SPECIALISTS shoring up fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral have returned to the Paris site for the first time in nearly a month.
This time, the workers were wearing disposable underwear and other protective gear after a delay prompted by fears of lead contamination.
Activity resumed under strict lead-protection measures for the stonemasons, clean-up workers and scientists working on the site, according to the Culture Ministry. They include throwaway full-body clothing, obligatory showers and a new decontamination zone to ensure that they do not track pollution outside the site.
The workers are clearing out hazardous debris and studying and consolidating the medieval monument – a crucial first step to prepare the fragile cathedral for a long, multimillion-pound reconstruction effort.
MEANWHILE, air strikes have halted a Turkish military convoy carrying ammunition after it crossed into northern Syria, bound for a rebel-held stronghold, according to opposition activists. The strikes hit near the road where the convoy was moving, the activists added.
It was not clear whether it was Syrian government or Russian warplanes that struck near the convoy but the development marks a sharp escalation in tensions in the north-western province of Idlib where Syrian troops have been on the offensive for weeks.
Turkey backs the rebels who have been in control of the region since 2012, while Russia backs the Syrian government.
ELSEWHERE, Afghanistan’s president has vowed to eliminate all safe havens of the Daesh group as the country marks a subdued 100th Independence Day after a horrific wedding attack claimed by the local Daesh affiliate.
President Ashraf Ghani’s comments yesterday came as Afghanistan mourned at
least 63 people killed in the Kabul bombing.
Many outraged Afghans ask whether an approaching deal between the United States and the Taliban to end nearly 18 years
of fighting will bring peace to long-suffering civilians.
FINALLY, a general accused of grave human rights abuses during Sri Lanka’s long civil war has been appointed as the country’s new army chief.
President Maithripala Sirisena’s office announced that Major General Shavendra Silva has been named as the new army commander. Silva was in charge of the 58th Division, one the divisions of soldiers that encircled the final stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the final stages of the civil war in 2009.
Sri Lankan soldiers and the Tamil rebels were both accused of war abuses. Government soldiers were accused of targeting civilians and hospitals.
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