ISLAMIST ATTACK
Macron hails fallen soldier who switched with a woman hostage
Paris — President Emmanuel Macron led national tributes on Wednesday to the gendarme who switched places with a woman hostage during an attack on a supermarket in southern France last week and was killed by the Islamist gunman. Col Arnaud Beltrame’s heroism has helped reassure a nation left shaken and in mourning after Moroccan-born Radouane Lakdim’s killing spree — an attack that rekindled a debate over how France deals with suspected Islamists. Tributes began with a minute’s silence in gendarme barracks across France, before Beltrame’s Tricolor-draped coffin was carried into the courtyard of Les Invalides, a former military hospital, where Macron solemnly addressed the nation. "To accept to die so the innocent can live: that is the essence of what it means to be a soldier," he said. "Others, even many who are brave, would have wavered or hesitated." After speaking, Macron posthumously awarded Beltrame the Legion of Honour, France’s highest order of merit. More than 240 people have...
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