NEWS OF THE DAY

_1 Cathedral fire: Officials opened an arson inquiry Saturday after a fire broke out in the famed Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes in western France. The blaze destroyed the organ, shattered stained glass windows and sent black smoke spewing from between the Gothic cathedral towers. Residents and tourists watched aghast, and emergency workers cordoned off the area around the monument, in the historical center of the city on the Loire River. A City Hall official said the fire broke out early Saturday inside the cathedral, and the cause is unclear. No injuries were reported. The cathedral had been built over five centuries and was completed in 1891.

_2 U.S. sanctions: The U.S. Treasury sanctioned a son of Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo for alleged ties to drug trafficking. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control added Juan Carlos Ortega to its list of “Specially Designated Nationals.” The designation means his assets in the U.S. are blocked and “U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.” Juan Carlos Ortega is the third son of the ruling couple to be sanctioned by the United States. Some 22 people close to Ortega and Murillo have been sanctioned, including Murillo herself, since late 2017. The U.S. government has said it wants to pressure Ortega into holding free and fair elections and make the government respect basic rights.

_3 Congo violence: Days of fighting between armed groups in villages in Congo’s South Kivu province have killed at least 43 people, many of them women and children, residents said Saturday. At least 40 others disappeared after members of the armed group known as Ngumino attacked the village of Kipupu on Thursday while they were being pursued by the Mai Mai rebel group, according to the coordinator of South Kivu civil society groups, Andre Byadunia. Many armed groups are present in Congo’s eastern provinces, fighting for power over the mineralrich region. _4 Crash probe: Iran has sent the black box of the Ukrainian passenger jet that its armed forces mistakenly shot down in January to France for evaluation, an Iranian news agency said Saturday. Iran accidentally shot down the Boeing 737, killing all 176 people aboard, after mistaking it for an incoming missile. Iranian forces had been bracing for a counterattack after launching missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in response to the killing of its top commander, Gen. Qassim Soleimani, in a U.S. strike earlier in January. Ilna’s report quotes Mohsen Baharvand, an aide to Iran’s foreign minister, as saying the downed jet’s black box was transported to Paris on Friday, accompanied by Iranian civil aviation and judicial officials. Iran initially blamed the crash on technical problems and only acknowledged shooting down the plane days later. _5 Deadly floods: At least 14 people have died in the latest round of seasonal rains and flooding in southern China, as soldiers built makeshift barriers with sandbags and rocks Saturday to keep the Yangtze River and its tributaries at bay. Three floodgates of the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangtze were opened as the water level behind the massive dam rose more than 50 feet above flood level, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The incoming waters were expected to peak Saturday behind the dam, but more water is forecast to arrive around Tuesday, Xinhua said. Seasonal flooding strikes large parts of China annually, especially in its central and southern regions, but the rainfall has been unusually high this year. About 1.8 million people have been evacuated.