AMERIKA ROGUE STATE 

Ramping up fight, Trump authorizes sanctions over ICC war crimes probe

POOL/AFP / YURI GRIPASUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses reporters on the International Criminal Court alongside Attorney General William Barr

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered sanctions against any official at the International Criminal Court who investigates US troops, ramping up pressure to stop its case into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

In an executive order, Trump said the United States would block all US property and assets of anyone in the Hague-based tribunal involved in probing or prosecuting US troops.

"We cannot -- we will not -- stand by as our people are threatened by a kangaroo court," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement to reporters.

"I have a message to many close allies around the world -- your people could be next, especially those from NATO countries who fought terrorism in Afghanistan right alongside of us."

Attorney General Bill Barr alleged without giving detail that Russia and other adversaries of the United States have been "manipulating" the court to serve their own agenda.

Using the language of Trump's "America First" principle, Barr said that the administration was trying to bring accountability to an international institution.

ANP/AFP/File / Jerry LAMPENFormer Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo arrives at the courtroom prior to the opening of a hearing of the International Criminal Court in February 2020

"This institution has become, in practice, little more than a political tool employed by unaccountable international elites," he said.

Human Rights Watch said that Trump's order "demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law."

"This assault on the ICC is an effort to block victims of serious crimes whether in Afghanistan, Israel or Palestine from seeing justice," said the group's Washington director, Andrea Prasow.

"Countries that support international justice should publicly oppose this blatant attempt at obstruction," she said.

Trump has been tearing down global institutions he sees as hindering his administration's interests, recently ordering a pullout from the World Health Organization over its coronavirus response.

In The Hague, a spokesperson said the court was "aware" of the announcement from Washington and would react after examining it.

- Long-running US anger -

The Trump administration has been livid over the International Criminal Court's investigation into atrocities in Afghanistan, the longest-running war of the United States.

The administration has also voiced anger over the ICC's moves to probe alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories by close US ally Israel.

"The ICC is a failed institution. The court is ineffective, non-accountable and is a politically motivated bureaucracy," said Robert O'Brien, Trump's national security advisor.

AFP/File / STRA wounded Afghan National Army soldier rests inside a hospital after an attack a base in Paktia province in May 2020

The administration last year revoked the US visa of the court's chief prosecutor, Gambian-born Fatou Bensouda, to demand that she end the Afghanistan probe.

But judges in March said the investigation could go ahead, overturning an initial rejection of Bensouda's request.

Under Trump's order on Thursday, visa restrictions will be expanded to any court official involved in investigations into US forces.

The United States argues that it has its own procedures in place to investigate accusations against troops.

"We are committed to uncovering, and if possible holding people accountable, for their wrongdoing -- any wrongdoing," Barr said.

Trump, however, used his executive powers last year to clear three military members over war crimes, including in Afghanistan.

Among them was Eddie Gallagher, who had been convicted by a military tribunal of stabbing to death with a hunting knife a prisoner of war from the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Gallagher had become a cause celebre among US conservatives, although Trump's action troubled some in the US military.

Founded in 2002, the International Criminal Court was set up with a mission to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

But it immediately ran into opposition from Washington, where the then administration of George W. Bush actively encouraged countries to shun the court.

President Barack Obama took a more cooperative approach with the court but the United States remained outside of it.

Faced with US criticism, the court has focused its efforts on Africa. Pompeo mocked the court for securing few convictions and for judges' past calls for pay hikes.

"This record of botched prosecutions and poor judgment casts grave doubt on the court's ability to function at the most basic level," he said.

Embattled at home, Pompeo and Barr 

lash out at foreign foe

Trump administration to impose 

sanctions against the International 

Criminal Court

Alexander Nazaryan

National Correspondent,

Yahoo News•June 11, 2020

WASHINGTON — A defiant Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the International Criminal Court as a “highly politicized” institution on Thursday morning as he announced new sanctions against it for its investigation into potential war crimes by U.S. forces during the years-long conflict in Afghanistan.

