Last week, a delegation from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) lead by President Sir Philip Craven and CEO Xavier Gonzalez was in Beijing, China, to observe the Good Luck Wheelchair Basketball Invitational Tournament, as well as the Olympic Test Events of Weightlifting and Swimming, which will use the same venues during the Paralympics.

The Laureus World Sports Academy recently announced the five nominations for the World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Category for the Laureus World Sports Awards 2008. Nominees are:

Today, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement with Atos Origin to become its Worldwide IT Partner.

The 2008 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS) is the successor of the Pre-Olympic Congresses and the Paralympic Congress, and will be held in Guangzhou, China, from 1 to 5 August 2008, themed "Sport Sciences and Harmonious Society in the 21st Century". The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended. If you are interessted in participation please submit your abstract until 31 January 2008. Submission information can be retrieved from www.icsemis2008.org.

Today, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) started an embedded version of its web TV channel ParalympicSport.TV on its official website www.paralympic.org.

At the end of last year, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted the Loterias Caixa International Meeting (LCIM) for the first time.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that all seven cities applying to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games have returned their Application Files, which contain their responses to the IOC Candidature Acceptance Procedure questionnaire.