this is your news live from berlin firefighters battle into the night to save notre dame cathedral flames devoured the gothic churches roof and spire but officials believe they have saved the main structure after a colossal rescue effort now france's president says we will rebuild it. also coming up sudan's protest movement keeps up the pressure demonstrators demand a transition to civilian government within fifteen days as they deflect efforts by troops to end their sit in. class germany's probe into the diesel gate scandal

reaches the very top prosecutors inside former volkswagen c.e.o. mark has been on charges of fraud saying he and fellow executives worked to deceive the world about emissions. i've got to thank you for joining us french president is vowing to rebuild the notre dame cathedral after a blaze destroyed much of the twelfth century church late on monday firefighters say the fire is now under control and is partially extinguished now this here is what's been left standing this morning authorities say the cathedral structure was largely saved but the fire did got its roof and caused the spire to collapse one firefighter was injured during the blaze many valuable artworks inside were lost or damaged. and people around the world are lamenting the devastation of an

architectural jewel that a survived well over eight centuries and is a symbol of france's heritage. to fell were a place on earth this is what it might look like. the flames destroyed what two world wars did not ravaging over eight hundred years of history. as the spire of not to dom fell to the inferno. people in france and around the world looked on. thousands gathered nearby in paris many in shock at the scale of the blaze. the french president. came to stand by them. to get this cathedral we were able to build it more than eight hundred years ago. and over the

centuries to make it grow and improve immediately. so i say to you very solemnly this evening this cathedral we will rebuild it all together. if you can do this and this is probably a part of french destiny a project we will have for the coming years but i am committed to it starting tomorrow a national fund raising campaign will be launched and so i don't see. some four hundred firefighters battle to save the church smain bell towers they also rushed into the flames to try to salvage religious relics and priceless artworks. the fire spread extremely quickly on the roof wooden beams dating from the twelfth century are thought to be to blame. later some measure of good news firefighters announced the church score structure had been saved. their efforts honored by those who

looked on at the unfolding disaster. if you. will do that it's not just catholics but also believers and nonbelievers we share the same attachment to note the party because it's a landmark it's a place of refuge in french history. it's where we have gathered in joy and sorrow throughout our history. and thought oh now i started to think that it's the end of an era the end of a piece of history and iraq attacked it's incredibly unfortunate this is something that will have the world mourning. the loss of this piece of world heritage is weighing on many well beyond the streets of paris oh. oh. oh. and let's go right to do have used barbara baseball she was at the scene and. paris

barbara good morning to you we can see the main structure of the cathedral is still standing as we said there behind you bring us up to date on the latest efforts to fully extinguish the flames. yeah around four o'clock this morning the head of the fire fighting services in paris said the worst is over we have managed to contain the fire to extinguish the worst fire is that where sort of raging in the middle of what we see behind us here where the scaffolding is that this is where this fire was that broke down last night as the first piece of the cathedral and all around it is the vast old roof into tears off the conceivable dating back really to the thirteenth century roof seven eight hundred years old we're in there and this is really wood john reed lentulus leigh so during the night we could see to one o'clock or so we could see flames really reaching up to the sky bright red and then

slowly slowly it became darker when the firefighters managed to beat back the fire now the problem is they're still throwing water at the walls of the cathedral there in order to cool it down because was such a huge fire in the building like this and the problem is that there might be nests somewhere that sort reuniting even after hours even after days it's still possible so we can also see the tiny sort of crawling around in the in the outer support work of the cathedral firefighters and structural engineers trying to assess what will stand up and what is still in immediate danger here barbara as you've been speaking we've been looking at live pictures of that scaffolding you were mentioning and the outside structure of the cathedral what more are authorities learning this morning about the extent of the damage. the damage of course is extensive. built from sandstone like all the historic buildings in paris and. the

