Olympic Updates

Beijing Olympics officials have defended China's stance on Darfur and appealled to activists not to pressure sponsors to pull out of the Games.

"If you respect the truth, you will see that China has been doing a lot toward the resolution of the Darfur issue,'' Olympics marketing director Yuan Bin claimed at an event aimed at downplaying the growing calls for boycotts during the Olympics.

Great Canadian Gaming Corp. is adding its name to the list of hotel companies planning an expansion in the Vancouver area prior to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The company, Canada's largest casino operator, said Wednesday it plans to cash in on the tourism frenzy in the area by developing a new five-storey, 191-room hotel at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, B.C., at cost of $118 million.

A senior Chinese official is trying to calm U.S. misgivings ahead of Beijing's coming Olympic Games about what the Bush administration sees as religious intolerance. In Washington, the director of China's religious affairs bureau met with U.S. officials and spoke at Georgetown University.

Ye Xiaowen told reporters Wednesday, after talks with Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, that China's peaceful development depends upon its respect for human rights and religious beliefs. Ye said he also met with President Bush's ambassador for international religious freedom, John Hanford, and with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington.