China's gold medalists to visit Hong Kong

HONG KONG — Moving swiftly to capitalize on the success of Chinese athletes at the Olympics, China will send most of its gold medalists to Hong Kong next week, ahead of legislative elections Sept. 7.

The athletes' visit, announced Wednesday by the Hong Kong government, comes as democracy advocates in the former British colony are struggling to hold on to their 26 seats in the 60-member legislature.

Resurgent Chinese national pride has buoyed candidates allied with the national government this summer.

If pro-democracy politicians fall below 21 seats, then those allies will be in a position to reshape election laws and other legislation in ways that would further cement the central government's control.

"Whether they come or not, the whole Olympics has raised Hong Kong people's sense of being part of China and their sense of pride in being Chinese," said Choy So-yuk, a leader and candidate of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.

After 156 years of British control, Hong Kong became a semiautonomous Chinese territory in 1997.

Advocates of democracy consistently win a majority of votes cast by the general public in legislative elections.

But a Byzantine electoral system, introduced by the British to limit pressures for local rule and preserved since 1997 by China, has ensured that a legislative majority remains in the hands of a coalition of the pro-Beijing commercial elite and pro-Beijing labor and community activists.

Yeung Sum, a former chairman of the Democratic Party and longtime critic of Beijing who is seeking re-election, said he worried gold medalists might campaign with pro-Beijing candidates.

The athletes will arrive Aug. 29, five days after the closing ceremony in Beijing, and stay for three days.

They are to attend a welcome at Hong Kong Stadium and demonstrate their sports in several areas that are invariably political battlegrounds.

Afghanistan wins first Olympic medal

KABUL, Afghanistan — Rohullah Nikpai won Afghanistan's first-ever Olympic medal (bronze) by defeating world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain on Wednesday in the men's under 58-kilogram taekwondo competition.

President Hamid Karzai called to congratulate Nikpai and awarded him a house at the government's expense, said Humayun Hamidzada, the president's spokesman.

The victory led all of Afghanistan's evening newscasts.

"I am so happy. I cannot express my feelings in words," said Mohammad Akbar, 33, who watched on a TV at his Kabul pharmacy.

"While I was watching the match I was clapping I was so happy."

Elderly protesters get 1-year sentences

BEIJING — Two elderly Chinese women who applied during the Olympic Games to protest the loss of their homes have been ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday, as more foreign activists were detained.

The women were still at home three days after being officially notified they would have to serve a yearlong term of re-education through labor but were under surveillance by a neighborhood watch group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.

Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77.

"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and crippled. What sort of re-education through labor can she serve?" Li said. Some 77 applications were filed to hold protests; none was approved.

U.S. bloggers detained, Tibet group says

An activist group said five U.S. bloggers have been detained since early Tuesday in Beijing. The bloggers, who did not have media credentials, were protesting China's policies in Tibet, said Kate Woznow, campaigns director for the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet.

They were the latest of more than a dozen foreign activists who have been detained in Beijing this month for launching similar protests. Most have been quickly deported.

Also Tuesday, five Americans who unfurled a "Free Tibet" banner near an Olympics venue were detained along with U.S. graffiti artist James Powderly, who planned to use laser beams to flash a similar message on buildings in Beijing, Woznow said.

Seattle Times news services