By Xinhua,
Beijing : The volunteers corps for the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics has been officially launched here with the games’ chief organiser, Liu Qi, handing the team its flag at a rally.
Vice President Xi Jinping, a member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), addressed the gathering, which was attended by more than 6,000 people Sunday.
The volunteers corps of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics has 100,000 Games-time volunteers, 400,000 city volunteers and more than one million social volunteers. There will also be hundreds of thousands of volunteer cheerleaders during the Olympics and the Paralympic Games, which will run from Aug 8-24 and Sept 6-17, respectively.
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Chinese President welcomes athletes, visitors
Beijing: Chinese President Hu Jintao has offered a warm welcome to athletes from all over the world and friends from foreign countries to attend the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.
“I believe, with the wide participation of the peoples of the world, including the Japanese people, and support from the international Olympic family, the Beijing Olympics will be an event of high quality,” said Hu during an interview with journalists from 16 Japanese media organisations based in Beijing.
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Syrian swimmer qualifies for Olympics
Damascus: Syrian swimmer Saleh Mohammad has won Asia’s first position in the 10-km open water race in Spain to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games, the official SANA news agency reported. Mohammad won his place in the World Championship of long-distance swimming competition held in Seville, Spain, the report said.
Mohammad’s victory was, in fact, an important one for the Syrian sports in general, Faissal al-Bassri, head of the Syrian General Federation of Sports, was quoted as saying.
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North Korean athletes eye more medals
Pyongyang: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) athletes are training hard with an eye to bagging more medals at the Beijing Games, said the latest edition of the Naenara (Today’s Korea) monthly. The core task for the North Korean sports departments was taking part in the Games and winning more medals in it, said Naenara.
The country has allocated more funds to the sports departments and the athletes were making active efforts to improve their performance, it added. The report pointed out that the DPRK women football team has vowed to “show their strength” at the Games.