ivilege for me to be asked but, more than anything, it is an exciting moment for the country. “The arrival of the torch on home soil really brings home how close the Games are.” Carried by 8,000 torchbearers, the Barber Osgerby-designed torch will cover 8,000 miles across all of the country’s nations and regions. It is due to reach the Olympic Stadium in Stratford on 27 July to l…
um. Lit in Olympia on 10 May, the flame was taken on a week-long tour of Greece. A British delegation including David Beckham are due to fly with the torch to the UK on Friday. It will then be carried 8,000 miles (12,875 km) by 8,000 bearers in a 70-day relay ending at the Olympic Park. The relay begins at Land’s End on Saturday when triple Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie will be the fi…
ool Street to Leytonstone. It follows a signal failure at Bethnal Green station, London Underground said. Tickets are being accepted on National Rail services in the area. Friday’s events at the 80,000-capacity Olympic stadium will bring thousands more people pouring into the east London park and mean access to the neighboring Westfield shopping centre will be restricted for the next two day…
to the public, one for the athletes and officials in the Olympic Village and one at the press centre. Altogether they will serve 1.75 million meals in 29 days, with Britons accounting for an estimated 85% of customers. The biggest McDonald’s restaurant on the planet has been built in London, right in the middle of the Olympic park The main restaurant will offer some of the best views across the O…
Last night, at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II appeared in her first movie acting role and proved herself an instant comedy hit. Her Majesty was seen in a film alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig before apparently “parachuting” into the stadium for the opening ceremony. The recorded sequence opened at Buckingham Palace, where a tuxedo-wearing Daniel Craig as 007 w…
2012 Olympics stadium has been officially opened by nine-year-old Niamh Clarke-Willis at a ceremony in east London. Niamh Clarke-Willis joined LOCOG head Lord Sebastian Coe to hit a button which launched balloons into the sky above the venue for this summer’s Games. Around 40,000 members of the public were at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford to witness the opening, which included a laser li…
…preview of the experience on Friday morning. At 114.5 metres (376 ft), the Orbit is the tallest sculpture in the UK – twice the height of Nelson’s Column. The tangled steel lattice – 63% of which is recycled steel – incorporates the five Olympic rings. “We wanted to make something that was kind of a deconstruction of the tower,” said Anish Kapoor. “Towers…
over the last few years in preparation for the Games. The new parkland contains thousands of trees and plants and is where the main Olympic Stadium has been built. The stadium which has a capacity of 80,000 for the Games is located in the south of the Olympic Park on an ‘island’ site surrounded by waterways on three sides. Spectators reach the venue via five bridges that link the site to the sur…
Queen Elizabeth II has declared the London 2012 Paralympics officially open, during a spectacular opening ceremony watched by some 80,000 spectators. Britain’s first Paralympic Games gold medallist, Margaret Maughan, 84, had the honor of lighting the cauldron. Paralympics chief Lord Sebastian Coe told the crowd: “Prepare to be inspired, prepare to be dazzled, prepare to be moved.̶…
Spectators who attended a preview of the Olympic Games opening ceremony have been urged to keep the details secret and not spoil the surprise for others. Thousands of people who attended a rehearsal on Monday were asked not to circulate images or videos. Danny Boyle, the ceremony’s artistic director, reportedly addressed the audience to “save the surprise”. About 62,000 are set…
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),…
Two helicopters have crashed near Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, leaving at least two people dead and several others injured. The helicopters hit each other in mid-air during a police exercise. German Bild newspaper said one of the pilots was killed and four people were injured, two of them seriously. Footage showed the two aircraft on their side in the snow. Some 400 federal police officers wer…
…flew over the stadium to the sound of the Bond theme tune, as two figures parachuted down, one dressed as the monarch. As if by magic, the Queen appeared in the stands – part of a crowd of about 80,000 – amid cheers. James Bond was not the only much-loved British character to take part. Mr. Bean prompted laughter when he appeared as part of the orchestra playing the Chariots of Fire th…
The Brazilian stadium that was due to host athletics at the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely because of structural problems with its roof. The Joao Havelange stadium in Rio de Janeiro was built only six years ago. The stadium was also being used as the main football venue in Rio, while the city’s Maracana stadium is being renovated for the 2014 World Cup. It is an embarrassment fo…
noises.” It will hang at one end of the stadium, and Danny Boyle said he wanted people to hear it “for hundreds of years”. A full dress rehearsal will be held for a capacity crowd of 80,000 in the Olympic Stadium, which will be fitted with a million-watt sound system. …
…c of the worldwide system, saying it effectively amounts to “double taxation” and leaves the US both at a competitive disadvantage, and as a bullyboy, on the world stage. “We are the 800 lbs [360kg] gorilla in the world economy, and we can bully other nations into helping enforce our bad tax law.” The tax burden may not be as heavy as it first appears, however, as there are…
said to be a quirky take on British life. Some 15,000 sq m of staging and 12,956 props will be used, and the event will boast a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers. The crowd of about 80,000 will include the Queen and a host of dignitaries and celebrities. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip will host a Buckingham Palace reception for heads of state and government and an opening…
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&#…
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has begun an investigation into claims Olympics representatives were willing to sell thousands of tickets for the London Games on the black market. The IOC’s ruling executive board met after fresh claims by the Sunday Times involving more than 50 countries. This included allegations that tickets for top events were available for up to 10 times their…
as only hours later she spotted it featured the mis-spelling “Oylmpic”. Jerri Peterson was shocked to discover that her Olympic tattoo had been spelt incorrectly Jerri Peterson was one of 70 international employees selected by her firm to take part in the relay as a thank you for her years of charity work. She said: “I always wanted to have a tattoo but I never quite felt passio…
st tally since 1908. In all, 44 world records have been set during London 2012, and 117 Olympic records broken. Among those to have set new world bests included Kenyan David Rudisha in the men’s 800 m and the Jamaican sprint relay team, one of three golds during the Games for Usain Bolt. US swimmer Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history while cyclist Sir Chris Hoy’…
ium has reopened after nearly three years of renovations to prepare it for the World Cup finals in 2014. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes were among the 30,000-strong crowd watching the friendly between teams captained by Ronaldo and Bebeto. But the Jornal do Brasil said Saturday’s visitors “needed patience to deal with the many problems&…
When Queen Elizabeth appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium this summer it was hailed as one of the greatest moments in British television history. As part of the lavish London 2012 opening ceremony the Queen was shown jumping from a helicopter with James Bond actor Daniel Craig, but ever since there has been mystery surrounding how, exactly, she was persuaded to do it – until now….
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…
sh rockers Stereophonics played four small warm-up shows around the UK this week in preparation for their set, following the big screen coverage of the opening ceremony. Meanwhile, the crowd of around 80,000 in the Olympic Stadium will include Queen Elizabeth II and a host of dignitaries and celebrities. Masterminded by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, the £27 million ($43 million) extravaganza features…
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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