Flames consumed the roof and spire of the 13th-century cathedral in Paris. The good news: Gothic architecture is built to handle this kind of disaster.
This is Feng E. He's definitely too young to drive a car, but he's the perfect age to sit in the passenger seat of one and just dismantle a cover of Sia's pop hit Chandelier.
We know that PowerPoint kills. Most often the only victims are our audience's inspiration and interest. This, however, is the story of a PowerPoint slide that actually helped kill seven people.
It's rare anyone has enough time to read as much as they need to — this Readitfor.me Standard Plan is the top book summary service for entrepreneurs, executives and business coaches, so you can stay up to date on the most important trends in the business world.
Driver Li Qilong clears a jump across the Yangtze River nearly twice as big as the previous record set by driver Ke Shouliang, who jumped across the Hukou Waterfall in 1997.
I have spent an upsetting amount of time looking at a picture of Jesus's scrotum. Or at least, what two Italian physicists recently claimed was said scrotum.
Computational linguists have compared 239 languages to find out which languages have the largest number of features that differ most from other languages.
Xfyro has made the first-ever fully waterproof wireless earbuds. They're comfortable, secure, and magnetically connect to the battery case so you can enjoy a total listening time of 20-30 hours before having to recharge your case.
Federal prosecutors announced additional charges last week against Loughlin, Giannulli and 14 other wealthy parents. They face one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest-services mail and wire fraud, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
It's strange to think of empathy – a natural human impulse — as fluctuating in this way, moving up and down like consumer confidence. But that's what happened.
On Monday, German prosecutors filed a criminal indictment against former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn for participating in the fraud that led to the diesel-emissions scandal that rocked the company in 2015.
Alpine scrambles and beach-front strolls; multi-day singletrack adventures and quick urban escapes; soaring trees and rolling sand dunes — every state in the country has something to offer intrepid hikers.
For many people, filing for bankruptcy is a luxury that's out of reach. A new report by the primary bankruptcy professional organization is full of recommendations that, if implemented, could help change that.
The lineup leaned hard on guttural, aggressive rock. Ahead of the festival, Scher issued a promotional statement that in retrospect reads like a warning: "This is not your parent's Woodstock."
Two irreplaceable artifacts have been rescued -- the Crown of Thorns, a relic of the passion of Christ and the tunic allegedly worn by Saint Louis pic.twitter.com/3fPA3SySAR
An incredibly stunning photo—amid the ruins of Notre Dame Cathedral after today's tragic fire, the Cross stands tall as a symbol that goodness, love and beauty always triumph even in the midst of life's most difficult days #NotreDamepic.twitter.com/PDQI03xu1w
A parliamentary committee cites evidence of Chinese spies and agents being active in the country
Amid worsening relations between Canada and China, a parliamentary committee in Ottawa has cited Chinese spies and agents as major threats to Canadian security.
The report notes evidence of campaigns by the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Works Department to influence Canadian politicians "to adopt pro-China positions." This, says the report, is being done by making donations to political parties and by marshaling pressure groups, especially those created by the United Front among the Chinese diaspora in Canada.
At the same time, Chinese police and security agents have been caught "operating without permission to persuade or coerce Chinese fugitives to return to China."
On Monday, the unthinkable happened: On a clear Paris evening, Notre Dame de Paris caught fire. The burning cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in the city of lights and an iconic testament to human art, architecture, and, above all, faith.
As millions of people watched on television and in the streets of Paris, the cathedral's Gothic spire went up in flames before collapsing along with several segments of the roof.
* Officials in Paris said a large operation had been launched in an attempt to bring the raging fire under control * Pictures from around the city posted on social media showed flames licking up Notre Dame's famous spire * The fire was first reported at 5.50pm (GMT) on Monday and the building was evacuated soon afterwards * Authorities say there were no deaths from the fire although declined to comment on the number of injuries
French fire chiefs have warned the devastating inferno which ravaged the world-famous Notre Dame cathedral this evening evening 'cannot be stopped'.
An official in the French interior ministry said saving the building 'is not certain' after the spire and part of the roof collapsed earlier this evening - adding that it may not be possible to stop the blaze consuming yet more of the structure.