enormous heat of course damages the stone it sort of bakes the stone and makes a triable so nobody knows really what the what the structural problems that will be arising could be the inside of course is heavily damaged and as one knows from when and when to building you know that an apartment building burns the water can make worse damage than the fire itself originally so huge amounts of water have been pouring into the historic even side of this church so a lot of the art in their paintings and sculptures and the works that have been collected there throughout the centuries are lost what is lost is a large part of the historic everybody who knows not knows that there was huge bro's windows big round windows at the entrance side beautiful old dating back to the thirteenth century that is lost because it just simply corrected the enormous heat of this fire so there is extensive damage some things could be brought out

during the night but this will be a horrible task and tremendous task over use in years to come to rebuild this and much will be lost and not be retrievable it is indeed such a tragedy barbara what do we know at this time about the cause of this fire. because of the fire is supposedly negligence it's an accident as horrible as that sounds there'll be a work's going on as we see from the scaffolding there they were working craftsmen were working in this roof in this ancient roof around this fire and obviously something happened there maybe an electrical fault may through some maybe through some work so either things you know just some sparks sort of struck these old old beams and they are of course as dry as tinder and they slowly took fire i mean two to four to burn it takes

a while. but then they workman started they stopped work at five o'clock yesterday afternoon and the fire started around seven o'clock so it took it took two hours for it to take hold and so the prosecutor of paris it has opened an investigation about they think it was negligence and it was after all the next event and it will be maybe not ever possible to to exactly figure out what caused it and barbara we've seen such an outpouring of grief especially from her regions and it's safe to say notre dame really is a part of the city's soul tell us more about what people there have been saying to you. people i just said i mean last night people were standing on the bridges to the louis where you have a view all the perimeter of the blocked off by police of course because firefighters were going back and forth and just for security reasons but people were standing on the bridges and watching the suspect to go but not in the way that

there was sort of like gawping at it. it was very quiet how do you but he spoke some people were singing religious hymns and it was you know some people were sort of making the catholic cross sign in and it was very everybody even people who said they're not close to the church that this strikes at our hearts because this is a symbol for paris and a symbol for the french nation going back to the stability and the long guarantee of the french nation going back to me ages this is really the old part of paris so people of the very touched and there is a general sense of great sadness we also seen some reactions from from church leaders and political leaders let's listen now to some of those responses. would you like to see this when it's a monument you love and a monument you live in which you celebrate which represents so much in our history

and it's really sad and i'm asking god wife. is. one of the is that we have chosen cools from all over the world because it's a tragedy for the whole. i've said it before because of course not today is the entire history of paris but he in the notre dame is really the symbol here of who we. just couldn't see it's a part of our culture. it's a part of our lives that's a truly great cathedral and i've been there and i've seen it and there's no cathedral i think i could say there's probably no cathedral in the world like it it's a it's a terrible scene. though some of the reactions there are from political and church leaders and let's talk more about this with news editor and our french journalist chavez who joins us here in our studio good morning to you as well you know we heard some reaction there from the mayor of paris tell us more about what was so special about the structure of notre dame itself to the wood frame and also the

spire. was actually to your original structure so that means it was eight hundred fifty years old and it's survived the french revolution it survived various has survived what will won the world war two and that was what was so particular and some iraq of the above is that it was a building that has managed to remain intact throughout the centuries and that have managed to remain untouched true so many historical events and that made it very special also it lies at the very heart of paris and the finest regions were actually buried in the crypt of not so it made it a very special place for preparations and for french people in general what makes it still such a symbol of french heritage and history as you were saying and also what does it mean for europe well. i tell you what makes it so special is that the motto whether

you're a believer or not no matter what's your. it is a place where french people identify with french culture it is always have it is ation and it's also of course it's a christian civilization but any french press and identifies with the capital city with its monuments such as the f.o. tower over and of course not and i'm going to america and the german chef of oh say just today was a symbol of european culture a dove was disappearing in the flames and that's exactly how it is felt it feels like it's much bigger than only a french cultural heritage building you know that's a sentiment we've seen over and over again on twitter it's a collective symbol of our civilization of our heritage we just we're seeing some live pictures there again this morning let's bring in barbara bays will who's in paris back into the discussion barbara you know plans are now as we heard from the french president to rebuild not to don is there any sense at this point how long or

