Olympic Terrorist Plot Quashed in London

London UK: The London Summer Olympics opened on schedule July 27, 2012 with the lighting of the Olympic flame. What most spectators and athletes didn't know were the events that transpired the evening before. The entire Olympic Sports Complex (Olympic Park and Olympic Village) are located on the outskirts of London in Stratford, East London. Amusement park attractions were set up outside the secured Olympic Park and Olympic Village areas. A number of old WWII and earlier industrial factory buildings still dot the landscape. Her Majesty's Government was acutely aware of the possibility of terrorism occurring during the Games of the XXX Olympiad. Anti-aircraft missiles had been installed on rooftops of buildings located in or near the Olympic Sports Complex to cope with any airborne...

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Posted in: London Summer Olympics

Sally Pearson begins final stage of Olympics buildup

Star sprinter Sally Pearson will contest the 100 meters sprint and hurdles events at a low-key athletics meeting in Brisbane on Saturday to trigger the final stage of her buildup to the London Olympics. The world champion will fly to Europe on Monday to compete in the 100 meters hurdles at the Oslo Diamond League meeting on June 7 as part of a carefully measured buildup to the games. The only other events on Pearson’s pre-Olympic schedule are in Nivelles, Belgium on June 23, Paris on July 6 and London on July 14, when she will meet leading British hurdler Tiffany Porter. Pearson also used a four-event preparation in the lead up to last year’s world championships in Daegu at which she won the 100 meters hurdles in 12.28 seconds. Coach Sharon Hannan said Pearson’s program was...

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Posted in: London 2012 Olympics,London Olympics

London 2012 Olympics Logo: An Emblem of Controversy

1 November 2011. Cheshire, United Kingdom. Since the official logo for the London 2012 Olympics was launched in 2007 it has caused a string of controversy and been met with a barrage of criticism. Not only was the London 2012 Olympics organising committee forced to withdraw its animated promotional video of the logo because it triggered seizures in people with epilepsy, but, with its arguably ‘distasteful’ shades of blue, green, orange and pink, and jagged 1980s-resonant typeface that is based on the date 2012, a petition of more than 40,000 names quickly circulated seeking the extraction of the logo following its launch four years ago. The controversial logo was designed by brand consultants Wolff Olins, at a fee of £400,000. So intense was the objection that, just hours after it was officially...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

London Olympics Torch formally lit in Athens

The torch for the 2012 London Games was lit at Athens on Thursday at the site of the ancient Olympics. In front of the ruins of the ancient Temple of Hera, an actress playing the role of a high priestesses lit the Olympic flame by the rays of the sun in a parabolic mirror. Dignitaries at the ceremony included International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge and Sebastian Coe, chief of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG). ‘We promise to protect the flame, to cherish its traditions and stage an uplifting torch relay of which we can be proud,’ Coe said in a speech, adding that the event would ‘lift the spirits and hopes of people across Britain and across the world’. The flame was handed over to the first torch-bearer, Greek world swimming champion...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

Sun god reigns over torch-lighting rehearsal

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Priestesses in pleated robes swayed under a scorching sun at thebirthplace of the ancient Olympics on Wednesday in the final rehearsal to light the flame that willburn at the London Games. Far from the political drama embroiling debt-stricken Greece, locals and foreign touristsgathered at the ruins of the Doric temple to goddess Hera to watch as Greek actress InoMenegaki solemnly stooped to light the torch with a concave mirror. The flame will serve as a backup if overcast skies loom over Thursday's official ceremony, butweather forecasts predict the event will be similarly blessed by abundant sunshine. For the first time, male priests danced to the sound of a drum amid the temple's ancient ruinsinstead of limiting...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

London Olympic contingency tickets to on sale

Some 900,000 Olympic Games contingency tickets will go on sale on Friday,confirmed by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games(LOCOG). About 20,000 people, who were unsuccessful in the initial Olympic ballot application and thenagain failed in the second round of sales, will be given priority to have access to the tickets 31hours earlier than the rest of the eligible applicants, starting from 11 am on May 11 to 6 pm on12 May. These tickets, to be sold on a first come, first served basis, will then be offered to the onemillion people who applied in the initial ballot but were unsuccessful. They will then have an exclusive five-day sales period. Any tickets unsold during this period willgo back on general sale from 23 May at 11 am. The tickets, available...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

London 2012 Olympics: former BOA chief Simon Clegg lands top job with Guam to get ticket to Games

But Clegg, the former chief executive of the British Olympic Association, will have a very different role this summer to the one he envisaged when he led the BOA’s political lobbying campaign to persuade a reluctant Cabinet to back the Games. The man who managed British teams at 12 Olympic Games, six as chef de mission, will be experiencing London 2012 as the official Olympic attaché for the Pacific island of Guam, one of the tiniest countries in the ‘Olympic family’ with a population of just 160,000. While Britain will be fielding a team of 550 athletes, Clegg will be looking after the interests of half a dozen. It is a vivid illustration of just how much the landscape has changed since the Government, after months of prevarication, announced its intention to bid for the Games on May 15,...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

