Apocalyptic views from Beijing

Over at the First Post,with less than a week to go before the start of the Olympics,they consider seven ways in which the Games could go wrong.

Rather apocalyptic but here is the list

1.Huge Infrastructure breakdown

2.Athletes are poisoned by fumes

3.Chinese dissidents spoil the occasion by humiliating the government.

4 The Chinese team does a lot better than any other country

5.Journalists concentrate on other stories rather than the Olympics

6.The world recoils in horror at Chinese habits

7.Mass confusion over doping

Of the seven it may well be No2 that comes the closest to happening.Reports from the Chinese capital today show that the smog problem has not gone away and the authorities are considering moving some of the events away from the Chinese capital.

But the news from the Muslim region of Xinjiang is also worrying where 16 Chinese policeman are reported killed in an attack on a border post.

The region and its Uighur population has suffered at the hands of the central government which has suppressed local moves for autonomy.Earlier in the year 18 Uighurs were killed and a further 17 arrested during a raid on what the Chinese described as a "terrorist training camp" in the Pamir mountains.

The Chinese authorities have claimed that the region was planning terrorist attacks during the games.