Word: bird
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Though no match for the missile launchers and shock troops that surround Beijing's Bird's Nest, security has been stiff at Hong Kong's Shatin complex. A tight knot of privately contracted guards have staked out the venue for the 2008 Olympics' equestrian events, as spectators watch horses undergo "dressage" and other genteel equine pastimes...
...away. Protesters of everything from China's role in Darfur to the continuing repression of Tibet had tried to use the Games to highlight their causes. But long ago, loose talk of an Olympic boycott had fizzled. On opening night, sitting in the splendor of the Bird's Nest Stadium, were two men who have at times been among China's most vocal Western critics: George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. They knew this was China's moment. Back in the Middle Kingdom's heyday, dignitaries from elsewhere in the world would come to pay tribute...
...There were less dramatic protests in the capital, too. A team of foreign protesters scrambled up lampposts near the iconic "bird's nest" National Stadium to hang FREE TIBET banners. Three Christians were bundled out of Tiananmen Square after displaying signs calling for religious freedom in China. Then came the news that Beijing had barred entry to former U.S. Olympian Joey Cheek, a speed skater and prominent critic of China's closeness to the Sudanese regime blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur. (The Cheek incident didn't stop the U.S. team from choosing...
With the American media descending on Beijing this week and looking for a headline before the sports start, the move almost guarantees that China will take a beating in the foreign press. Those stories will not be about the impressive architecture of the Bird's Nest stadium, or how the new fleet of Olympic buses are running smoothly. Now, headlines will point to how a humanitarian essentially got kicked out of the country. The timing could not be worse...
...track stars have their Bird's Nest; the cyclists their velodrome; and the swimmers their Water Cube. Now the protesters who are certain to appear at the Beijing Olympics have their corners, too. On Wednesday, the security director for the Beijing Olympics announced that three sites in city parks will be set aside for demonstrations during the Games...