China to ban smoking for duration of Olympics - Jonathan Watts
From Guardian Unlimited (link):
It is going to come as a shock to tens of millions of lungs, but the Chinese government is planning a tobacco-free Olympics when the world’s heaviest smoking nation hosts the event in 2008.
“Let a smokeless games provide healthy competition, a healthy environment and a healthy lifestyle,” the health ministry said in a news release.
The Olympic organisers, however, have a big incentive to clean up the city’s air - at least while the attention of the world is on Beijing. The government sees the 2008 Games as a coming-out party for a nation that has emerged from a century of humiliation and chaos to become one of the most powerful economies on the planet.
See also “China to make Olympics a smoke-free zone” by Reuters via Yahoo News (link)
