29/07/2012 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. Welcome to BBC News from our

Olympic studio where dark clouds are threatening and the winds are

building. Lord Coe has said London 2012

organise letters do all they can to fill empty seats at venues. A

number of events have failed to be filled to capacity. It's thought

the seats were allocated to sponsors and Olympic officials.

Lord Coe has pledged empty seats will not be a problem as the Games

continue. Not the images of London 2012 which

anybody had wanted or expected. Empty seats at volleyball this. Man

was looking rather lonely during a tennis match at Wimbledon. A

similar story yesterday in some areas of the Aquatics Centre during

swimming. They'll need to draft many more members of the armed

forces in than this, if they are going to fill all the gaps. I don't

think you will be seeing this as an issue, long-term through the Games.

What we have been able to do, because, yes, it is obvious some of

those seats aren't being used that's why we have put the military

and students and teachers in there. The Olympic Park is busy. Many of

the people inside enjoying it have spent more than a year trying to

get hold of tickets for events that are meant to be sold out. In the

Aquatics Centre behind me at the top, the cheaper seats, all booked

by members of the public, are packed. But look down to the

poolside and the more expensive seats right at the front, lots of

them are empty. I must admit it is abit

disappointing but I guess you can't make people turn up and if it is

corporate tickets, it is a shame they are not being used. REPORTER:

If I were to say to you, you could queue for half an hour, any tickets

that haven't been used might be returned would you be happy to wait

to go in Absolutely. Definitely, definitely, definitely. Lewis Smith

is our best-known gymnast but yesterday even he was surrounded by

empty seats. All those competing in that venue and other Olympians, too,

will hope this is an issue that will soon be resolved.

Well, one of the Britain's best medal hopes today is currently

defending her Olympic title. Nicole Cooke is competing in the women's

road race. Our sports correspondent Dan Roan is at the finish at

Buckingham Palace. Thunder and lightning where you are. I think

you have had some as well. How is she doing? We are about an hour

into this four-hour race. Lizzie arm stead and Nicole Cooke,

Britain's two best female cyclists are both well-placed. A long way to

go. After a false start by the male cyclists yesterday where Mark

Cavendish, amidst so much hopes and expectations failed to win

Britain's first medal of the Games the focus has shifted to their

female counterparts today. Nicole Cooke knows exactly how it feels to

win the first gold medal of an Olympic Games for Britain. She did

that four years ago. Interesting today she is very much in a support

role for Lizzie arm stead, who is regarded as Britain's best female

sprinter, the leader of this team. As you have said, the conditions

though are very different from yesterday. Heavy rain in west

London and throughout the Surrey countryside where this course goes.

It's shorter than the course for the men, just two circuits of Box

Hill. It is challenging, in three hours' time we'll see how they have

done. Other n other news, activists in Syria say rebel-held areas of

Aleppo continue to be bombarded by forces.

This report contains some pictures that can't be ipbtly verified.

It is not yet clear which way this city may go. So far the rebels seem

to be holding firm in the quarters where they have taken control.

The regime forces have vastly more firepower at their disposal and

rebels have seized a number of government tanks with machine guns

that can help ward off attacks from the air.

The state forces certainly aren't having it all their own way. Even

with fairly light weapons, determined fighters can be very

hard to root out and can do a lot of damage.

But the government forces still have many more tanks and heavy

artillery which have been bombarding rebel-held districts to

try to soften up a the resistance. In Damascus these tactics succeeded

in bringing the city back under control.

But even state television isn't making extravagant claims of

victory in Aleppo yet. It said only that the troops had inflicted heavy

losses on what it called "armed terrorist mercenaries."

Whoever ends up controlling these streets will have secured a highly-

strategic hub city that dominates the north of the country. For the

rebels, it would provide an ideal springboard for what they call the