Paris - Some 300 former mercenaries and commandos have been hired to protect celebrations of the 12th World Youth Day to be attended later this month by Pope John-Paul II and hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from France and abroad, the weekly Canard Enchaine reported yesterday. The magazine, which said the men had been hired at a cost of 2 million francs (£200,000), claimed that organisers had decided to hire members of an association known as Bagheera, composed of veterans of a special forces unit and mercenaries, through a security firm. - (AFP)