China declares it is ready to stage greatest Games

BEIJING: China declared Thursday it was ready to stage one of the greatest Olympics ever, even as pollution concerns and human rights controversies hung over the final day of preparations for the opening ceremony.

As the world's best athletes poured into Beijing and the Olympic flame passed over the Great Wall, Games organisers sought to shift global attention on to what they promise will be a spectacular celebration of sport.

"We have prepared for the Beijing Olympics for seven years and now we are ready... we are very confident indeed that we will stage a successful Olympics," organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.

"Of course we hope that these will be a great Games, even the greatest."

For China, the Games are an opportunity to show the world how far it has come since the communists came to power in 1949 following a brutal civil war, and particularly the past three decades of phenomenal economic development.

The Olympics offer a promise of becoming an historic moment showing China's social as well as economic transformation, similar to the 1964 Games for Japan and the 1988 event for South Korea.

"China is a nation in transition, with a great future, tremendous potential and some challenges," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said after arriving in Beijing.

"I believe history will view the 2008 Olympics as a significant milestone in China's remarkable transformation." 

More than 100 heads of state and other senior national leaders are expected to attend the Games. US President George W. Bush was also due to arrive in Beijing on Thursday evening and the much anticipated opening ceremony will kick off on Friday, August 8 at 8:00pm (1200 GMT).

The date and time of the ceremony is no coincidence as, for many Chinese, number eight is a particularly auspicious number because it represents prosperity.

And sporting glory will undoubtedly be the main focus for the 10,000 athletes, with US basketball star Kobe Bryant reflecting those passions as he declared that winning gold in Beijing was more important than an NBA title.

Equally, enthusiasm for the Games among China's more than 1.3 billion people has been so strong that tickets have sold out for the first time in Olympic history.

More than 100,000 security personnel are patrolling Beijing, anti-missile barriers have been set up near the "Bird's Nest" stadium, and the military and police are on guard around the country for any signs of trouble.

Eyes of the world on China as opening ceremony looms

BEIJING: Everything about the Beijing Olympics is on a huge scale and organisers intend to start as they mean to go on judging by their plans for Friday's opening ceremony, a three-hour 'spectacular'.

But the longer the performance, the greater the chance of something can go 
wrong and, having invested so much time and effort in bringing the Games to 
China, officials will be desperate to ensure their grandiose plans go off without a hitch.

Some 15,000 performers are set to take part, with 29,000 fireworks due to be released into the night sky.

The ceremony is also due to see Chinese pop star Liu Huan, together with British singer Sarah Brightman, sing a specially commissioned theme song in the closing 'artistic' section.

Yet for many genuine sports fans around the world, the opening ceremony of the Games are something of a puzzle, delaying the serious business of competition for little obvious benefit.

However, ever since athletes first walked in behind their flags, which were expected to be dipped before Britain's King Edward VII, at the 1908 Games in London, the opening ceremony has increasingly become an opportunity for the host nation to say something about its culture.

That is all the more true in an era of mass television with China, a country which once prided itself on being closed to prying eyes, now keen to show itself off to a global audience of hundreds of millions.

Given all that, it is no surprise that film director Zhang Yimou, best known in the West for his Oscar-nominated movie "House of Flying Daggers", has been entrusted with overseeing the ceremony.

Zhang explained this week that the event "would showcase "the ancient and long history of the Chinese nation".

He added: "The performance will reflect the cultural aspects of Chinese society and showcase what modern China and its people are all about."

But even before Friday's show starts, carefully-laid plans were upset when a film crew from South Korea's private station SBS sneaked in and filmed a rehearsal and then broadcast parts of it on Tuesday before posting it on the Internet.

However, one thing has remained secret and that is the identity of the person who will light the Olympic flame after China President Hu Jintao declares the Games open.

Basketball star Yao Ming who carried the Olympic torch through Beijing's Tianamen Square on Wednesday, had been tipped for the honour.

But tradition dictates that a person can only carry the torch once in the run-up to a Games. 

Officials remained tight-lipped, saying only the flame-lighter had been selected for their "sporting achievement" and "social influence".

Darfur "Lost Boy" to carry US flag at ceremony

BEIJING: Lopez Lomong, one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan who was a victim of violence in Darfur, was named Thursday as the United States flag bearer for the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics.

US captains in every Olympic sport met at the Olympic Village and voted to award the honor for Friday's ceremony to Lomong, a sensitive choice given criticism of Chinese foreign policy over the conflict in Darfur.

"This is the most exciting day ever in my life," Lomong said. "It's a great honor for me that my teammates chose to vote for me.

"The opening ceremony is the best day and the best moment of Olympic life. I'm here as an ambassador of my country and I will do everything I can to represent my country well."

Lomong, 23, was kidnapped from his family by the Janjaweed militia and taken hostage. He and other youths escaped and spent three days on the run before crossing the border into Kenya and being taken to a refugee camp.

He spent years there just fighting to survive and famously paid five Kenyan shillings to watch a black and white television telecast of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

He said seeing US track star Michael Johnson win gold sparked his dream of becoming an Olympian.

Lomong was adopted by a US foster family, changed his citizenship to American and will race in the 1,500 meters at Beijing.

China has close ties with Sudan, as one of the main buyers of the African nation's oil and a key investor in its economy, and rights groups have accused Beijing of not doing enough to try and resolve the conflict in Darfur.

The United Nations has said that 300,000 people have died in Darfur and that more than 2.2 million have been displaced since 2003. The Sudanese government puts the number of fatalities at 10,000.