how he feared for his life when a Pakistani fell on top of him.
He also put the death toll at 11.
"I was terrified that he would pull us all off the cliff and screamed to him to use his ice axe, but he lost his grip and plummeted off a 300-metre cliff," Straeng said.
He said a large number of climbers decided to leave their camp at just over 7,000 metres to try to reach the summit after the skies cleared following a long period of poor weather.
"We had a feeling this would not turn out well and decided to turn around. The accident could have been prevented. These mountains lure out way too inexperienced and naive people," he said.
Missing Irishman Gerard McDonnell, 37, an Alaska-based oil worker who has climbed Everest, was given up for dead by experienced mountaineering friend, Pat Falvey.
Norwegian media reported that Rolf Bae, 33, died in the disaster, while his wife was reportedly trying to make her way down with two other Norwegians.
Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli first scaled the mountain on July 31, 1954. Between that first ascent and 2007, there were 284 successful ascents and 66 fatalities.
In the same period, Everest was summited 3,681 times, with 210 deaths
7:05 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - China's Olympic run-up stuttered again Monday as it reported that terrorists killed 16 policemen in the nation's far northwest, while pollution returned to fill athletes' lungs in Beijing.
The attack in the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region raised the security temperature ahead of the Games, which begin on Friday, as authorities had repeatedly warned that militants there were planning to sabotage the Games.
It also follows deadly bomb blasts in the southwestern city of Kunming last month and in Shanghai in May, killing a total of five people, which a Muslim militant group with ties to Xinjiang claimed responsibility for.
The Chinese organisers of the Games said they were checking for any link between Monday's attack and the Olympics, but immediately sought to reassure the world about security arrangements for the event.
"We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games," Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.
According to the official version of the attack published in the state-run media, two assailants in Xinjiang's famed Silk Road city of Kashgar killed 16 policemen and injured another 16.
The pair drove a truck at the police officers who were jogging near their barracks, the Xinhua news agency said.
After the truck hit a roadside pole, the two got off and threw home-made explosives at the barracks, then moved in to hack at police officers with knives, Xinhua reported, adding that both attackers were arrested.
Kashgar is 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Beijing, close to the Tajikistan border.
Xinhua did not identify who the terrorists may be affiliated to, but China has said previously that Muslim groups seeking independence for Xinjiang and the creation of "East Turkestan" were a major security threat.
Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million ethnic Muslim Uighurs , and many are unhappy with what they say has been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which reportedly operates inside Xinjiang and in neighbouring Afghanistan, is listed by China, the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.
However exiled Uighur dissidents and some human rights groups say China's claims that the ETIM is a major threat are exaggerated.
Last month, a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) claimed credit for the deadly bus blasts in Shanghai and Kunming. Some experts believe TIP is part of ETIM.
After raising the alarm about Olympic terrorist attacks, China denied the TIP carried out those attacks, but said nothing more as to who may be responsible.
One of the other problems for China in the Olympics run-up has been Beijing's notorious pollution, which International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said last year could lead to some endurance events being postponed.
After relatively clear skies over the weekend that led Chinese officials to trumpet the success of drastic anti-pollution measures, a familiar heavy smog permeated the city on Monday.
One million of the city's 3.3 million cars were taken off the roads from July 20, and more than 100 heavily polluting factories and building sites were closed down.
Chinese authorities have said they could take further measures if air quality remained poor, and officials were quoted in the state press on Monday as saying those emergency plans may kick in soon.
"Should environmental departments foresee serious air pollution during the Olympics, Beijing and neighbouring areas will temporarily close more factories and pull more cars off the road," Fan Yuansheng, director of pollution control at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, was quoted as saying.
7:04 PM
BEIJING (AFP) - - Sixteen policemen in China's Muslim-majority northwest were killed on Monday in a suspected terrorist attack, state media said, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics.
In one of the deadliest reported attacks in China in years, two men aimed a lorry at police officers jogging near their barracks in Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region, the Xinhua news agency said.
