Broadcaster apologises for ‘shocking’ Olympic stereotypes

And other stories from the stranger side of life

TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 08:Residents of Olympic bid city Tokyo celebrate while holding Tokyo signs after the announcement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games host city at Komazawa Olympic Park
(Image credit: 2013 Getty Images)

A South Korean broadcaster has apologised after it used a pizza to depict Italy and Dracula to represent Romania during the Olympics opening ceremony. When Syrian athletes entered, the channel ran a caption that said: “Rich underground resources; a civil war that has been going on for 10 years.” For Ukraine’s athletes it showed an image of the Chernobyl disaster. After an outcry, MBS said: “We admit that there was a lack of consideration.”

Man builds Spitfire from baked beans can

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.