- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
Ex-Resistance Olympic torch-bearer still wants to 'change the world'
At the age of 102, Melanie Berger-Volle will carry the Olympic torch as high as she can, despite her fragile shoulder, to champion the values of friendship between peoples that she defended during her time with the French Resistance in the Second World War.
A "woman in the shadows" during the Occupation (1940-1944), Berger-Volle was thrilled to be chosen to carry the torch as it passes through Saint-Etienne on June 22 on its way to Paris for the start of the Olympic Games.
The weight of the torch has been a concern but there was never any question of turning it down.
"I've always loved sport," says the sprightly centenarian who until recently enjoyed an hour's walk a day.
Grandmother of the gymnast Emilie Volle, who took part in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, she also wants to be a symbol for women "who have fought to play sport like men".
"My ideal has always been to unite the world," she says. "And the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to get to know other human beings."
- 'Mistreated' -
Born in Austria in 1921 into a Jewish working-class family, Melanie Berger began her activism as a teenager in an extreme left-wing group.
"We were atheists and when I started fighting it wasn't for religious reasons, it was political," she says. "I'm against all dictatorships."
After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, she left her country, went to Belgium and then arrived in France, in Paris in the spring of 1939, disguised as a boy.
When France went to war later that year, all Austrians, even refugees, were seen as enemies and the authorities put her on a train to a camp near Pau.
At Clermont-Ferrand station, she "jumped out" of the carriage.
She was on her own as the other girls did not dare follow her.
"They weren't political, they didn't know what a camp was," she shrugs.
On the contrary, the young activist was well aware that "when you get a chance, you can't let it go by".
In 1940 after the French surrender to the Nazis, she found herself in Montauban, where a group of Trotskyist militants she had belonged to before the war was beginning to reform.
"With my French-sounding name, I rented a flat in a dilapidated house, and from there we were able to start work."
Discreetly, the group drafted and distributed German-language leaflets aimed at turning Reich soldiers.
In January 1942, however, that all came to an end when the police raided the house and she was arrested and brutally interrogated.
"I was mistreated, men beat me," she says quietly. "The after-effects are still with me. But I'm still here."
She avoided a death penalty and after 13 months in detention in Toulouse, the 22-year-old Berger was transferred to the Baumettes prison in Marseille.
Members of her group, together with the Resistance, prepared her escape.
- 'No' to Nazism -
On October 15, 1943, they came to get her, accompanied by a German soldier who had taken up the cause, while she was in hospital with jaundice.
"I escaped in my nightdress," she laughs.
Once recovered, she campaigned under false identities until the liberation in the summer of 1944.
After the war, she married Lucien Volle, another Resistance fighter who had taken part in the liberation of Le Puy-en-Velay.
Together, the couple began to devote themselves to the work of remembrance.
"We fought constantly to explain. Not what we had done but why we had done it," she says.
She has since been awarded a number of decorations, including the Legion d'Honneur.
"I didn't do much," she says. "But I did say 'no' to Nazism."
Worried again about the return of extremes in Europe, Berger-Volle hopes that young people will in turn be able to defend democracy.
And despite her advanced age, she intends to use the Olympics to get her message across.
"I wanted to change the world," she says with a smile. "And I still want to change it."
O.Norris--AMWN