Olympic flame which will be used for the London 2012 torch relay has been lit during a ceremony in Olympia, Greece. The flame was kindled by a “high priestess” who captured the morning sun’s rays in a parabolic mirror. The ceremony came amid political and economic turmoil in Greece, the home of the Ancient Olympics, where a week-long leg of the relay will be held. The flame flie…
he torch on British soil. After criss-crossing every region of the UK, the flame will be used to light the cauldron in Stratford’s Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 27 July. At Thursday’s handover ceremony, crowds in the stadium stood beneath multi-colored umbrellas as the national anthems of the UK and Greece were sung by a British school choir and a Gree…
ic Games begin on 29 August 20012 and close on 9 September 2012. During the London 2012 Olympic Games top sportsmen and women from across the world will be competing in 26 sports which break down into 39 disciplines. There are 20 sports in the Paralympic schedule in the London 2012 Games. An Olympic Park has been created on 2.5sq km of land in east London from former industrial land that has been…
The biggest McDonald’s restaurant on the planet has been built in London, right in the middle of the Olympic park. The vast two-storey restaurant will serve up to 1,200 customers an hour and sell $5 million of fast food during Olympic Games. At 3,000 sq ft the building, next to the Olympic Stadium, is bigger than the current largest McDonald’s, in Moscow. The Russian restaurant will regain its ti…
…m’s training camp • On Tuesday, Heathrow is set for its busiest day for Olympics so far as it prepares to handle about 217,000 passengers, including some 1,200 athletes and coaches and more than 3,000 other Games-related arrivals • Motorists have faced long queues on routes where pre-Olympics modifications have been made to road layouts • And the Olympic torch is travelling from Kingston, in…
Volodymyr Gerashchenko, a senior Ukrainian Olympic official, has been suspended after a BBC investigation showed he was willing to unofficially sell 2012 tickets for cash. Volodymyr Gerashchenko, of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), told a reporter posing as a UK tout he would have up to 100 tickets to sell. It is a criminal offence, punishable by fines of up to £20,000 ($32,000),…
…g Cars and Run, the band said the event was “really special.” “It’s the only thing I’ll ever represent Northern Ireland at,” said frontman Gary Lightbody. “My 100 metre sprinting days are long past me.” “We were asked to represent our country, we’re never going to say no to that,” he added. “The world is looking in on our nati…
Women’s football is the first event of the Olympics and is to kick off later, two days before the official opening ceremony. The Team GB women’s football side will get 18 days of sport under way at 16:00 BST against New Zealand at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. Designated Games Lanes, covering about 30 miles of roads and off limits to the public, have begun operating in London. And gov…
sing ceremony as a “mashed-up symphony”. Kim Gavin said it would showcase “British creativity in the arts” and take people on a musical journey from Elgar to Waterloo Sunset in 30 tracks. The director explained that while the national flags would process in, the athletes would come in together as “friends” rather than country-by-country as in the opening ceremon…
…for our country”. “Seven years of waiting, planning, building, dreaming, are almost over – tomorrow, the curtain comes up, the spectators arrive, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012 can officially begin.” David Cameron also met the Republican candidate for the US presidency, Mitt Romney, during his campaigning and fundraising visit to London. Mitt Romney had earlier e…
The Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in four zones across the city, the Brazilian organizing committee has said. Plans for their eight-minute segment in the London 2012 closing ceremony on Sunday night have also been set out at London’s Olympic Park. They said pure Brazilian samba would demonstrate the country’s passion. Events will be at Copacabana Beach, the Olympi…
hree minutes for the first time since King George VI’s funeral. Lord’s cricket ground has turned away spectators trying to get in to watch archery amid confusion over ticketing. The London 2012 website advertised the event’s preliminary rounds as “unticketed”, which some members of the public interpreted as open to the public. But Olympic organizer LOCOG said it had n…
…had the swine flu pandemic at Glastonbury. We also looked at research from the Vancouver Games – neither produced any significant problems.” Dr. Brian McCloskey said that at Glastonbury in 2009, hundreds of thousands of people were densely packed in fields together for days at a time during the outbreak of influenza strain H1N1. Whereas he said at London 2012 visitors would only be at…
ing last to huge cheers. The opening ceremony, co-directed by Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, signalled the start of 11 days of competition by 4,200 athletes from 164 countries, including more than 300 athletes from the home nation. Queen Elizabeth II has declared the London 2012 Paralympics officially open, during a spectacular opening ceremony watched by some 80,000 spectators Wheelchair bas…
…ichelle Obama jogged to a stage to the sound of a marching band that played the University of Florida flight song. She told the crowd: “I’m so excited. I am thrilled to be here on London for the 2012 Olympic games. I am proud to be leading the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony.” Olympic gold-medal sprinter Carl Lewis signed autographs at the event while ex-NBA star Dikembe Mutombo offe…
