Olympics reports: London, Soci progress made

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LONDON (AP) -- The government says organizers of the 2012 London Olympics will spend $31.4 million of reserve funds to help secure games venues from terrorist attacks.

The need to modify Olympic Park facilities "to make them more secure and resilient to attacks" was the only dip into contingency funds in the past three months.

In its latest quarterly report, the government said other savings meant the extra security spending would not affect the anticipated final cost of the Olympics which was unchanged at 7.234 billion pounds ($11.9 billion; euro8.4 billion).

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said the project was on time and on budget with events planned next week to mark the three-year countdown to the opening ceremony.

Putin says Soci Winter Games on track

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are on schedule, but laments problems with "prices and bureaucracy" and efforts to make easy money off the massive project.

ITAR-Tass quotes Putin as saying during a meeting with staffers from the Russian newspaper Sovietsky Sport on Monday "there is no cause for concern that any aspect or portion of the timetable will be violated."

Russia has to build most of the facilities from scratch for the Winter Games in Sochi, a sprawling resort city stretching from the Black Sea shore to the Caucasus Mountains inland.

Putin strongly backed the successful bid when he was president.