Now the "Wait" is over, London lifting curtain on 2012 Olympics

LONDON (AP) — Britain is greeting the world with an extravagant celebration that includes Bond, the Bard and a Beatle — and a formal welcome from no less a figure than its jubilee queen.

London's seven-year countdown to the 2012 Olympic Games came to a crescendo Friday night with what promised to be a stunning, imaginative, whimsical and dramatic celebration of the host country.

One of Britain's most successful contemporary movie directors, Oscar winner Danny Boyle, was presiding over a three-hour stadium spectacular highlighting the U.K.'s history and impact on the world.

The parade of nations was expected to feature most of the roughly 10,500 athletes — some planned to stay away to save their strength for competition — marching behind the flags of the 204 nations taking part.

Greece had the lead, as the spiritual home of the games, and Team Great Britain was last, as host. The tradition of athletes marching into the stadium by nation at the opening ceremony began at London's first Olympics, in 1908.

It fell to Queen Elizabeth II to formally declare the games open. Last month, the nation put on a festive Diamond Jubilee — a small test run for the games — to mark her 60 years on the throne, a reign that began shortly after London's last Olympics, in 1948.

The Olympic cauldron will be lit with a flame that was kindled May 10, at the birthplace of the anciest Olympics in Greece, from a reflection of the sun's rays off a mirror.

Since then, 8,000 torchbearers, mostly unheralded Britons, have carried the flame on a 70-day, 8,000-mile journey from toe to tip of the British Isles, whipping up enthusiasm for a $14 billion Olympics taking place during a severe recession.

The identity of the last torchbearer, the one to light the cauldron, was kept secret — remarkable given the intense scrutiny at what have been called the first social media Olympics.

Speculation focused on Roger Bannister, the first man to run a four-minute mile, in 1954, and on rower Steve Redgrave, among others.

Boyle's $42 million show, with 15,000 volunteers, promised to take the expected global television audience of 1 billion on a rich and textured journey through British history.

There were live animals to portray a romanticized vision of a green and pleasant land and darker, grittier segments dwelling on the industrial might upon which Britain built a global empire and shaped world history.

Boyle's challenge was daunting: To be as memorable as Beijing's incredible, money-no-object opening ceremony of 2008.

He drew from Shakespeare, British pop culture, literature and music, and other sources of inspiration that will speak to — but perhaps at times baffle — not just Anglophiles but people across the globe.

One segment featured the actor Daniel Craig as James Bond, and former Beatle Paul McCartney was to lead a sing-along.

For Jacques Rogge, it was his last time as president of the International Olympic Committee to watch the Olympic flag being raised at an opening ceremony. He will step down in 2013 after completing the maximum two terms.

Besides the thousands of athletes and performers, 60,000 spectators were expected to pack Olympic Stadium. Political leaders from around the world, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, and a sprinkling of European and celebrity royalty were also attending.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Olympic host city under scrutiny amid London riots

LONDON (AP) — A few miles from the worst violence to hit the city in 25 years, beach volleyball players dived headlong in the sand, the most summery of Olympic sports on display less than a year before the London Games.

The matches were played under the shadow of the London Eye big wheel, and not far from Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street. Yet no historic backdrop could block the images of rioting and looting that have swept the city the past three days and left a mark on British sports.

The soccer game between England and the Netherlands at Wembley was the biggest casualty. And as IOC officials arrived to review progress leading to the 2012 Games, they were greeted by a forbidding landscape a short way from where the Olympics will unfold.

Plumes of smoke rose from run-down neighborhoods. Businesses closed early — many of them boarded up — as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set London ablaze in the 1980s.

It was hardly the image Britain hoped to present to the world. This was a time when fans should have been reveling in the expectation of a successful Olympics and the start of English soccer season.