“We cannot, we will not stand by as our people are threatened by a kangaroo court,” Pompeo said. He was joined at the press conference by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, U.S. Attorney General William Barr and national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

In his own remarks, Barr noted that the United States would pay no heed to a body he described as guided by “unaccountable international elites.” The court is based in The Hague.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, holds a joint news conference on the International Criminal Court with U.S. Attorney General William Barr at the State Department on Thursday. (Yuri Gripas/AFP via Getty Images)

The United States has never been a party to the Rome Statute, which in 1998 created the court to prosecute “the most serious crimes of international concern,” including war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggressive war and acts of genocide. Past indictments have named Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and Moammar Gadhafi, the Lybian dictator.

The new U.S. measures include “economic sanctions against International Criminal Court officials directly engaged with any effort to investigate or prosecute United States personnel without the consent of the United States,” according to an announcement released by the White House. In addition, both ICC officials and their family members will face “visa restrictions.”

Speaking some minutes later, Pompeo said that “it gives us no joy to punish them,” but argued that it would be insensible to allow ICC officials and their families to “to come to the United States, to shop, travel and otherwise enjoy American freedoms as these same officials think to prosecute the defender of those very freedoms.”

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah did not immediately respond to a Yahoo News request for comment about the sanctions on its officials.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. While the Taliban government was quickly toppled, armed hostilities have continued for nearly two decades, killing as many as 157,00 people and 2,353 members of the U.S. armed forces. In February, President Trump signed a deal with the Taliban that would effectively conclude U.S. military occupation of the war-torn nation, though this week a senior military commander said the conditions for U.S. withdrawal have not yet been met.

Members of the U.S. military have been accused of killing civilians, including children, in its airstrikes, while the CIA operated a torture facility in Afghanistan in the early days of the war. Most such excesses took place during the presidencies of George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, who did not bring the war to the conclusion he had once promised.

Trump has expressed skepticism of foreign military intervention, but he is just as skeptical of oversight by foreign bodies like the ICC. “Rest assured that the men and women of the United States Armed Forces will never appear before the ICC,” Esper said in his remarks on Thursday morning.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, and Attorney General William Barr, left, speaks at Thursday’s joint news conference on the International Criminal Court. (Yuri Gripas/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s unclear why the Trump administration is choosing the present time to pursue sanctions, since there hasn’t been any indication that the U.S. would comply with the results of an ICC investigation into its conduct in the Afghanistan War.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in 2017 asked to investigate “alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.” Her investigations would have included not only U.S. forces — and the Central Intelligence Agency — but also the Taliban and the Afghan National Security Forces.

ICC judges rejected her request last year. But that decision was overturned in March, meaning that Bensouda’s investigation could proceed.

News of the new sanctions comes as Barr and Esper are facing intense questioning over their participation in the clearing of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, last week. Pompeo, meanwhile, has been hounded by accusations over the firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.

Barr speaks at Thursday’s joint news conference as Pompeo looks on. (Yuri Gripas/AFP via Getty Images)

Linick was conducting investigations into Pompeo, a close Trump ally of considerable political ambition.

Speaking yesterday, Pompeo denounced Linick as a “bad actor” who “didn’t take on the mission of the State Department to make us better.” Linick has alleged that Pompeo’s deputies attempted to intimidate him into dropping investigations into an armaments deal with Saudi Arabia, and abuse of State Department resources by Pompeo and his wife. Linick was conducting five investigations into Pompeo at the time that he was fired.

Pompeo’s comments about the ICC were hardly less combative than the previous day’s remarks on Linick, with the secretary of state branding the court “grossly ineffective and corrupt.”

The sanctions will only deepen long-standing hostility between Washington and the Netherlands-based court.

Bush was resistant to any U.S. collaboration with the ICC, but even Obama, despite his internationalist leanings, made no move for the U.S. to join the court. And when, for example, U.S. forces were sent in 2014 to the African nation of Mali for peacekeeping efforts, Obama signed a memorandum asserting that U.S. troops were operating “without risk of criminal prosecution or other assertion of jurisdiction” on the part of the ICC.

Hug me tender: scientists unlock the secret to the perfect cuddle

AFP / TORU YAMANAKA

Don't squeeze too tight Daddy!

In this era of social distancing and depressing news, we could all do with a good hug. Now scientists have analysed what makes the perfect cuddle -- just don't squeeze too tight.

A team from Japan's Toho University measured the calming effect on infants of hugs of different pressures, and when given by strangers compared to from parents.

By monitoring heart rates for the infant and using pressure sensors on the adult's hand, the researchers assessed the baby's reaction to just being held, a hug with medium pressure, and what they called a "tight hug."

