Man charged in French cathedral blaze
PARIS -- French authorities detained and charged a repentant church volunteer Sunday after he told investigators that he was responsible for an arson attack that badly damaged a 15th-century Gothic cathedral.
The man had previously been questioned and then released after the July 18 blaze that destroyed the organ, shattered stained-glass windows, and blackened the insides of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in the western French city of Nantes.
Detained again this weekend for further questioning, the volunteer church worker admitted responsibility for the fire, said his lawyer, Quentin Chabert.
"He confessed to the allegations against him which, as the prosecutor indicated, are causing destruction and damage by fire," the lawyer told France Info radio. "He regrets the facts. That is certain. He is in a sort of repentance."
French media quoted the Nantes prosecutor as saying that the 39-year-old Rwandan, who'd been tasked with the job of locking up the cathedral, told the investigating magistrate that he lit three fires: on two cathedral organs and an electrical box. His motives were unknown.
The prosecutor said the arson charge is punishable by a 10-year jail term and a fine of $175,000.
Picked up immediately after the fire, held for over a day and then released, the man was detained again Saturday morning on the basis of evidence gathered by police forensic experts and a 20-member team of investigators who questioned more than 30 people, the prosecutor said.
Eastern Ukraine forces prepare for truce
KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian and rebel forces in war-torn eastern Ukraine have started preparing for a "full and comprehensive" cease-fire scheduled to begin at midnight, a move that officials hope can lead to more steps to resolve the 6-year-old conflict.
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Rebel officials said Sunday that they have instructed their troops about the cease-fire and issued a decree banning the use of weapons. Ukraine's military said their forces "have begun preparations" as well.
If upheld, it would "pave the way for implementing other clauses" of the Minsk peace deal, the office of Ukraine's president said last week.
Brokered in 2015 by France and Germany, the peace plan aimed to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists that flared in 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for the separatists. The conflict has since killed more than 14,000 people.
The presidents of Russia and Ukraine both commended the cease-fire deal in a phone call Sunday and underscored the importance of implementing the agreements reached at the December summit in Paris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed concern over Kyiv's calls to revise the Minsk agreements and called for "real actions," the Kremlin said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed the need "for further practical steps" aimed at releasing Ukrainians who are imprisoned by rebels.
8 people die in Syria market bombing
BEIRUT -- A bomb that exploded Sunday morning in a vegetable market in a north Syrian border town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed eight people and wounded 19, an opposition war monitor and the state news agency reported.
The blast scorched market stalls and scattered produce in the town of Ras al-Ayn along the border with Turkey.
The state news agency SANA said the blast was caused by a car bomb, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was caused by a motorcycle rigged with explosives.
The Observatory said some of the wounded are in critical condition, adding that the dead included a woman and a child.
Turkey's Defense Ministry blamed the attack on insurgents linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey
It views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists, though the same fighters had partnered with the U.S. against the Islamic State group.
Putin touts Russian naval expansion
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin said the Russian navy will get 40 new ships and vessels this year, as he attended a naval parade in St. Petersburg on Sunday marking Navy Day in Russia.
The parade in St. Petersburg and the nearby town of Kronshtadt featured 46 ships and vessels and more than 4,000 troops and aimed to "demonstrate the growing power of our navy," Putin said Friday.
He said 40 ships and vessels of different classes will enter service this year, and that the Russian navy will be equipped with hypersonic weapons to boost its combat capabilities.
Opening the parade, he said that "six more vessels for the far-sea zone were laid down at Russia's three leading shipyards" in the past few days.
The Kremlin has made military modernization its top priority amid tensions with the West that followed Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Putin says Russia needs a strong navy to defend its interests and "help maintain a strategic balance and global stability."
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
