December 19, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 8, 1428

RIO DE JANEIRO (Brazil), Dec 18: Rio de Janeiro on Monday unveiled its bid logo for the 2016 Olympics — the famed Sugar Loaf mountain shaped as a heart to represent the Brazilian people’s passion for sports.

The logo — in the green, yellow, blue and white colours of the Brazilian flag — has the writing “rio20!6,” with the exclamation point replacing the numeral 1 to symbolise Brazil’s heightened expectations with the chance of hosting the event.

A Brazilian Olympic Committee panel chose the logo from a list of four finalists.

Rio is one of the seven cities in the running for the 2016 Olympics, along with Chicago; Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; Doha, Qatar; Prague, Czech Republic, and Baku, Azerbaijan.

The IOC will select the host city in October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.—AP