MAN CHARGED OVER ALLEGED PARIS OLYMPIC SOCCER ATTACK PLOT

AP

 French authorities on Friday raised preliminary terrorism charges against an 18-year-old accused of a plot targeting spectators attending soccer games at the upcoming Paris Olympics. The interior minister said it was the first such thwarted plot targeting the Games, which start in eight weeks as France is on its highest threat alert level.

The man is accused of planning a "violent action" on behalf of the Islamic State group's jihadist ideology, the national counterterrorism prosecutor's office said in a statement Friday. The man, who was not identified, is behind held in custody pending further investigation.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a statement that members of the General Directorate of Internal Security arrested an 18-year-old man from Chechnya on May 22 on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack soccer events that will be held in the southern city of Saint-Étienne.

According to the initial investigation, the man was preparing an attack targeting the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Étienne that will host several soccer matches during the Summer Games. The planned attack was to target spectators and police forces, the statement said. The suspect wanted to attack the Olympic events "to die and become a martyr," the statement also said.

France is on its highest security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which are expected to draw millions of visitors. Soccer matches will take place in cities across France before the final in Paris' Stade de France.

Darmanin did not cite a specific security threat against the soccer event, but he has said there are multiple potential threats, including those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia or other adversaries.

The Paris Olympics organizing committee said it was made aware of the arrest and praised intelligence and security services.

"Security is the highest priority of Paris 2024. We are working daily in close coordination with the Interior Ministry and all stakeholders -- and will continue to be fully mobilized," it said in a statement.

Security concerns are notably high for the opening ceremony, which brings more than 100 world leaders to the French capital. It involves boats carrying athletes along the Seine River on a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) open-air parade and huge crowds watching from the embankments.

In April, French President Emmanuel Macron said the July 26 opening ceremony could be moved to the country's national stadium if the security threat is deemed too high.

Organizers had originally planned to host as many as 600,000 people, most watching free of charge from riverbanks. But security and logistical concerns have led the government to progressively scale back its ambitions. Earlier this year, the overall number of spectators was reduced to around 300,000.

The French government also decided that tourists won't be given free access to watch the opening ceremony because of security concerns. Free access will be invitation-only instead.

Extra security is also on hand for the Olympic torch relay. It passed on Friday through the monastery outcropping of Mont-Saint-Michel, which sees thousands of tourists daily.

- Associated Press 

DESPITE WEATHER GLITCH, THE PARIS OLYMPIC FLAME IS LIT AT THE GREEK CRADLE OF ANCIENT GAMES

AP Photo 

 ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — Even without the help of Apollo, the flame that is to burn at the Paris Olympics was kindled Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece.

Cloudy skies prevented the traditional lighting, when an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess uses the sun to ignite a silver torch — after offering up a symbolic prayer to Apollo, the ancient Greek sun god.

Instead, she used a backup flame that had been lit on the same spot Monday, during the final rehearsal.

Normally, the foremost of a group of priestesses in long, pleated dresses dips the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun's rays on it, and fire spurts forth.

But this time she didn't even try, going straight for the backup flame, kept in a copy of an ancient Greek pot. Ironically, a few minutes later the sun shone forth.

From the ancient stadium in Olympia, a relay of torchbearers will carry the flame more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) through Greece until the handover to Paris Games organizers in Athens on April 26.

AP Photo 

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the flame lighting combined “a pilgrimage to our past in ancient Olympia, and an act of faith in our future.”

“In these difficult times ... with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news,” he said. “We are longing for something which brings us together; something that is unifying; something that gives us hope.”

Thousands of spectators from all over the world packed Olympia for Tuesday's event amid the ruined temples and sports grounds where the ancient games were held from 776 B.C.-393 A.D.

The sprawling site, in a lush valley by the confluence of two rivers, is at its prettiest in the spring, teeming with pink-flowering Judas trees, small blue irises and the occasional red anemone.

Greek authorities maintained high security around Olympia on Tuesday, after protests by rights activists disrupted the lighting ceremonies for the Beijing summer and winter games. Armed police stopped incoming vehicles and checked for explosives, while sniffer dogs combed the grounds.

The first torchbearer was Greek rower Stefanos Douskos, a gold medalist in 2021 in Tokyo. He ran to a nearby monument that contains the heart of French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the modern revival of the games.

The next runner was Laure Manaudou, a French swimmer who won three medals at Athens in 2004. She handed over to senior European Union official Margaritis Schinas, a Greek.

The IOC's Bach praised Paris organizers for doing “an outstanding job” with preparations for the July 26-August 11 games.

He also highlighted their environmental impact, saying that cleanup efforts will make it possible to swim in the River Seine, which traverses Paris, “for the first time in a hundred years.”

The flame will travel from Athens' port of Piraeus on the Belem, a French three-masted sailing ship built in 1896 — the year of the first modern games in Athens.

AP Photo 

According to Captain Aymeric Gibet, it's due on May 8 in the southern French port of Marseille, a city founded by Greek colonists some 2,600 years ago.

The Belem arrived in Katakolo, near Olympia, on Monday. Lookers-on included a small, enthusiastic group of tourists from the northwestern French region of Brittany, where the ship's homeport of Nantes is, waving French and Breton flags.

“We thought it would be a unique opportunity to see the flame lighting at the historic site of Olympia,” said Jean-Michel Pasquet from Lorient, near Nantes. “And when we also learnt the Belem would carry the flame ... we said we must do this.”

But Pasquet said he'd have to watch the Paris Games from home.

“For us, it would be really very expensive, unaffordable,” to go to the venues, he said. “So we'll watch them on television ... from our armchairs.”

- NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

FRENCH POLICE TO BE ON HIGH ALERT FOR TORCH RELAY

 

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Reuters

French police will be on high alert for threats along the route of the 2024 Olympic torch relay, the interior minister said on Monday, with torchbearers protected by about 100 officers in a security bubble and anti-drone measures in place.

The Olympic flame will arrive in Marseille from Greece on May 8, with up to 150,000 people expected to attend the ceremony in the southern city's Old Port before the French leg of the relay begins.

Speaking at a press conference, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the "terrorist and protest threat" to the relay was significant, citing "far left environmental activists" or "radical Islamists" as potential sources of such threats.

"The relay of the torch is subject to a lot of media attention and the ministry is giving it a special attention as it could be the target of malicious acts," he said.

"We did a background check on all 11,000 torchbearers and the 1,000 replacements, and it led to 13 being left out of the relay."