Officials who sold London 2012 tickets on the black market should be banned from the Olympic movement, an IOC executive board member has said.
The International Olympic Committee is investigating Sunday Times claims of corruption involving 27 officials and agents representing 54 countries.
The most in-demand tickets were said to be priced at up to 10 times face value.
"If you know you are breaking rules and still do it, it is unacceptable," said the IOC's Denis Oswald said.
More than one million tickets were distributed overseas among all nations taking part in London 2012 but the IOC has strict rules to combat touts.
It is the responsibility of individual National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to make sure its allocation is sold only within its own country.
The Sunday Times alleged that agents and officials had been caught selling thousands of tickets on the black market.
Responding to the allegation at the weekend, former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell - a member of the Olympic Board that helps to oversee London 2012 - said any tickets known to have been sold at more than face value should be banned.
Offending countries should not be awarded tickets in future Games, he added.
But Mr Oswald, a former Olympic rower, said that would not be enough.
People who were aware they were breaking rules "should no longer belong to the Olympic movement", he said.
"It is why it is very serious, especially people in situations where they have responsibilities for their own national sport and are prepared to break the rules."
'Individual punishment'He said there would be differences between cases "and you cannot treat everybody the same".
"But, depending on the result of the inquiry, there could be a sanction that people are no longer accepted in the Olympic movement and therefore they should have no link with sport in their own country."
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End Quote IOCShould any irregularities be proven, the organisation will deal with those involved in an appropriate manner”
Mr Oswald, who is also a member of the London organising committee, took part in an emergency IOC meeting in the wake of the Sunday Times' allegations.
They follow the resignation last month of a senior Ukrainian official who was filmed by the BBC offering tickets for cash.
Mr Oswald, who said he thought there would have been similar cases on a smaller scale at all previous Olympic Games, said only the individuals involved should be punished and not the National Olympic Committees.
The issue of sanctions had not yet been discussed by the IOC but it would take the allegations "very seriously", he added.
He said the IOC would consider a dossier of evidence from the Sunday Times detailing the claims.
The paper alleges that it found the corruption after reporters posed as Middle Eastern tickets touts during a two-month investigation.
The IOC has said that it moved quickly "to deal with allegations that some NOCs and Authorised Ticket Resellers have broken rules relating to the sale of Olympic tickets".
"Should any irregularities be proven, the organisation will deal with those involved in an appropriate manner," it added.
London 2012 organising committee Locog said none of the tickets in question came from the allocation to the British public.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Divorce boom follows gaokao among parents sensitive to kids' exam stress - People's Daily Online
For high school students in China, the pressure of taking the gaokao, or national college entrance exams, can be difficult enough to manage by itself. But for Wang Li (pseudonym), tackling the test was another struggle to cope with amid her own personal turmoil from her parents' planned separation. While she was frantically preparing for the exam four months ago, she learnt her parents were planning to divorce.
Statistics from courts confirmed a post-gaokao divorce boom last week following the exam's conclusion on June 8. Many parents facing irreconcilable differences agree to delay their divorce until after their child has taken the all-important exam in the hope that their breakup won't affect their child's gaokao performance.
The Chaoyang district court in Beijing has seen a spike in divorces after the exam each year from 2008 to 2011, with the annulment frenzy usually lasting until August.
Last year the number of divorces filed 20 days after the exam was more than twice as high as the figure for 20 days before it, according to the Chaoyang district court. Elsewhere at southern Beijing's Daxing district court the figure is even higher, with 145 divorces filed 20 days after the gaokao last year compared to 38 filed 20 days before.
School's out, divorce is in
Wang, a 17-year-old high school graduate from Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, was a model student who regularly topped her class in many subjects. However, all that changed in February, when she overheard her parents discussing their divorce after the gaokao, spiraling Wang into depression.
Her grades soon plunged and she even threatened to her parents that she would drop out of school if they went ahead with their divorce, the Chong-qing Morning Post reported earlier this month.
The Chongqing Morning Post reported that Wang's parents settled their differences and agreed not to separate after undergoing marriage counseling, resulting in the improvement of Wang's studies.
But not all couples are able to rescue their marriage from the rocks, with divorces often inflicting long-term mental anguish on children already struggling to cope with the pressure of the gaokao.
The Beijing civil affairs bureau told the Global Times it did not have figures for the number of divorces made citywide after the gaokao this year. However the Legal Mirror reported that an employee from the Haidian district marriage registration office said an average of 20 couples daily had filed for divorce after the exam, with more than half aged in their 40s.
"We used to get mostly young couples filing for divorce, but lately there have been more middle-aged ones," the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Legal Mirror. "They often go through it quickly without fighting like young couples. It seems they have agreed to separate long before."
Source: english.people.com.cn
'Bionic' woman who competed in the London Marathon will cycle from Paris to London for charity - Daily Mail
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She captured the hearts of the nation when she miraculously crossed the finish line of the London Marathon by using bionic legs.
And now Claire Lomas plans to captivate Briton's once more - by cycling from Paris to London.
Despite not being able to move her legs she will cover the 250 mile ride on a special bike which uses electrical pulses to stimulate her muscles, forcing her to pedal.
Claire Lomas on her exercise bike at ;home in Melton, Mowbray. She is hoping to ride from Paris to London next Spring, despite being paralysed
Miss Lomas, who was left paralysed from the waist down following a horse-riding accident which severed her spinal cord, will once again be accompanied by her husband Dan.
'It is going to be really hard work but it is going to be very different to doing the marathon,' said the 31-year-old to the Sunday Telegraph. 'For the marathon I didn't have to be super fit as the pace was so slow in the robot.'
Miss Lomas, who is a mother to one-year-old Maisie, said she is concerned about not being able to tackle hills but has been using an indoor bike to train and is looking forward to being able to cycle outdoors.
In April this year she was joined by her husband, a research biologist, and tiny daughter for every step of the London Marathon, which took her two and a half weeks to complete.
Miss Lomas, of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, managed to raise more than 200,000 for Spinal Research and attracted world wide attention during the challenge.
Aching with pain and struggling to stay upright she crossed the finish line a gruelling 16 days after she first started.
Hundreds gathered to watch Claire as she completed her challenge in London
A delighted Claire, who was supported by her husband Dan all the way, plants a kiss on daughter Maisie
People across the country were outraged when organisers refused to honour her achievement with an official medal because she did not finish within 24 hours.
Instead, 14 of her fellow runners, who were so inspired by her efforts donated theirs.
Miss Lomas was overwhelmed by support during her efforts and said it inspired her to think of something else to do for charity.
Her legs will be strapped into the special Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike, which is actually a tricycle, and electrodes will be attached to her thighs and connected to an electrical stimulator.
A computer, activated with the push of a button, will control the muscles in her legs and cause them to produce a pedalling motion.
Claire, pictured in her wheelchair with Maisie, will use a special tricycle to help her complete the ride from Paris to London
A throttle in the handle will also manage the intensity of the stimulation and the speed of the pedalling.
As part of her training Miss Lomas will take part in an outdoor ride from Glasgow later this month and hopes to complete her challenge from Paris to London in the Spring of next year.
She has said that although she gets help with pedalling from the electrical stimulation, it is still tiring for her.
'The signals from my brain can't get down my spinal cord because of my injury so they don't reach my legs, so the pads put an electrical signal straight into the muscles to make them contract. They still need oxygen and it requires cardiovascular fitness,' she said.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
A truly inspirational lady - good luck with all her plans. Oh for the day that a cure can be found for these debilitating injuries and give people back their lives.
- Carol, Swindon UK, 18/6/2012 08:50
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