Beijing - Five-star hotels apart, Beijing's hotels are seeing a drop in occupancy rate during the Olympic Games, officials said Thursday.

Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, told a news conference that five-star hotels have enjoyed an occupancy rate of around 81 percent during the Olympics, which began on Aug. 8. That was much higher than last year's 69 percent.

But four-star hotels were seeing an average occupancy rate of just 60 percent, lower than the 69 percent last year, Xiong said.

Three-star hotels' occupancy rate, meanwhile, ranged between 30 percent to 50 percent, also lower than last year, she said.

Beijing - Hua Guofeng, the handpicked successor of the late Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong, has died in Beijing of an illness, state media reported Thursday. He was 87.

Hua died at 12:50 pm Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief four-paragraph report without specifying the type of illness.

After Mao's death in 1976, Hua stepped up to lead the then-politically unstable country, which had been mired in 10 years of the violent Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao.

After succeeding Mao, Hua ordered the arrests and sentencings of the Cultural Revolution instigators, the "Gang of Four," who included Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, and thus brought the Cultural Revolution to an end.

Beijing - Ticket touts continued to operate with apparent impunity near Olympic venues on Wednesday, despite a police crackdown that rounded up at least 37 foreigners among nearly 300 suspects.

Touts were out as usual on streets near the Workers' Stadium and the Workers' Gymnasium, which are venues for Olympic football and boxing, respectively.

One tout wanted 1,000 yuan (146 dollars) for a 150-yuan ticket for Wednesday night's boxing session.

Dozens of touts, including American and British ones, lined the streets leading to the two venues before Tuesday night's football and boxing matches.

New Delhi, Aug 20 : Beijing Olympic Games may become the biggest broadcast event in the Olympic history, according to an official with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Timo Lumme, managing director of IOC Television and Marketing Services, said at a press conference in the Games'' Main Press Center that there is an unprecedented amount of Olympic sports content available, with around 5,000 hours of coverage provided for viewers in around 200 countries and regions worldwide through the rights holding broadcast partners.

Lumme claimed that during the Beijing Games, these partners are expected to make a combined total coverage, which will be around three times that of the Athens Games, reports Xinhua.

Beijing - Beijing's foreign ministry on Wednesday sharply criticized plans by French government ministers to meet with the Dalai Lama.

Ministry spokesman Qin Gang demanded more "consideration" for the Sino-French bilateral ties.

"We hope the French side respects China's concerns and will deal carefully with the important and sensitive issues," Quin said in Beijing.

French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade announced plans to meet with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who is currently on a 12-day visit to France, on Friday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy declined to meet the Dalai Lama, but the monk is expected to meet with first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.