SCARLET FACES IN ATLANTA Yesterday's Olympic bloomers

After a week of tapping into the Games misinformation service, journalists have learned not to be surprised by what comes out, but scribes used to error-strewn results were left gasping when they logged on hoping to gather quotes from the winners of the shooting competition.

"Today's events were won by a bunch of funny-talking shooters that no one in the press conference could understand," the item on the Games computer read. "Nobody cared, we are gone. Bye!"

The strange talkers who so bamboozled the American quote-takers - volunteers hired to hang on to competitors' every word by the Atlanta Committee for the Games - were from France and Italy.