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China's Pollution May Affect Olympic Games
Related to country: China

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

As next year's Olympic games in Beijing, China gets closer, there are strong fears of the effects of a polluted environment.

In July 2001, Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games - a victory that carried a touch of vindication. Eight years earlier, the International Olympic Committee had rejected Beijing's first bid for a range of reasons, including the city's polluted environment. This time, Beijing organizers have promised to host a "Green Olympics."

For years, Beijing has ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities. To win the Games, Beijing promised a "Green Olympics" and undertook environmental initiatives now considered models for the rest of China. With Beijing preparing to play host to the 2008 Olympics next August, the Blue Sky ratings are the measuring stick for whether the city's polluted air will be clean enough for the Games.

While Beijing says the Olympics have already had a lasting and positive environmental legacy on the city, IOC officials acknowledge that air quality remains a problem but say the air would be far worse without improvements made for the Games.

This year, a team of Chinese and American scientists analyzed air quality issues for the Olympics and found that Beijing's daily concentrations of PM2.5 rated anywhere from 50 percent to 200 percent higher than U.S. standards. Their study, published in Atmospheric Environment, also found that ozone levels regularly exceeded U.S. standards.

Beijing has spent about $12 billion since 2001 on an environmental clean-up but a UN report issued in October found that the city would fail to resolve poor air quality in time for the Games. Women's Olympic champion Justine Henin, an asthmatic who pulled out of the China Open in September because of pollution fears, may not defend her Olympic tennis title in 2008 for the same reason.

For the world's Olympic athletes, Beijing's air is a performance issue. The concern is that respiratory problems could impede athletic performance and prevent records from being broken. For Beijing's estimated 12 million residents, pollution is an inescapable health and quality of life issue. Skepticism about the improving Blue Sky ratings is common. There is also concern whether the city can clean itself up long after the Games are over.

Via: IHT and The Moscow News

December 29, 2007 | 6:55 AM Comments  0 comments

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Does The "Person Of The Year" Matter To You?
Related to country: Russia

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

In a year when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize; when China, the rising superpower, juggled its pride in hosting next summer's Olympic Games; and when J.K. Rowling set millions of minds and hearts on fire with the final volume of her 17-year saga, The Harry Potter series, TIME's Magazine recognizes Vladimir Putin, The Person of The Year 2007.

Mr. Putin's final year as Russia's President has been his most successful yet. At home, he secured his political future. Abroad, he expanded his outsize and influence on global affairs.

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse.

Hail Putin!

Via: Time.com


December 19, 2007 | 10:05 AM Comments  6 comments

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Clooney and Cheadle get Peace Award for Darfur
Related to country: Sudan

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle have both won themselves a peace award for their efforts in Darfur. Together with Brad Pitt, Clooney and Cheadle -- co-stars in "Ocean's Thirteen" -- have used their celebrity status to raise money for refugees through their "Not On Our Watch" charity, and make sure Darfur's "continuing carnage" is not forgotten.

Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million uprooted in the Sudanese region's conflict, which started in 2003 and pits mostly non-Arab rebel groups against the Khartoum government and Arab militias.

Ceasefires have been agreed only to fall apart, and plans to send 26,000 United Nations peacekeepers have been thrown into doubt because of restrictions imposed by Khartoum and the failure by Western states to provide helicopters.

"We have an American election coming so this is the time to put pressure on American candidates, because believe me none of these people want to talk about this issue," Clooney said at a press conference in Rome after receiving the Peace Summit Award.

"None of them want to deal with this issue, so right now is the time to place pressure on the people who can actually affect change because we can't," he continued.

Clooney, the son of a TV journalist, said the media also had a vital role to play and took issue with the extensive coverage given to the British teacher briefly jailed in Sudan last month for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Earlier this year Clooney, Cheadle and Pitt raised $10 million for Darfur at the Cannes film festival, but Clooney said little had changed for the people of Darfur.

Via: Reuters

December 13, 2007 | 4:58 PM Comments  0 comments

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