QuickNews

Hoelzer and Coventry should have an epic duel in Beijing. Grabbing the second slot for China, to complement her prior berth in the 400 individual medley, was Elizabeth Beisel. Beisel was third for much of the race, but reeled in McGregory in the last 50 meters. For McGregory, her tough luck continued. She was third [...]

Now that it’s here, she’s making sure the rest of us haven’t lost focus. Opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics are slated for Aug. 8 in Beijing. The flame will be extinguished on Sept. Somewhere in between, Walsh will turn 30. The 6-foot-2 defending gold medalist is hoping to return from China with nothing [...]

The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). As a country that participated in many wars since 1980, we have many disabled people, said Ahmed Abid Hassan, a wheelchair fencing coach. Our Paralympic team is better than our Olympic team. Hassan pointed [...]

In the final of the 100 backstroke, the world-record holder and defending Olympic champion took the hammer to his competition. Simply, it was Peirsol doing what he does best, answering the challenge in a pressure-packed moment. Matt Grevers, who looked excellent in the opening two rounds, punched a ticket for Beijing by placing second in [...]

Olympic trials swimming begin for U.S. If you haven’t been paying attention to the run-up to Beijing, now’s the time to start. For eight days, starting today, Olympic trials in swimming and track and field will be going on simultaneously. Paul Hamm had surgery to repair a broken hand weeks before the gymnastics trials, and [...]

The Shenhua Group will begin producing diesel fuel from coal later this year at the facility, located in Inner Mongolia, about 375 miles west of Beijing. Shenhua is years ahead of U.S. Coal-to-liquid proponents, yet it still took the company 10 years to move from planning to production. “China is not talking about coal-to-liquid — [...]

Larry Wortzel, who was Defense Attach n Beijing; Princeton Professor Perry Link, then and now a key figure in working for human rights in China; and James Huskey who also worked at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Sources:

amanda-36.blogspot.com
cabinetindustrytechnologynewsbyzdtime.seurasivut.com

Most westerners have heard of major Chinese cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and even Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. But few know about Chongqing; the biggest city in China, with more than 30 million people. The earthquake was centered on a line between Chengdu and Mianyang in Sichuan province, just outside Chongqing. [...]

The official Xinhua News Agency said that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in one of the province’s counties after the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday. BEIJING (AP) A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing up to 5,000 people in a single county and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their [...]

Brief reports out of china daily, reuters and CNN, saying that it was felt as far south as Thailand, and as far northeast as Beijing, but still no word on the extent of the damage. If anyone has any information, please post it here as an open thread.
Sources:

www.dailykos.com
journals.aol.com
daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com
macysailleursawyer.tumblr.com
www.globalvoicesonline.org
hypocentre.wordpress.com

And Fukuda hinted - without elaborating - that the neighbors were on the verge of settling a spat over maritime gas deposits. They also announced Tokyo and Beijing would hold annual summits. “Our relations are at a new starting point, and we have a new chance,” Hu said. “Japan and China have an important responsibility [...]

Ling Ling moved to Tokyo from Beijing in 1992 for breeding purposes, but the Tokyo Zoo failed to breed any panda cubs between Ling Ling and three other pandas there. Ling Ling, pictured to the right, had been living alone since 2005. This raises the question of whether Chinese President Hu Jintao might engage in [...]

Ling Ling moved to Tokyo from Beijing in 1992 for breeding purposes, but the Tokyo Zoo failed to breed any panda cubs between Ling Ling and three other pandas there. Ling Ling, pictured to the right, had been living alone since 2005. China has conducted panda diplomacy with Japan in the past and donated four [...]

His holiness says he’s saddened by the recent Chinese government crackdown on Tibetan protests, though he says he still supports Beijing’s right to host this summer’s Olympic Games. The Dalai Lama is in the US at the same time as the Pope, which he noted. Message of love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance,” says the Dalai Lama. [...]

From CNN - The Olympic flame arrived in San Francisco early Tuesday and was being kept in an undisclosed location before continuing an international torch relay that has been marked by passionate protests. Wednesdays run through San Francisco is the only U.S. Appearance for the flame, wrapping up the first week of a 23-city global [...]