Around the world on Olympic Gamess

Source: CBC.ca (Original Article)

The Conservative government has taken unprecedented steps in protecting aboriginal human rights and improving the quality of life of indigenous peoples in Canada, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Thursday at the United Nations.

“Aboriginal rights are not ignored” in Canada, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl told reporters Thursday at United Nations headquarters in New York. He made his comments despite criticism at the international body that Canada has abandoned support for aboriginal issues on the world stage.

Strahl’s visit to UN headquarters in New York comes amid lingering bitterness over Canada’s vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last fall.

The non-binding declaration, which sets out global human rights standards for indigenous populations, was easily approved by the UN General Assembly in New York — with only Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Australia dissenting. Eleven countries abstained.

Australia has since changed its mind and supported the declaration.

Speaking to reporters, Strahl cited achievements such as the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the imminent launch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining decades of abuse of aboriginal children at the federally funded schools, as well as an expected apology this spring from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Strahl also pointed to the Tory government’s acceleration of settlements under the land claims tribunal, and newly signed agreements with several First Nations on education and the role of aboriginal peoples in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

“Never before has Canada taken such bold steps,” he said. “Our government is committed to delivering real and measurable results, and since coming to office two years ago we have done just that.”

Strahl has said Canada opposed the declaration because it lacks clear Citibank Clear Credit Card guidance for implementation and conflicts with …continue reading

Source: Bernama (Original Article)

KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 (Bernama) — Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek on Wednesday night launched the “Beijing Olympics 100 Days Countdown” here, signifying the role of Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) as Malaysia’s official broadcaster of the games, scheduled for Aug 8 to 24.

The countdown event was launched at the Berjaya Times Square with a simultaneous laser show at the Kuala Lumpur Tower.

RTM 1 will provide live coverage of the games for six hours and RTM 2 for four hours daily, with an hour of the daily report.

Carrying the theme “RTM, Your Olympic Channel”, the RTM 1 broadcast will begin at 11 am for the morning session and 3 pm for the afternoon session while the highlights will be on at 11.30 pm.

The RTM 2 ANZ Credit Card broadcast will begin at 10 am.

— BERNAMA

Source: Washington Post (Original Article)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s top female swimmer has changed her surname, built up her backside and recovered Instant Approval Credit Cards from an attack of stage-fright at the Athens Olympics.

Source: Seeking Alpha (Original Article)

Sohu.com Inc. (SOHU)

Q1 2008 Earnings Call

April 28, 2008 8:00 am ET

Executives

Brandi Piacente - The Piacente Group

Dr. Charles Zhang - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer

Belinda Wang - Co-President, Chief Marketing Officer

Dr. Gong Yu - Chief Operating Officer

Carol Yu - Co-President, Chief Financial Officer

Analysts

Catherine Leung - Citigroup

Jenny Wu - Morgan Stanley

Dick Wei - J.P. Morgan

Wallace Chung - Credit Suisse

Wendy Huang - Bear Stearns

Eddie Leung - Merrill Lynch

Leah Hao - Goldman Sachs

C. Ming Zhao - Susquehanna Financial Group

Presentation

Operator

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sohu first quarter 2008 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would like to turn the conference over to Miss Brandi Piacente. Please go ahead, Madam.

Brandi Piacente

Thank you for joining Sohu.com to discuss our first quarter results. On the call today are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Charles Zhang; Co-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Belinda Wang; Co-President and Chief Financial Officer, Carol Yu; Chief Operating Officer, Gong Yu; and Vice President of Online Game Business, Wang Tao.

Before management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to read you the Safe Harbor statement in connection with today’s conference call. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this call are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current plans, estimates, and projections and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those BARNEY AND FRIENDS dvd contained in any forward-looking statements.

Potential risks …continue reading

Source: AFP (Original Article)

South Korea's last bearer of the Beijing Olympic torch relay Yoon Accountants in WA beginning with J Tae-Wong (L) and mayor of Seoul Oh Sae-Hoon

Other Stories

Source: RTE.ie (Original Article)

Ireland’s leading fencer Siobhan Byrne will compete in the Eurozone Olympic qualifying tournament in Istanbul on Saturday in her final attempt to book a place at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Byrne, who competes in the Sabre weapon category, will face a stern challenge to attain qualification for the Beijing Games as only the top two finishers in Istanbul will secure Olympic qualification.

There are nine countries competing for only the two places; Romania, Greece, Great Britain, Spain, Iceland, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, hosts Turkey and Byrne of Ireland.

Byrne is in her final year of a sports scholarship at Ohio State University, where she is studying Health Management.

She has been supported under the Irish Sports Council’s International Carding Scheme Frequent Flyer Credit Card and Performance Planning Programme for the last number of years.

Source: Economist (Original Article)

Chinese nationalism

Apr 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition

WHATEVER hopes there were that this August’s Beijing Olympics would be a festival of fun and friendship with a bit of sport thrown in are fading fast. The event was intended to mark China’s reintegration into the world, and re-emergence as a great power. Instead, preparations for the games have degenerated into some of the ugliest verbal confrontations for years between China and its critics. Passions and tempers are running high on both sides. On China’s, even those suggesting something as innocuous as a dialogue are being pilloried as “traitors”. Foreign journalists have received death threats. Far from being a celebration of China’s new openness, the Olympics risk vindicating those abroad who argued it was not a fit host and those at home who think a fearful, envious world will never give a resurgent China its due.

As in 1999, after NATO’s bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade, or in 2005, when anti-Japanese protests in China threatened to get out of hand, China’s government finds itself in an awkward fix. It wants to rein in the popular anger before it descends into violence, or turns on the government itself. Yet its own policies and its control of information have stoked the anger in the first place.

