Apple’s online music store, iTunes, has been blocked in China after more than 40 Olympic athletes downloaded a pro-Tibet album from the site. » Read More

Chinese troops fired on Tibetan protesters this week, as Beijing hosted the Olympics, and 400 people have been killed since unrest erupted in March, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying in an interview published Thursday. » Read More

I spoke to an Aussie table tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: “It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world.” A British runner (anonymous again: athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR type, least of all about sex) said: “The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption.” » Read More

An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation’s darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals. » Read More

Olympic host Beijing enjoyed its cleanest air in 10 years this month and will adopt strict new measures to ensure its notorious smog does not return, according to a report in Malaysia's Star newspaper.
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Richard Bradbury is featured on the BBC's website examining Beijing's security measures as he makes his way from his home in Dongsishitiao to China Radio International's studios in Shijingshan.
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Imagethief believes it's the rare individual in most systems who asks himself, "Am I brainwashed?" Or even the slightly less charged, "How does media and propaganda influence me?" For raising the idea, Tang Jie deserves credit. In modern society most people swim in media and propaganda like fish swim in water. It's everywhere; occasionally we are acutely aware of it; but most of the time we swim through it with little thought for its effects on us. » Read More

China stunned as Liu Xiang limps out of the Olympics, shattering the dreams of 1.3 billion Chinese.  The Daily Mail in London has a full report.
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In the nine days since Chinese leaders presided over a grandiose - and, it turns out, partly faked - opening ceremony, one fact after another has eluded the censors and fuelled public indignation at the costs and the charade. Protected, they hope, by online anonymity, some of China’s 1.3 billion people are daring to wonder where it will all end. » Read More

Cam Cole in the Vancouver Sun dissects the revelation that Lin Miaoke was actually lip-synching another person's voice during the opening ceremonies:  "So, China's defenders say, this is really no big deal.  And that's probably true, as long as you're not Yang Peiyi, who at seven years old has already discovered a hard truth about physical appearance - and had it drilled into her brain unequivocally, by her government no less, that she may be able to sing, but she's too ugly to represent her nation in public." » Read More