France and Norway are the junior relay world champions

Paris: The Junior World Championships in Oestersund end with exciting relay races and victory for France and Norway.

The French team lived up to its role as favourites. Celia Henaff dominated the relay race right from the start. She was the first to change over and handed over to Voldiya Galmace Paulin, who showed the best shooting performance on the day with just one spare round in the standing shooting. She also changed over with a lead and sent Anaelle Bondoux onto the track. Amandine Mengin was then the first to finish the relay. She mastered the last shooting with three spare rounds in windy conditions and was able to avoid the penalty loop. The French team had a lead of over a minute and showed the best performance of the day at the shooting range without a penalty loop.

The German team is delighted with the silver medal. Charlotte Gallbronner had to go into the penalty loop as the starting skier after the standing shooting, but her team-mates managed to get back into the lead. Lea Zimmermann had a brilliant day at the shooting range, as she only needed ten shots to clear the targets. Alma Siegismund also shot a penalty loop in the standing position but remained on course for a medal. On the final lap, Lotta de Buhr battled against Norway’s Silje Berg-Knutsen for second place, but the German was the first to return to the track from the shooting range and was able to save her lead at the finish. For the Norwegian women with Ann Kristin Aaland, Siri Skar, Guro Ytterhus and Silje Berg-Knutsen it is the first medal at these championships.

Norway set the pace in the junior men’s event. After Andreas Aas, Sivert Gerhardsen took over and only needed one spare round in the standing shooting. Haavard Tosterud even managed to get through the race without a miss and handed over to Kasper Kalkenberg with a lead. As usual, Kalkenberg performed confidently and finished 19 seconds faster than Leonhard Pfund from Germany.

Linus Kesper, Fabian Kaskel, Elias Seidl and Leonhard Pfund showed the best shooting performance of the day, as they only needed a total of six spare rounds. The Polish team achieved something historic on this day. Never before have the juniors won a medal in the relay. Jakub Potoniec, Grzegorz Galica, Konrad Badacz and Fabian Suchodolski took home the bronze medal.

After these successful days in Oestersund, the season is over for the juniors, but the new season is already casting its shadow. The organizing committee from Arber (Germany) will host the next IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in 2026.

Bulgaria’s Justice Minister orders investigation of citizenship directorate

Sofia: Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev has ordered an inspection of the Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate, the ministry said in a media statement on March 5.

The directorate administers the procedures for the acquisition, restoration, release from or deprivation of Bulgarian citizenship.

The statement said that the ministry’s inspectorate will conduct a check into the process of initiating and reviewing files on applications for acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by the directorate, which is under the Justice Ministry.

The scope of the inspection is for the files initiated and reviewed in 2023 and 2024.

In connection with reports received concerning the activities of the Directorate of Bulgarian Citizenship, Georgiev has also requested an inspection by the State Agency for National Security.

US fintech partners with largest Pakistani Islamic bank for cross-border transactions

Brussels: EU member states agreed Wednesday on a phased rollout of a new border check system for non-EU nationals which will do away with passport stamps.

The so-called Entry/Exit System (EES), was initially supposed to kick in last November but was delayed at the last minute as several states were not ready.

First agreed on in 2017, the automated system will record visitors’ date of entry and exit and keep track of overstays and refused entries.

But its introduction has raised fears of queues and longer waiting times for people traveling to Europe on trains, ferries and planes.

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan warned last year it could trigger “chaos” at the British capital’s Eurostar cross-Channel rail hub, St. Pancras station.

The UK, which left the EU in 2020, on Wednesday opened up applications for its own digital travel permit, which will be mandatory for European visitors from April.

Under the EU agreement reached Wednesday — subject to approval by the European Parliament — the scheme will be implemented over a six-month period.

“We are aiming for October” to begin the rollout, said Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

Member states would ramp up toward operating the EES system at half of border crossing points after three months and by six months countries should be registering all individuals using the system.

Under the EES, travelers to the bloc will have details and biometric data — facial images and fingerprints — collected at ports of entry.