A list of more silliness from Beijing 2008.  For part 1, check here.

China Confiscates Bibles From American Christians

Sunday, August 17, 2008

BEIJING —  A group of American Christians who had more than 300 Bibles confiscated by Chinese officials when they arrived in China is refusing to leave the airport until they get the books back, their leader said Monday.

Pat Klein said he and three others from his Vision Beyond Borders group spent Sunday night at the airport in the southwestern city of Kunming after customs officers took the Bibles from their checked luggage.

“I heard that there’s freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?” said Klein, whose Sheridan, Wyoming-based group distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world.

Olympics TV segment featured computer-generated fireworks

The Associated Press

This photo of the opening ceremony was not taken from the TV broadcast, which contained computer-generated footage. (The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward)

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BEIJING — Not all was what it seemed during the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Beijing organizers confirmed Tuesday that some of the fireworks display featured prerecorded footage.

Fireworks that burst into the shape of 29 gigantic footprints were shown trudging above the Beijing skyline to the National Stadium near the start of the ceremony.

Though the footprint-shaped fireworks were real, some of the footage shown to television viewers around the world and on giant screens inside the “Bird’s Nest” stadium featured a computer-generated three-dimensional image.

China falls short on Olympic promises, critics say

• Story Highlights
• China has spent $40 billion, seven years planning for 2008 Olympic Games
• In 2001, China promised to improve human rights, press freedom and pollution
• Beijing official: Free Internet jeopardizes national security, detrimental to youth
• Experts disappointed in ’significant opportunity lost’ for reform, improve world view

NEW YORK (CNN) — It’s a historic event taking place on an international stage that’s been seven years and $40 billion in the making.

The National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, is shrouded in smog on opening day of the 2008 Olympics

Opening ceremonies last week of the 2008 Olympic Summer Games were lauded as the most spectacular in history, with pyrotechnics blasting from the top of Beijing, China’s National Stadium and a synchronized fireworks display firing off across the capital.

What has been mostly absent from Beijing, however, are protests. Although a unified China is the image that country’s government is eager to portray, many human rights groups allege that China has orchestrated a massive cover-up.

Beyond human rights, questions remain about whether China has kept its promises to the world to improve in two other major areas of reform: freedom of the press and pollution cleanup.