how expensive bet undertaking could be. it will take very very long many many years because this is a very difficult and detailed work you're going to need all the artists that friends still haven't even hasn't even draft some from other countries because the whole roof structure which is huge this is sixty meters high and it is more than one hundred meters long will have to be rebuilt and the whole interior renovated and then the structural damage that has been done to what we can still see standing up there hasn't been assessed yet that it's going to take days and weeks so this is not a question of money and the first a big donation has come in by nope you know one of the french entrepreneurs and billionaires who started it was one hundred million last night and public fund raising has been put up the tragedy here really is that

the french state has neglected not as many of those sort of parts of the cultural friend the french cultural heritage for years it was just a bit patching here but there are a few millions here and there so it was really always under-funded it was never really sorrow renovated in the sense that it would be made safe for the future and so no this really seems like some awful revenge for decades long neglect on the side of french governments this is not. this is government's before him that have really not sort of put up the money for this and now he will have to find hundreds of millions maybe more than a billion to rebuild this precious building and in the end it will never be what it was because you cannot bring back the special sense of the age of this of this place of the building and the special sentiment used to carry and then when i went to ask you about that sentiment we just heard from barbara there this sense that.

many cultural heritage symbols and friends have been neglected by the for. government there was a headline from two years ago i remember seeing an international press say notre dame is crumbling who will pay for it tell us about the repairs that had been going on and whether enough had been done to preserve this very important icon well for us i think we should go back in time a little bit because friend france is a secular state where so so there's no stage religion and religious buildings are owned by the state or local authorities only if they were nationalized prior to the french revolution and that means that we have in france forty four thousand cultural heritage monuments and the state has to take care of it this represents billions of euros which the state along cannot take care of so that so the renovation restoration works would also the. private funds and

that's one of the problems now when it comes to not it is such a landmark in paris of course the authorities had. invested millions of euros in in a renovation where it started in july two thousand and eighteen and this renovation where the work should have lasted twenty years and would have cost in millions of euros but now due to that neglect due to the state of new negligence and also due to the fire it will cost much more and for who knows how many years and just like i was saying we will never recover the rose windows there are so paintings invaluable paintings in valuables cultures that have been damaged not only by defames but those so by the water tone but of firefighters so it's a whole it's a huge loss for cultural heritage not only french culture but worldwide culture hate in that might indeed be the price to pay for as you were both saying you and

barbara neglect over years by the government of but also from private funds barbara coming back to you now you know officials including president icon have been thanking the firefighters who were on the scene all night last night for their courage is there any assessment at this point of how authorities responded to this fire. yeah there seems to be a big problem there because last night we heard that it took too long much too long maybe up to forty five minutes to for a larger number of firefighters to appear at the scene because the fire broke out shortly before seven o'clock and we talked to some inhabitants here who were working along the the island saying islands and one man told us that he said i saw the shine of the fire around the spire quite early on and then there was just a single fire engine arriving there and now this is a huge building they normally can't reach so cranes had to be brought in for the

water to be in the throne at the cathedral there was a fire fighting boat on the thames on the river below us hear their wishes for owing huge walls of water but that was like much later forces couldn't be mobilized quickly enough to really contain the fire in its beginning stages and that was why this fire collapsed so early and this is why the whole roof really burned like like like a huge flaming reaching up to the sky read till till the end maybe like until midnight more or less so for around five hours so the questions will be put to the mayor of paris i need to go whether there was an emergency plan whether it could not be an act to what happened why was the response too slow why did it take for too long to get enough firefighters on the scene so this morning we still we see some of them sort of crawling around carefully on the outer supports of the buildings here

