All those people forced out of their homes to make way for the Olympic Village, is this where their compensation lawsuits are being heard? Oh right, Beijing courts were ordered not to accept any cases from disgruntled Olympic forced evictees, although property damage and personal injury would suggest otherwise. Or not?

My Correspondent, can you clue me in on how open the Chinese court system is to foreigners who want to sit in on trials? Any idea what sort of paperwork is involved, if any?

i had wondered to myself the other day after reading Danwei's "Securolympics" post whether the capital had invested in the expansion and/or upgrading of its prison facilities in the run-up to the Games.

it would be odd if the capital failed to either (a) expand its short-term detention facilities in order to accommodate and process an increased number of felons and misdemeanants during the Games; or (b) to upgrade those facilities that might be used imprison, however briefly, "foreign guests."

and yet, it's perfectly understandable why state media might not want to report on that. "China's enemies" would eat that story up, would they not?

Olympics Monies Used to Build Prisons in Beijing.

I'm sure Xinhua is wrong here. Bamboo strips from the tomb of a mid-Xia Dynasty magistrate indicate that he presided over an "Olympic Yamen" in around 2000BCE, well before those lying Greeks stole the idea off China.

I'm afraid that when I see the words "Village" and "People" written consecutively it brings a completely different image to my mind. Can anyone remember if one of the band members was a judge? I can only recall the policeman.

Will there be another press release coming soon to reveal the official uniforms to be worn by the Village People's Court special police?

Usually batting averages are written as three digits after a decimal point, with the initial "0" omitted, thus "batting .927" rather than "batting 0.93."

Hate to be one to spread misinformation, so despite what I've heard and read from pretty reliable sources about Beijing courts being ordered not to 受理 any home evictee compensation/ownership cases connected to the Olympics, someone of equal repute tweeted me and told me that they have seen such cases heard in courts in Beijing. No links on hand either way, however.