BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's government announced on Wednesday it would withdraw Budapest's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, citing a lack of political and national unity behind the application that it blamed on the opposition. "For Budapest and Hungary the Olympics is a national issue," the government said in a resolution published on national news agency MTI. The IOC said it would await official notification from the national Olympic committee of the country, the only authority which can officially withdraw a bid. The Hungarian government's decision, however, is a further blow to the Olympic bid process with Boston, Hamburg and Rome having pulled out of a race that has now been left with just two cities. Sentiment changed as a group of young professionals and students collected more than a quarter of a million signatures in a month to press for a referendum on the Olympic bid.

Source: The Star February 22, 2017 21:22 UTC