More than 1000 supporters gave New Zealand's Olympic team an enthusiastic welcome at Auckland Airport this morning.

Hundreds of people are lining the arrivals area at Auckland International Airport eagerly awaiting the return of New Zealand's Olympic athletes from Beijing.

Friends, family and supporters gathered at Auckland International Airport this morning to welcome home New Zealand's most successful Olympic team for 16 years.

BEIJING (AFP) - China's Olympic gold medallists will get cash rewards of 350,000 yuan (51,000 dollars), nearly twice the amount given for the Athens 2004 Games, state media reported on Tuesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's Olympic team returned home on Tuesday to a rapturous welcome, even as the country urgently began seeking ways of boosting its flagging medals ranking at the 2012 Games in London.

NEW YORK, Aug 25, 2008 (AFP) - Reigning Olympic champions Rafael Nadal and Elena Dementieva got their US Opens off and running Monday, facing stiff challenges from a pair of unseeded players.

NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - NBC Universal drew a record number of viewers for its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, setting a standard that could have other media companies rethinking their roles in future Games.

BEIJING (AFP) - China won global plaudits Monday for staging a successful Olympics, but rights groups were critical and the United States said Beijing had missed an opportunity to improve its global human rights image.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Acting icon Sean Connery may have stopped making films, but he believes something still awaits him out there.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - China missed an opportunity to show progress on human rights and religious freedom during the Olympic Games, the White House said on Monday, after eight Americans were deported for protesting.

NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - NBC Universal drew a record number of viewers for its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, setting a standard that could have other media companies rethinking their roles in future Games.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Acting icon Sean Connery may have stopped making films, but he believes something still awaits him out there.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Acting icon Sean Connery may have stopped making films, but he believes something still awaits him out there.

Three members of New Zealand's Olympic team have been suspended for circulating a picture of another team member in a compromising position.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's most successful Olympic team for 100 years was due to arrive back home from Beijing on Monday, as team bosses warned that the coaches behind the medal haul could be poached by other nations.

GENEVA (AFP) - Switzerland's foreign minister on Monday broke with the country's tradition of studiously discrete diplomacy by raising the possibility of direct talks with Osama bin Laden to tackle global terrorism.

EDINBURGH, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Acting icon Sean Connery may have stopped making films, but he believes something still awaits him out there.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's first Olympic boxing champion slimmed down for his lightning victory which secured China's 50th gold medal on a surprising diet of hamburgers and pizza.