1. Exterior International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters

2. Close up of Olympic symbol over entrance

3. Wideshot of presser

4. Midshot of presser

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Francois Carrard, Director-General International Olympic Committee

"The IOC Executive Board has decided to accept today the cities of - I give them in an order which is the order of presentation so please do not deduct any mysterious combinations because this was an order which was drawn - the cities of Vancouver, British Columbia; Salzburg, Austria; Bern, Switzerland, and Pyeongchang, South Korea were accepted as candidate cities to host the 21st winter Olympic Games in 2010."

6. Cutaway

7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Francois Carrard, Director-General International Olympic Committee

"There is no discussion. Again, I think our president is very clear, as soon as this matter came out he immediately decided to investigate, he immediately asked the Ethics Commission to enter, he immediately instructed me and others to investigate everywhere. And so there would be no point to start discussing assumptions of results or whatever as long as we don't know who did what."

8. Cutaway

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Francois Carrard, Director-General International Olympic Committee

"This was in response to certain rumours saying is the figure skating, as such, in question as a sport. There has never been any proposal to remove it but there were rumours circulating and during this discussion we quite firmly said there is no such proposal and it remains on the sport. And Mr Carrar in anticipation disclosed to us just that figure skating is not being questioned either by the programme commission. We will have the full report by Mr Carrar tonight."

10. Cutaway

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Francois Carrard, Director-General International Olympic Committee

"The IOC Executive Board also decided this morning, on the basis of a report by the Ethics Commission, to propose the exclusion of Mr Hasan. This exclusion will be decided upon by the session in Mexico in November."

12. Cutaway

13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Egon Winkler, chief executive of Austrian 2010 olympic bid

"The fact that Salzburg is among the candidates is fantastic news not only for me but it is also wonderful news for Salzburg and the whole of Austria because I think Olympic winter games have a dimension for the whole country."

Q: Will you be ready?

"We are certainly ready. Up to now we have prepared ourselves very well and I think this is proven by the fact that we are now a candidate city and we will certainly work very hard because we find that now as an obligation to work very hard to convince the members of the IOC in July next year that we are very good."

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kim Nam-Soo, managing director of Korean 2010 Olympic bid

"I am very pleased and proud of being chosen as a candidate city for the 2010 winter Olympics. We understand Pyeongchang, South Korea has the capability to host the 2010 winter olympics

15. Exterior of IOC headquarters

The front-running cities of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Salzburg, Austria, were among four finalists selected on Wednesday in the race for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Bern, Switzerland, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, also made the cut as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board halved the field of eight candidates to a short list of official bidders.

Eliminated from the race were Andorra La Vella, Andorra; Harbin, China; Jaca, Spain, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The 2010 winner will be selected by the full IOC assembly at its session in Prague, Czech Republic, in July, 2003.

Meanwhile, the IOC confirmed that figure skating would remain in the Olympics despite the judging and fixing scandals which tainted the sport at the Salt Lake City Games.

Director general Francois Carrard said the executive board declared its support for skating to dispel speculation the sport could be kicked out of the games.

Also announced from the IOC's Swiss headquarters, was the decision of the executive board to recommend the expulsion of Indonesian committee member Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

Hasan, a business partner of former Indonesian strongman Suharto and an IOC member since 1994, is in an Indonesian jail serving a six-year sentence on corruption charges.

The final decision to exclude Hasan must be made by the full session of the IOC, meeting in Mexico in November.