ald the start of the 2012 Games In Trafalgar Square later, former boxer Michael Watson, wheelchair racer Dame Tanni Grey Thompson and Paralympic swimmer Chris Holmes will carry the flame. About 3,000 invited guests, including Paralympians, representatives from disability groups and local residents, attended Tuesday evening’s ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Some 150 local residen…
The official Olympic flag has arrived in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of 2016 Games. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes waved the flag after stepping off the plane with other officials and Brazilian athletes who competed in London. The flag was handed to Eduardo Paes on Sunday in London before the flame at the Olympic Stadium was extinguished. The move marks the official start of Rio&#…
Thousands of UK border staff (Home Office) will strike the day before London Olympics open, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has said. PCS members will strike for 24 hours next Thursday – when many thousands of visitors are due to arrive in the UK. Home Secretary Theresa May said the action was “shameful” as it threatens disruption to people travelling to London fo…
…ociety will accept this,” the official said. It is not the first time a Saudi monarch has backed a controversial reform against domestic opposition. King Faisal, who introduced television in the 1960s and was eventually assassinated, insisted on introducing education for girls. Today, Saudi women graduates outnumber their male counterparts. …
. Nicole Kidman refused to get involved in the divorce drama unfurling between Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes, even though there are echoes of her 2001 split with the now 50-year-old movie star. Not least 33-year-old Katie Holmes’ decision to file for sole custody of the couple’s daughter Suri, six, after Nicole Kidman lost primary residence of her two adopted children with Tom Cruise, Isabella…
alleges, during a two-month investigation in which reporters posed as Middle Eastern ticket touts, it found corruption involving people representing 54 separate countries. More than one million London 2012 tickets were distributed abroad among all the nations taking part in the Games, but the IOC has strict rules to try to combat touts. National Olympic committees must ensure that their allocation…
Nick Buckles, the chief executive of security firm G4S, will go before MPs later to explain why his company was unable to provide the Olympics staff it promised. Nick Buckles has already apologized after 3,500 extra troops had to be deployed to meet the firm’s shortfall. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was no time for a “witch-hunt” but “contingency plans” were…
…expected to be one of the main social networks to be used by both fans and athletes during the Games. Sporting events regularly attract the service’s biggest audience. During Spain’s Euro 2012 win, there were over 15,000 tweets every second. For London 2012, there are over 2,000 verified Olympians – past and present – that are signed up to use the service. Downtime plagued…
London’s Olympic Stadium will welcome the athletics events later in the day, ensuring the Olympic Park’s busiest day since the Games opened a week ago. More than 200,000 people will be at the park, prompting warnings for those not attending the Games to avoid the area. The Central Line, which serves the Olympic Park in Stratford, is suspended from Liverpool Street to Leytonstone. It f…
Armed forces in UK are on standby to provide an additional 3,500 troops to help with security at the 2012 London Olympics. It comes amid fears that private contractor G4S would not be able to provide enough trained staff in time. The armed forces were already providing some 13,500 personnel – this could now reach 17,000, meaning summer leave for some troops will likely be cancelled. G4S sai…
Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1 billionYahoo's board has approved a deal to buy New York-based blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion, US media reports say. The acquisition is expected to be announced as early…
Google told to clean up auto-complete results in GermanyGoogle has been ordered by a German federal court to clean up the auto-complete results its search engine suggests. The court said Google must ensure terms generated by…
Google Glass: Ten features and ways to use itGoogle has revealed for the first time what view users will get through its “Project Glass” wearable computer. 1. Google Glass responds to voice commandsGoogle Glass…
Samsung announces 5G mobile network technology developmentSamsung announces it has developed technology that could sit "at the core of 5G" - the successor to the 4G mobile-communications standard. The Korean company says its…
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere pass symbolic mark of 400 ppmCarbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have broken through a symbolic mark reaching its highest throughout human history, recent figures from a US monitoring station…
Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn perform emergency spacewalk to fix ammonia leakUS astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are carrying out an emergency spacewalk to fix a leak of ammonia from the International Space Station's cooling system. Live…
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