PARIS (AFP) -- French police have launched an investigation into two bomb scares at the Eiffel Tower this weekend that forced the monument to be evacuated twice in the same day, prosecutors said on Monday. The landmark tower became the target of false bomb threats on two occasions on Saturday and was cleared of visitors each time. Paris detectives are leading the probe into suspected “threats to lives” and “falsely claiming that a dangerous explosive incident has occurred or will occur”, the prosecutors’ office said.  The charges carry a prison sentence of up to two years for those convicted. The threats were made via posts on gaming site jeuxvideo.com and on moncommissariat.fr, a platform for online contact between citizens and police. The Eiffel Tower, the French capital’s main tourist magnet, attracted 5.8 million visitors last year.

 

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LONDON (Guardian) -- Incidents of vehicles being driven the wrong way on England’s motorways rose to almost 900 in the last 12 months, an increase of 13%, according to figures described as “frightening”. Alarmed motoring groups called for technological interventions to reverse the increase in these potentially lethal driving errors, which are thought to be linked to an overreliance by drivers on satnav devices. National Highways figures showed the reports of “oncoming vehicles” on its motorway network rose to 872 in the year to 19 June, up 102 on the previous year. The data, released in response to a Freedom of Information request by PA news agency, relates to unconfirmed reports of wrong-way driving received by National Highways’ regional operations centers. Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, said: “The increase in the number of vehicles being driven in the wrong direction on motorways is frightening and can be fatal.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China will hold joint military training with Thailand from mid-August to early September in Thailand, China’s defense ministry said in a statement on Monday. The training between the two armies will focus on anti-terrorism and is part of the annual planning between the two militaries, said the statement.

 

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WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Billionaires and social media business rivals Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk threw new online jabs at each other, with the Meta founder declaring the owner of X -- formerly known as Twitter -- was not treating a proposed charity cage match seriously. “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Threads social platform. “I offered a real date... Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.” Musk quickly responded on X, the platform he bought last year that was previously called Twitter. “Zuck is a chicken,” Musk posted. The Tesla boss said he would head to Silicon Valley Monday: “Can’t wait to bang on his door tomorrow.” When an X user suggested Zuckerberg was getting cold feet about the match, Musk referred to a popular U/S. fast food chain known for its chicken offerings. “He can’t eat at Chick-fil-A because that would be cannibalism,” Musk posted.

 

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DEHRADUN, India (AFP) -- At least 24 people have been killed, nine of them in a temple collapse, and dozens more are feared missing after intense rains caused floods and landslides in India, officials said Monday. Days of torrential downpours have washed away vehicles, demolished buildings and destroyed bridges in the northern states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Flooding and landslides are common and cause widespread devastation during India’s treacherous monsoon season, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.  The monsoon brings South Asia around 80 percent of its annual rainfall and is vital both for agriculture and the livelihoods of millions. But it also brings destruction every year in the form of landslides and floods. 

 

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WARSAW (AFP) -- Poland has arrested two Russians for allegedly distributing propaganda leaflets for mercenary group Wagner in the country’s two biggest cities, Warsaw and Krakow, the interior minister said on Monday.  “Both were charged with... espionage and arrested,” minister Mariusz Kaminski said on Twitter, which has been rebranded as X. The Polish counter-intelligence agency named the two men as Alexei T. and Andrei G., without providing further personal details.  It said both Russians were detained on Friday after they distributed “around 300 leaflets in public places in Krakow and Warsaw”. The leaflets contained links to “recruitment websites” for the Wagner mercenary group, which has played a key role in Russia’s war on Ukraine. “The Russians had on them more than 3,000 propaganda leaflets promoting the Wagner group. The material was given to them in Moscow,” the agency said. The suspects, who had planned to leave Poland on Saturday, were set to receive “up to 500,000 rubles” ($5,000) for their activities, it added.