A spokesman for the cathedral said the entire wooden frame of the cathedral would likely come down, and that the vault of the edifice could be threatened too.
* Chinese military planes were involved in nearly two-thirds of the interceptions made by Japanese fighter jets in the past year * The number of interceptions is the second highest figure on record
Japanese fighter jets were scrambled 999 times to intercept foreign aircraft over the past financial year – and Chinese military planes were involved in nearly two-thirds of the interceptions.
The number of interceptions was up from 904 the previous year and was the second highest figure on record.
Chinese military aircraft were involved in 638 of the interceptions, up from 500 the previous year, and nearly all of the incidents were in airspace close to Okinawa and above the disputed Diaoyu Islands. The islands are claimed by China but controlled by Japan, which knows them as the Senkaku archipelago.
President Tsai Ing-wen condemns China's reckless behavior for undermining regional peace and stability.
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Shortly after noon on Monday, April 15, a squadron of numerous Chinese warplanes transited the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan, as confirmed by the Ministry of Defense (MND).
President Tsai Ing-wen, speaking at an event hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) celebrating 40 year of the Taiwan Relations Act, condemned the actions of China as undermining peace and stability across the strait.
The group of warplanes reportedly consisted of range of aircraft, including H-6K bombers, Shenyang J-11 fighters, Sukhoi Su-30 fighters, Shaanxi Y-8 transport aircraft, and a KJ-500 spy plane, reports ET Today.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency. U.S. Department of Defense. Missile Defense Agency/Reuters
China is lashing out at South Korea and Washington for the deployment of a powerful missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, deposited at the Osan Air Base in South Korea on Monday evening.
The deployment of THAAD follows several ballistic missile tests by North Korea in recent months, including the launch of four missiles on Monday, three of which landed in the sea off the coast of Japan. Though THAAD would help South Korea protect itself from a North Korean missile attack, China is vocally protesting the deployment of the system, claiming it upsets the "strategic equilibrium" in the region because its radar will allow the United States to detect and track missiles launched from China.
The Arab League envoy to Libya Salah Eddine Jamali has condemned foreign nations' interference in Libya, which he says are escalating violence in the divided country.
"There have been daily international interferences in Libya," he said. "These countries are encouraging the war, not halting the conflict and laying down arms."
Accusing Libyan politicians of inviting in foreign governments, Al-Jamali called on rivals to "lay down arms and return to the negotiating table", arguing "violence does not solve problems".
* The Justice Department says the report will come out Thursday morning * Barr had testified that it would come out this week * He produced a four-page summary 48 hours after he first saw it * But Congress and the public have been largely in the dark * Trump railed shortly after news broke about 'Dirty Cops' * Congressional Democrats have demanded full evidence from Mueller probe * They want to make their own decision whether Trump committed any crimes * Trump and his allies accuse Obama administration of illegal campaign spying
Attorney General Bill Barr will finally make public Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Thursday morning, giving the country its first chance to pore over its conclusions after a two-year Russia investigation.
The Justice Department confirmed the date of the release Monday, after Barr told Congress he would make public the report this week.
However Barr has made plain he will only put out a product that has been redacted to meet several criteria. A Justice Department confirmed the report's Thursday release to DailyMail.com.
PICTURED: Notre-Dame fire spread rapidly across the roof-line of the cathedral leaving one of the spires and another section of the roof engulfed in flames https://t.co/04d76IFglPpic.twitter.com/Zm28u7OqfE
* Officials in Paris said a large operation had been launched in an attempt to bring the raging fire under control * Pictures from around the city posted on social media showed flames licking up Notre Dame's famous spire * The fire was first reported at 5.50pm (GMT) on Monday and the building was evacuated soon afterwards
Firefighters are battling a massive blaze which broke out at the world-famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris this evening.
Pictures posted on social media showed enormous plumes of smoke billowing into the city's skyline and flames engulfing large sections of the historic building.
According to French newspaper Le Monde, the fire broke out in the attic of the monument before spreading across the roof.
A spokesperson for the cathedral said the blaze was first reported at 5.50pm (GMT) and the building was evacuated soon after.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said on Monday he will pursue "in earnest" another summit with Kim Jong Un despite the North Korean leader's recent criticism of Seoul's self-proclaimed role as a mediator in stalled nuclear talks.
