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Friday, July 27, 2012

2012 Olympics Whose honor?


In Britain the speculation is rife about who will have the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron. Two names stand out, those of Sir Roger Bannister and Sir Steve Redgrave but there could be a big surprise.
Sir Roger Bannister . His name may say nothing to the general public. Yet, at the stroke of 22 hours, the British 83 years could be several hundred million pairs of eyes upon him. Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, is being heralded as Sir Steve Redgrave to be the 8000th and last bearer of the Olympic torch in London, chosen unanimously by the jury. Whoever is in charge of lighting the mythical Cauldron. Should, for the secret about the identity of the last holder is closely guarded by a few privileged members of the organization.
Bannister
For weeks that Britain fantasizes about the name of the lucky one. At a time of social networks, the phenomenon has even taken an enormous magnitude, carrying the most unlikely candidates such Daniel Craig (James Bond actor) and David Cameron, the British Prime Minister. But for a few hours, rumors have strengthened the list to two favorites: the icon of the British middle-distance, Roger Bannister and the rower Steve Redgrave.
Redgrave
Bannister was the first man to run the mile in under four minutes (3'59'' 4). In 1954, the feat was then called a miracle by the press who thought the barrier of the four clock towers impassable. Since then, Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj was shattered in 3'43'' 13 (1999). An athlete's post-war, trained in Oxford, knighted in 1975 and a guarantor of athletics worlds away from the excesses generated by the sports business, the former neurologist the ideal candidate profile. Its rating and Steve Redgrave are neck and neck in English bookmakers. Rower (five Olympic gold medals between 1980 and 2000) confirmed Wednesday that he"would love to be chosen" but that the organizers wanted to "prepare a surprise."
A surprise. So why not the Queen Elizabeth II and a member of the royal family asPrince William  ? Sites Paris in any case take this hypothesis seriously. Problem: if the idea enthusiastically the British, these characters have nothing to do with Olympic history. The opposite of Daley Thompson (decathlon gold medalist in 1980 and 1984) but his recent statements in which he proclaimed himself as the greatest British sporting ahead of Sebastian Coe, denigrating the passage Redgrave and rowing (which failed Private not answer him through the media), could play against him. The choice of a wife,Kelly Holmes (double gold medalist 800 m and 1500 m in 2004), could also make everyone agree. That of David Beckham would win maybe not all the votes while in London, football town par excellence, many are dreaming of a light flame with a masterly kick the Spice Boy. 

London Olympics 2012: Opening Ceremony Today & The countries participating in the opening ceremony


The Olympic Stadium in London today night is the modern "navel of the Earth", as million pairs of eyes from all corners of the globe will attend the opening ceremony of the Games of 30th Olympiad officially starting today night at 9 (11 am GMT). Thousands of athletes from 204 countries participating in the Games will parade at the Olympic Stadium, with first of all the standard bearer of the Greek mission, Alexandros Nikolaidis, the first part of the ceremony. Then we have the speeches and the official opening of the Games, which traditionally makes the state supreme ruler of the host country (in the case of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth), the lighting of the Olympic altar by the last torchbearer and the spoken oath athletes and judges. We follow the artistic program, which has edited the Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. As usual, many parts of the ceremony remain "completely secret" and even several of them were omitted from yesterday's dress rehearsal, so as not to leak through the press or social networking sites. The ceremony, entitled "The islands Wonderland» (Isles of Wonder) and cost 27 million pounds, hopes to "cross" the British history and to "marry" with the modern image of the country. Boyle has said that he would like the opening ceremony of London likened to that of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but it is certain that he has prepared several novelties in order to impress viewers, but viewers who have paid as and 2,012 pounds to secure a seat in the stands of the Olympic Stadium (until yesterday, however, were not exhausted the most expensive tickets). As regards the ceremony, the first part in keeping the protocol, approximately a half hour, and the International Olympic Committee is not willing to do ... discounts, but agreed to reduce the number of attendants who will parade with national missions. For the artistic part, it is rumored that there were pressures on Boyle reduce its duration to ensure the orderly withdrawal of the spectators from the Olympic Park site within the (enlarged) opening hours of public transport. The parade will start missions, as always, with Greece, and will be completed by the host country, Great Britain. Note that there are athletes who will march under the Olympic flag (as in the case of Southern Sudan, which has been declared an independent state but has not yet recognized by the IOC).

