LEAD Boxes

Notre Dame restoration halted

Paris: The Cathedral of Notre Dame stands crippled and alone, locked in a dangerous web of twisted scaffolding one year after a cataclysmic fire gutted its interior, toppled its famous spire and horrified the world. Some of the 40,000 prickly metal bars — erected for an earlier renovation project — melted in the intense blaze on April 15, 2019. The unstable scaffolding now endangers the Gothic jewel that for many embodies the soul of France. The restoration of the landmark from the 12th and 13th centuries has been halted and the workers sent home because of France’s coronavirus lockdown that began March 17, thwarting plans to start removing the 250 tonnes of metal scaffolding.

99-year-old WWII veteran beats virus in Brazil

Brasalia: A 99-year-old World War II veteran in Brazil was released from hospital with military honours after recovering from the coronavirus. Second Lieutenant Ermando Piveta, who served in the Brazilian artillery in Africa during the World War II, was brought out of Brasilia’s Armed Forces Hospital to trumpet music and applause. Wearing an army-green side cap, he raised his arms in the air as he left after eight days as a patient. “It was a tremendous fight for me, greater than in the war. In war, you kill or live. Here, you have to fight in order to live, and you leave this fight a winner,” said Piveta. He served in the Brazilian fourth artillery regiment soon after the country entered the war on the side of the Allies, the army said.

Pak’s tally nears 6,000

Islamabad: The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan approached 6,000 after 272 new infections were reported, the health ministry said on Wednesday as Prime Minister Imran Khan extended the ongoing lockdown until the end of this month to fight the pandemic. The number of coronavirus patients in the country rose to 5,988, with 272 new cases and 11 deaths during the last 24 hours. The Ministry of National Health Services said that Punjab reported 2,945 cases, Sindh 1,518, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 865, Balochistan 240, Gilgit-Baltistan 236, Islamabad 140 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 46.