Spielberg hailed for turning back on Olympics
HUMAN rights groups today praised Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision to drop links with the Beijing Olympics because China was not doing enough to help end the crisis in Darfur.
Spielberg's move marked a high-profile setback for Beijing and its efforts to keep at bay a months-long campaign by activists to spotlight the authoritarian communist regime's human rights record.
Although not entirely unexpected, it appeared to catch Beijing organisers flat-footed.
Spielberg, whose 2005 film Munich dealt with the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, said he had not signed his contract to serve as an artistic adviser to the Games' opening and closing ceremonies in hopes that dialogue with China would produce results.
China is believed to have special influence with Sudan because it buys two-thirds of the country's oil exports, while selling the regime weapons and defending Khartoum in the UN Security Council.
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Weather for Edinburgh
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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