After the lorry hit a roadside pole, the two got off and threw home-made explosives at the barracks, moving in to hack at police officers with knives, the agency reported.
It said 14 police were killed on the spot and two died from their wounds on the way to hospital, while 16 others were injured.
Both attackers were arrested, one of them with a leg injury sustained during the raid, according to the news agency. Xinhua said debris from five explosives was found near the barracks.
"The raid... was suspected as a terrorist attack," the agency said, citing local police in the city, which is close to the Tajikistan border and around 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Beijing.
The incident threw a shadow over the Olympic countdown, after government warnings that members of Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people, were planning to stage attacks to wreck the Games.
Dilxat Raxit, a Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said he had been in touch with several people in Kashgar who confirmed an attack had taken place.
Anger was rising among the Uighurs about a pre-Olympic crackdown by Chinese authorities, involving numerous arrests, he said, but he could not confirm if the attack was carried out by Uighurs.
"The police and soldiers just arrest them without any rules," he told AFP by telephone.
Beijing Olympic organisers said it did not know yet if there was a direct connection to the showpiece sporting event, which begins on Friday.
"We have to check," spokesman Sun Weide said.
In line with the flow of information in China surrounding security issues, reports were released only through official channels, while local authorities denied any knowledge of the event.
"Everything has returned to normal," an official with the Kashgar People's Armed Police said by telephone. He declined any other comment.
China has said repeatedly that a major terrorist threat emanates from Xinjiang.
"The Beijing Olympics is facing a terrorist threat unsurpassed in Olympic history," the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, said in an editorial last month.
China has deployed more than 100,000 security personnel to provide security for the Games, which run from August 8 to 24.
A senior official said last week the main Olympic threats were from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang, forces seeking Tibetan independence, the banned Falungong spiritual group and overseas pro-democracy forces.
China's state media carries only sporadic reports about violence in Xinjiang, making it difficult to determine the extent of the terrorist threat in the region.
Rights groups and members of the ethnic Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang have accused the government of exaggerating the terrorist threat as a cover to crack down on all forms of dissent.
It was thought to be one of the deadliest such attacks ever reported in Xinjiang.
"If 16 people died, I would think that this is the highest casualty ever reported for an incident," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch and an expert on Xinjiang.
Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million Uighurs, and many are unhappy with what they say has been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.
Two short-lived East Turkestan republics emerged in Xinjiang in the 1930s and 1940s, at a time when central government control in China was weakened by civil war and Japanese invasion.
7:03 PM
SYDNEY (AFP) - - Scores of Australians have been caught in an alleged global scam believed to have conned people worldwide into buying non-existent tickets to the Beijing Olympics, reports said Monday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said one Brisbane man had spent 46,000 dollars (42,876 US) for tickets which never arrived while a Sydney man had lost 10,000 dollars the same way.
Just days ahead of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Games, officials conceded that it appeared many Australians were victims of an elaborate global swindle.
"This appears to be a worldwide scam," Consumer Affairs Minister for the southern state of Victoria, Tony Robinson, said.
"We're very concerned that a lot of people, it would appear, have been taken in by a very professional scam and there's a lot of money that appears to have gone under."
A hotline was established by the New South Wales government Monday to deal with complaints about tickets purchased via websites including the US-based beijingticketing.com, which was still operating Monday.
Within hours of opening, the hotline had received 22 complaints from people who had spent a combined 60,000 dollars (55,927 US) buying tickets which had not been delivered, a state government spokeswoman told AFP.
New South Wales Fair Trading Minister Linda Burney said information taken from the hotline would be provided to Australian and international authorities.
"We'll collect as much information as possible for the ACCC (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) as well as international law enforcement agencies," she said.
Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates said the families of Olympic athletes and even Olympic officials were caught up in the scam.
"Our sympathy goes out to them," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We certainly aren't in a position to step in, compensate, find substitute tickets or whatever."
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Olympic officials would ask a judge in San Francisco to shut down www.beijingticketing.com later Monday after the International Olympic Committee had been flooded with complaints about it from around the world.
