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LONDON: The Olympic stadium, the beating heart of the Games when the world’s greatest athletes come to London in 82 days’ time, was formally opened on Saturday by a nine-year-old girl who lives down the road. Niamh Clarke-Willis, who can see the Olympic Park from her home in the east London borough of Hackney, stepped out into the infield of …

BEIJING: Who says table tennis cannot be sexy? German player Timo Boll is the biggest threat to China’s dominance in the sport at the London Olympics, but it’s his good looks that make him more popular in Beijing than in Berlin. Boll is a heartthrob in China. “Sometimes in China I feel a little bit like rock star, but we …

LONDON: Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run a major international company, MPs said on Tuesday, finding him responsible for a culture of illegal phone hacking that has convulsed his News Corporation media empire. Pulling few punches, the MPs listed failings of the 81-year-old News Corp chief, his son James and a company they said had showed “willful blindness” about the scale of hacking that …

KFAR FALLOUS, Lebanon: Two Palestinians incurred moderate injuries Tuesday after their motorcycle collided into a car on a main road in Jezzine, south Lebanon. Lebanese Red Cross ambulances rushed Mahmoud Mohammad al-Abbasi, 21, and Khaled Mohammad al-Asadi, 22, to a hospital in the southern coastal city of Sidon for treatment after the motorcycle they were on collided into a car …

LONDON: An official says already tight restrictions on private jets and microlights flying over London will be expanded during the Olympics. Paul Haskins runs the London terminal controls of the National Air Traffic Services. He said Sunday that the zone surrounding London from which private planes, hot air balloons and microlights are banned will increase by up to 30 miles …

LONDON: Watch out, Eiffel Tower. Lights are coming to London’s Orbit. London’s Legacy Development Corporation says the AcelorMittal Orbit tower, which looks like a squashed roller coaster next to Olympic Stadium – will be decked out in 250 color spotlights that will make it a “beacon of east London.” The lights will be wound through the 114.5 meter (375-foot) ruby red tower and become …

DAMASCUS: Syrian forces pounded the city of Rastan with shells on Sunday after routing rebel fighters from nearby Homs, monitors said, as the Red Cross awaited the go-ahead to evacuate wounded from the battered region. The assault on mainly rebel-held Rastan came as China urged all parties in Syria to “unconditionally” end the violence and a monitoring group said 44 …

JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister says the international community’s failure to stop the violence in Syria shows it cannot keep Israel safe. Avigdor Lieberman says the inability of international leaders and aid workers to alleviate “systematic murder of innocent civilians” in Syria “challenges all the promises of the international community that they are responsible for our security.” Lieberman spoke Sunday on Israel Radio. His comments come as the United States tries to convince Israel to rely …