China: The Winter Olympics: Uyghur athlete delivers Beijing Olympics flame in opening ceremony after global criticism of China - by Saphora Smith and Jennifer Jett

After a brisk, snowflake-themed show that emphasized youth and “ordinary people,” the Games were declared officially open by Chinese President Xi Jinping, prompting a burst of fireworks over the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in central Beijing.

The final step was to deliver the ceremonial flame, a moment that often carries symbolic weight based in part on who is selected for the task.

Chinese officials chose two athletes, one of whom was Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur cross-country skiier from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. After a brisk, snowflake-themed show that emphasized youth and “ordinary people,” the Games were declared officially open by Chinese President Xi Jinping, prompting a burst of fireworks over the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in central Beijing. The final step was to deliver the ceremonial flame, a moment that often carries symbolic weight based in part on who is selected for the task.

Chinese officials chose two athletes, one of whom was Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur cross-country skiier from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Note EU-Digest: "By having a Uyghur athlete deliver Beijing Olympics flame in opening ceremony China showed that over the years they have learned a lot of how to apply US PR tactics"

Read more at: Uyghur athlete delivers Beijing Olympics flame in opening ceremony after global criticism of China

China: Peng Shuai tells Olympic officials she's safe, IOC says - "no support most world leaders Biden suggested boycott Chinese winter olympics

Missing Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai told Olympic officials in a video call from Beijing that she was safe and well, the International Olympic Committee said Sunday after Peng reappeared in public at a youth tournament in Beijing, according to photos released by the organizer.

The 30-minute call came amid growing global alarm over Peng after she accused a former leading Communist Party official of sexual assault. China’s ruling Communist Party has tried to quell fears abroad while suppressing information in China about Peng.

Read more also at: Peng Shuai tells Olympic officials she's safe, IOC says

Winter Olympics South Korea: Medal standings another way to look down on America say the Canadians - by Rosie DiManno

Rise and shine Canada: You’ve had a better Olympic Games than the U-S-of-A.

Which hasn’t happened since Nagano in 1998.

Listen, I don’t want to kick America when it’s down. They’re doing a fine job kicking themselves — at least that part of the population with two brain cells to rub together — ever since that whole presidential election thing.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family may have made fools of themselves in India this past week, going all Bollywood fashionisti with the saris and the sherwanis. (In Trudeau-World, shouldn’t that be considered cultural appropriation?) But at least no ex Playboy Playmate (I) or porn actress (II) has made claims of an extra-marital leg-over with selfie T-Boy while Sophie was at home nursing the Trudeau spawn. Like you-know-who. Nor has any dossier surfaced alleging golden showers whilst trysting with prostitutes in Moscow.

No, I wouldn’t trade Trudeau for Trump for all the fracking profits in the world. Or all the treasure in the NRA war chest.

More to the point, I wouldn’t swap a single Canadian Olympian for a single American Olympian, even the U.S. women who kicked Canada’s butt in the gold-medal hockey game — they really did deserve to win and would doubtless have done so even without the stupid shootout deciding it — and the U.S. curlers who laid a lickin’ on the Canadian men, out-hosing the hosers in a sport which, while we may not have invented it, we’ve certainly appropriated. (There’s that word again.)

I liked curling a lot better, in my short (ruinous) stint as the Star’s curling writer, when you could smoke and drink beer on the ice.

America has never actually been the colossus of the Winter Games. That distinction belongs to Norway, probably always will, and couldn’t happen to a nicer country. I’ve always said they should have left the cold Games in pretty-as-a-picture Lillehammer permanently. Last Winter Olympics I can recall which actually had snow all over, rather than just up in the mountainous heights, what we now designate as “clusters”. Well, a cluster-yuck I’d call it, these dueling biospheres of competition, segregating skiers from skaters and sliders from pucksters.

But I digress, which is what NBC has been doing over the past fortnight, every time another ballyhooed American comes a cropper.

While Canada is enjoying its most successful Winter Olympics ever, third on the medal tote-board behind Norway and Germany — 10 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze — at 27 as of Friday night here, surpassing Vancouver 2010, the U.S. was on pace for its worst performance since 1998, with 8 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze.

You’re Number 4! You’re Number 4!

There was a good likelihood our neighbours to the south would collect a fistful of hardware on Saturday, with Alpine events, the gold-medal curling match versus Sweden and a full menu of slalom and big air snowboarding. But Canada is no big air slouch and the Yanks won’t catch up. Although we’ve apparently forgotten how to play hockey, dusted 4-3 by the Germans on Friday night. Teutons? Eishockey? Yeah, no NHLers — Gary Bettman, you’re a dink — but surely our bush-leaguers should be better than their bush-leaguers.

If the sun is setting on the American Empire, the evidence can be ascertained here, at the XXIII Winter Olympics.

One can go from venue to venue scarcely hearing a refrain of USA! USA! USA! And a fine thing too because the world is a better place without that in-your-ear mantra.

Oh the hand-wringing, south of the 49th Parallel, though I doubt they’ll be launching a congressional investigation. Too many of those already, with more serious subjects under investigation. Quite a few commentators and pundits have taken a run at it, though, suggesting two fundamental reasons behind the lacklustre showing: Underperforming superstars and a slew of pencilled-in medallists who’ve finished just off the podium, in the dreaded No. 4 spot.

Teenage figure skating sensation Nathan Chen was a bust, his six quads in the free program notwithstanding. Lights-out with nothing to lose doesn’t become anybody; just means you turtled when the pressure was on. There was a nice bronze by the sh-boom Shibutani Siblings in ice dance but, in Friday’s ladies final, worst historical outcome ever: ninth, 10th, 11th. A bronze in the team event last week, to Canada’s gold, but we won’t even pretend that this Jerry-rigged-come-lately is a real discipline.

