NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Libya fighting: The commander backed by Russia, whose forces have suffered a string of battlefield losses in recent days, declared that he is ready to stop fighting and enter talks to end his oilrich country’s grinding civil war. The announcement from Khalifa Hifter was unlikely to bring an immediate end to the fighting. But it offered new evidence of the decisive clout of Turkey, which is aiding the U.N.backed government in Tripoli on the other side of Libya’s war. Turkey’s intervention in recent months has shifted the course of the war. Hifter made the ceasefire offer Saturday in Cairo as he stood alongside his Egyptian ally, President AbdelFattah elSissi.
2 Child abuse: Police in Germany say they have broken up a sophisticated child pornography ring that peddled “unfathomable images” over the internet, arresting 11 people on suspicion of severely abusing at least three boys, filming the acts and selling them for profit. Close relatives of the boys, ages 5, 10 and 12 — including one set of parents and an uncle — were among those arrested, police said. Investigators identified the suspects from videos recovered from professionally encrypted hard drives that they seized and are still working to unlock, authorities said. The children have been placed in the care of social workers, said Martin Botzenhardt, a prosecutor in Munster.
3 Cathedral fire: Workers suspended from ropes will be lowered into the charred remains of scaffolding that melted atop Notre Dame when the Paris cathedral went up in flames and begin the delicate job of dismantling the 200 tons of metal. Authorities overseeing the restoration of the centuriesold jewel of Gothic architecture ravaged by fire on April 15, 2019, said the work will begin Monday. Two teams of five workers each will take turns descending on ropes into the heatwarped web of scaffolding and cut with saws through metal tubes that fused together in the inferno. The chunks will then be lifted out by a crane. The cathedral will remain closed for several years during renovations.
4 Shark attack: A 60yearold surfer was attacked and killed by a great white shark off the coast of northern New South Wales state Sunday, officials said. The man was bitten on the back of his thigh and was brought to the shore by other surfers who had fought off the shark, a rescue group, Surf Life Saving NSW, said in a statement. The victim, from Tugun just over the state border in Queensland, received emergency aid but died on the beach. “A shark biologist assessed photographs and confirmed a white shark was responsible for the fatal attack,” the state’s Department of Primary Industries said. It was the third fatal shark attack in Australia this year. In January, a diver was killed near Esperance off the Western Australia state coast. In April, a shark fatally mauled a wildlife worker on the Great Barrier Reef.
5 Animal cruelty: Police in India have arrested a man accused of causing the death of a pregnant elephant that died after biting a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers that exploded in its mouth. The elephant died in southern Kerala state last month. The state forest department announced the arrest and said it is investigating whether the man was a poacher or a farmer who wanted to kill the elephant to prevent it from damaging crops. “Bait bombs” made from food stuffed with explosives are common in India, particularly in southern states, and are used mostly to hunt wild boars for meat. The elephant’s death outraged animal rights activists. Shrinking habitat have led to hungry elephants entering villages, where they sometimes damage crops and attack residents.