That is not to deny that the angry Chinese nationalists who have deluged the internet with their splenetic outpourings and staged protests in China (see article) have a point. Coverage in the Western press of unrest in Tibet has been rather one-sided. It has stressed the harsh Chinese crackdown on peaceful protests and tended to overlook the violence by Tibetans. For most Chinese observers, what happened was an outburst of vicious racist thuggery directed at ethnic Han Chinese in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. And the authorities, incomprehensibly, tolerated it until 19 people had been killed.

Similarly, views of degrassi the next generation dvd the protests attracted by the round-the-world …continue reading

Source: PR Web (press release) (Original Article)

New ‘Originals’ videos from adidas recently hit the web, showcasing the company’s originator Adi Dassler, mix master DJ Theo Parrish, ‘Street Games’, and much more.

The Story of Adi Dassler

(PRWEB) April 23, 2008 -– Four new “Originals” videos by adidas were recently released on the web as part of an online marketing campaign geared towards young men and women. The fifth film to be released 1//5/2008 called “Grun” focuses on how people can add nature to the city. The short films focus around creativity and athleticism found in everyday city life.

Fifty meter hurdle ducking, café ping pong, beach umbrella javelin and street fencing are just a few events talking place in the midst of metropolitan life in “Original Games.” Taking their cue from various Olympic sports, a group of young athletes makes use of their urban surroundings for multiple street sporting events featured in the short film.

Inner-city living also lends to the musical masterpieces of house and dance music master DJ Theo Parrish, who mixes his way through the Detroit streets, picking up sounds for his world famous grooves in “Sounds of the City.” In the “Originals” film, Parrish briefly describes how he transforms noise from the subway, industrial machines, car engines, sports events, and other urban clatter into beats, melody and eventually music.

Also perusing the streets is Amelie, a 21-year-old photographer living in Germany. Viewers take a pictorial journey around Berlin through Amelie’s eyes in “Handbags for Feet.” From morning to night, Amelie cruises in her bike around the city, snapping photos of attention-grabbing architecture, appealing street scenes, and road corners, in the end collapsing into bed only to begin again the next days.

ANZ Frequent Flyer
Clay animation helps narrate the history …continue reading

Source: The Press (Original Article)

STACY SQUIRES/The Press
TOP MAN: Hayden Roulston uses the wind tunnel at Canterbury University yesterday. He has been named as one of the key New Zealand riders for the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

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New Zealand track coach Tim Carswell is confident his team is "in the ballpark" to claim medals across six events at the Beijing Olympic Games.
There were few surprises in the seven-strong team confirmed by the New Zealand Olympic Committee yesterday, with Athens Olympians Greg Henderson and Hayden Roulston spearheading the squad.
Dunedin cyclist Alison Shanks is the only woman in the team which also includes team pursuiters Marc Ryan, Sam Bewley and Westley Gough.
Palmerston North cyclist Jesse Sergent won the fifth spot in the team pursuit, leaving no room for Blenheim's Jason Allen or Christchurch omnium world champion Hayden Godfrey.
New Zealand has qualified cyclists in both the men's and women's events for the points race and individual pursuit, the team pursuit and the Madison.
Carswell said there was plenty of reason to head to Beijing with the belief of podium performances.
"All six events, we feel that if we get the riders in the shape they need to be we're going to be right there amongst the top performers," he said.
"That's where we'll need to be at and maybe a wee bit of luck and you're right in the medals."
Carswell said the bar had been lifted this year with plenty of competition for places.
Godfrey was one who had made a late bid with his performances at the world championships but "there just wasn't enough places to have him within the group".
Roulston and Ryan had been the "corner stones" of the team at various stages this past summer, while Bewley, Gough and Sergent had won a world junior championship in the team pursuit in 2005. ANZ Debit Card
"We want to be going sub-four …continue reading

Source: Toronto Star (Original Article)

It’s exactly what Vancouver Olympic organizers didn’t want to hear.

Canada’s top native chief says the Vancouver Olympics could become a target of First Nations protest much like Beijing has been a flashpoint for Tibet supporters.

Phil Fontaine says native leaders will use whatever chance they can to focus governments on aboriginal poverty.

That includes the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

The Assembly of First Nations has called for a peaceful day of national demonstrations on May 29. But some militant factions used a similar day of action last June to shut down highways and railroad lines.

Fontaine says his attempts to negotiate have been ignored by the Conservative government.

Vancouver officials say they’ve been as inclusive as possible of Canada’s First Nations. But when it comes time for politics, the Olympics provide a podium that some may find irresistible.

So far, protests in Vancouver have been largely based on anti-poverty activists. But First Nations people could prove a lot sexier topic for out of town journalists.

While Fontaine is clearly gearing up for something, Bill Williams, the chief of the Squamish First Nation (one of the native groups with a formal agreement with the Vancouver committee) told CBC News he would not be protesting the Games.

"I have no plans whatsoever to protest the Winter Olympic Games," he said. "Actually I have plans to participate, not only with myself but with hundreds of members of the Squamish Nation."

Fontaine’s comments were first reported on April 17. The following day, the Vancouver Organizing Committee of the 2010 Games announced it had signed a licensing agreement giving the Four Host First Nations and Nunavut Development Corporation rights to market merchandise with aboriginal themes under the Olympic brand.

MAYOR’S TOUR

Toronto Mayor David Miller was in Beijing recently and had a tour ANZ Credit Cards of some of the facilities that’ll …continue reading