Moon has been eager to regain momentum in talks with North Korea since Kim's second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, in Vietnam in February, failed due to conflicting demands by Pyongyang for sanctions relief and by Washington for sweeping North Korean measures to abandon its nuclear program.
Senior leaders from Japan's Ministry of Defense, US Forces Japan, Pacific Air Forces, and Lockheed Martin welcome the first operational F-35A Lightning II at Misawa Air Base, February 24, 2018. US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Benjamin W. Stratton
More details regarding the April 9 loss of a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A flying from Misawa air base have emerged in recent days. A major search continues to locate the missing pilot and the aircraft.
The pilot has been identified by the JASDF as Major Akinori Hosomi, 41, an experienced pilot with around 3,200 flying hours, of which 60 were in the F-35A. According to press briefings by the JASDF and Japan's defense minister Takeshi Iwaya, the aircraft was one of four that launched for an evening air combat training sortie. Hosomi called for the formation to end the training portion of the sortie before his aircraft disappeared from radar. No further communication was received. The F-35 is equipped with a system that sends a distress signal if the ejection seat is fired but, according to a report by The Mainichi newspaper, the JASDF confirmed that no such signal was received.
Photos that began circulating in mid-April 2019 appear to depict shipyard workers in the port city of Dalian in northern China putting the finishing touches on the Chinese navy's new Type 001A aircraft carrier.
hotos that began circulating in mid-April 2019 appear to depict shipyard workers in the port city of Dalian in northern China putting the finishing touches on the Chinese navy's new Type 001A aircraft carrier.
The photos might confirm what many observers long have suspected. That Beijing wants the new carrier, China's second, to be ready to sail in time for celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, scheduled for October 2019.
The photos of the Type 001A carrier seem to show rapid progress. Scaffolding has disappeared. Workers have applied high-friction deck coating. Four years after work began on the Type 001A and a year after the vessel completed her initial sea trials, the flattop appears nearly to be ready to leave port and potentially commission into service.
* Xi has unification on his mind, but the conditions are not ripe for it, given that China is still locked in a trade war with the US and Taiwan is gearing up for elections. The PLA's incursion into Taiwanese airspace was intentional, but it won't be overplayed.
For the first time in years, two Chinese fighter jets crossed into Taiwanese airspace on March 31, causing Taiwan to scramble its own aircraft in a tense stand-off. What impact will this incident have on cross-strait relations, and will a similar stand-off eventually lead to an accidental exchange of fire?
As Taiwan gears up for the 2020 presidential election, unification and independence will surely be one of hot topics of debate.
So far, both President Tsai Ing-wen and her colleague at the Democratic Progressive Party, former premier William Lai Ching-te, a self-proclaimed "pragmatic Taiwan independence worker", have said they would seek nomination for the contest. We can't rule out the possibility that the DPP will turn to some underhand means to try to win the election, but it would not want to trigger a Chinese campaign to force unification.
WNU Editor: Who knows what Chinese President Xi is really thinking. He has pushed Chinese territorial claims on everyone, and he has backed it by deploying Chinese military assets that has resulted in military skirmishes against India and Vietnam. Will he do the same thing with Taiwan? In my opinion no. The blow-back will be overwhelming and long lasting. But 10 years from now, and if Chinese President Xi is still in power, the environment may be very different.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks regarding the Administration's National Security Strategy at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington D.C., U.S. December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsReuters
President Donald Trump holds a "narrow" electoral advantage heading into 2020, according to Goldman Sachs, with his chances buoyed by a resilient U.S. economy and a crowded Democratic field in which a clear frontrunner has yet to emerge.
In a comprehensive report released late Saturday, the investment bank gave its preliminary thoughts on a general election that's still more than a year away.
While Trump reelection is far from assured, Goldman's economists believe the president is bolstered by "the advantage of first-term incumbency and the relatively strong economic performance," in what is sure to be a "close call" election.
WNU Editor: Too early to make any predictions. But what I do know is that President Trump is polling better than President Obama was in the third year of his mandate, his base supports him, the economy continues to perform well, and the Democrat front-runner is a Socialist. This does not bode well for Democrats if they want to capture the White House.
