2 posts tagged “olympics”

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

Tibet independence

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.

Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.

Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping.

Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.

The authorities have now stepped up the inspection of cars heading to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and onwards to Hong Kong.

The Olympic torch is due to tour Hong Kong on Friday. It will then travel to a series of cities in mainland China before reaching Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games in August.

Its progress around the world has been marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations in several cities - including Paris, London and San Francisco.

Rallies began in the main Tibetan city of Lhasa on 10 March, led by Buddhist monks.

Over the following week protests spread and became violent - particularly in Lhasa, where ethnic Chinese were targeted and shops were burnt down.

Beijing cracked down on the protesters with force, sending in hundreds of troops to regain control of the restive areas.

But it has since agreed to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

Great Britain's men booked their place at this summer's Beijing Olympics with a tense 2-0 victory over India in the final of the qualifying tournament in Chile.

GB_Hockey

India, eight times gold medallists, have not previously missed out on the men's hockey event at the Games.

Britain, gold medallists in 1988, scored two early goals to seal India's fate and win the six-team competition in Chile which also featured the hosts, Austria, Russia and Mexico.

Ashley Jackson set up the first for Barry Middleton in the fourth minute and Richard Mantell flicked in the second in the 10th.

Forward Prabhjot Singh had two efforts blocked in quick succession as India, who won their last gold in 1980, tried to claw their way back and V.R.Raghunath then fired over from a rebound.

India, also beaten 3-2 by the same opponents in the round- robin stage, were unable to find a way through in the second half despite winning a flurry of penalty corners.

"We have been waiting for this for eight months," said Britain captain Ben Hawes.

"It's a massive accomplishment for the team. After Thursday, when they played very well, we were aware we had to start quickly.

"The game opened up after the early goal and we weren't as nervous after that. We stayed very physical in the tackle, our technical game has improved a lot and we created chances."

China, Netherlands, South Korea, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Belarus, Pakistan and Australia qualified directly for the Beijing Games.

India missed out on an automatic berth after they failed to reach the 2006 Asian Games final.

New Zealand beat Argentina in the final of the first qualifying tournament last month. The third is in Japan in April.