Doping: WADA team takes 3,000 Russia samples

Around 3,000 samples have been taken from Russian athletes by officials investigating claims of widespread doping in the country.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) launched its investigation following allegations made in a German television documentary.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko confirmed a WADA commission had now visited the country at his request.

He said: “They took around 3,000 samples to be checked in laboratories.”

Mutko told the sports agency R-Sport: “I wrote a letter to WADA, in which I said very precisely that we were open to receiving any commission and ready to show everything.

“A commission from WADA has already been to visit us, which included three people who were led by the director of science.

“We will continue to work along this route and we are completely open.”

Programmes aired by the German broadcaster ARD in December contained a number of allegations including one claim that as many as 99% of Russian athletes were doping.

There were also allegations of cover-ups from within Russian athletics, while the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) came in for criticism.

It was claimed that a list of 150 suspicious blood samples, including one from a top British athlete, were not properly investigated by the sport’s world governing body.

The allegations were denounced as “lies” by Russia’s Athletics Federation, while the IAAF launched its own inquiry, reports the BBC.

Earlier this month, WADA announced its former chief Dick Pound would head up an investigatory commission looking into the German documentary’s claims but said it would not start work until January 1.

Bill Cosby finally speaks out against sexual assault claims

Cosby spoke to the New York Post from his home in Massachusetts.

Bill Cosby has spoken out for the first time against allegations of sexual abuse, saying he only expects the “black media” to remain “neutral”.

In an interview with the New York Post, the comedian praised his wife Camille for her “strength” in standing by him.

Cosby, who has been accused of assault by more than a dozen women, said he’d been advised not to discuss the claims.

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“They don’t want me talking to the media” ….Bill Cosby

The 77-year-old actor declined to address the allegations but asked reporters to remain impartial.

“I only expect the black media to uphold the standards of excellence in journalism and when you do that you have to go in with a neutral mind,” Cosby said.

New York Post reporter Stacy Brown said the actor sounded “upbeat” on the phone from his home in Massachusetts.

He said “love and the strength of womanhood,” had helped him weather the controversy.

“Let me say it again, love and the strength of womanhood. And you could reverse it, the strength of womanhood and love.”

But the actor later cut his conversation short, saying: “They don’t want me talking to the media.”

Police in Los Angeles have recently opened an investigation into claims made by Judy Huth that Cosby molested her when she was 15 years old.

In her legal action, Ms Huth claimed the actor gave her alcohol and forced her to perform a sex act on him in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974.

Cosby is counter-suing the 55-year-old, saying she attempted to extort money from him, and has described her claims as “absolutely false”.

His lawyers, who have continued to deny the allegations, recently issued a strongly worded statement condemning the “media frenzy”.

The actor has never been charged with a crime but the accusations have led to his stand-up tour being called off and the cancellation of a number of TV projects.

D’Banj don broke ?

Singer-songwriter, harmonica player, and businessman, Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo (D’Banj) has rubbished the recent allegations that he is in a multiple debt.

The multiple-award winner took to twitter to react to the allegations.

He tweeted: ‘Silence. Here is my response to the false rumors’, with a link to the newly released music video of Oritsefemi’s Double Wahala Part 2.

It will be recalled that a section of the media reported that the pop star seems to be going through an unpleasant period in his career as some people who claim to be owed by D’banj are threatening a legal action against him.