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Coe Rre-elected As President Of World Athletics

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Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics since 2015, was on Thursday re-elected as head of track and field’s governing body on a third and final four-year mandate.

The 66-year-old, a two-time Olympic 1500m champion for Britain in 1980 and 1984, stood unopposed in the vote of the World Athletics Congress in Budapest, two days ahead of the start of the world championships in the Hungarian capital.

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According to World Athletics rules, Coe will be unable to stand for a fourth mandate.

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Coe, a former Conservative politician who headed the local organising committee of the 2012 London Olympics, took over the presidency of the then-International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) reeling from a corruption scandal involving ex-president Lamine Diack.

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Coe’s first two mandates saw the creation in 2017 of the Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent body overseeing anti-doping, and the reinforcement of World Athletics’ stance on Russia, first suspended over institutional doping and then again in 2022 over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The first four years of my mandate was making sure the ship didn’t sink. We were in a very serious position,” Coe said.

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The next four years, he added, were about dealing with issues such as Russia, protecting the female category and boosting one-day events.

The next four years will focus on what is the product that will future-proof the sport for the next 30 years,” he said, adding that decisions on competition would be data-based and not taken by presidential whim.

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Army Put On Standby As UK Police Hand In Weapons

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The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence is offering soldiers to support armed police in London after dozens of police officers stood down from firearms duties, BBC reports.

More than 100 officers have turned in permits allowing them to carry weapons, a source told the BBC, in support of a fellow officer who has been charged with murder over the fatal shooting of a young Black man, Chris Kaba.

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The officer, named only as NX121, who appeared in court last week, has been charged over the death of Chris Kaba in September 2022.

Kaba died hours after he was struck by a single gunshot fired into the vehicle he was driving in the Streatham area of South London.

READ ALSO: Man Charged With Beating His Three Children To Death

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It later emerged that the Audi Mr Kaba was driving, which did not belong to him, had been linked by police to a gun incident the day before.

His death prompted a number of protests and renewed allegations of racism within the force.

The Ministry of Defence said it received a request, known as Military Aid to the Civil Authorities, from the Home Office to “provide routine counter-terrorism contingency support to the Metropolitan Police, should it be needed”.

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A MACA is offered to the police or the NHS in emergency situations. The military helped medical staff in the Covid pandemic and covered for striking border staff and paramedics last year.

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The Met said it was a “contingency option” that would only be used “in specific circumstances and where an appropriate policing response was not available”.

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Military staff would not be used “in a routine policing capacity”, it added.

Chris Kaba

On Saturday, the Met said its own officers still make up the vast majority of armed police in the capital but they were being supported by a limited number of firearms officers from neighbouring forces.

Announcing the review, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the public “depend on our brave firearms officers to protect us”.

“In the interest of public safety they have to make split-second decisions under extraordinary pressures.”

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She said that officers have her “full backing”.

“I will do everything in my power to support them,” she added.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Russia Adds ICC President, Hofmanski, To Wanted List

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In his letter to the home secretary, the Met Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said that a system where officers are investigated for “safely pursuing suspects” should not have been allowed to develop.

Sir Mark said he would “make no comment” on any ongoing legal matters, but “the issues raised in this letter go back further”.

He said firearms officers are concerned that they will face years of legal proceedings, “even if they stick to the tactics and training they have been given”.

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“Officers need sufficient legal protection to enable them to do their job and keep the public safe, and the confidence that it will be applied consistently and without fear or favour,” he wrote.

But in instances where officers act improperly, Sir Mark said the system “needs to move swiftly” rather than “tying itself in knots pursuing good officers through multiple legal processes”.

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Man Charged With Beating His Three Children To Death

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Police in Thailand have charged a man with beating to death his two-year-old daughter and his two infant sons, BBC reports.

The police suspect Songsak Songsaeng also killed two other infant sons from a previous marriage.

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The charges follow the discovery last week of the body of a two-year-old girl buried beneath a kitchen floor.

Police say Songsak claims to have a history of mental illness, and that he killed his children because he couldn’t tolerate the sound of their crying.

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His wife has also been charged over the death of their two-year-old daughter. And his ex-wife has been charged over the deaths of the two boys. All three have been arrested. Songsak has been married four times.

Police were first alerted to a possible case of domestic violence at the Bang Khen district in Bangkok earlier this month.

Songsak’s neighbours reported that his two daughters, aged 12 and four, were being physically abused. Police rescued the two daughters while they were home without their parents.

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The 12-year-old told police that their parents had beaten her two-year-old sister, which led to her death. She also helped police trace the body to where it was buried under a kitchen floor in north-west Thailand last week.

Thai police have also charged Songsak with the killing of two other sons he had with his third wife after his DNA matched with that of two infants, whose bodies were unearthed 10 years ago.

His third wife had said he killed their four infant sons and gave police locations where two were buried.

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Police believe the two others may have been buried under an area where a petrol station now stands.

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JUST IN: Russia Adds ICC President, Hofmanski, To Wanted List

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The Russian Government, on Monday, said it had placed the President of the International Criminal Court, which is seeking the arrest of President Vladimir Putin, on its wanted list.

“Hofmanski Piotr Jozef, Polish. Wanted under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” Russian news agencies reported, citing the Interior Ministry.

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Nigeria fastest growing cricket nation, says ICC.

READ ALSO: Reps Set To Enrol 14 Million Out-of-school Children

Details later…

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