According to the results, published in the journal Cell, babies were soothed more by a medium-pressure hug than just being held but the calming effect decreased during a "tight" hug.

The researchers kept the length of the hug to 20 seconds as "it was almost impossible to avoid infant's bad mood during a one-minute or longer hold or hug," they admitted in their paper.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, for infants older than 125 days, the calming effect was greater when receiving a hug from a parent than from a female stranger.

So, the perfect hug is considered to be medium pressure from a parent, the scientists believe.

The infants are not the only ones who feel the benefits of a comforting hug, the research showed.

Parents also exhibited significant signs of calmness while hugging their child.

It is known that a hormone called oxytocin, sometimes known as the "love hormone", is released during close physical contact but the researchers said the time period of their hug experiment was too short for this to play a role.

The scientists believe their research is the first time the physiological impact of hugging infants has been measured and say their work should advance knowledge of parent-child bonding and child psychology.

There could also be an application in the early detection of autism, Hiromasa Funato, one of the researchers on the team, told AFP.

The research centres on the various sensory inputs received during a hug -- this is what alters the heart rate, explained Funato.

"Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in sensory integration and social recognition," he said.

"Therefore, our simple hug experiment might be utilised in the early screening of the autonomic function (that regulates unconscious bodily processes), sensory integration, and development of social recognition in infants with high familial risk for ASD," concluded the scientist.

JK Rowling says she is survivor of sexual assault

AFP / Angela WeissJK Rowling says she has suffered domestic abuse and sexual abuse in the past

"Harry Potter" author JK Rowling revealed on Wednesday she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

The celebrated British writer said in a blog post that she was disclosing the information to give context to her controversial past comments about transgender women.

"This isn't an easy piece to write," Rowling said in a 3,695-word essay on gender identity and her own troubled past.

"I've been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor," Rowling wrote.

"This isn't because I'm ashamed those things happened to me, but because they're traumatic to revisit and remember."

Rowling caused a scandal by tweeting last weekend about "people who menstruate".

"I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"

The tweet forced "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe to apologise to trans women who may have been offended by Rowling's remark.

"Transgender women are women," Radcliffe wrote in a post for The Trevor Project website.

The feud dated back to comments from December in which Rowling expressed support for a woman who had lost her job over what her employer deemed to be "transphobic" tweets.

Rowling said on Wednesday that "accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline" ever since.

"Huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists; I know this because so many have got in touch with me to tell their stories," she wrote.

Rowling ended her post by affirming that she was "a survivor (and) certainly not a victim".

"I haven't written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one," she said.

"I've only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions."

- 'Mentally sexless' -

Rowling said she had spent many years thinking about trans issues because of her own troubles with gender identity when she was young.

"When I read about the theory of gender identity, I remember how mentally sexless I felt in youth," she wrote.

"As I didn't have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens."

The 54-year-old said she spent a period feeling "ambivalence about being a woman" before learning that "it's OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are".

She also argued that "the current explosion of trans activism" has resulted in too many people undergoing gender reassignment surgery without giving it sufficient thought.

"I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I'm also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90 percent of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria," she said.

"So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make... girls and women less safe."

But she also stood up for her right to speak freely about an issue that she said has been with her throughout life.

"As a much-banned author, I'm interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump," she wrote.

Rowling's books have been banned in parts of the world because of their association in some cultures with witchcraft and the occult.

HOW COME NO ONE DISCUSSES TRANSMEN?

Overworked, underpaid Brazil nurses risk lives to care for patients


AFP / Mauro PimentelNurse Hans Bossan puts on his PPE to go inside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Doctor Ernesto Che Guevara Public Hospital, where patients infected with COVID-19 are being treated, in Marica, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on June 6, 2020

Hans Bossan is 40 hours into his 72-hour work week, but despite his marathon nursing shifts and the pandemic claiming an alarming number of his colleagues' lives in Brazil, he barely looks tired.

Bossan works three jobs to provide for his wife and two-year-old daughter -- at two different hospitals and a mobile emergency unit.

Double and triple shifts like his are not unusual in Brazil, where the average salary for nurses, nursing assistants and health care technicians is just 3,000 reals ($600) a month for a 30- to 44-hour work week.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has thrust health care workers into the spotlight around the world, has in Brazil also highlighted the plight of nurses, who often face bad working conditions and are now getting sick and dying from COVID-19 at a startling rate.

"Nursing was always an overworked profession, and this pandemic has just made things worse," said Bossan, 41.

"We're highly undervalued. Nurses deal directly with patients, with the virus, we're on the front lines of the war. But not everyone realizes that," he told AFP at his home in a poor neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Nurses have been hit particularly hard as Brazil has become the latest epicenter in the pandemic, with 39,680 deaths, behind only the United States and Britain.

Around 18,000 nurses in Brazil have been infected with COVID-19, and at least 181 have died -- among the highest numbers in the world, according to the International Council of Nurses.



AFP / Mauro PimentelHealth professionals check a patient infected with COVID-19 at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Doctor Ernesto Che Guevara Public Hospital in Marica, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on June 6, 2020


Last month, nurses protested in the capital, Brasilia, against the poor working conditions they blame for contributing to their colleagues' deaths.


Brazil accounts for nearly one-third of the 600 deaths among nurses and other health professionals registered worldwide by the International Council of Nurses, though the organization says many countries are not doing enough to track the real number.


- 'Anxiety and depression' -


More than 80 percent of Brazil's 2.3 million nurses are women.


Often they work double and triple shifts caring for patients and then go home to care for their own families -- now with the added worry of infecting them.


"It's a time of great anxiety and depression" for the profession, said Nadia Mattos, vice president of Brazil's Federal Nursing Council (Cofen).







AFP / Mauro PimentelNurse Hans Bossan plays with his daughter after his shift at one of his three jobs assisting patients infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), at their house in Sao Goncalo, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on June 3, 2020

When the initial flood of cases hit Brazil's hospitals, health care workers faced shortages of protective equipment and inadequate training on dealing with the new virus, she said.

Although the situation has improved with time, "we're still getting lots of complaints about lack of protective gear or low-quality equipment," she said.

The council has set up virtual psychological counseling for nurses, available 24 hours a day.

The group has also pushed for years for nurses' minimum salary to be increased to $1,200 a month, double the current average.

- Heroes without capes -

One of Bossan's jobs is in the intensive care unit at Che Guevara Hospital in Marica, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) outside Rio.

Working behind a face shield with a mask underneath, he monitored the constantly beeping machines helping to keep his patients alive.

One of them, 56-year-old Eliane Lima, thanked her health care team from behind her oxygen mask.


AFP / Mauro Pimentel(L-R) Amanda, Claudia, Hans Bossan, Tatiana and Erika, of the nurse team of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Doctor Ernesto Che Guevara Public Hospital, where patients infected with COVID-19 are being treated, pose for a portrait, in Brazil

"The doctors and nurses are excellent here. They take care of us with a lot of love. It's badly needed in a place like this," she said.

Outside, in the semi-intensive care ward, nurse technician Flavia Menezes summed up her profession thus: "It's the art of caring for people."

"Not all heroes wear capes," she added.

Frankfurt wear 'Black Lives Matter' logo on shirts in German Cup semi
 

POOL/AFP / Kai PFAFFENBACH

Eintracht Frankfurt defender Martin Hinteregger wears a shirt referencing the Black Lives Matter movement prior to the German Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich

Eintracht Frankfurt wore playing shirts supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in Wednesday's German Cup semi-final, while opponents Bayern Munich warmed up in T-shirts bearing the same anti-racism message.

"Our team and the whole of Eintracht Frankfurt are united against all forms of racism and we want to show that publicly today," explained Frankfurt director Fredi Bobic before kick-off behind closed doors.

Frankfurt's shirts bearing the logo "#BlackLivesMatter" is the latest sign of solidarity from the Bundesliga in the wake of the death of black American George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a fortnight ago at the hands of police.

The Bayern team warmed-up before their home semi-final in white T-shirts bearing the #BlackLivesMatter logo and "Rot Gegen Rassismus" (Red against Racism), referring to their famous playing strip.

The corner flags at Bayern's Allianz Arena also carried the same messages.

Borussia Dortmund also wore warm-up T-Shirts showing solidarity for the protests, which have taken place in cities across the US and around the world, before their league match last weekend.

They were among the Bundesliga clubs who also knelt on one knee before kick-off in their league matches at the weekend.

Floyd, who was buried on Monday, died when a policeman kneeled on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the end of May and his death, caught on video, sparked waves of protests.