* The lack of deviation on policy within Canada's political parties is a departure from other Western democracies. * That lack of flexibility is a problem, and on that makes bad situations worse, argues Justin Ling.
As the UK Parliament eats itself in tortured indecision around Brexit, it might seem that Westminster systems work best when there's not too much freedom. As vote after vote unfolded, not even the few Liberal Democrats could get themselves in unison for the vote, let alone Theresa May's tortured Conservatives.
But, across the pond in Canada, the limits of lockstep parliaments were on full display. Wielding his extraordinary power as leader of the Liberal Party, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unceremoniously fired two members of his caucus, both former cabinet ministers, and ripped up their candidacy papers.
WNU Editor: First things first .... I live in Canada. As to the above question, this is how Canada's parliamentary system has been working since the beginning of Confederation .... and in my opinion it has worked well. And while it is true that Canada's political parties are focused on its leaders, it does result in governments being formed where policies and initiatives are quickly implemented. And if these policies do not work and/or the public are against them, Canada's elections are free and fair, and there is always accountability when the public goes to vote. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected with a majority government in 2015 with only 39.5% of the vote, but it was accepted at the time that he has a mandate to implement his agenda, and implemented he did. Canadians go to the polls this October, and many will be voting on his performance. My sense of the mood in Canada is that there is a growing sentiment that his policies are not working and my money is on him losing his job. And IMHO this is OK. As long as politicians are held accountable by the electorate, I do not care how cultish Canada's politics is. In the end the power must reside in the public, and in this country it does.
The B-21 Raider will replace the B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit as America's leading heavy bomber.
The Raider is a little closer to real.
The U.S. Air Force's next-generation stealth bomber is progressing as planned, the service says. and the next step is to actually fly the plane. That's the word from an Air Force's man in charge of acquisitions, Lt. Gen. Arthur Bunch. He told Congress the stealth bomber, which would replace older stealthy bombers, is expected to be operational in the mid-2020s, and could fly as early as 2021.
"Our next major milestone is first flight," Bunch told the Senate Armed Services Committee, as reported by Military.com. (The Raider, named after "Doolittle's Raiders" that struck Japan in 1942, passed its Critical Design Review in December.)
NIGEL FARAGE burst out laughing in the European Parliament chamber after EU Council President Donald Tusk effectively told Guy Verfhofstaft to re-think his position on Brexit after he said only the former Ukip leader could "save" the bloc from being impacted by upcoming European elections.
TWO of France's richest men have pledged to donate millions to help repair Notre Dame after the Paris landmark was partially destroyed by a horrific fire on Monday afternoon.
THE Notre Dame cathedral in Paris yesterday was engulfed in a raging inferno which destroyed the iconic spire but author Ken Follett has questioned the speed of the devastating blaze.
NOTRE Dame Cathedral in Paris was ablaze last night, with firefighters fighting to save the beloved French monument. French officials have now confirmed the fire is extinguished as they begin to asses the damage.
MALAYSIA AIRLINES flight MH370 was hijacked and landed mostly intact at a remote location, according to three French air traffic specialists who claimed they had the exact coordinates of the doomed jet.
THE ASTOUNDING final moments of Notre Dame before a towering inferno partially destroyed it have been captured on video - and show the globally renowned cathedral at its most resplendent.
THE Notre Dame cathedral fire has been extinguished by French authorities after firefighters worked through the night to prevent further significant damage. How did the Notre Dame fire start?
EMMANUEL Macron has been blasted by French citizens who accuse the government of delaying restoration works to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was ravaged by fire last night.
THE Notre Dame cathedral in Paris has been ravaged by fire in devastating scenes that gripped the world last night. Here is how the world's front pages reacted to the shocking blaze
IRAN and the USA may be hurtling towards all-out war after officially designating Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation.
China has strongly rebuffed criticism from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of Beijing’s involvement in Venezuela.
According to the South ChinaMorning Post, Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference Monday that the U.S. was spreading lies and slandering China.
“The words and deeds are despicable. But lies are lies, even if you say it a thousand times, they are still lies. Mr. Pompeo, you can stop,” he said, according to the Post.
