The World
Pre-Olympics Mix: Sports and Politics
Despite Olympic ideals, it's tough to separate politics and sports. Example No. 1: The United States is inviting potential Olympic wrestlers and other athletes from Iran to train in America. But Iranian officials are balking because they dislike the post-9/11 regulation requiring foreign visitors to be fingerprinted. In January, an American wrestling team went to Iran to participate in a wrestling competition.
Example No. 2: The 85,000-mile Olympic Torch relay, a prelude to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, may skip a planned stop in Taiwan. The self-governing island, which China's leaders regard as a breakaway province, objects to being included as one of the roughly 100 domestic Chinese stops as opposed to being part of the international route for the torch. In addition, Tibetan rights groups object to plans for the torch to scale Mount Everest in the Himalayan region that China has controlled for more than half a century.
With Anna Mulrine and Associated Press
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