The countries participating in the opening ceremony:

1. Greece (GRE)
2. Afghanistan (AFG)
3. Albania (ALB)
4. Algeria (ALG)
5. Andorra (AND)
6. Angola (ANG)
7. Antigua & Barbuda (ANT)
8. Argentina (ARG)
9. Armenia (ARM)
10. Aruba (ARU)
11. American Samoa (ASA)
12. Australia (AUS)
13. Austria (AUT)
14. Azerbaijan (AZE)
15. Bahamas (BAH)
16. Bangladesh (BAN)
17. Barbados (BAR)
18. Burundi (BDI)
19. Belgium (BEL)
20. Benin (BEN)
21. Bermuda (BER)
22. Bhutan (BHU)
23. Bosnia / Herzegovina (BIH)
24. Belize (BIZ)
25. Belarus (BLR)
26. Bolivia (BOL)
27. Botswana (BOT)
28. Brazil (BRA)
29. Bahrain (BRN)
30. Brunei Darussalam (BRU)
31. Bulgaria (BUL)
32. Burkina Faso (BUR)
33. Central African Republic (CAF)
34. Cambodia (CAM)
35. Canada (CAN)
36. Cayman Islands (CAY)
37. Congo (CGO)
38. Chad (CHA)
39. Chile (CHI)
40. China (CHN)
41. Côte d'Ivoire (CIV)
42. Cameroon (CMR)
43. Democratic Republic of Congo (COD)
44. Cook Islands (COK)
45. Colombia (COL)
46. Comoros (COM)
47. Cape Verde (CPV)
48. Costa Rica (CRC)
49. Croatia (CRO)
50. Cuba (CUB)
51. Cyprus (CYP)
52. Czech Republic (CZE)
53. Denmark (DEN)
54. Djibouti (DJI)
55. Dominic (DMA)
56. Dominican Republic (DOM)
57. Ecuador (ECU)
58. Egypt (EGY)
59. Eritrea (ERI)
60. El Salvador (ESA)
61. Spain (ESP)
62. Estonia (EST)
63. Ethiopia (ETH)
64. Fiji (FIJ)
65. Finland (FIN)
66. France (FRA)
67. Micronesia (FSM)
68. Gabon (GAB)
69. Gambia (GAM)
70. Guinea-Bissau (GBS)
71. Georgia (GEO)
72. Equatorial Guinea (GEQ)
73. Germany (GER)
74. Ghana (GHA)
75. Grenada (GRN)
76. Guatemala (GUA)
77. Guinea (GUI)
78. Guam (GUM)
79. Guyana (GUY)
80. Haiti (HAI)
81. Hong Kong (HKG)
82. Honduras (HON)
83. Hungary (HUN)
84. Indonesia (INA)
85. India (IND)
86. Iran (IRI)
87. Ireland (IRL)
88. Iraq (IRQ)
89. Iceland (ISL)
90. Israel (ISR)
91. Virgin Islands (ISV)
92. Italy (ITA)
93. British Virgin Islands (IVB)
94. Jamaica (JAM)
95. Jordan (JOR)
96. Japan (JPN)
97. Kazakhstan (KAZ)
98. Kenya (KEN)
99. Kyrgyzstan (KGZ)
100. Kiribati (KIR)
101. South Korea (KOR)
102. Saudi Arabia (KSA)
103. Kuwait (KUW)
104. Laos (LAO)
105. Latvia (LAT)
106. Libya (LBA)
107. Liberia (LBR)
108. Santa Lucia (LSA)
109. Lesotho (LES)
110. Lebanon (LIB)
111. Liechtenstein (LIE)
112. Lithuania (LTU)
113. Luxembourg (LUX)
114. Madagascar (MAD)
115. Morocco (MAR)
116. Malaysia (MAS)
117. Malawi (MAW)
118. Moldova (MDA)
119. Maldives (MDV)
120. Mexico (MEX)
121. Mongolia (MGL)
122. Marshall Islands (MHL)
123. Macedonia
124. Mali (MLI)
125. Malta (MLT)
126. Montenegro (MNE)
127. Monaco (MON)
128. Mozambique (MOZ)
129. Mauritius (MRI)
130. Mauritania (MTN)
131. Myanmar (MYA)
132. Namibia (NAM)
133. Nicaragua (NCA)
134. Netherlands (NED)
135. Nepal (NEP)
136. Nigeria (NGR)
137. Niger (NIG)
138. Norway (NOR)
139. Nauru (NRU)
140. New Zealand (NZL)
141. Oman (OMA)
142. Pakistan (PAK)
143. Panama (PAN)
144. Paraguay (PAR)
145. Peru (PER)
146. Philippines (PHI)
147. Palestine (PLE)
148. Palau (PLW)
149. Papua New Guinea (PNG)
150. Poland (POL)
151. Portugal (POR)
152. North Korea (PRK)
153. Puerto Rico (PUR)
154. Qatar (QAT)
155. Romania (ROU)
156. South Africa (RSA)
157. Russia (RUS)
158. Rwanda (RWA)
159. Samoa (SAM)
160. Senegal (SEN)
161. Seychelles (SEY)
162. Singapore (SIN)
163. St. Kitts & Nevis (SKN)
164. Sierra Leone (SLE)
165. Slovenia (SLO)
166. San Marino (SMR)
167. Solomon Islands (SOL)
168. Somalia (SOM)
169. Serbia (SRB)
170. Sri Lanka (SRI)
171. Sao Tome & Principe (STP)
172. Sudan (SUD)
173. Switzerland (SUI)
174. Suriname (SUR)
175. Slovakia (SVK)
176. Sweden (SWE)
177. Souazilandi (SWZ)
178. Syria (SYR)
179. Tanzania (TAN)
180. Tongan (TGA)
181. Thailand (THA)
182. Tajikistan (TJK)
183. Turkmenistan (TKM)
184. Timor Leste (TLS)
185. Togo (TOG)
186. Chinese Taipei (TPE)
187. Trinidad & Tobago (TRI)
188. Tunis (TUN)
189. Turkey (TUR)
190. Tuvalu (TUV)
191. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
192. Uganda (UGA)
193. Ukraine (UKR)
194. Uruguay (URU)
195. United States of America (USA)
196. Uzbekistan (UZB)
197. Vanuatu (VAN)
198. Venezuela (VEN)
199. Vietnam (VIE)
200. St Vincent & Grenadines (VIN)
201. Yemen (YEM)
202. Zambia (ZAM)
203. Zimbabwe (ZIM)
204. Great Britain (GBR)