The remarks come in response to comments Pompeo made while visiting Latin America last week, when he said that Chinese intervention had “helped to destroy” Venezuela.
Lu also criticized the U.S. for its interference in Latin American affairs. “The Latin American countries have good judgment about who is their true friend and who is false, and who is breaking rules and making trouble,” Lu said, according to the Post.
Nicolas Maduro, who was elected as President of Venezuela in 2013, was re-elected in 2018 in an election dogged by allegations of vote rigging and voter suppression. The country has been locked in a political standoff since Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly, declared himself the interim president in late January in response to what he called a power vacuum left by Maduro’s illegitimate second term.
The U.S. and several other Western nations have recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s leader, but several countries including Turkey, Iran, Russia and China remain firmly behind Maduro.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A United States airstrike killed a senior leader of the extremist rebels of the Islamic State in Somalia group involved in attacks in northern Somalia, U.S. military and a Somali official said Monday.The U.S. Africa Command said in statement that it carried out an airstrike near Xiriiro, a village in northern Somalia’s semi-independent Puntland state on Sunday, killing Abdulhakim Dhuqub, the deputy leader of the Somali extremists linked to the Islamic State group.
Dhuqub was responsible for the daily operations of the extremist group, planning attacks and getting resources, said the U.S. military statement.
The airstrike targeted the vehicle carrying Dhuqub, said the statement. No civilians were injured or killed as a result of this airstrike, according to the U.S. military.
“We continue to work with our Somali partners to keep pressure on the al-Shabaab and ISIS-Somalia terror networks,” said Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Gregg Olson, U.S. Africa Command director of operations.
“We use precision airstrikes to target those who plan and carry out the violent extremist activities that put Somalis at risk,” he said.
Puntland’s security minister Abdisamad Mohamed Galan also confirmed the killing of the extremist leader in the U.S. airstrike, which said also killed other members of the group, without giving further details.
The airstrike occurred as the extremists were traveling to their base in the remote mountainous villages in the region, said a Somali intelligence official. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The Islamic State in Somalia group was formed in late 2015 when extremist fighters in Puntland broke away al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida. The new group’s leader, Abdulqadir Mumin pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, perhaps influenced by an IS social media campaign urging them to defect.
Since May 2017 the group has launched attacks against security forces in the region and it has also clashed many times with the bigger al-Shabab group.
The full extent of the damage caused by the fire that broke out at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday can’t yet be known. The fire destroyed a majority of the original roof and Parisians who live nearby were evacuated during the day out of fear that the building might collapse entirely, but the towers were saved, no casualties have been reported so far and President Emmanuel Macron has promised to rebuild.
Cette cathédrale Notre-Dame, nous la rebâtirons. Tous ensemble. C’est une part de notre destin français. Je m’y engage : dès demain une souscription nationale sera lancée, et bien au-delà de nos frontières.
The disaster may be the worst that the cathedral has experienced since the French Revolution, says Laurent Ferri,Curator of the pre-1800 Collections in the Rare Division and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University and a former curator at the French National Archives.
The devastation of one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks is always a shock, but the damage to Notre Dame has been particularly heartbreaking for the French and for people around the world, considering the building’s important role in the nation’s patrimony.
“It’s not just a building,” Ferri says, “but a place that is extremely important in terms of collective memory and identity.”
About one thousand workers labored to build the cathedral on the small island of Île de la Cité in the Seine River between 1163 and 1345, replacing an earlier church, as TIME explained in 1955:
On their island in the Seine (the Île de la Cité), Paris Christians first carried stones to the site of Notre–Dame about the 6th century. The church they built was razed by the Normans in the middle of the 9th century. A new basilica of Notre–Dame lasted the better part of another three centuries, but by 1140 it was too small, and worshipers fainted away in the crush. A year or so before, a bold, bright farm boy from the provinces was drawn to the intellectual beehive of the schools of Paris, and in the next two decades climbed the ecclesiastical ladder to become Bishop of Paris.
Maurice de Sully was a practical dreamer with a vision almost as striking as that of another French provincial, Joan of Arc. Though his chiefs of staff were two unknown master builders, the grand design of Notre–Dame as it stands today was largely his. He raised the money (the cathedral eventually cost the 1955 equivalent of $100 million); he met the payroll and disciplined the work force (some 1,000 masons, metal smiths, carpenters, etc.); he personally selected leading artists and chose the subjects of the complex iconography. And he took fresh architectural gambles. The ceiling of Notre–Dame rises higher (107 feet) than any other cathedral then built, because Bishop Sully trusted the strength of the relatively untested ribbed vault; Sully’s second master builder was one of the first to develop the flying buttress.
From an architectural standpoint, “it really helps launch the revolution we call Gothic Architecture,” says Stephen Murray, an expert on the building and Professor of Medieval Art History Emeritus at Columbia University.
“The king of France wanted to build a magnificent cathedral to show that Paris was the political and economic capital of France,” says Ferri. “There was a strong alliance between church and state, and this idea that France was first among the Christian realms, so the largest and most magnificent cathedral would have to be in Paris.”
In the intervening centuries, Notre Dame has also been where France has welcomed, and bid farewell to, its leaders and icons. Napoleon I was made emperor there in 1804. Pope Pius X beatified Joan of Arc there in 1909. And it’s the site of memorial services for French Presidents, such as the ceremony for Charles de Gaulle in 1970 and François Mitterrand in 1996.
The fire, however, is not the first time the cathedral has been a victim of destruction — or restoration.
In the 16th century, Huguenots — a group of French Protestants — damaged some of the statues they considered idolatrous, and in 1793, during the French Revolution, anti-royalists stormed the cathedral to declare it a “temple of reason.” They removed and decapitated statues that they thought represented French kings. The statues were actually biblical kings; archaeologists found them in 1977, and they have been restored.
The roof that caught fire is original, made of 5,000 oak trees. The medieval spire, which collapsed on Monday, was removed in 1786 because it wasn’t stable, then rebuilt during the 1860s, in a design conceived by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, when Napoleon III was in power. Viollet-le-Duc himself even modeled for the statue of the apostle St. Thomas, considered a patron saint of architecture. “We mourn this section of the soaring spire, but when Viollet-le-Duc added it to the existing cathedral it was a very controversial decision,” says Ferri. “It would be not just a restoration but an alteration of the medieval cathedral if most of what [he] added is destroyed.”
The famous gargoyles were also fashioned during this 19th-century restoration.
In 1935, the archbishop of Paris put relics of Saint Denis and Saint Genevieve inside the spire to protect the building, perhaps in case of another massive European war, after the burning of the Reims Cathedral in World War I, according to Ferri. But Notre Dame survived both world wars, and its bells rang out to celebrate the end of the First World War and the liberation of Paris in 1944 during the Second World War.
Today, it’s clear that the will to fix the damage exists, though the means may be difficult. Even before the fire, the cathedral was already endangered by more ordinary damage, and Murray says he believes the world is not in a place to fully rebuild what has been lost.
The cathedral was already deteriorating when Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame came out in 1831, and yet the author even then was the one to perhaps best sum up the importance of preserving the cathedral he famously described as a “symphony in stone.”
“Every face, every stone, of this venerable monument,” he wrote, “is a page not only of the history, of the country, but of the history of science and art.”
(CAIRO) — Sudanese protesters on Monday welcomed the “positive steps” taken by the ruling military council, which held talks with opposition leaders over the weekend and released some political prisoners.
The praise came despite a brief incident earlier Monday in which activists said soldiers attempted to disperse the ongoing protest sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, but eventually backed off.
Last week, Sudan’s military ousted longtime President Omar al-Bashir following four months of street protests against his rule, then appointed a military council that it says will rule for two years or less while elections are organized. Demonstrators fear that the army, dominated by al-Bashir appointees, will cling to power or select one of its own to succeed him.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is behind the protests, repeated its key demand at a press conference in Khartoum, saying the military must immediately give power to a transitional civilian government that would rule for four years.
“The trust is in the street,” said prominent activist Mohammed Naji al-Asam, referring to the ongoing sit-in. The SPA also called on the international community to support civilian rule.
The African Union meanwhile gave Sudan’s military 15 days to hand over power to a “civilian-led political authority” or face suspension from the union’s activities. It said a civilian authority should hold elections “as quickly as possible.”
Earlier in the day, the SPA urged people into the streets, saying “There is an attempt to break up the sit-in. We appeal to everyone to head to the area to protect your revolution and gains.”
There were no clashes and no one was hurt in the attempted dispersal, but the incident renewed concerns that the military could renege on its promises not to use force against the peaceful demonstrators. Previous attempts to break up the sit-in before al-Bashir’s ouster last Thursday killed dozens of people.
Videos circulated online showing hundreds of troops outside the military compound in Khartoum. In the footage, an officer is heard saying they came to open roads, “clean the area” and remove the barricades set up by the protesters to protect their gathering.
Some protesters are then seen in the footage sitting down on the ground in front of the soldiers, who subsequently move away. In some videos the protesters chant “Revolution,” as well as slogans against al-Bashir’s Islamist supporters. Protester Nourhan Mostafa said the sit-in will continue until “the demands the Sudanese revolution are met.”
Also Monday, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the transitional military council, announced an overhaul of the military leadership and appointed a new chief of staff, according to a military statement.
The statement said Gen. Hashem Babakr was appointed the joint chief of staff, replacing Gen. Kamal Abdel-Marouf al-Mahi, who was ousted along with Defense Minister Awad ibn Ouf a day after al-Bashir’s overthrow.
Babakr, 63, was appointed by al-Bashir as chairman of the joint operations authority in February.
Since his ouster, al-Bashir — president for nearly 30 years — has been under house arrest in Khartoum. The military said he was removed from power in response to the demands of the people.
A military spokesman said Sunday it will name a civilian prime minister and Cabinet — but not a president — to help govern the country. The announcement was unlikely to satisfy the protesters. Lt. Gen. Shamseldin Kibashi said in televised remarks that the military had begun to overhaul the security apparatus and wouldn’t break up the demonstrations outside the military headquarters.
The U.S., Britain and Norway on Sunday urged the military authorities to “listen to the calls from the Sudanese people.”
Sudan’s uprising began in December as a series of protests against the rising costs of fuel and food, but soon shifted to calls for al-Bashir to step down. Dozens of people were killed in a security crackdown aimed at quashing the protests.
The protests against al-Bashir gained further momentum after Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned earlier this month in response to weeks of similar protests.
A huge fire that caused extensive damage Monday to Paris’ Notre Dame, the world-famous, 850-year-old cathedral, has been extinguished.
According to the Associated Press (AP), assessments are being made to see if it is safe to enter the blackened structure. One firefighter has been reported injured.
Local media were reportedly told that the fire could be linked to a renovation project on the church’s spire, which was brought down in the blaze. According to AP, the Paris prosecutors’ office said it was treating the fire as an accident and had ruled out arson and terrorism. Much of the artwork in the building has been recovered.
The French Interior Ministry said earlier on Twitter that over 400 firefighters had been mobilized to battle the blaze and managed to save much of the landmark’s structure. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the burning cathedral was the “emotion of a whole nation.”
“Like all our countrymen, I am sad tonight to see this part of us burn,” he tweeted as news of the fire began to spread.
Notre-Dame de Paris en proie aux flammes. Émotion de toute une nation. Pensée pour tous les catholiques et pour tous les Français. Comme tous nos compatriotes, je suis triste ce soir de voir brûler cette part de nous.
In a speech later Monday night, in the vicinity of the still-burning cathedral, Macron pledged to rebuild Notre Dame.
“I’m telling you right now, very solemnly, we will rebuild this cathedral all together,” he said, vowing to seek out help at home and abroad. “I’m committed to this project.”
The Vatican released a statement on Monday evening conveying Pope Francis’ “shock and sadness” at the destruction of a worldwide “symbol of Christianity.”
“We express our closeness to the French Catholics and the population of Paris and assure you of our prayers for the firefighters and how many are doing their best to cope with this tragic situation,” the statement read.
Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump tweeted that it was “horrible to watch” Notre Dame burning and suggested that French authorities use “flying water tankers” to extinguish the flames.
So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!
France’s civil security agency said that it had used “all means” to put out the fire, except for water-dropping aircraft, like the U.S. President suggested. They said that dropping that amount of water on the 12th century structure could cause the entire building to fall.
