The security employee monitoring the smoke alarm panel at Notre-Dame cathedral was just three days on the job when the red warning light flashed on the evening of April 15: “Feu.” Fire.
It was 6:18 on a Monday, the week before Easter. The Rev. Jean-Pierre Caveau was celebrating Mass before hundreds of worshipers and visitors, and the employee radioed a church guard who was standing just a few feet from the altar.
Go check for fire, the guard was told. He did and found nothing.
It took nearly 30 minutes before they realized their mistake: The guard had gone to the wrong building. The fire was in the attic of the cathedral, the famed latticework of ancient timbers known as “the forest.”
Megan Rapinoe took the pitch Friday to win for the United States, not to make a statement to its President or his supporters that had been barraging her social media accounts.
This was about the team, she said. This was about her teammates. This was about the World Cup.
It wasn’t personal.
Yet human nature is human nature and the significance of Rapinoe knocking in both goals in the Americans’ dramatic 2-1 victory over France here Friday night, pushing them into a Tuesday semifinal against England, wasn’t lost on her.
If you’re going to get into a fight with Donald Trump, well, that’s one heck of a way to close out the week.
President Emmanuel Macron of France has vowed that Notre-Dame cathedral will be rebuilt, as prosecutors begin investigating what caused a fire that badly damaged the 850-year-old symbol of Paris and caused its thin spire to collapse in smoke and flames.
Mr. Macron said an international effort to raise funds for reconstruction would begin Tuesday.
“We will rebuild Notre-Dame,” he said as he visited the site on Monday night. “Because that is what the French expect.”
The billionaire Pinault family of France has already pledged 100 million euros, or $113 million, to the effort, Agence-France Presse reported.
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The fire on Monday at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron of France said an international effort to raise funds for reconstruction would begin Tuesday.CreditCreditVeronique De Viguerie/Getty Images
A 9-year-old South African child diagnosed with HIV when he was 1 month old has been in HIV remission for 8½ years — without regular treatment.
This is the first reported case of a child controlling their HIV infection without drugs in Africa and the third known case globally.
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Soon after diagnosis, the child was placed on antiretroviral treatment, or ART, for 40 weeks, at which point treatment was stopped and the child’s health was monitored.
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Blood tests in late 2015 revealed the child is in HIV remission, meaning levels of the virus in the blood are undetectable using standard tests. Subsequent testing of samples dating back to the child’s infancy confirm remission was achieved soon after treatment was stopped.
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Rare case of 9-year-old in HIV remission for years
Even Stan Wawrinka had to smile before Sunday’s French Open final when the stadium announcer listed year-by-year each of the nine previous titles Rafael Nadal had won at Roland Garros.
Another one can now be added to the list — and it is one for the ages — after the Spaniard crushed Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 6-1 to become the first man to win the same grand slam on 10 occasions.
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The ‘Decima.’
Indeed it is a feat that may never be duplicated.
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He collapsed to the court when Wawrinka sent a backhand into the net and seconds later an emotional Nadal sunk his head into his towel while in his chair. He was soon cradling the famous trophy like a baby.
Tourists strolling along Paris’ famous Champs-Elysees on Monday afternoon watched in horror as a car rammed into a police van — and some witnessed the car burst into flames as police grabbed the man inside and put him on the ground.
The armed driver deliberately plowed into the police vehicle and later died, authorities said.
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“We were waiting to cross the street and suddenly heard an explosion and the car was in flames,” said Eugenio Morcilla, who captured video after the collision. “The police acted very quickly.”
Security forces killed a man who seized a weapon from a soldier at Paris Orly Airport, the French interior ministry said Saturday.
The attacker took the soldier’s weapon before seeking refuge in a shop, interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said. He was then shot dead.
No one else was injured, Brandet said, adding that an investigation has been launched.
The French National Police tweeted that a “police operation” was underway at the airport, with an elite operations unit and bomb squad officers at the scene.
The world is reeling after Kim Kardashian West was held at gunpoint by masked men dressed as police officers and robbed of jewellery worth several million dollars at a luxury residence in Paris.
According to French newspaper Le Parisien, Kardashian West was threatened with a gun to her head before being tied up in the bathroom.
While a spokesperson for the reality TV star said the Kardashian was “badly shaken but physically unharmed,” not everyone was feeling sorry for the businesswoman, and many went so far as to make jokes about the robbery.
British comedian James Corden chimed into the conversation to express his disapproval at the ill-timed humour, urging people to “be nice or shut up.”
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Kim Kardashian attends the Siran Presentation At Hotel Plaza Athenee as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear on Oct. 2, 2016, in Paris.
The Belgian jihadi suspected of masterminding deadly attacks in Paris died along with his cousin in a police raid on a suburban apartment building, officials said Thursday.
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins’ office said 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud was identified based on skin samples, but authorities did not know how he died. His body was found in the apartment building targeted in the chaotic and bloody raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday.
Three police officials say a woman who died in the raid was Abaaoud’s cousin. One said Hasna Aitboulahcen is believed to have detonated a suicide vest after a brief conversation with police officers.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.
The video, which appeared on a site used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday’s Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed.
The message to countries involved in what it called the “crusader campaign” was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.
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Notre-dame fire
Megan Rapinoe
Rare case of 9-year-old in HIV remission for years
How clay helped Nadal
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
James' World 2 