January 25
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Six members of the International Olympic Committee face expulsion following an inquiry into a corruption scandal which has deeply shaken the Olympic movement. The six were identified at the end of an investigation by the IOC into allegations of corruption during the awarding of the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, in Utah. In all, the investigation named 13 IOC officials who are alleged to have taken cash or services in return for helping Salt Lake City win the right to host the Olympics. Three have already resigned, and six have been suspended ahead of a formal decision by the IOC in March on whether or not to expel them. Three more are facing further investigation, while another is likely to bereprimanded. The IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, said he was "profoundly saddened" at the conduct of the individuals concerned. "These members have done great harm to the Olympic ideal," he told a news conference. The report also recommended radical changes in the way cities are chosen to stage the summer and winter games. They include the setting up of a special committee of just eight elected IOC members to choose Olympic venues. The rest would be banned from official visits, or even entertaining guests from bidding cities. The scandal broke last month, when a senior IOC member, Marc Hodler, alleged that a number of countries were resorting to bribery in their bids to stage the Olympic Games. Salt Lake City is reported to have paid up to $800,000 in cash and favours. They included direct payments to IOC officials, as well as funding medical expenses, internships and university scholarships for relatives. It has also emerged that one of the organisers of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games offered tens of thousands of dollars to IOC members the night before the vote on who would host the Games, although it is believed the offers were not accepted. Those claims are being investigated, as are allegations of bribery in the decision to award the Japanese town of Nagano the Winter Games in 1998. The quake struck the heart of the country's coffee-growing region, about the capital, Bogota, toppling tower blocks, hotels and historic churches. Scores of people were trapped in the rubble, or caught in landslides triggered by the earthquake. Thousands have been left homeless. The regional capitals of Armenia and Pereira were the worst hit. In Armenia, about 10 miles (17km) south of the epicentre, even single-storey homes were destroyed by the quake. Phone and power lines have also been brought down. The Colombian authorities have imposed a dawn-till-dusk curfew to allow the rescuers to work unhampered. The Colombian president, Andres Pastrana, postponed a trip to attend a World Bank meeting in Germany and flew instead to Pereira to see the devastation for himself. Geo-seismic engineer Zygmunt Lubkowski said: "If we ensure building and bridges are constructed properly, we can prevent the sort of loss of life which has been observed in Colombia." Most of the buildings which collapsed, including many churches, were built before 1984 when a new, tougher, building standards were introduced. |
