The Ovi magazine today

Doping kills sport by Thanos Kalamidas

What happened these days in Greek sport is not new, it is not that it never happened before and it is not that it will never happen again.

Petra Kaminen's Helsinki Mosher Exhibition by Alexandra Pereira
A new generation of artists-gallerists will thus come on to Helsinki's art life scene, with refreshing new ideas, expectations and provocative new questions to pose.

Cry Rohingyas!!! Cry!!!! by Rohingya Human Rights
Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said after emerging from a two-hour meeting of the National Security Council on March 28.2008 that the Thai Navy is exploring a deserted island to place the Rohingya refugees living in Thailand.

Life Undercover #733 by Thanos K & Asa B
It is time to change the sheets... our inquisitive duvet-loving hero has some female company now asking the great questions of life, religion and the universe.

Inciting subversion of state power

An activist who publicized human rights abuses across China has been convicted of subversion and jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Hu Jia, 34, was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system", his lawyer said. He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids. His sentence comes a day after a rights group accused China of a campaign to silence dissent ahead of the Olympics.

The US was "dismayed" by the verdict, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Beijing said, while the European Union called for Mr. Hu's immediate release. "We said very clearly before the trial that he should not have been detained in the first place and that he should be released and this remains our position."

And in china the games …began!

Olympics 'worsening China rights'

The international sports event that represents freedom, democracy, friendship, protection of the individuality and human rights, the Olympic Games!

And what Amnesty International has to say for all the above? “It is increasingly clear that much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics but actually because of the Olympics”

I have asked it before and I’m going to ask again, what the hell the Olympic committee was thinking when they gave this institution to China?

Media visit Tibet

Tibetan monks have disrupted a tour by the first foreign journalists to visit Lhasa since protests erupted two weeks ago, witnesses at the scene said.

About 30 monks shouted pro-Tibetan slogans and defended the Dalai Lama as journalists toured the Jokhang Temple, China has accused the Dalai Lama of masterminding the protests.

On Wednesday, US President George W Bush urged Beijing to begin dialogue with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. That makes me worry, when George is asking the Chinese just get …worst!

Just a fan of the Olympic Games

A Chinese TV commentator while showing the video with the protester when lighting the Olympic flame said that the man is just a …fan of the Olympic Games trying to show his appreciation to the Chinese Olympic committee!

It is so ridiculous and pathetic you cannot even make a joke out of it!

Sarkozy the first to talk about boycott

We are definitely going to live again days of the Moscow Olympics! French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he has not ruled out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in China over the situation in Tibet.

His aides said France was still opposed to a full boycott but that it might pull out of the opening ceremony in Beijing on 8 August. The recent unrest in Tibet has sparked worldwide concern.

Olympics chief Jacques Rogge said last week he was "heartened" that no major government had backed a boycott. On Tuesday, the White House said US President George W Bush still planned to attend the opening of the Games, while the UK said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would still be going to the closing ceremony.

It seems in the end the Athens Olympics will be the last real Olympics to remember despite the fact of all the negativity before they started.

Tibetan riots continue

It was not only in the ceremony for the Olympic flame but protests are continuing in the Tibetan-populated areas of China, with state-run media saying one policeman was killed in the latest riot.

Several policemen were also injured in the clash in the western Sichuan province.

The Tibetan government-in-exile says that 130 people died in and around the Himalayan region during clashes that began on 10 March. Officials in Beijing have previously put the death toll at 19. Foreign journalists remain banned from Tibet.

Protesters from media rights group Reporters without Borders broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia as China's envoy spoke waving a flag that had bullet holes instead of the known Olympic cycles.

Olympic torch aflame …China

The Olympic torch has been lit at a ceremony being held in Greece amid heavy security. About 1,000 police officers are patrolling ancient Olympia, fearing protests by pro-Tibet demonstrators.

One person briefly disrupted proceedings as China's representative spoke but was removed by security.

Olympic ceremony

A ceremony is due to be held in Greece to light the torch that will be carried to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Hundreds of police will be on patrol around ancient Olympia, where the games originated almost 3,000 years ago.

Security is tight to prevent disruption by activists, who have vowed to protest over the violence in and around Tibet. The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) defended the decision to hold the Games in China saying there was "no momentum" for a boycott.

"The major political leaders don't want a boycott," said IOC president Jacques Rogge said ahead of Monday's ceremony. The torch is to travel through 20 countries - and scale Mount Everest - before the Beijing Games open on 8 August.

He’s running out of excuses as well, what does it mean the major political leaders don't want a boycott? If I remember well from the past USA was a major power but boycotted Moscow Olympics and the Russians did the same in Los Angeles, the thing now is who’s going to be the first, the rest will just follow!