Videos and images of the enormous fire engulfing the medieval Catholic cathedral flooded social media throughout Monday. In them, enormous plumes of smoke were seen erupting from the cathedral, with flames leaping up to its bell towers and spire before it collapsed.
Here are a few of the many Twitter posts that show the fire.
Construction of Notre Dame began in 1163, according to the cathedral’s website, and was completed in about 1250. It is one of Europe’s most-popular tourist attractions, drawing about 12 million people a year to its doors. The cathedral was also celebrated in Victor Hugo’s classic novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was published in 1831.
Its great age caused the cathedral to fall into a state of disrepair in recent years, with no clear decision about who would take up the cost for expensive restorations.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he’s ready for a fourth summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to help salvage faltering nuclear negotiations between the North and the United States.Moon’s comments came after Kim issued his harshest criticism yet of South Korea’s diplomatic role last week, accusing Seoul of acting like an “overstepping mediator” and demanding that it diverge from Washington to support the North’s position more strongly.Moon met Kim three times last year and also brokered nuclear talks between North Korea and the U.S. following tensions created by the North’s nuclear and missile tests and the exchange of war threats by Kim and President Donald Trump.”Whenever North Korea is ready, we hope that the South and North could sit down together and hold concrete and practical discussions on ways to achieve progress that goes beyond what was accomplished in the two summits between North Korea and the United States,” Moon said in a meeting with senior aides.
Moon met Trump last week in Washington, where they agreed on the importance of nuclear talks with North Korea but did not announce a specific plan to get the stalemated negotiations back on track.
Moon spent the past year making aggressive efforts to stabilize South Korea’s hard-won detente with North Korea and improve bilateral relations. He also lobbied hard to set up the first summit between Kim and Trump last June, when they agreed to a vague statement about a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.
Trump and Kim met again in Vietnam in February, but the summit collapsed over what the Americans saw as excessive North Korean demands for sanctions relief in exchange for limited disarmament steps.
Moon has said it is Seoul’s “outmost priority” to prevent nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea from derailing, and there is speculation he will soon announce a plan to send a special envoy to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, in an effort to rescue the talks.
North Korea in recent weeks has been registering displeasure with Seoul, withdrawing its entire staff from a front-line liaison office with South Korea before sending some of them back, and refusing to show up for a previously planned joint search for war remains at the two countries’ border.
The breakdown of the Trump-Kim meeting in February raised doubts about Moon’s claim that Kim could be persuaded to deal away his nuclear weapons for economic and security benefits and also about Seoul’s role as a diplomatic catalyst, which became less crucial once Washington and Pyongyang established direct talks.
North Korea had been urging the South to break away from Washington and proceed with inter-Korean economic projects that are currently held back by U.S.-led sanctions against the North.
In their third summit last September, Moon and Kim agreed to reconnect the Koreas’ railways and roads, normalize operations at a jointly run factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and restart South Korean tours to the North’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort, voicing optimism that international sanctions could end and allow such projects.
But Moon’s call for partial sanctions relief to create space for the inter-Korean projects and induce nuclear disarmament steps by North Korea has led to a disagreement with Washington, which sees economic pressure as its main leverage with Pyongyang.
In a speech delivered to North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament last Friday, Kim said he is open to a third summit with Trump but set an end-of-year deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement.
Kim blamed the collapse of the second summit with Trump on what he described as Washington’s unilateral demands. He said the North’s economy would prevail despite the heavy U.S.-led sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons program and that he wouldn’t “obsess over summitry with the United States out of thirst for sanctions relief.”
On South Korea, Kim said Seoul “should not act as an ‘overstepping mediator’ or a ‘facilitator’ and should rather get its mind straight as a member of the (Korean) nation and boldly speak up for the interest of the nation.”
Moon did not directly address Kim’s criticism, but said he has “high regard” for what he saw as Kim’s strong commitment to diplomacy.
Kim’s speech came after North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly made a slew of personnel changes that bolstered Kim’s diplomatic lineup. Experts said this could be a sign of his desire to keep recent months of up-and-down nuclear diplomacy alive rather than returning to the threats and weapons tests that characterized 2017, when many feared possible war on the Korean Peninsula.
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