France government to deploy troops in schools, others

Confronting a nation in shock from last week’s terrorist attacks, the French authorities on Monday began to unveil a broad array of measures to send thousands of soldiers and police officers to guard Jewish schools and other sites, reinforce electronic surveillance and reach into schools and prisons that have a reputation as crucibles of jihadist recruitment, The New York Times reports.

The display of muscle by a government likely to face mounting questions about its failure to prevent the killings recalled the mood in the United States after the September 11 attacks, when the authorities embarked on a broad front of measures to tighten security and provide legislation for more intrusive surveillance.

The French response played into an emerging and potentially divisive debate across Europe that pits civil liberties campaigners against the demands of security officials who cite the attacks as evidence of an urgent need to introduce stronger powers to monitor suspects. And it comes as a time when the United States is engaged in intense soul-searching, touched off in part by the release of a searing Senate report on the torture of terrorism suspects, over whether it turned itself into a garrison state after September 11, 2001.

Toronto man’s adventure with stand-in girlfriend reaches Eiffel Tower

Jordan Axani and Elizabeth Gallagher make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower just minutes before its lights were turned off for the night.

Torstar News Service
As café patios lay empty and the streets bare on a freezing Sunday evening in the City of Love, two Canadians hurried through the French capital’s back alleys on a mission.

It was almost 10:45 p.m., the Eiffel Tower was closing in 15 minutes, and the two, fresh off a plane from Prague, were intent on being atop the famed monument before its sparkling lights came on for the last time that night — even if it meant dodging cars to get there.

Toronto businessman Jordan Axani, 28, marched briskly ahead of companion Elizabeth “Quinn” Gallagher, 23, barely pausing for stoplights.

The two chance travellers, who have become household names since Axani reached out on social media last month for another Elizabeth Gallagher to join him on a trip around the world after breaking up with his girlfriend of the same name, made it to the base of the tower in the nick of time.

As they thundered up the lift, they told a Torstar News Service reporter tagging along how, eight days into their journey, they’ve become accustomed to barrelling through cities.