Doping culture in cycling 'still exists' according to Circ report
Cycling continues to struggle with widespread doping, according to a landmark report into the sport's troubled recent history.
Set up last January to investigate how cycling so badly lost its way during the 1990s and 2000s, the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (Circ) has heavily criticised the sport's leadership throughout that era.
Its 227-page report, published on Monday, clears the International Cycling Union's (UCI) bosses of outright corruption but censures them for a litany of failings.
Foremost among these are that the UCI did not really want to catch cheats and therefore turned a blind eye to anything but the worst excesses.
The report's authors also accuse former UCI presidents Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid of failing to follow their own anti-doping rules and showing preferential treatment to disgraced former champion Lance Armstrong.
‘Do mention the war,’ Merkel urges Japanese
Tokyo speech by German leader comes amid speculation that Japanese PM may water down previous expressions of remorse
Angela Merkel has urged Japan to confront its wartime conduct, citing Germany’s ability to “face our history” and reconcile with victims of its Nazi past.
The German chancellor’s diplomatic nudge came amid speculation that Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, may water down previous expressions of remorse in a new official statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war, and risk inflaming tensions with its neighbours.
In a speech in Tokyo organised by the liberal newspaper the Asahi Shimbun, Merkel referred to the words of the late German president Richard von Weizsaecker who in a 1985 speech called Germany’s wartime defeat a “day of liberation” and said those who sought to deny Germany’s Nazi past were “blind to the present”.
Indonesia set to execute two Australians and paranoid schizophrenic for drug smuggling
US tourists arrested for scratching initials on Colosseum
The Californians scratched their initials into the Roman amphitheatre and took a selfie
Tourists are once again getting into trouble in Italy, with two American women caught carving their names into Rome’s Colosseum.
The Californians, aged 21 and 25, snuck away from their tour group on Saturday and began scratching their initials into the amphitheatre with a coin. They managed a “J” and an “N” around 8cm high, before taking a selfie with their handiwork.
Police were quick to catch the two Americans and report them for damaging the ancient site. The women may now go in front of a judge and face a penalty.
Defacing the walls is strictly forbidden, as pointed out on signs in both English and Italian. But some visitors think little of breaking the rules as they view the crumbling monument differently from other top sites such as the Vatican, said a spokesman for the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome.
Spratlys expansion is 'necessary construction': China
March 8, 2015Philip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
Beijing: China's foreign minister has delivered a blunt rebuttal of criticism over its land reclamation on disputed isles in the South China Sea, a policy which has sparked diplomatic anger and has been cast by neighbours as evidence of Beijing's territorial aggression.
Marked out by its so-called nine-dash line, China lays claim to much of the South China Sea, stretching into the maritime heart of South East Asia.
While consistently denying that China has ambitions to upset the international order, it has undertaken extensive reclamation work on reefs in the Spratly islands. Satellite images show land mass has expanded five-fold, as well as evidence of strategic architecture including airstrips, helipads and ports.
Chad, Niger launch ground and air offensive against Boko Haram
By Aminu Abubakar, CNN
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) Hundreds of troops from Chad and Niger launched a ground and aerial offensive against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, according to residents and military sources from Niger.
The sweeping offensive is taking place along the Niger-Nigeria border, sources said, effectively opening a new front in the fight against the Islamist terror group.
This comes a day after Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in an audio message purported to be from leader Abubakar Shekau.
"Early this morning, troops from Niger and Chad launched ground and air raids against Boko Haram into Nigeria, and the operation is still continuing," said a military official in the border town of Diffa, Niger.
"It is an intensive operation that is aimed at pulverizing Boko Haram and crippling their capability," according to the source. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly about the operation.
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