International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge says he is happy about preparations for the Beijing Olympics. His comments came Friday, after the IOC's last meeting in the Chinese capital before the August games.

Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he would not be surprised if the Olympic torch relay is cancelled before it gets to Canberra later this month.

According to Lisa Forrest's recently published Boycott, the Australian Olympic Federation's refusal to boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980 was a sound one. Forrest, who was a tender 16 at the time, was Australia's swimming captain.

Pepsi-cola has launched a wide-ranging digital campaign with snap-and-click marketer MyClick aimed at young Chinese consumers in connection with the upcoming Olympic Games.

President Hu Jintao said in Sanya on Thursday that China was confident and capable of hosting a good Olympic Games.

Some French media seemed quite excited about what happened during the Olympic torch relay in Paris a few days ago. Le Figaro ran a headline story titled "The torch's fiasco in Paris", while the top story in La Libération reads as "Give China a slap in the face", describing the "fiasco" in a kind of schaden-freude. Hysterical excitement can be seen in their descriptions.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has reiterated his support for the Beijing Olympic Games, but says authorities in China have no right to demand that critics end peaceful demonstrations against China's actions in Tibet.

China's public security bureau says it has cracked two terrorist cells plotting attacks and abductions to wreck the Beijing Olympics. The bureau says the groups were part of an Islamic terrorist organization wanting independence for China's western Xinjiang province, where critics say Beijing has suppressed Muslim minorities.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge is reaffirming that athletes at the Beijing Olympics will have free speech. But, at the same time, he says the IOC is issuing guidelines against demonstrations or displays of propaganda.

The president of the International Olympics Committee says the Beijing Games will recover from a "crisis" involving anti-China protests that have marred the international torch relay.

The European Parliament says it wants the 27 EU members to consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies if the Chinese government does not resume talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Amid tight security, runners carried the Olympic torch through San Francisco Wednesday, as protesters called attention to the human rights record of this year's Olympic host, China.