Canada's Jamie Lynn Broder and Ashley Voth, front, against Britain's
Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton during FIVB Beach Volley International
Olympic test event tournament at Horse Guards Parade in London,
Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. Horse Guards Parade will host the
London 2012 Olympic beach volley competition. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Instead, athletes fielded calls from worried relatives watching TV footage of burning buildings and vehicles. Officials tried to downplay the impact of the violence that began Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London following the fatal shooting of a local man by police.

"My friends and family have been calling," Canadian beach volleyball player Heather Bansley said. "They keep checking in to make sure we're OK. It's not a great thing to be happening to London."

The disorder comes less than two weeks after London celebrated with great fanfare the one-year countdown to the opening of the games on July 27, 2012.

On Monday, the violence spread to Hackney, one the boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park in east London. The unrest took place about four miles from the park, site of the main Olympic Stadium and other key venues.

Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson cut short their vacations to head back to the capital as organizers defended security planning and pressed ahead with preparations for the world's biggest sports festival.

"We have a commitment to deliver a safe and secure games and we will do so," Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said. "All the evidence shows this trouble is low-level criminality driven by messages on social networks and not some new, emerging security threat."

More than 500 people have been arrested in London and more than 100 charged so far.

With police needed elsewhere, Wembley Stadium was deemed not safe enough to host Wednesday's soccer game. With 70,000 tickets sold for the visit of a Dutch team that reached last year's World Cup final, the Football Association will take a financial hit because of ticket refunds.

Tuesday's game between Ghana and Nigeria in neutral Watford, 20 miles northwest of London, was also called off. The Premier League said it was still talking with police before deciding whether this weekend's season-opening matches at Tottenham, Fulham and Queen's Park Rangers could proceed. Two domestic cup games set for Tuesday also were abandoned.

Tottenham was the scene of the shooting that sparked the initial violence and one of the areas hardest hit by riots. One of the ticket offices at the north London club's stadium was closed because of damage.

With the mayhem spreading outside London, dozens of people attacked shops in Birmingham's main retail district. England's cricketers were warned to stay in the team hotel after dark as they prepared for their match against India on Wednesday. Rival captains Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni supported the decision to play.

"This is an opportunity for cricket to maybe put a feel-good factor back into the newspapers and show that not everything's bad out there at the moment," Strauss said.

But, for now, it's the outlying areas of London such as Hackney that are suffering.

Amid the tourist haunts of historic central London, only the rock music pumping from the speaker system drowned out the polite applause of spectators at a temporary beach volleyball court made up of 2,274 tons of imported sand.

About half the seats at the sold-out event went unfilled. And because of worries that night would bring renewed violence, officials wrapped up the opening day almost three hours early so fans, staff and volunteers could get home before dark.

FIVB Beach Volleyball Director Angelo Squeo, who was on site during the Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Games, said he consulted with high-ranking London Olympic organizers and police before making the decision.

"I will do whatever in order to not put in danger — not even risk putting in danger — anybody here," Squeo told The Associated Press. "In Atlanta, we had the bomb and I was left with 11,000 people outside the venue and I did not know if I had the green light or red light."

Brittany Hochevar hopes to qualify for the U.S. volleyball team and return next year for the Olympics. Her sport will be played on a site that hosted jousting tournaments during the reign of Henry VIII.

"When you're a competitor and you're a warrior, when you know that competitions have taken place here for generations and generations, it gives me goose bumps — it really does," '' Hochevar told the AP. "I said my prayers last night. Now, I have a vision of what it could be like getting back here in 2012 in all it's glory."

But is she concerned for her safety?

"Not really, I live in L.A.," Hochevar said. "It's nothing I haven't seen myself."

Other scheduled test events this week include a cycling road race that will go through the streets of London on Sunday and a marathon swimming competition at Hyde Park on Saturday. The world badminton championship are taking place at the Olympic venue of Wembley Arena in north London.

"I don't feel I know enough about the riots and how close they are to us," said Jens Grill, who is in charge of the British badminton team. "But last night we walked back together and the players walked back in groups just to be on the safe side."

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Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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