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Advance to 1:12:30 for the handover.

BEIJING — X-ray bone analysis of 15,000 young Chinese athletes shows about 20 percent have lied about their ages, provincial sports authorities say. The analysis was conducted by sports officials in southern Guangdong province and reported on the Web site of the Southern Metropolis Daily. The confirmation of age-faking again puts pressure on Chinese sports officials. Several of China's gold-medal winning female gymnasts at last year's Olympics were widely suspected of being underage, although they were later cleared by officials of the sport's world governing body. NBA player Yi Jianlian is also widely reported to have falsified his age on...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Olympic great Michael Phelps has acknowledged "regrettable" behavior and "bad judgment" after a photo in a British newspaper showed him smoking marijuana.

PAPER: OLYMPIC HERO PICTURED SMOKING BONG... DEVELOPING... 'NEWS OF THE WORLD' SET TO ROCK SPORTS WITH SHOCK PHOTO, STORY...

Three months after the end of the games, new figures show the "Olympic Effect" has been short-lived and hotels are empty, industrial output has fallen and the streets are quiet. Much of the pain is due to the worldwide financial crisis – and in some cases due to brave decisions by the government to keep polluting industries shut to spare the environment. But even the biggest single symbol of the modern rise of China, the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, stands forlorn, largely unused except for a shrinking number of tourists. Attempts to attract the city's main football team to move...

Chinese dissident tipped to win Nobel peace prize Hu Jia could be awarded the Nobel peace prize to continue human rights pressure on China after the Beijing Olympics * Gwladys Fouché in Oslo * guardian.co.uk, * Wednesday September 24 2008 13:06 BST This year's Nobel peace prize could be awarded to a Chinese dissident to highlight China's human rights record in the wake of the Olympic Games, according to experts who closely follow the workings of the award. A likely candidate to receive the prize, the winner of which will be announced on October 10 in Oslo, is Hu Jia,...

We cannot say farewell to the 2008 Olympics without offering a 21-gun salute to the fine U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, based at Fort Benning. (Not to be confused with the three-volley salute common at funerals, the 21-gun salute is typically reserved for the president as part of the "Hail to the Chief" ceremony, and for other heads of state.) The unit brought home two gold medals: Spc. Walton Eller III for the double trap competition and Pfc. Vincent Hancock for the skeet. Eller set two Olympic records with a score of 145 in the qualifying rounds and 190 in the...

On first blush, NBC's Beijing Olympics promotion for its other TV shows has come in underwhelming. "Deal or No Deal"--back from a two-week layoff due to the Olympic coverage--lost 18% of its prime-time ratings to a Nielsen preliminary 2.8 number among 18-49 viewers. Last year's season average was a 3.4 rating. Also underwhelming for most of the networks on Monday night were their respective ratings concerning coverage of the Democratic National Convention. NBC was tops among the big three networks for their 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. coverage, with a 1.5 rating. CBS earned a 0.9 number, and ABC took...

BEIJING -- If anybody feels a pang of jealousy over China's haul of Olympic gold medals, they need only pause to consider what the athletes went through to get them. The only mother on China's team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl's growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist, weightlifter Cao Lei, was kept in such seclusion training for the Olympics that she wasn't told her mother was dying. She found out only after she had missed the funeral.

Beijing, Aug. 25, 2008 (CWNews.com) - China's most prominent "underground" Catholic bishop was arrested on Sunday, August 24: the day that also saw the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding was taken into custody by several police officers at Wuqiu cathedral. No immediate reason was given for his arrest, and authorities have not disclosed where the aging bishop is being held. The 73-year-old Bishop Jia, who heads an active diocese of over 100,000 Catholics in the Hebei diocese, spent 15 years in prison, from 1963 to 1978. Since his release he has...

Fidel Castro says corrupt judges are to blame for Cuba's sub-par showing at the Beijing Olympics. Castro alleges that judges blatantly stole semifinal fights from two Cuban boxers, and that a judge must have been bribed in the case of Angel Matos, who kicked a referee in the face after he was disqualified in a bronze-medal taekwondo match.

As Britain's magnificent Olympians returned home on Monday, they left behind a fierce debate in China over London's eight-minute contribution to Beijing's glittering ceremony - and in particular, the performance of Mayor Boris Johnson. While some Chinese media and bloggers praised the creativity of London's segment, others were damning with Johnson described as 'arrogant, rude and disrespectful' when accepting the Olympic flag. 'Unlike the Chinese custom which tends not to reveal their weakness to the outsiders, the British seem to like to laugh about their stupidity in a funny way,' it said. Columnist Hi Yang continued : 'Perhaps due to...

Athletes sacrificed dearly -- one was separated from her toddler, one was banned from eating dinner, one missed a parent's funeral. While Americans spoke of fun, the Chinese were on a 'sacred mission.' If anybody feels a pang of jealousy over China's haul of Olympic gold medals, they need only pause to consider what the athletes went through to get them. The only mother on China's team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl's growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist,...

Kathmandu, Aug 24 (PTI) Maoist leader Prachanda's first foreign trip as Prime Minster to Beijing has sparked a row in Nepal, with the opposition Nepali Congress questioning his visit to China ahead of India, which had "invited him first". Prachanda's five-day official visit to Beijing is in a sharp departure from tradition where India has been the first port of call for most previous Nepalese prime ministers. Nepali Congress general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi criticised the newly-elected Prime Minister for visiting China to attend the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics at a time when thousands of people have been rendered...

LONDON, August 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In 2004, U.K. Olympian Tasha Danvers-Smith sacrificed her spot at the Summer Olympics in Athens so she could bring her then-unborn baby to term.  Four years later, her little boy inspired her all the way to the podium in the women's 400-metre hurdle event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.After discovering she was pregnant in 2004, Danvers-Smith made a joint decision with her husband and coach, Darrell, to put her baby's life ahead of her dream of competing in the summer games in Athens. At the time some in the track and field community...

On Friday night, the U.S. team entered the political fray again by choosing archer Khatuna Lorig, who was born in what is now the country of Georgia, to be the U.S. flag bearer in Sunday's closing ceremony.

US disrupts Olympic party with human rights attack on China America has openly attacked China for failing to live up to its Olympic promise to improve human rights after eight US citizens were arrested and imprisoned without trial for their part in a pro-Tibet demonstration. By Peter Foster in Beijing Last Updated: 12:20PM BST 24 Aug 2008 The Foreign and Commonwealth Office called on China to 'respect its commitment to freedom of expression' Photo: AFP In an unusually candid statement issued on the eve of the Olympic closing ceremony the US Embassy in Beijing expressed mounting frustration with China's refusal...

Why must everything be America's fault? An article published at the UK Times Online, brought on a firestorm of commentary from readers. In the literally hundreds of comments, many were in agreement that if there is any question of the girl’s age, an investigation is warranted. There were also those who thought that even if she were underage, she should still be allowed to keep her medals. Yet in addition to the comments arguing whether age should matter or not, there were a fair number of those that suggested the only reason this investigation has commenced is that the U.S....

Georgian born Khatuna Lorig will carry the US flag.U.S. team picks Georgian to lead them in closing ceremony

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics Sunday night has drawn worldwide attention and Beijing's successful hosting of the Games has earned global applause. Pakistan's national TV station, and the private GEO, EXPRESS, NEWS and AAJ stations gave live coverage of the entire ceremony. Their commentators congratulated China on its successful hosting of the Games, saying that Pakistan is happy to see China won most gold medals. The Kyodo news agency said in a story that "The Beijing Olympic theme of 'One World, One Dream' turned out a success despite predictions of gloom and doom, including whispers of terrorist plots...