London 2012 organisers are to take control of the Olympic Village site in a ceremony to mark six months until the Games begin.

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Olympic Village site handed over

The Ethiopian Athletics Federation suspends 35 athletes over their failure to attend a training camp, including Mo Farah’s Olympic rival Kenenisa Bekele.

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Bekele among suspended Ethiopians

People have the chance to try to resell their unwanted London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic tickets from Friday.

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Olympics ticket resales under way

The New Year’s Day parade will officially launch a ‘thrilling’ year for London which will see both the Olympic Games and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrated in the city, said organisers.

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New year parade for a ‘big year’

Go on a picture tour of the 2012 Olympic venues

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In pictures: Venues shaping up for 2012

The Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, appears on the map featured in the opening titles of the BBC soap EastEnders for the first time on New Year’s Day.

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EastEnders’ Olympic Park marker

Great Britain’s triple Olympic champion Ben Ainslie has been disqualified from two races at the World Championships in Australia and can no longer win a medal.

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Ainslie out of medals after row

Thousands of people who applied to be Olympic torchbearers are finding out by email if they have been offered a place.

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London 2012 torchbearers revealed

The 2012 Olympic Games could overshoot its £9.3bn budget unless “rigorous action” is taken to curb costs, the Whitehall spending watchdog warns.

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2012 ‘risk of exceeding budget’

More than 10,000 people have auditioned to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, organisers say.

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10,000 vie for 2012 ceremony role

It will be great for TV ratings, that’s for sure. A group of pole dancing advocates wants the activity, more commonly associated with dim nightclubs, recognized as an Olympic sport. The Pole Fitness Association and other pole dancing advocacy groups are circulating petitions to have vertical dance, which they compare to gymnastics, added to the London 2012 lineup. Read full article > >

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Pole dancing: Olympic sport?

Sports medicine specialists call for mandatory PE tests in schools to create an Olympic legacy of fitness.

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Call for PE tests in UK schools

How do you make people forget a red-glowing bird’s nest as an architectural centerpiece? Endless rows of multicolored lights streaking through a gleaming, decked-out Olympic Park? How do you follow a government-run Olympic Games in which no expenses were spared – especially when you don’t have expenses to spare? ¶ If you are Sebastian Coe, the famous former British miler who is now heading the committee in charge of next summer’s London Games , you don’t try to top the 2008 Games in Beijing . Instead, you attack the Olympic challenge like you did all of those gritty middle-distance contests in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. They required tactics as much as pure speed, and sometimes weren’t quite as fast as expected, or as pretty. ¶ “It’s been a very similar mind-set to that I had as an athlete,” said Coe, who set five world records and won two Olympic gold medals. “We were never afraid to do it differently. We were never afraid to challenge orthodoxy. That’s not the same as running headlong into risk . . . it’s just being prepared to see things slightly differently.” ¶ In just under 10 months, the world will be the judge of whether Coe, 55, succeeded in getting London to the finish line in good time, and with the appropriate aplomb. Read full article > >

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2012 Olympics: Amid economic uncertainty, London aims for a different experience

Former Olympic champion Michael Johnson says competing in the 4x400m relay at the 2012 Olympics would be a ‘distraction’ for Usain Bolt.

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Johnson doubts Bolt’s 4x400m bid

The fictional London borough of Walford, the home of EastEnders, is to be a location on the Olympic Torch Relay route for a live broadcast next year.

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Olympic torch to visit EastEnders