Around 3,000 French police on motorcycles, in jogging gear and on skates will protect the Olympic torch relay today as it departs from the Eiffel Tower and criss-crosses Paris amid threats of pro-Tibet protests.

China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the Beijing Olympics torch relay will not be marred by protests similar to the one at today’s lighting ceremony in Greece.

Campaigners opposed to Chinese rule in Tibet said tonight they planned to protest outside the site in southern Greece where the flame bound for the Beijing Olympics will be lit.

Forest fires continued to burn in parts of southern Greece while the other main fronts of a series of massive fires have been extinguished, Greece’s fire service said today.

Firefighters battled the country’s last major blaze in southern Greece today, after managing to bring under control hundreds of others that for one week ravaged large parts of the country and killed at least 64 people.

Greece’s fire department said all major blazes were “generally receding,” but authorities remained on high alert for possible rekindling of the massive fires that have killed at least 64 people before a new heat wave forecast for the weekend.

Greece’s president today described the fires ravaging his country’s forests as a national catastrophe, as thousands of firefighters – hundreds of them brought in from other countries – fought to control blazes that have burned nearly 500,000 acres.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 struck fire-ravaged southern Greece today, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said.

Foreign firefighters and aircraft joined the battle today against blazes in southern Greece that have killed 64 people.

Firefighters backed by aircraft prevented the birthplace of the ancient Olympics from being consumed by flames as Greece’s worst wildfires in memory blazed across the country and the death toll climbed to 60.

Fires tore through parched forests and swallowed villages across Greece, bearing down on communities near Ancient Olympia in the south today. At least 49 people were dead.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered ancient graves during excavations near Ancient Olympia, the hallowed site where the Olympic Games were born in 776BC.

ATHLETICS chiefs have admitted the missed drugs test debacle of Greek sprint duo Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou could rumble on until December.

The Athens Olympics tonight suffered another blow when two women were banished from the Games for failing in-competition drugs tests.