French police win plaudits after high-risk Olympics

General view of police officers on horses outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, before the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics on August 11, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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French police win plaudits after high-risk Olympics

  • There were incidents over the last fortnight but nothing that marred the event overall to the widespread relief of organizers
  • Two weeks of competition saw packed stadiums, with 743,000 people attending sports venues on a single day on July 30

PARIS: The vaulting ambition of the Paris Olympics made them risky and hard to police, but French security forces kept thousands of athletes and millions of fans safe — a “gold medal” performance according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
The two-week sporting extravaganza which finished on Sunday led to a security operation like no other in recent French history, with the mobilization of around 75,000 police, soldiers and private security guards on the opening night on July 26.
There were incidents over the last fortnight — an attack on the French railways, a pitch invader at the 100m men’s final — but nothing that marred the event overall to the widespread relief of organizers.
“These Olympic Games involve both great French medals and a great gold medal for the ministry of the interior and the security forces,” Darmanin said last week as he visited officers on duty in Marseille in southern France.
The sense of satisfaction and self-congratulatory tone of his remarks reflected the immense pressure and doubts raised in the run-up to the Games over whether France’s already stretched resources would be up to the task.

Their first test was securing the Olympic torch relay, a journey through 450 French towns and cities as well as overseas territories.
Then came unexpected parliamentary elections in July, followed by the unprecedented opening ceremony along a six-kilometer (four-mile) stretch of the River Seine which had been giving planners sleepless nights since it was unveiled in 2021.




Police officers stand guard over the Seine River prior to the opening ceremony at the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 26, 2024, in Paris. (AP)

In the end, the 300,000 ticketed spectators who watched from the river banks were troubled by nothing more than torrential rain, with the streets of the capital flooded with uniformed officers.
“For those of us that have been here on the ground, we’ve seen the security footprint here. It is impressive,” Nicole Deal, chief of security for Team USA, said on the day of the ceremony. “I have never seen (one) quite like this in any other Games.”
Two weeks of competition saw packed stadiums, with 743,000 people attending sports venues on a single day on July 30.
Other events from the triathlon to the marathon took place through the streets of the capital.
Around a million people lined the course of the men’s and women’s cycling road races on August 3-4.
“Without any doubt, French security services deserve a gold medal,” French criminologist and university professor Alain Bauer, a vocal critic of the open-air opening ceremony format, told AFP.

He said it was down to “exceptional investment” and “essential changes” which saw organizers notably scale down the size of the opening ceremony crowd under pressure from the interior ministry.

Having been excluded from the Games, Russia was said by French officials to be plotting to destabilize them, with France’s cyber-security agency on high alert for attacks that could disrupt the organizing committee, ticketing or transport.
The arrest of a 40-year-old suspected member of Russian secret services on the eve of the Games set nerves jangling.
The war in Gaza, threats from the Daesh group, and France’s history of home-grown Islamist terror plots and far-right extremism also raised fears about the possibility of an attack that would ruin the party.
Not everyone has found the security operation something to celebrate, however.
Charities complained loudly about repressive policing of the homeless, sex workers and migrants ahead of the Games, while anti-Olympics protest groups say they have been prevented from exercising their democratic rights.
Around 45 activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate change protest group were detained by police the day after the opening ceremony as they prepared to occupy a bridge over the River Seine in central Paris.
The “Saccage 2024” group, which has been running so-called “Toxic Tours” highlighting the downsides of the Games, said it had been prevented from guiding a group of around 20 people to sites in northern Paris last week.
Around 30 riot police and four police cars prevented the tour and three members of the collective were taken to a local police station for questioning.
“No charges were pressed against any of the arrested people at the end of the police custody, further proof that this was in reality an attempt at intimidation,” the group wrote on Instagram.
 


Ukrainian ex-politician shot dead outside Madrid’s American school

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Ukrainian ex-politician shot dead outside Madrid’s American school

MADRID: An unidentified gunman or gunmen shot and killed former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov on Wednesday morning outside the gates of the American School in Madrid’s affluent neighborhood of Pozuelo, a source close to the investigation said.
Police received the call about the shooting at 9.15 a.m. (0715 GMT) local time, the Madrid police told Reuters, without identifying the victim.
Radio station Cadena SER said the man was taking his children to the school when he was shot.
Portnov was a senior aide to Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovich who was ousted in 2014.

