KEY POINTS:
A last gasp effort to improve the air quality in Beijing looks to have failed.
Smog is again blanketing the Chinese capital hours out from the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
That is despite today being declared a public holiday, with fewer cars on the roads.
The Olympics venues in the centre of the city are barely visible from even a few hundred metres.
Newstalk ZB commentator Peter Montgomery says he has looked out the window of his hotel and cannot see the towers that are across the road.
The New Zealand men's hockey team is taking a pragmatic approach. Coach Shane McLeod says it does not look good or feel good, but it is the same for everyone. He says it is not an issue the players are focused on.
The Black Sticks play Korea in their first game on Monday.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates says it is something the athletes are just going to have to tough out.
"We've been concerned about it since day one, along with the heat and humidity. We've taken whatever steps we can, the last few days have not been good, but it's just a matter of getting on with it."
Rower Mahe Drysdale will lead the New Zealand team into the main stadium around 2.30am tomorrow.
But the opening ceremony will take place amid new terror fears, after an Islamic group threatened to attack the Olympics, releasing a new video warning Muslims to avoid planes, trains and buses used by Chinese, a US group that monitors militant organizations said.
The six-minute video was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks independence for China's western Xinjiang region, the SITE Intelligence Group says.
The militants are believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al-Qaeda.
"Choose your side," says the speaker, grasping a rifle and dressed in a black turban and camouflage with his face masked. "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are," he warns Muslims, according to SITE.
- AP, NEWSTALK ZB, NZ HERALD STAFF
