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Long-standing Australian IOC board member Kevan Gosper has condemned protesters who disrupted the London and Paris legs of the Olympic torch relay, saying they were fuelled by a hatred of China.”All I can say is we are desperately disappointed,” Gosper told reporters in Beijing, adding the torch relay had become a target for people seeking to air grievances about China.

“They just take their hate out on whatever the issues are at the time, and that hate against the host country is being taken out on our torch,” he said.

Gosper, who is a member of the IOC commission advising Beijing on staging the August Olympics, also described the protesters as “professional spoilers” who had no regard for the efforts made by China to prepare for the Games.

“These people (Chinese Olympic organisers) have gone to a huge amount of trouble to prepare for staging one of the great Games of all time,” he said.

“And yet these spoilers, these professional spoilers, don’t think about this. They are just filled with resentment and hate.”

Nevertheless, Gosper said the torch relay would continue through its epic journey across 19 nations before returning to mainland China.

“My belief is the torch relay will stay on course. There might be adjustments, but I think it would be wrong, actually, to try and do anything more than try to get the torch through to its ultimate destination,” he said.

Gosper warned the protesters would only harm their cause.

“When people get to the point where they will break lines, take the torch, try to put the torch out, I think one would argue that does a lot of harm to their own cause,” he said.

‘No force’ could stop the torch relay

Beijing Olympic organising committee (BOCOG) spokesman Sun Weide today said “no force” could stop the torch relay.

He expressed anger at the recent protests, and blamed Tibetans seeking independence for their homeland for most of the chaos.

“(We) strongly condemn the handful of protesters who were trying to sabotage the torch relay in Paris,” he said.

“Tibetan separatists are not peaceful protesters but rather are trying to disrupt and sabotage the smooth running of the torch relay. What we have seen in Paris and London is another example of what these people are.”

The Olympic flame relay was cut short in Paris yesterday due to constant disruptions by hundreds of campaigners protesting over China’s controversial rule of Tibet and a range of other human rights issues.

Widespread protests also disrupted the previous day’s leg in London, while activists have promised more of the same in San Francisco for the next leg tomorrow.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in nearly a month of unrest in Tibet and other areas of China. Tibetans are protesting at what they say is nearly six decades of repression under Chinese rule.

China insists its security forces have killed no one while trying to quell the protests. It says Tibetan “rioters” killed 20 people.
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IGN and Yahoo finally got their hands on Activision’s new Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS. When Guitar Hero was announced for the DS alongside the Guitar Hero III announcement, gamers wondered at what kind of wacky peripheral would be needed to play this title. Well, Vicarious Visions and Activision have revealed the “Guitar Grip,” an add-on attachment that plugs into the GBA port of the DS.

Before elaborating further on the peripheral, I’d like to discuss the game itself. Guitar Hero: On Tour is being developed by Vicarious Visions, the team that is best known for handheld ports of the Tony Hawk and Spider-Man titles as well as the Wii and PS2 versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (also available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC/Mac, and mobile). The game features a full career mode similar to the previous Guitar Hero titles. Twenty licensed tracks and six guitarists (four characters from other titles and two DS exclusives) will be available.

Multiplayer is a no-brainer, and the DS comes with the traditional head-to-head faceoff mode and the co-op play. The Battle Mode from Guitar Hero III will also be in this title, with slightly different power-ups such as setting fire to other player’s guitar and sending fans to other player, which would force him or her to blow the fire out using the DS’s microphone and sign autographs using the touch screen, respectively.

The Guitar Grip features four fret buttons, excluding the fifth orange button in the console/PC versions of the series. It actually covers a portion of the DS’s bottom, and features a strap so the player can hold the DS easily. There is a slot above the fret buttons for the included guitar pick, which will be used to swipe the touch screen for strumming.

Activision has said the game does not have a firm release date, but is slated for a summer release.

Despite the box-office killing spree of the new Rambo flick, gone are the days of ridiculously buff action stars spouting even more ridiculous catchphrases. Today’s action hero favors agility and intellect over bulging pecs and massive machine-guns. And video games are following suit. In their bid to grow along with gamers, a slew of contemporary games have adopted a new type of male hero. More Indiana Jones than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the burgeoning breed of leading man is cool, calm, and collected, relying on their brains just as much as their brawn. Here are five tough guys leading the charge

An Andy Warhol painting stolen from a Manhattan art gallery a decade ago has resurfaced at Christie’s auction house, and the gallery is suing to have it returned.

The painting, one of Warhol’s Dollar Sign portraits created in 1981, is worth at least $US100,000 ($110,589), according to the lawsuit, which was filed in New York State Court today. Another Warhol Dollar Sign sold for $US4.5 million ($4.9 million) at a Christie’s auction in 2006.

The lawsuit, filed by the Martin Lawrence Gallery, asks that Jason Beltrez, who delivered the painting to Christie’s, return it, but does not seek money damages.

Christie’s, which has agreed to hold the artwork until the correct owner is identified, is also named in the lawsuit, but “solely as a stakeholder.”

The painting was one of two Warhol Dollar Sign paintings stolen from the gallery in 1998. The gallery filed a police report at the time and contacted the Art Loss Register, which maintains a database of lost and stolen art worldwide.

In 2007, after Beltrez emerged with the painting, Christie’s approached the Register, which confirmed that it was the same painting stolen from the SoHo gallery, said Chris Marinello, the register’s general counsel.

“It really was a textbook case for us,” said Marinello. “You had a seller who may not have been your typical Andy Warhol consigner and you have a major auction house that’s doing the right thing.”

The gallery has requested that Beltrez return the painting, but Beltrez has refused, according to the lawsuit. Beltrez’s lawyer did not immediately return calls for comment.

“We appreciate the continued efforts of the professional auction houses and the Art Loss Register and similar agencies in the efforts to recover lost or stolen art for the benefit of the public and the art industry,” Eric Dannemann, the gallery’s president, said in a statement through his lawyer.

Keith Carlisle, a lawyer for the auction house, said in a statement that Christie’s could not comment on pending litigation. “We are simply storing the work of art until the lawsuit is resolved,” Carlisle said
soures:smh.au