AFP reports:
China bluntly told the world Olympics chief Thursday to keep out of politics, in a tart exchange on human rights following days of protests that have shadowed the Olympic torch around the world.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the Games were in “crisis” following the demonstrations, and urged China to respect its pledge to improve its rights record before the event begins in August.
China fired back that Rogge should keep politics out of the Olympics, which Beijing hoped would showcase its much-touted “peaceful rise” to power — but which have instead become a public relations nightmare.
Separately, China’s Ministry of Public Security said it had cracked a terrorist group in its Muslim-dominated northwest that was plotting to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics.
