Beijing Olympic Diary

Spectators held their breath as Russian and Georgian competitors shared a podium yesterday following the women's 10-meter air pistol event. But Georgia's third-placed Nino Salukvadze and Russian silver medallist Natalia Paderina put their countries' conflict aside as they embraced. The Georgian team had offered to withdraw from the Olympics, but stayed at the urging of its government. Salukvadze said competing had been "very difficult", but added: "Politicians should straighten out the situation today and if they don't, we'll have to get involved.We live in the 21st century, after all. We shouldn't really stoop so low to wage wars against each other." Paderina, beaten by China's Guo Wenjung, described Salukvadze as an old friend, adding: "Sports is not politics."

Threats of up to 15-days imprisonment for ticket touts have done little to halt the booming market in re-sales. Last night's US-China basketball match - one of the hottest tickets of the games, thanks to sporting idol Yao Ming - were reportedly changing hands for as much as 60,000 yuan (£4,500); many times the average annual income in China. Other events are said to have experienced an impressive tenfold markup.

It is not thought that George Bush was aware of reports that plainclothes police detained a Christian activist en route to the church that the US president was attending in Beijing yesterday. Hua Huilin told Reuters that police warned him not to let his brother attend, but Hua Huiqi insisted. Police forced the activist into a car, but later told his brother he had escaped when officers watching him fell asleep. His whereabouts are unknown.

China Daily reported that a record 1,000-plus dispersal rockets were fired into the sky to prevent rain from dampening the opening ceremony on Friday. But yesterday Beijing organizers appeared to be relying on positive thinking rather than technical wizardry to clear the air. "I think the blue skies will come. I've got my fingers crossed," said Wang Wei, the committee's secretary general. By nightfall a storm ensured there was no need for cloud seeding, with stifling humidity finally giving way to torrential rain. The resulting drop in temperatures will be welcome relief for athletes in endurance events; around a third of the cyclists in Saturday's road race failed to reach the end.

Despite China's careful vetting of visas, protests over Tibet continue in the capital. Last night five activists - including an ethnically Tibetan woman from Germany as well as Americans and Canadians - were awaiting deportation after protesting near Tiananmen Square.

London organizers anxious that 2012 will be overshadowed by the Beijing games have received little reassurance from Zhang Yimou, the film director behind the spectacular opening ceremony. "This kind of three-dimensional performance is a first for the world. [It's] perhaps very difficult to have a duplicate in the next 10 years," he told a news conference. "If London also wants to do it this way, I estimate they won't surpass us in a short time."