Brazil has 4 NBA players on list

Brazil's men's basketball team will be led by NBA players Nene, Leandro Barbosa, Tiago Splitter and Anderson Varejao when it returns to the Olympics for the first time in 16 years. The four players were included on the list of 15 by coach Ruben Magnano on Thursday. Also included was point guard Larry Taylor, who recently earned Brazilian citizenship. Only 12 players will make it to London. But Taylor and the NBA players likely will be on the team because Magnano's list included two players who are there only to gain experience in practice and one other who has a knee injury and is not expected to recover in time. Brazil's men last competed in the Olympics in 1996, reaching the quarterfinals in Atlanta. Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

London 2012 Olympics: David Beckham says suggestions he would play for Team GB to sell shirts is disrespectful

The 37-year-old LA Galaxy midfielder and former England captain was a key member of London’s winning bid to host the London 2012 Games and has always said he will fight for a place to compete at the Olympics. He is set to be one of the three over-age players allowed in the squad, but he argued he would be picked on merit not because of glamour, newspaper sales or because he is a bigger commercial hitter. Arriving with the Princess Royal to light the first Olympic flame on UK soil at RNAS Culdrose, Beckham said: “Whenever I have been asked about shirt sales or filling stadiums it has always felt a bit disrespectful. Throughout my career I have been pretty successful, I’ve played for some pretty big teams, represented my country quite a few...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

London Olympics: 70 days to go; Iran prez wants to attend Games

Greece hands over Oly torch Greece formally hands over the Olympic torch to a London delegation led by Princess Anne and including David Beckham on Thursday at the Panathenaic stadium where the first modern Games were held in 1896. Seb Coe, chairman of the London organising committee LOCOG, spoke of a ‘’massive, massive moment’’ as the clock ticks down to the Games opening on July 27 while London Mayor Boris Johnson was typically ebullient. 10,500 army men to be deployed Britain’s armed forces minister says approximately 10,500 army personnel will be deployed to help protect the London Olympics. Responding to a written parliamentary question about how many army members will be on duty, Nick Harvey said on Wednesday that under current plans, about 1,700 army reservists and 8,800 regular...

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Posted in: 2012 London Olympic,2012 London Olympic Games,2012 Olympic Games,2012 Olympics Campaign

British soccer player and London Olympic Games ambassador David Beckham lights Olympic torch

The flame for the London Olympics burned brightly on British soil on Friday after David Beckham stepped off a special flight from the Games birthplace of Greece to light a cauldron with a golden torch. The British Airways ‘Firefly’ Flight 2012 from Athens landed on time at the Culdrose naval air station with Britain’s Princess Anne, Games chairman Seb Coe and the former England soccer captain among the delegation. The flame will start a 70-day torch relay around Britain on Saturday, with triple Olympic gold medallist sailorBen Ainslie carrying it on the first leg from Land’s End on the south-west tip of England. The Games start on July 27. London mayor Boris Johnson, his mane of unruly blond hair trimmed for the occasion, declared the moment...

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Posted in: London Olympic 2012,London olympic ceremony,London Olympic Games,London Olympics,London Olympics 2012,London Olympics 2012 Tickets

London Olympics anti-terrorism tactics bring missile launchers to Blackheath

A dog walker on Blackheath, south-east London, comes across the Rapier missile defence system, which could play a role in providing air security during the Olympic Games. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images The language was so stiflingly reassuring, it sounded as if Londoners can sleep soundly in their beds knowing that they are being defended by the contents of a really well equipped sports locker. "Think of this as just one club in a golf bag," Major David Joyce said, of the three stumpy green trailers parked in a large, muddy patch of Blackheath. As well as a major joint exercise this week by the army, navy and air force to test preparations to defend the London Olympics against a terrorist attack, the services are mounting an attempt to persuade Londoners that seeing ground...

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Posted in: London Olympics 2012

Yahoo aims to be top website for London Olympics

Yahoo plans to double its Olympics presence this summer, aiming to be the top website for the fourth straight Games. Yahoo is sending 25 people from around the world to cover the Summer Games in London - about "twice as big" as it had in the Winter Games - including US gold medal winners Shannon Miller and Dan O'Brien and many of its sports columnists and reporters. It also plans to cover the games in dozens of languages. The move is an effort to outshine competitors. Despite not paying for exclusive rights to cover the games, Yahoo says it has been the No. 1 global destination for Olympics coverage for the past three games. In February 2010, Yahoo Sports had 32 million unique visitors and 254 million page views for the Vancouver Games, it says. Second-place NBC, which paid for exclusive...

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Posted in: London Olympic 2012,London Olympics,London Olympics 2012

Ring of missiles to protect London Olympics

A ring of ground-to-air missile launchers that will be deployed around London to protect Olympic venues will be unable to locate aircraft in bad weather, experts said yesterday (Monday). The Ministry of Defence confirmed that six sites, including two residential blocks of flats, were being tested as launch pads for missile systems capable of thwarting airborne attacks. The Starstreak and Rapier systems, which have a range of around four miles, would be deployed as a "last resort" to shoot down any low-flying aircraft intending a 9/11 style suicide mission at one of the Olympic venues. But experts have claimed the systems are useless in poor weather as they rely on the operator being able to see the target. Nick Brown, editor-in-chief of Jane's International Defence Review, said: "The...

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Posted in: London Olympic 2012,London Olympics,London Olympics 2012