|
|
 |
 |   |
|
INTERNATIONAL NEWS EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
IOC denounces letter as forgery
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday denounced as a fake a document alleging the organization's president interfered in the evaluation of candidates to host the 2008 Olympics. "The document in question is a blatant forgery, as is the content of the allegations it contains," read a statement from the IOC. It did not say to whom the anonymous document had been sent. But it revealed that the document claimed IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch had intervened in the drafting of a report on the five cities bidding to host the 2008 games. The evaluation report was presented to the IOC last month by Hein Verbruggen, the Dutch head of world cycling. IOC members were banned from visiting bid cities following a corruption scandal surrounding the awarding of the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. The commission writing the report had "performed their work in total independence and with no intervention whatsoever from the IOC president," said the IOC. Beijing is competing with Paris, Toronto, Istanbul and the Japanese city of Osaka to host the 2008. While Paris, Toronto and Beijing last month received favorable reviews from the IOC technical committee, Osaka and Istanbul were considered out of the running. A final decision on the host city will be taken at an IOC meeting in Moscow next month.
| |||||||||||||||||||