US Soccer repeals anthem kneeling ban: official

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / Kevin C. Cox

The US Soccer Federation has overturned a rule requiring players to stand during the US national anthem which had been introduced after Megan Rapinoe took a knee in 2016

The United States Soccer Federation said Wednesday it has scrapped a controversial policy banning players from kneeling during the national anthem.

In a statement, US Soccer said the rule introduced in 2017 was wrong, and reflected a failure of the federation to address the concerns of black people and minorities.

The USSF rule mandating that players must "stand respectfully" during the national anthem was introduced three years ago.

It came after US women's team star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the anthem at a 2016 international in a gesture of solidarity with former NFL star Colin Kaepernick.

"It has become clear that this policy was wrong and detracted from the important message of Black Lives Matter," the USSF said Wednesday as it announced the rule had been repealed.

"We have not done enough to listen - especially to our players - to understand and acknowledge the very real and meaningful experiences of Black and other minority communities in our country.

"We apologize to our players - especially our Black players - staff, fans, and all who support eradicating racism.

"Sports are a powerful platform for good, and we have not used our platform as effectively as we should have. We can do more on these specific issues and we will."

The USSF had faced mounting pressure to review the no-kneeling policy on the heels of nationwide protests which have swept through the United States following the death in police custody of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

On Monday, the powerful United States Women's National Team Players Association had called on the USSF to repeal its policy and issue an apology.

Kaepernick's take-a-knee protest has become an emblematic expression of solidarity adopted during demonstrations which have rippled across the globe.

Kaepernick had begun kneeling during the anthem in August 2016 in order to draw attention to racial injustice following the deaths of several unarmed black men during confrontations with police.

He was later released by the San Francisco 49ers in early 2017 and has not played a minute in the NFL since.

US Soccer meanwhile said it would now allow its players to protest as they see fit.

"It should be, and will be going forward, up to our players to determine how they can best use their platforms to fight all forms of racism, discrimination, and inequality," the federation said.

"We are here for our players and are ready to support them in elevating their efforts to achieve social justice.

"We cannot change the past, but we can make a difference in the future. We are committed to this change effort, and we will be implementing supporting actions in the near future."

11JUN2020 

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-us-womens-national-team-is_11.html

Ancient eye-popping martial art gains popularity in modern Vietnam
WILL THEY BECOMING TO THE MMA

AFP / Manan VATSYAYANALe Van Thang, 28, student of the centuries-old martial art of Thien Mon Dao, bends a construction rebar against his eye socket inside the Bach Linh temple compound at Du Xa Thuong village in Hanoi

In a sunny temple courtyard in Vietnam, Le Van Thang pushes an iron rod hard against his eye socket and tries to make it bend -- his dizzying strength honed through years of practising centuries-old martial art Thien Mon Dao.

Thang, 28, is one of an increasing number of Vietnamese to find refuge in a sport that grew out of a need to protect the country from invaders, but now offers a route to mental wellbeing in the rapidly changing Communist nation.

Practitioners of Thien Mon Dao have long taken pride in the incredible shows of strength that form part of their routines.

The eye-popping feats include bending metal against their bodies, carrying heavy objects using their throats and lying under the path of motorbikes.

AFP / Manan VATSYAYANAA spectator touches an iron bar bent around the head of a student of the centuries-old martial art of Thien Mon Dao at the Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi

Now many say they also take pleasure from how the sport -- which includes elements of self-defence, kung fu and weapons training -- has steered them on a new course.

Thang, a furniture seller who first began practising eight years ago, said he used to get into fights in high school and was also a gambler.

"Once I stole money from my family but after that, I was brought to Thien Mon Dao by my family and I changed," he told AFP.

"There are so many benefits: I learned how to express my ideas, how to walk properly and behave."

AFP / Manan VATSYAYANAThien Mon Dao martial arts students practise inside the Bach Linh temple compound at Du Xa Thuong village in Hanoi

Thien Mon Dao has roots going back to the 10th century, according to master Nguyen Khac Phan, whose school trains in the complex of an ornate temple on the outskirts of Hanoi. But he says the first official practice of the sport was recorded in the 18th century.

In recent years it's seen a surge in popularity, he adds, with up to three new clubs set up in the capital each year.

