City News

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The London Olympics are less than one hundred days away. Across the world, many competitors still have to qualify for the sixteen days of competition. Others are entering the final weeks of training.

Three hundred thousand people are expected to travel to the British capital for the Summer Olympic Games. The opening ceremonies are on July twenty-seventh. Wednesday marked the one-hundred-day point. Sebastian Coe — the British runner who won two Olympic gold medals — is chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee.

News Corp.’s NWSA -1.01% U.K. newspaper scandal widened yet again as a blogger sued the company’s Times of London newspaper for hacking into his email in 2009.

Lawyers for the blogger, Richard Horton, said he is seeking “aggravated and exemplary damages” in a lawsuit filed Wednesday at London’s High Court against the legal entity that publishes the Times of London, Times Newspapers Ltd.

West Ham United submitted a fresh bid on Friday to take over the Olympic Stadium as anchor tenants after the London Games, with three other parties also throwing their hats into the ring by the deadline.

The Championship (second tier) soccer club whose current 35,000-seat Upton Park stadium is near the Olympic Park in east London said on their website (www.whufc.com) that they were in the running. The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) confirmed four bids had been received.

RUPERT Murdoch, in London to deal with one of the most serious threats to his empire, has announced the launch of a new British newspaper. The News Corporation chief executive yesterday held a series of crucial meetings with executives and staff on the latest crisis to threaten his global media group.

Mr Murdoch addressed staff at The Sun and other newspapers who are threatening legal action against their employer following the arrests of 10 Sun journalists based on information about their activities given to police by a high-level News Corporation committee. Mr Murdoch told Sun staff that a Sunday version of the newspaper would be started soon.

American industrial giant Caterpillar is closing its locomotive plant in London and putting 460 workers out of their jobs just over a month after they were locked out for rejecting pay cuts of up to 50 per cent. More >

As the organizers of the London 2012 Olympics were presented with the finished athletes’ village on Friday, exactly six months ahead of the games, they stressed that preparations for the Games remain on time and on budget.

The Summer Games are expected to attract 900,000 visitors to the United Kingdom’s capital in July and August. The festivities will kick off with an opening ceremony designed by famed film director Danny Boyle, who has a lot to live up to after the elaborate display that launched the last Summer Games in Beijing.

British police investigating tabloid phone hacking have arrested a long-serving former assistant to ex-News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and other executives at Rupert Murdoch’s News International group. More >

Virginia coach Mike London has been given a new five-year deal and a raise, the university announced Friday.

The new agreement adds two years to London’s contract, through 2016, and increases his annual salary to $2.1 million. It also includes a longevity bonus that takes effect Jan. 15, 2015.

The City of London may regret David Cameron’s euro isolation. Britain’s prime minister opted out of a pan-European deal to save the euro zone after failing to secure special protection for the UK financial services industry. But his stand leaves Britain’s dominant economic sector exposed – both in Europe and at home.

Britain had little to lose and much to gain from a successful euro zone summit. If the single currency collapses, the UK economy and its financial system would suffer. Meanwhile, the proposed fiscal reforms designed to help restore confidence in the euro zone do not directly affect European Union countries outside the single currency.

According to IRNA reporter in London, around 25 Iranian diplomats with their families left London at 16:35 GMT. Some of the diplomats, talking with IRNA on the phone, said they and their families are leaving Britain with ‘dignity and pride’.

The British Government in a move, described by many experts as hasty and passive, closed down Iranian Embassy in London and ordered Iranian diplomats to leave Britain within 48 hours.