Mikaela Shiffrin was supposed to be the star of these Games, had planned to compete — and medal — in five disciplines of Alpine skiing. But after blazing to a golden start, winning giant slalom, the not-yet-23-year-old didn’t make the podium at all in slalom, considered her best event, dropped out of the super G and downhill, and copped silver in the Alpine combined. A glittery accomplishment, gold and silver, but the Americans, they want medals galore, Godzillian athletes a la Michael Phelps. So somehow Shiffrin gets knocked down to a quasi-flop, just like Lindsey Vonn with her single bronze.

Maybe they just don’t appreciate what they’ve got. Shaun White made history, capturing his third Winter Olympics gold in halfpipe, but was practically run out of the country with media regurgitating a two-year-old sexual impropriety allegation which was settled out of court in 2017. Amidst the #MeToo phenomenon, his heroics on a snowboard are tarnished. So, a gold for the medal tally but the cheering was muted.

Zero medals in speed skating, where once they were giants. Zilch in bobsled, though that could change on Sunday. Ousted by the Czech Republic in a men’s hockey quarter-final.

Honestly, I have no axe to grind with the U.S. I love America, even in its darkest moments. I’ve never suffered from an inferiority complex about our neighbours but likewise reject the superiority complex that Canadians often evince, as if we’re somehow morally mightier.

What I don’t like is a mewling, diminished U.S., which isn’t good for the planet and doesn’t much glorify the Olympics either.

Actually, I take back what I said earlier, about having no envious interest in American athletes.

Give us the divine Adam Rippon. We’ll give you, uh, Don Cherry.

Read moreMedal standings another way to look down on America | Toronto Star

Security Winter Olympics: Russia braces for Olympic terror - by F. Michael Maloof

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.
The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.
Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.
The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.
The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.
The FSB is expected to have some 100,000 security personnel helping to ensure security of the athletes and spectators who will be coming from around the world.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/russia-braces-for-olympic-terror/#bL7LAwGw3IIlVbt4.99

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.
The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.
Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.
The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.
The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.
The FSB is expected to have some 100,000 security personnel helping to ensure security of the athletes and spectators who will be coming from around the world.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/russia-braces-for-olympic-terror/#bL7LAwGw3IIlVbt4.99

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.
The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.
Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.
The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.
The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.
The FSB is expected to have some 100,000 security personnel helping to ensure security of the athletes and spectators who will be coming from around the world.
“Caucasus militants remain a tactical threat to Russian security, having carried out effective attacks inside the Caucasus – particularly Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as the Russian heartland – that mainly target Russian police and soft targets like mosques, shopping malls and transportation hubs throughout the region,” the Stratfor report said.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/russia-braces-for-olympic-terror/#bL7LAwGw3IIlVbt4.99

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.
The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.
Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.
The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.
The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/russia-braces-for-olympic-terror/#bL7LAwGw3IIlVbt4.99

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.

The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.

Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.

The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.

The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.

Russian security services are increasingly concerned that Islamist militants from the Northern Caucasus will launch attacks in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security from the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to take place.

Regional analysts say that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, has placed major security assets in Sochi, which is only 250 miles from the predominantly Muslim northern Caucasus provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and South Ossetia in southern Russia.
The winter Olympics are to take place from Feb. 07-23, 2014. Moscow will also host the Paralympics in Sochi from Mar. 7-21, 2014. This event, too, will require extensive security.
Adding to this concern is the prospect that battled-hardened Chechens, and other north Caucasus Islamist militants who have gained fighting experience in Syria, will descend on Russia to launch attacks.
The indication is that attacks would be launched in major Russian cities in an effort to draw security forces from the Olympic area, which then could be the subject of attack itself, as promised by Dokku Umarov, leader of the militant Caucasus Emirates.
The Olympics are to be a showcase of Russia’s security capabilities. However, it could leave surrounding regions such as the North Caucasus and such major Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
“Militants from the Caucasus striking elsewhere in Russia during the games to avoid the intense security that will be present in Sochi and to capitalize on news coverage of the highly publicized event poses the greatest threat to the games,” according to a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.
The FSB is expected to have some 100,000 security personnel helping to ensure security of the athletes and spectators who will be coming from around the world.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/russia-braces-for-olympic-terror/#bL7LAwGw3IIlVbt4.99

Read More: Russia braces for Olympic terror

Russia - Sochi: 'Like the Florida of Russia, but Cheaper' - by Mark Byrnes

Sochi is 'Like the Florida of Russia, but cheaper,' a Russian lady in the U.S. told us. You have to imagine an old, once glorious bathing and curing town filled with 'Palaces for the Proletariat' where the decline of Communism and the wild 1990s have taken their toll. You have to imagine tourist brochures filled with palm trees and glorious beaches, while in fact you'll be lying down on pebbles against a concrete wall with modern high rises behind you.

It can be a fun city though; it's rowdy and it's loud.

Some $50 billion has been invested in the city (maybe $25 billion if you consider all the corruption involved). A new airport has been built (the original was more like a bus stop), a new freight harbor, an entire skiing area with huge olympic villages have been built, a new area around the stadiums where Formula 1 and the World Cup will take place. These are huge investments for a city this size. But in most parts of Sochi you won't notice it that much beyond the increase in traffic. The Games are quite an isolated event at the edge of the city.

A huge issue for locals has been lack of housing since the 1970s and the sense of anarchy in the city. Many people lived in housing built without residential permits. Houses, hotels and office buildings– all officially non-existing – had to be removed to build the Games, which caused a lot of drama.

Read more: 'Like the Florida of Russia, but Cheaper' - Mark Byrnes - The Atlantic Cities