BEIJING – The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:
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China’s U.N. ambassador has fired back at his U.S. counterpart over her remarks that sending a member of the Uyghur ethnic group to help deliver the Olympic flame was an attempt to distract from the issue of abuses against Muslim minorities.
Ambassador Zhang Jun issued a statement to “resolutely refute” what he called unfounded accusations against China made by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in an interview with CNN.
Zhang said China’s Winter Olympics team includes 20 athletes from nine ethnic minorities, including Uyghur and Tibetan. China chose cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur, as one of two final Olympic torchbearers at the opening ceremony.
“She is the pride and excellent representative of the Chinese people. On what ground does the U.S. has such inexplicable anger over this? And why?” Zhang said.
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China has 174 athletes competing in the Games, mainly drawn from the Han majority that makes up more than 90% of the population.
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Jamaican bobsledder Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian has lost an appeal to be given an entry into the two-woman bob competition.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed her challenge to the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation’s qualification ranking system.
The United States-born athlete represented Jamaica in two-women bob at the past two Winter Olympics and will still compete at the Beijing Games in women’s monobob.
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