The Syrian International Olympic Committee member Samih Moudallal told Telegraph Sport from Damascus last week that Assad had never intended to travel to London, even before his EU travel ban and that he had not been formally invited.
The other international president who has not been invited is Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe.
London Olympic Games organisers said they have only invited heads of state who are able to legally travel to the UK, and that precludes any of the 128 persons currently on the EU travel ban list. But anyone able to travel, like Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez, have been formally invited.
"We are in a tough position because if they are allowed into the country it is difficult not to invite them to the Olympic Games," an Olympic insider said.
Moudallal said in an interview before the latest atrocity that Locog had invited Syrian officials, including General Joumaa to attend the Games because they were independent.
"No government officials from Syria have been invited to attend the Olympic Games,"Moudallal said. "The president has not been invited, only the Olympic officials have been invited because they are independent and they have been invited to participate in all activities".
Currently the six to eight Syrian athletes who may qualify for the London Olympics have received support funding direct from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, rather than have the money filtered through the Syrian Olympic Committee.
Weightlifter Soraya Sobh, boxer Wassim Salameh, equestrian Ahmed Saber Hamsho and high jumper Majd Eddin Ghazal have qualified for the Games. Three female athletes are expected to be named on the team, including shooter Raya Zeineddine.
The IOC has yet to suspend the Syrian Olympic Committee, which is may do if it feels there is political pressure on the organisation. If that occurs the Syrian athletes will march and compete under the Olympic flag.
The only other athletes who will compete under the neutral flag are Kuwaiti athletes because their national Olympic committee has been suspended because of political interference.
Queen's Diamond Jubilee: London travel guide - Daily Telegraph
The Queen will also be attending the Epsom Derby on Saturday - tickets are still available through www.epsomdowns.co.uk. A Diamond Jubilee Concert is taking place on June 4, but the event is sold out.
On June 4, thousands of beacons will be lit around the world to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne. To find out where your nearest beacon is, see www.diamondjubileebeacons.co.uk. And on June 5, a Diamond Jubilee Carriage Procession will take the Queen from Westminster Hall to Buckingham Palace, with thousands expected to line the streets.
There are also dozens of events taking place at the country's English Heritage properties, including Aspley House and Eltham Palace and Gardens in the capital. For a full list, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/events
Special exhibitions are also on at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Museum of London, the National Portrait Gallery, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace.
As many as 10,000 street parties are also planned for the weekend. For tips on what food and drinks to serve your guests, and what to wear, see www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9284333/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-Entertaining-guide.html
What else is there to do?
Telegraph Travel's London city break guide features the best things to see and do across the capital. There are also individual guides to London's districts.
Where to stay
Telegraph Travel has expert reviews of more than 75 hotels in London, the majority of which can be booked through the website at the lowest price guaranteed.
Many hotels have also launched a variety of Jubilee-themed offers, ranging from the tempting to the tenuous.
Restaurants
A number of restaurants and bars have unveiled themed menus in the run up to the Jubilee. Among the most bizarre dishes being coronation chicken ice cream, currently available at Gelupo in Soho.
Transport
Tube: Engineering works on the London Underground are few and far between this weekend, for a change, with just the Waterloo and City Line and parts of the London Overground facing closure. However, there will be no access to Buckingham Palace from Green Park station on Monday - visitors are advised to use Westminster or St James’s Park stations.
Roads: There will be a number of bus diversions and curtailments. Drivers are advised to avoid central London between June 3 and June 5. Sunday will be particularly busy due to a number of road and bridge closures. Seven London bridges will be closed to both road users and pedestrians for most of the day.
River: There will be no river services on Sunday June 3 from 1430 until 1800 between Battersea Bridge and the Thames Barrier at Woolwich.
For more information, see www.tfl.gov.uk
Read more
Sixty years of royal tours
Few of us have seen as much of the world as the Queen, who has visited 116 countries. Sophie Campbell looks back on six decades of regal globetrotting.
Jubilee London, then and now
A new book, 'The Queens' London', makes a striking comparison of the city in the diamond Jubilee years of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II, 115 years apart.
Cruises with a royal connection
Four options for those wanting to explore our royal heritage by cruise ship this year.
London 2012 could be first ever Paralympic Games to sell all its tickets - The Guardian
Despite renewed complaints over their unwieldy ticketing system, London 2012 organisers have sold tens of thousands more tickets to the Games and claimed vindication over their decision to charge for sections of the road cycling races.
Meanwhile, Paralympics officials expressed confidence the London Games could become the first to completely sell out in the event's 52-year history, following another round of strong ticket sales.
Among the tickets that went on sale for the first time on Tuesday were 25,000 for the climbing section of the cycling road race at Box Hill and the cycling time trial at Hampton Court.
Cycling fans are used to watching their heroes for nothing, but Locog said the men's events had sold out in a single day.
Initial demand meant the much-criticised Ticketmaster system again slowed to a crawl, amid a deluge of interest.
"The sheer volume of demand meant that we managed transactions slowly in the first 20 minutes. However transactions are now flowing through in their thousands," said a spokeswoman.
Timed tickets to ascend the Orbit sculpture in the Olympic Park also went on sale for the first time. In all, around 450,000 tickets to the Games remain – plus 1.3m football tickets that are expected to prove difficult to shift.
More than 1.2m of the 2.2m tickets on offer for the 2012 Paralympics, which run from 29 August to 9 September, have already been sold, the bulk of them in a much-promoted initial sales window in September. Another 125,000 were sold last week, the highest total in a single seven-day period to date.
"We're probably in the strongest position we've ever been in for ticket sales ahead of a Paralympics," said Craig Spence, head of communications for the Bonn-based International Paralympic Committee. "It would be great if we could sell out the Games. It's definitely possible; there's a real potential for us to do it.
"It would be amazing. Bear in mind that in Sydney 12 years ago they were still giving away a lot of tickets. Tickets being sold for a Paralympic Games is still a fairly new thing, so to sell all of them for full price would be pretty remarkable."
Adrian Bassett from Locog, which is responsible for the ticket sales, said the scale of early sales had been unprecedented: "A sellout is certainly possible. When you look at previous Paralympics it's quite often during the Olympics or just before that people wake up to the Paralympic Games, and there's a surge of ticket sales then. We're expecting to still be selling tickets quite close to the Games themselves."
Even if the Games opened with just a few seats unsold, it would be a big achievement, both for the London Games and the wider acceptance of Paralympic sport.
At most of the 15 summer Paralympics since the first, in Rome in 1960, seats have been given away. The 2000 Sydney Games sold 1.2m; Athens, four years later, 850,000. More than 3.6 million people watched Paralympic events in Beijing in 2008, but almost half the tickets were given away to schools and community groups. Even the 1.82m full-price tickets were relatively cheap, ranging from 30 to 80 yuan (about £3 to £8).
The London Paralympic prices remain competitive – aside from the opening and closing ceremony, the highest figure is £45, while 75% cost £20 or less
The interest in tickets has been prompted by a number of factors, Spence said, ranging from pre-Games coverage by Channel 4, which will broadcast the Paralympics, to the wider awareness of Paralympic sports inthe UK. He said: "People are buying into the concept. British Paralympic athletes are far more well known, say compared to China. We're in a far stronger starting position here than we were going into the Beijing Games. Paralympic sport is probably more accepted in this country than in any other country in the world."Interest has also been spurred by the likelihood of some home success: the British team won 42 golds in Beijing, and has come second in the medal table in the last three s
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