The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese organizers BOCOG have agreed to lift all Internet restrictions for media covering the Beijing Games, the IOC said on Friday. “The issue has been solved,” Vice President Gunilla Lindberg said. “The IOC Coordination Commission and BOCOG met last night and agreed. Internet use will be just like in any Olympics.” The issue had caused a major stir days before the start of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics with IOC officials insisting there would be no censorship and BOCOG saying sensitive sites would remain blocked by the Communist authorities. Although Internet access will be free for reporters for the period of the Games, it is still tightly controlled for the rest of the country. Sites related to spiritual movement Falun Gong, and other issues that are frowned on, are regularly blocked. Contingency plan in place for marathon Beijing Olympics organizers said on Friday they had a contingency plan for the marathon should pollution force a rescheduling or a postponement of the Games' final athletics competition. The men's marathon is run on the last day of the Games on Aug. 24 and with pollution in the city remaining a major problem days before the Games start, there have been concerns the Olympics would need to be extended if the event was rescheduled. The IOC has said it may reschedule events that require physical activity of more than an hour if pollution is bad on the day. The women's marathon is to be held on Sunday, Aug. 17. Beijing organizers said whatever the change may be - and they declined to reveal what the contingency plan - all competition would be finished by Aug. 24 and the Games would not be extended for any sport. City breathes easier The organizers could breathe easier on Friday after showers and a breeze cleared haze that had blanketed China's capital, raising fears of risks to athletes' health. Skies over Beijing were the same gray as past days, but the rains overnight cooled temperatures and swept away much of the fumes and dust. Citywide average air quality in the 24 hours up to midday on Friday was Grade I, or “good”, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau found, according to the Xinhua news agency. Beijing officials have denied the haze is a pollution threat while also announcing emergency steps to kick in if air pollution is bad during the Olympics. Thanou might withdraw Greek sprinter Ekaterina Thanou on Friday said she faced “intense pressure” to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics, four years after starring in a major doping controversy at the Athens Games. “I am experiencing a situation of war,” Thanou told a news conference. “There is intense pressure on a daily basis...documents that effectively bombard me have arrived, with the sole objective of securing my departure from the Games or rendering my participation unsuccessful,” she said, flanked by her lawyers and reading a prepared text. The 33-year-old athlete has rarely spoken in public since her inglorious exit from the Athens Games over a missed doping test, a fate that also befell Greece's Sydney Games 200m gold medalist Costas Kenteris. But her legal team called a press conference Friday to present her views. But the IOC wants to reexamine her case, having noted in 2004 that “any participation of Kenteris and Thanou... at any further edition of the Olympic Games shall be subject to a new procedure in front of the IOC”.
