Hackers threaten to spoil Olympic party

The Sydney Olympics will be the most computer reliant in history, with thousands of results from the 39 venues being posted electronically rather than being printed out.

Alston said the methods being used to protect the system from hackers were secret. “You can’t assume goodwill. You’ve got to proceed on the basis that there will be people trying to cause difficulties and do your best to avoid those.”

IBM has responsibility for maintaining an Olympic network of around 7,300 personal computers. The company has been busy for the past year testing the system’s ability to thwart challenges to the system’s integrity from cyber vandals in Australia and abroad.

Medal mix up rejected
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has defended the medal design for next month’s Sydney 2000 Games after claims that it highlighted a Roman Colosseum instead of a Greek Parthenon.

Greek Australians described the depiction of the generic stadium, which has been an integral element of the Olympic medal design since 1928, as ignorant and insulting to Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics.

Wojciech Pietranik, who designed the Sydney medals, told The Australian newspaper that he originally wanted to incorporate the Sydney Opera House into the face of the medals but had been bound by IOC rules.

Pietranik, a sculptor and designer with the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, told newspaper that he used the Roman Colosseum as a model for his design interpretation.

But IOC spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said there was no mistake with the design, which was formally approved by the IOC board in October last year.

Taliban observer
LONDON: The IOC has invited Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to send two observers to next month’s Sydney Games but has rejected appeals for Afghan athletes to be allowed to compete.

The Taliban-run Olympic committee does not meet IOC requirements for recognition. Among other things, the Taliban bans women from competing in Sports.

The Taliban has been lobbying to overturn the suspension and clear the way for its athletes to compete in the Sydney Games, which begin on September 15. A Taliban delegation met with IOC officials earlier this month in Lausanne, Switzerland, but the IOC decided to uphold its suspension.

Broken promises
Environmental activists on Tuesday started carving the word `Toxic’ into a vacant field adjacent to Sydney Olympic Park to highlight the failure of Sydney 2000 organizers to meet key `Green Games’ promises.

Greenpeace spokesman Matt Ruchel said 25 campaigners were using brush cutters to create the giant message that would be visible from the air. The toxic site is located about 2.5 kilometers away from the main Olympic precinct at Homebush Bay.

Activist army
An activist army is expected in Sydney next month fresh from a major demonstration in Melbourne to join an anti-Olympic protest at the Games, organisers warned on Tuesday.

The alliance of anarchists, trade unionists, students, animal liberationists and environmentalists trying to stop the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Melbourne’s Crown Casino from September 11-13 now also have their sights set on the Olympics.

One of the protest organisers, Jesse Wynhausen, said thousands were expected to join an Aboriginal demonstration that could spin off into an anti-corporate protest lasting several days after the start of the Games on September 15.

Reports here say a fleet of buses is being hired to bring the demonstrators from Melbourne on September 14.

IOC blames host
The IOC has warned Australia it must name its full Games’ team by Friday despite 10 or more appeals and medical reports outstanding.

IOC executive board member Jacques Rogge said never before had a country failed to resolve so many appeals before the deadline for naming its squad, and blamed Australia for holding its trials so close to the Games.

“I would imagine that is a problem,” Rogge, the IOC member responsible for supervising the Sydney games, told ABC Radio.

Rogge said the IOC would normally agree to late changes in Games teams for medical reasons but the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) was expected to name its full team by Friday.

Freeman warned
World champion sprinter Cathy Freeman and other indigenous Australians have been warned they risk losing their medals if they fly the Aboriginal flag at the Olympics.

“We’ve been informed that Aboriginal athletes have been warned that they risked forfeiting any medals they win if they displayed our flag,” said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chairman Geoff Clark.

In a political gesture, Freeman, perhaps the World’s best known Aborigine, famously draped herself in both Australian and Aboriginal flags when she won the World 400 metres gold medal in Athens three years ago.