Vietnam currently has around 30,000 Thien Mon Dao practitioners across the country, Phan estimates, with occasional public performances helping boost the sport's appeal.

AFP / Manan VATSYAYANAMaster Nguyen Khac Phan (front) leads students through a training class in centuries-old martial art Thien Mon Dao inside the Bach Linh temple compound at Du Xa Thuong village in Hanoi

"People come for different purposes but mostly they want to improve their health and mental health," added Phan, who has been teaching the sport since the early 1990s.

"Learning martial arts can help people see life in a better way, improve their strength... give up their mistakes to aim for better things," he said.

From tiny children who have barely started school to people in their eighties, Thien Mon Dao embraces anyone who wants to kick their way up through 18 different levels and seven belts.

Sixteen-year-old Vu Thi Ngoc Diep, one of around 10 women training at the temple compound, said the sport had also given her a way to fight gender stereotypes.

"Southeast Asian people think that girls should be gentle and not suitable for learning martial arts," she said. "But I see it differently."

Ex-head of track and field says hid doping cases to help sport's finances

CRIMINAL CAPITALISM
THE OLYMPICS &THE OLIGARCHS

AFP / Thomas SAMSON

Lamine Diack is accused of hiding Russian doping tests in return for payments totalling millions of dollars

The former head of global track and field, Lamine Diack, told his corruption trial on Thursday he had agreed to delay and stagger bans for Russian athletes caught doping for the sake of the sport's "financial health".

But Diack, who headed the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for 16 years, denied he had known officials from his federation had directly or indirectly asked Russian athletes for hundreds of thousands of euros to hush up their cases.

Diack, an 87-year-old Senegalese, told a court in Paris it was his decision to delay bans after 23 Russian athletes failed tests in 2011.

"It was mainly for the financial health of the IAAF," he said.

"The financial health of the IAAF had to be safeguarded and I was prepared to make that compromise."

Diack has admitted that doping bans were delayed in order to allow Russian athletes to compete in the 2012 London Olympics and the world championships in Moscow the following year.

The aim was to prevent the cases derailing talks with prospective Russian sponsors including state-owned bank VTB and the RTR broadcaster.

Diack, who was once one of the most powerful leaders in Olympic sport, is being tried for corruption, money laundering and breach of trust. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

French prosecutors say Diack directly or indirectly demanded 3.45 million euros ($3.9 million) from Russian athletes in order to have their names cleared in an illicit system known as "full protection".
The delay in imposing bans allowed some of the Russians to win medals at the London Olympics.

- Son 'behaved like a thug' -

Diack denied being aware that Russian athletes, including runner Liliya Shobukhova, had been asked to pay hundreds of thousands of euros to benefit from the protection.

German broadcaster ARD has revealed that Shobukhova paid 450,000 euros, allegedly to have her blood passport case delayed in order to compete in the London Olympic marathon.

Diack told the court he had been "flabbergasted" to learn from prosecutors that his son Papa Massata Diack had got involved in the doping cases. He said that if what the prosecutors had told him was true, "(Massata Diack) behaved like a thug".

Massata Diack, who worked as a marketing consultant for the IAAF, is among the co-accused but will not appear at the trial. Despite two international arrest warrants issued by France, the Senegalese authorities have refused to extradite him.

Prosecutors also allege that Diack senior obtained $1.5 million from Russia to help fund Macky Sall's successful campaign for the 2012 Senegal presidential election in return for the doping cover-up.

Diack though said that when he visited Moscow in 2011 to receive an award from then-Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, "(the Russians) asked if I wanted to be a candidate" in the election.

He admitted however that the sum of $1.5 million had been mentioned in discussions with the Russian sports minister at the time, Vitaly Mutko, without giving further details.

Also on trial are the IAAF's former anti-doping chief Gabriel Dolle, who is accused of accepting bribes, and Diack senior's legal advisor Habib Cisse, suspected of acting as an intermediary between the federation and Russian track and field authorities.

Two other defendants are absent from the trial.

Valentin Balakhnichev, a former top Russian track and field official and IAAF treasurer, is accused of "giving and receiving bribes" and "aggravated money-laundering".

Alexei Melnikov, formerly Russia's chief distance running coach, is accused of "receiving bribes".

A DIFFICULT HOMECOMING FOR THAILAND'S ELEPHANTS

ARTIST CREATES SOCIAL DISTANCING HATS