The man viewed as the favourite to be voted in as the new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has brushed off allegations in his home country Germany over his conduct during his days as a fencer.
Thomas Bach, who won a gold medal in 1976 as part of the foil team, is the front-runner to succeed Jacques Rogge as the most powerful man in world sport.
A documentary on German TV has accused Bach of wearing a wet glove to fool the electronic scoring system.
A spokesman for Bach said the claims were "nonsense".
Bach is standing against five other men for the position – Sergei Bubka (Ukraine), Richard Carrion (Puerto Rico), Ser Miang Ng (Singapore), Denis Oswald (Switzerland) and C-K Wu (Taiwan).
Meanwhile, Britain's IOC member Adam Pengilly has revealed that a number of athletes pleaded with him not to vote for Madrid and to a lesser extent Istanbul for the 2020 Olympic host city due to doping scandals.
Tokyo won the vote on Saturday with a comfortable majority and Pengilly asked probing questions to both its rivals.
He said that Madrid failed to give a clear answer over the Operation Puerto scandal, where a court has ordered a number of suspect blood bags belonging to athletes be destroyed rather than tested.
The former skeleton racer, who is on the IOC Athletes Commission, said: "I asked anti-doping questions because those needed to be answered by both the Madrid and Istanbul bids and on Fukushima by Tokyo.
"A number of athletes, most of them British, had asked me not to vote for Madrid because of the Puerto situation.
"I asked what would they say to those athletes who were potentially cheated out of success by those anonymous bags and no I didn't get a clear answer on that."
Pengilly admitted that he had to tread a fine line between asking tough questions and not upsetting other IOC members.
"There is that potential and I am aware I have to be a bit delicate if I upset my fellow members - otherwise my relationship and influence would be diminished," he said.
"So there is a balance to be had in representing the people who elected me and being honest and frank and getting clear answers when we need them but doing it in a way that's not going to upset them."
Rio organisers under fire
Rio's preparations for the 2016 Summer Olympics came under fire from the IOC members for the first time in public on Sunday.
Carlos Nuzman, the Brazilian IOC member, was put under pressure after presenting an update on Rio's progress where he insisted they would be ready on time but that a lot of work still lay ahead.
Nawal El Moutawakel, the IOC Coordination Commission chief, conceded while progress had been made there was room for improvement.
The 51-year-old Moroccan, the inaugural winner of the women's Olympic 400m hurdles title in 1984, said the organisers should learn lessons from the protests that took place during Brazil's hosting of the Confederations Cup earlier this year.
Hundreds of thousands demonstrators turned out over weeks to protest higher mass transit fares and call for better public services, including transportation, and complained about the vast investment being made in the World Cup next year and the Olympics.
"Over recent months, the social and political environment and operations have significantly changed," said El Moutawakel, who visited Rio with her fellow members of the Commission last week.
"There is a need, more than ever before, that all stakeholders need to work together.
"Key decisions need to be made collectively and communicated with one voice."
El Moutawakel, a former sports minister in Morocco, said that she still felt Rio could put together a great Games.
"We remain confident Rio and Brazil have the resources and the energy and ambition to deliver a memorable Olympic Games in 2016."
Kevan Gosper, the veteran Australian IOC member and head of the Press Commission, was not so guarded and, admitting it was not easy as Nuzman was a 'friend of his', warned his colleague things needed to improve quickly in terms of getting their message across to the people of Rio.
"I'm still concerned with the delay related to your press operations. It took you three-and-a-half years to appoint a media chief," said the 79 year old, who won a silver medal in the 4x400 metres relay at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
"You simply have to keep your public aware about what's happening.
"If the community doesn't get it, you'll have a repeat of what you've had [protests]."
Their concerns echoed those of some other IOC members who said that they had voted for Tokyo ahead of Istanbul to host the 2020 Games on Saturday because of the slow progress being made by Rio and did not want to have to endure the possibility of a repeat of that for the following edition.
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MATCH INFO
Liverpool 4 (Salah (pen 4, 33', & pen 88', Van Dijk (20')
Leeds United 3 (Harrison 12', Bamford 30', Klich 66')
Man of the match Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
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The specs
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Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
Keane on …
Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League bid: “They’re great. With the attacking force they have, for me, they’re certainly one of the favourites. You look at the teams left in it - they’re capable of scoring against anybody at any given time. Defensively they’ve been good, so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t go on and win it.”
Mohamed Salah’s debut campaign at Anfield: “Unbelievable. He’s been phenomenal. You can name the front three, but for him on a personal level, he’s been unreal. He’s been great to watch and hopefully he can continue now until the end of the season - which I’m sure he will, because he’s been in fine form. He’s been incredible this season.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s instant impact at former club LA Galaxy: “Brilliant. It’s been a great start for him and for the club. They were crying out for another big name there. They were lacking that, for the prestige of LA Galaxy. And now they have one of the finest stars. I hope they can go win something this year.”
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The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
Day 5, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Given the problems Sri Lanka have had in recent times, it was apt the winning catch was taken by Dinesh Chandimal. He is one of seven different captains Sri Lanka have had in just the past two years. He leads in understated fashion, but by example. His century in the first innings of this series set the shock win in motion.
Stat of the day This was the ninth Test Pakistan have lost in their past 11 matches, a run that started when they lost the final match of their three-Test series against West Indies in Sharjah last year. They have not drawn a match in almost two years and 19 matches, since they were held by England at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi in 2015.
The verdict Mickey Arthur basically acknowledged he had erred by basing Pakistan’s gameplan around three seam bowlers and asking for pitches with plenty of grass in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Why would Pakistan want to change the method that has treated them so well on these grounds in the past 10 years? It is unlikely Misbah-ul-Haq would have made the same mistake.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
MORE ON THE US DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES
GROUPS AND FIXTURES
Group A
UAE, Italy, Japan, Spain
Group B
Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Russia
Tuesday
4.15pm: Italy v Japan
5.30pm: Spain v UAE
6.45pm: Egypt v Russia
8pm: Iran v Mexico
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Volvo ES90 Specs
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Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The specs
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Torque: 450Nm
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Lexus LX700h specs
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