Pollution leaves dark cloud hanging over Olympics

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing and co-host Olympic city Hong Kong were Monday blanketed in smog just 11 days before the Games, raising the stakes for organisers who were planning more emergency measures to clear the air.

Despite years of efforts to rid the Chinese capital of its notorious pollution and a raft of recent attempts at quick fixes, a typically thick haze cut visibility across Beijing to a few hundred metres.

With some athletes already training in Beijing and elsewhere in China, the persistent pollution was jeopardising China's promise of a "Green Games".

"I heard today if you are trying to look at the Olympic stadium, you can't see it from 500 metres (1,600 feet). It's awful, I think," Dutch football coach Foppe de Haan said in Hong Kong, where his team...