Twitter, Obama beat Chavez in the ranking of the most popular

Almost two-thirds of the world's political leaders have a Twitter account and the head of state is the most watched U.S. President Barak Obama. The study says a Burson-Marsteller on "Twiplomacy" on the presence of political leaders on the social network of "micromessaggi." Italy is not among the 125 countries surveyed by the study conducted by the firm of public relations, since neither the head of state or head of government have a Twitter account, however, "the Foreign Minister and the Foreign Ministry Giulio Terzi are doing a brilliant job on Digital Diplomacy, "said Matthias Luefkens, Digital Practice Leader of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa. With more than 17 million "followers" Obama is not only the world's most popular political leader on Twitter , his account is also the fifth most popular around the universe of Twitter, just behind the singer Britney Spears. In the ranking of political leaders, the account of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the second most popular (more than 3 million members), before the White House (2951928), Queen Rania of Jordan (2,174,187) and British Prime Minister David Cameron (2,022,685), said Burson-Marsteller. The study reveals that a total of 120 personal accounts, only 30 leaders tweettano personally. About half do not follow other colleagues. The EU President Herman van Rompuy is the leading online better, because it follows in a reciprocal way of 11.Burson-Marteller further specifies that Obama was the first leader to join Twitter (March 5, 2007) and has signed the most popular tweet: the words' same-sex couples should be able to marry "was retweettato 62,047 times May 9, 2012.

Foreign jihadists fighting against the regime in Syria 'apostate'


Foreign Sunni groups join the fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In northern Syria the local revolutionaries have come, sometimes with suspicion, foreign jihadists.  But if the enemy is the same, the motivations are different. Syrian rebels claim to shed their blood to overthrow a despotic regime, while foreign fighters state that your Jihad (holy war of Muslims) are intended to oust the Alawites, shed belonging to Islam Asad, whom they consider apostates. In Bab al-Hawa, a border with Turkey taken last week by the Syrian Army Free (ESL, composed mostly of deserters from the army), the AFP news agency witnessed the arrival of dozens of fighters from countries Arabs or Muslims. Among them there are those who claim to come from Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, as well as the distant Chechnya (a republic of the Russian Federation) or Somalia. Since the beginning of the uprising, in March 2011, the Syrian regime to demonstrate that the movement was not just a foreign conspiracy, accused of hosting rebel fighters of Al Qaeda. It is very difficult to know the exact number of foreign fighters or jihadis, in the Syrian territory, but it is certain that the rebels Syriansdo not want to admit that these fighters have an important role in the battle. In the central province of Hama, a rebel who is presented as Abu Amar and say the command of 1,200 men, states unambiguously: "Never allow Al Qaeda to be installed here and kill these fighters if they try to do it. The revolution belongs to the Syrians. "
Call for jihadists
However, the evidence shows otherwise, and several websites published called Islamists to join the revolt. One of them, called 'Global Jihad Network', went online in June called inciting "volunteers to join the Jihad in Syria." In another website, Abu Bakr al-Husseini, who is presented as the 'emir' of the 'Islamic State of Iraq' (ISI), a branch of the Al Qaeda, said: "I do not forget that we stand with our brothers in our beloved Syria, "adding that the ISI does not recognize" artificial boundaries ". The Lebanese group Fatah al Islam, also linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack of a military vehicle in the northern province of Aleppo. "Thirty Alawite soldiers were killed in the field in Aleppo," said a statement on June 18. The text describes the Alawites as "Shiites heretics." In April, the head of this organization, Abdel Ghani Jawhar, wanted in Lebanon for the killing of 14 Lebanese soldiers in Tripoli in 2007, was assassinated in Syria. In an Internet forum, a statement from a group called Ansar al-Sham states that "the world must know that Syria has begun to attract young Arabs willing to join the revolutionaries and combatants." The statement added that "nobody has the right to criticize that Syria has become a territory for the international jihad."

Floods and storms have caused 77 deaths in Beijing, according to a new balance


The official Chinese media reported today (26) that were recovered 77 bodies of victims of the floods that hit the capital, Beijing, over the weekend, updating the figures of the disaster. Initially, the authorities reported that only 37 people died. Amid the controversy caused by the data, the mayor of Beijing, Guo Jinlong, resigned. He was replaced by Wang Anshun, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In social networks, residents of Beijing have criticized the city because they distrust that were not taken to prevent the tragedy caused by the floods. Over the weekend, Beijing faced the worst rain of the last six decades, experts say. The average rainfall reached 170 mm, while a municipality in suburban Fangshan District recorded 460 mm of rain. According to reports, the storm that hit Beijing at the weekend, flooded streets, toppled trees and led to the closure of the airport. Some access to the capital were flooded and houses collapsed.

Twitter and Google Talk will 'fall' for several hours


Twitter service has been restored gradually after the incidents that have resulted in over an hour was out of service for users around the world. The social network reported problems at about six o'clock. The users suffered cuts and others saw as it was impossible to access the service. In fact, confirmed via Twitter page Twitter Status that there had been problems and that its engineers were already reviewing all its systems. A month ago, on June 21, Twitter suffered a similar cut, the company quickly rectified. However, the fact of having a new episode after only a month has caused the incidence has been followed and criticized.

After the fall of Google Talk

The communication policy of Twitter has been different from that of Google, which has had problems with Google Talk. The search engine company has made ​​periodic parts of the state of the incidence, so that it has been possible to follow the progress of actions taken. It was a difficult day for various Internet services . At noon, Google Talk, Google's communications system, stopped working after unspecified issues. Five hours later resumed normal. Google Talk began to suffer failures at noon, preventing users could access the application. Soon, Google confirmed the problem and announced that the service was not available worldwideThe company itself has specified that the reliability of the system is "an absolute priority" and are making constant improvements to prevent such events as happened.

Wedding of Kim Jong-un can take several years


The legislator Chung Jung-Rai said this information was transmitted by the National Intelligence Service of South Korea (NIS) during a parliamentary session in camera.Jung was quoted by news agency Yonhap said that according to the NIS's wife Kim was born in 1989 and studied singing in China. The Don-A Ilbo newspaper said the couple married in 2009 and had a son in 2010. On this same day, the young daughter of a university professor and a doctor, is originally from the province of North Hamkyong. 

Ri visited Incheon, west of Seoul, in September 2005 during the Asian Championships in Athletics, said Jung according to information provided by the NIS. The state media in North Korea announced Wednesday for the first time, the marriage of Kim Jong-un , but gave no details of his wife, Sun-Ju Ri. The official announcement that the mysterious woman who appeared alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is his wife, is very unusual in this country accustomed to secrecy. probably intended as a test of the maturity of the young leader, analysts estimated on Thursday .

The North Korean official media announced on Wednesday that the elegant and smiling girl who appeared publicly on several occasions by Kim Jong-un is called Sun-ju Ri and his wife. The North Korean media gave no details on Ri, on the date of marriage or the existence of a child, but this ad is unusual for this country, one of the world's most closed.The partners of the two predecessors of Kim Jong-un-his grandfather Kim Il-sung and his father Kim Jong-il - never been presented publiclyThe f misses the birth of Kim Jong-un, who came to power in December 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, has never been revealed . Experts estimate that the young leader has less than thirty years.

Recently Kim Jong-un has taken several steps to confirm his power: a mid-Julydismissed the powerful army chief, Ri Yong-ho , and Kim was named "Marshal", a title that only his grandfather and father flaunted before. Kim has taken a more relaxed style than his father . She smiles, poses with soldiers and take children into their arms. "It is likely that Jong-un has been chosen as the wife after seeing her during a concert," said an anonymous source cited by the newspaper Chosun Ilbo . After that Ri would have followed a six-month training at the University Kim Il-sung, the most prestigious in the country to prepare it to their functions. Despite these superficial changes, the International Crisis Group (ICG) estimates that s unlikely to give reforms, democratic or economic, or decrease tensions with his brother's enemy, South Korea. The population living outside the capital P yongyang regularly suffers from food shortages after decades of a centrally planned economy. According to several NGOs, the hunger of the mid-90 caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.