LONDON // Lots of Olympics security guards didn't show up for work and two buses full of Olympians got temporarily lost on London's winding streets, but the chief of the London Games said preparations were going just fine, thank you.
Organisers scrambled yesterday to put the best face on an unfolding security debacle afflicting the Games that start in just 10 days.
"Let's put this in proportion," said the Games chairman, Sebastian Coe. "This has not, nor will it, impact on the safety and security of these Games, that of course is our number one priority."
Yet his efforts were undercut yesterday in parliament, where the chief executive of the G4S security group acknowledged that his company's failure to recruit enough Olympic staff had embarrassed the entire nation.
Some 3,500 more British soldiers, including some just back from Afghanistan, had to be called in on short notice to make up the shortfall.
The head of G4S, Nick Buckles, made a grovelling mea culpa as he was being quizzed by angry British lawmakers in testimony that was broadcast live.
"It's a humiliating shambles for the country, isn't it?" asked the Labour politician, David Winnick. "I cannot disagree with you," Mr Buckles said.
Still, Mr Buckles was hard-pressed to explain why his company had failed to inform officials until only two weeks before the start of the Games that its recruitment efforts had failed.
But the company will pay for its mistakes. G4S said it expected to lose between 35 million pounds and 50 million pounds (Dh201m and 287m) on the contract, which is equal to about 12 per cent of its annual profit.
Making things worse, a couple of buses carrying Olympic athletes from Heathrow airport took a wrong turn on Monday - the big day when athletes started to arrive for the Games, a showcase moment if there ever was one. And the special "Games lane" that they travelled on forced other London drivers into a miles-long traffic jam.
The lost buses - one for Americans, another for Australians - touched a nerve.
From the start of the project, senior organisers had feared repeating the transport troubles of the 1996 Atlanta Games, where one of the biggest problems was having bus drivers brought in from outside the city who didn't know their way around.
Allegedly, that happened again on Monday in London, even though the capital's main airport sailed through its heaviest passenger day ever with short immigration lines and plenty of help for Olympic travellers.
"First day. First arrivals. It's going to happen," said Jayne Pearce, head of press operations.
Mr Coe urged optimism, despite barrage of criticism on Twitter that erupted when an American hurdler took to the social networking site to express his frustration over the four-hour bus urney from Heathrow to the Athletes Village.
"Apart from a mis-turning and a couple of tweets we're in pretty good shape," Mr Coe said.
Key features of new policy
Pupils to learn coding and other vocational skills from Grade 6
Exams to test critical thinking and application of knowledge
A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development) will form the standard for schools
Schools to implement online system to encouraging transparency and accountability
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
SQUADS
UAE
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice-captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Nepal
Paras Khadka (captain), Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Avinash Bohara, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Rohit Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi, Basant Regmi, Pawan Sarraf, Bhim Sharki, Aarif Sheikh
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
