PARIS (Reuters) - The man alleged to have slapped French President Emmanuel Macron in the face ran a club for enthusiasts of medieval swordsmanship and had no previous criminal record, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Wednesday. A police source identified the suspect as 28-year-old Damien Tarel. Acquaintances in his hometown of Saint-Vallier, in southeastern France, described a man who loved period role-play and did not cause trouble. Tarel is under investigation for assault against a public official, the local prosecutor said. Macron, who was on a trip to take the country’s pulse after the pandemic and with less than a year to go before the next presidential election, was hit on Tuesday during a walkabout in southern France as he greeted a small crowd of onlookers.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - At least nine people were killed and eight were injured when a five-story building collapsed suddenly on Wednesday while it was in the midst of a demolition process and fell on to a busy street in South Korea, officials at a local fire station said. The building collapsed as it was being demolished in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers of southwest of capital Seoul, officials at the Gwangju Fire and Safety Headquarters said. The reason for the collapse was unclear, according to the fire station.

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LIMA (Dispatches) - Peruvian socialist candidate Pedro Castillo held on to a narrow lead late on Tuesday in the country’s runoff presidential election, as tensions rose over contested ballots and accusations of fraud, which sparked protests outside the elections office. Castillo, who has worried markets and mining firms with his plans to shake up the copper-rich country’s politics, held a slim lead of some 50.3%, ahead of right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori on 49.7%, with almost 98% of the votes tallied. That amounts to a lead of 88,000 votes.

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VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria made 81 of the more than 800 arrests that were part of a global sting against organized crime, the Austrian government said on Wednesday. The operation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Australian and European police ensnared suspects in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East involved in the narcotics trade, officials said on Tuesday. Those arrested in Austrian provinces ranging from Tyrol in the Alpine west to Vienna belonged to various groups and are suspected of offences ranging from drug trafficking to murder.

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WASHINFTON (Dispatches) - An effort by U.S. President Joe Biden to reunite refugees’ families separated by the previous administration has so far reunited seven children with their parents, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report. According to the 22-page progress report released, at least 2,127 children are still believed to be separated, though it said that number is expected to change as data is analyzed as “some children and parents may have already reunified on their own”. In the coming weeks, 29 families are set to be reunited. Biden issued an executive order shortly after taking office that established a task force to reunite children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border under former President Donald Trump, calling such separations a “human tragedy”.

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PARIS (France24) - Thousands of Goma residents have now started returning home after fleeing North-Kivu’s main city last month after the nearby Nyiragongo volcano erupted, leaving dozens dead. FRANCE 24’s Nicolas Germain and Justin Kabumba report from the northeastern city of Sake, where many of the displaced have taken up refuge.