Russian missile attack kills Ukrainian servicemen in training

Updated 21 May 2025
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Russian missile attack kills Ukrainian servicemen in training

  • Moscow’s forces have inflicted casualties in attacks on Ukrainian military educational institutions and various formal outdoor gatherings

KYIV: A Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military shooting range killed six servicemen and wounded at least 10 more during training on Tuesday, Ukraine’s national guard said on Wednesday, adding that the commander of the unit had been suspended.
Russia’s defense ministry had said on Tuesday that the missile attack on the training camp in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border killed up to 70 Ukrainian service members, including 20 instructors.
The Ukrainian national guard statement said an internal investigation was underway and the necessary information was shared with law enforcement agencies.
“The investigation will provide a legal assessment of the actions of all persons who made the relevant decisions,” it said about the attack on the military unit’s shooting range.
After previous deadly strikes on military training camps, Ukraine launched investigations into possible negligence.
During more than three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Moscow’s forces have inflicted casualties in attacks on Ukrainian military educational institutions and various formal outdoor gatherings.


Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: government officials

Updated 21 May 2025
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Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: government officials

  • At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials

QUETTA: At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
“A bus carrying children of the APS (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,” Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, told AFP.
“The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,” he added.
A senior police official confirmed the death toll to AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media, adding that it could rise.
The school caters to the children of army personnel and civilians living in the area.
In 2014, the Army Public School in Peshawar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was attacked by gunmen who killed more than 150 people — mostly students.
The horrific attack sparked a massive crackdown against militancy that had thrived for years in the border regions.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi offered his “heartfelt sympathy” to the families of the victims, adding that “beasts who target innocent children deserve no mercy.”


Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

Updated 21 May 2025
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Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

  • Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales
  • Authorities say that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929

SYDNEY: Fast-moving floodwaters rose Wednesday in eastern Australia, inundating homes and leaving residents stranded on their roofs overnight, as authorities warned more rain was expected in coming days.
Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales, engulfing homes, businesses and roads in muddy waters, authorities said.
“We have a situation where the rain has been falling quite heavily and hard and it has not been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and the rivers are swollen,” the state’s emergency minister Jihad Dib told reporters.
Taree, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Sydney, is a key area of concern for emergency services after 415 millimeters (16.34 inches) of rain lashed the town since Monday – more than four times the mean monthly rainfall for May.
Authorities said that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929, reaching 6.3 meters (20.6 feet) on Wednesday.
The rising floodwaters left locals stuck on roofs overnight, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the bad weather.
Taree resident Holly Pillotto, who was among those stranded on an upper level of her home, said she was desperate for assistance as floodwaters continued to rise.
“Our neighbors on the back verandah here are also stranded,” she told Australia’s Channel Nine. “It’s a really dangerous spot to be.”
Dib said that emergency services were “throwing everything we have into” reaching those affected.
State Emergency Service Chief Superintendent Dallas Byrnes said the situation was “incredibly dynamic and escalating,” with more than 150 flood rescues conducted overnight.
“We’ve got a lot of people getting rescued from rooftops and from upper levels of houses,” Byrnes told the national broadcaster ABC.
However, he warned that “conditions are quite treacherous and it may be that those aviation assets are unable to fly throughout the day.”
The agency said that about 16,000 people, or 7,400 dwellings, would remain isolated until at least Thursday.
More heavy rain is expected in the coming 48 hours – with some locations to receive 200 millimeters (7.87 inches) – before conditions begin to ease, authorities said Wednesday.
Scientists have warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense as global temperatures rise because of climate change.


WHO says vaccine-derived poliovirus detected in Papua New Guinea

Updated 21 May 2025
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WHO says vaccine-derived poliovirus detected in Papua New Guinea

  • Wild polio is only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan but vaccine-derived polio continues to cause outbreaks in wider range of countries
  • This is first polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea since 2018 when an outbreak was reported in the same area as the new detections, Lae city

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) had been detected in stool specimens of two healthy children in Papua New Guinea on May 9.

The detection of wild poliovirus or vaccine-derived poliovirus, including from samples taken from healthy children, is considered a serious public health event, WHO said in a statement.

It added that the detection of circulating type 2 poliovirus was classified as a “polio outbreak.”

Wild polio is only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but vaccine-derived polio continues to cause outbreaks in a wider range of countries. For example, this year, countries including Nigeria and Ethiopia, among others, have reported tens of cases of paralysis caused by polio.

This is the first polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea since 2018, when an outbreak was reported in the same area as the new detections, Lae city in Morobe province.

Vaccination protects against all forms of polio, but coverage rates in Papua New Guinea are only around 44 percent for the third dose needed for protection, the WHO said. Efforts are now underway to detect further transmission and boost vaccination coverage in the affected area.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis and death in young children, with those under 2 years old most at risk. In nearly all cases it has no symptoms, making it hard to detect.