sh ee Tag, 100,000 free condoms for Olympic athletes By Kristina Mameli, News Editor have committed to providing 100,000 free condoms to Olympic athletes and officials during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games. The condoms will be available to all in questions during their stay in both the Vancouver and Whistler Olympic villages. The move comes with a socially conscious message aimed at stifling the spread of sexually transmitted infections according to Dr. Reka Gustafson via The Vancouver Sun. Surprisingly, it’s not a new a concept. The condoms come courtesy of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. The athletes will receive notices in their welcome packages telling them that the condoms will be available at two village clinics. Between 50,000 and 100,000 condoms have been ordered, or, 14.6 condoms for each of the 6,850 athletes and officials expected to attend the Games this winter. “UNAIDS and the [International Olympic Committee] have teamed up for some years now to have an HIV/AIDS awareness program at the Olympics,” Gustafson told the Sun. “Tt is a really good opportunity to use the profile of the Olympics to put positive health promotion messages out there and as part of that condoms are also distributed.” Interestingly enough, free condoms have been given to athletes since the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona. E an interesting move, health authorities in Vancouver A few statistics: e At the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, the first order of 70,000 condoms actually ran out forcing organizers to scramble and place an order for and 20,000 more. e During the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, officials ordered what amounted to 12 condoms per athlete. e The best round of free condoms however, comes from organizers at the Beijing Games. About 100,000 condoms with the Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger” printed on them were distributed. At the end of the Games, 5000 remained unused and were subsequently bought by a collector. This time around, any unused condoms will be returned to the health authority and used in clinics and programs. South Park inspired prank goes too far “Kick a Ginger Day” leads to the arrest of three boys Tanya Colledge staff reporter Ts boys in Los Angeles have been arrested after a prank attempt inspired by the adult- oriented animated series, South Park, got out of hand. Motivated by an online spoof of “Kick a Ginger Day,”superintendent of Las Virgenes Unified School District, Donald Zimring, confirmed that four girls and three boys were targeted and attacked following a message posted on Facebook urging children to “kick a ginger.” The results of these attacks have lead to one 13- year-old boy being accused of threatening to inflict injury by means of electronic communication, also known as cyber-bullying, and two 12-year-olds being detained for battery on school property. Officials say that the boys face potential charges and have been released to their parents. The students involved will also receive punishments ranging from five-day suspensions to picking up trash in their schoolyards. “Any time a youngster gets hurt because of a thoughtless act, there ought to be consequences,” said Zimring in his police report. “The youngsters involved understand that this was not acceptable, and they have made various forms of apology and contrition.” The middle school students connected with the “ginger bashing” crimes at A.E. Wright Middle School, created a Facebook page called “National Kick a Ginger Day” on which they encouraged fellow students across the country to physically or verbally abuse other children because of their red hair, freckles and pale complexions. Investigators say that unfortunately, there is no way to determine how long each of these attacks lasted, but estimate that one which resulted in bruises and bloody injuries may have lasted up to a half hour. Further investigation was carried out on 25 other students, who said that at least eight students were involved in the bullying of students and that most did not consist of any physical harm. Dozens of students, however, have since left messages on the Facebook page saying that they carried out attacks on “National Kick a Ginger Day.” er de News Shorts By Kristina Mameli Coast Mountain bus driver accused of being drunk A driver with the Coast Mountain Bus Company was placed on leave with pay Thursday and is being investigated following allegations that he smelt of alcohol. The bus was carrying an undisclosed number of passengers when it was pulled over the week before last -at Cambie and Broadway. Coast Mountain says that it is taking the incident very seriously in accordance with their zero tolerance policy regarding the matter. Canada given Chinese approval A decision jointly announced Thursday, during Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first visit to China, in a communiqué issued by Chinese and Canadian officials, stated that Canada is the latest country with approved travel status for Chinese citizens. By all indications, the move will lead to a strong boost in Chinese tourism to Canada just in time for Vancouver 2010. Thinking in longer terms, it will mean millions - pumped into Canada’s tourism industry .The decision will also allow Canada to advertise in China as a tourist destination. _ Stephen Harper’s first visit to China Google Street View adds nine Canadian cities The popular new Google Street View has added nine more Canadian cities to its already impressive maps of 11 municipalities, the company announced Wednesday. The service now includes Street View maps of Victoria, Nanaimo, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Sudbury, London, Sherbrooke, Quebec and St. John’s, N.L. Street View provides a 360° view of city streets from the ground level. The archived images were collected by specially outfitted Google trucks in 2007. Along with 250-plus cities worldwide, the aforementioned cities join Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in Canada, all of which came online in October. The company also has plans to Street View Olympic venues for Canada’s first specialized Street View section, as well as expand to Singapore.