From wire and staff reports The IOC late Wednesday decided in Lausanne, Switzerland, to let Osaka and Istanbul, Turkey, stay in the race for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The move came a day after the two cities were all but ruled out of the running and only hours after the IOC was reported to be pondering whether it should ask Osaka and Istanbul officials to drop their bids.
In an official evaluation report assessing the five finalist cities, Beijing, Toronto and Paris were rated as "excellent" bids, while Osaka and Istanbul were deemed unprepared to stage the games.