building here behind us trying to assess what the damage is structurally and they still need to sort of keep up throwing water at the building because it can take days for it to be really quite the danger to be over a matter where you are you have been looking into that as well the questions being raised about the response time tell us what you've seen well we got a little bit more. clarity this morning us to some figures for example we know now that there were seven hundred firefighters on side around four hundred of them were there one hundred of them were actually devoted to to solve aging artwork they came into the cathedral and they managed to save a couple of well most of the treasure treasure chest for example that was saved we also found out that they barely have time to retreat before the spire collapsed so we avoided we nearly avoided a tragedy another tragedy

a human tragedy. well so. on my present feigning when it happened in those images of those prior collapsing for some weird reason i couldn't explain to myself why it reminded me of nine eleven because i thought nine eleven was a human tragedy and here we have a culture of tragedy but in the one case in new york it was thousands of people disappearing and dying tragically and here it's a thousand years of history which is oh so disappearing and yet that i was really shocked of when when this all happened yesterday and when the event unfolded really a lot of people talking about that at that moment in particular when the spire collapse well i want to thank you both our correspondents covering the story for us this morning among what she's here with us here in studio and barbara vessel in paris will be coming back to you a little bit later. and we will of course continue to cover the story we'll have more coverage on the north in fire coming up

a little bit later in our program for now though we're going to move on to some other news sudanese protest leaders say they have blocked an attempt by the army to break up a sit in outside its headquarters the demonstrators have gathered to demand the country's military hand over power to a civilian administration mass anti-government protests helped to depose longtime president omar al bashir last week protesters now say they want a civilian government established in sudan within fifteen days. they'd come in their thousands to send a message to the military step aside a make way for a civilian government. it's almost a festival atmosphere but there was no mistaking the sense of determination as the protests continued for a tenth day we will stop until we finish all. we can not leave. on monday the army sought to break up the protests video posted on social media

appeared to show reinforcements heading to the scene. but the protesters stood their ground even as they found themselves surrounded by soldiers on three sides in the end the troops shied away from a direct confrontation with the crowds. the army has sought to cast itself a siding with the protesters it was in response to the mass rallies that the military moved last week to overthrow the country's longstanding leader omar al bashir. in this footage posted on social media a soldier gives his cap to a young protester during cheers from the crowds. the army has promised the protesters it will hold democratic elections in two years time but the opposition group leading the demonstrations reiterated today it wants . civilian administration now. the. first demand which is one of the

main demands of the protest movement is for the formation of a sovereign civilian council we call on the military to protect the revolution and to guarantee their demands are met. with the group is calling for associates of former ruler owned by shia to face justice and for the dismantling of his regime structure. manzanar that the officials should be made accountable for the rights and the money of the sudanese people to be returned to protest leaders have been urging more people to join the crowds camped outside the army headquarters in khartoum and by nightfall many have responded to the cool once again swelling the crowds and increasing the pressure on the army. let's catch up on some other stories making news around the world former massachusetts governor bill weld has become the first republican to challenge donald trump in the primaries for the twenty twenty us presidential election but welt may have

a struggle on his hands while trying for approval ratings have been mostly poor during his presidency he does remain popular with republican voters in a german museum has handed over the remains of an aboriginal king to australia aboriginal representatives took part in a ceremony in munich where the remains have been stored since eight hundred eighty nine it comes as germany steps up efforts to return human remains and artwork from former colonies to their places of origin. people and paralyzed capital on are still struggling with severe flooding after a state of emergency was declared earlier this month more than twenty thousand people were evacuated after heavy rain caused the country's main river to breach its banks. now it's been a month since cyclonic die swept over southeastern africa the storm killed. more than one thousand people in mozambique zimbabwe and malawi hundreds of people are still missing as

a result of the severe flooding that hit the region the world bank estimates that three million people are still suffering the after effects of the natural disaster now one of the worst affected places was the port city of bam in mozambique our correspondent met with the mayor there a man who is fighting a daily battle to overcome the emergency left by the storm and for his city. every day the mongo does the two of his city inspecting the reconstruction of beirut with the destruction of saigon the dye still visible everywhere the mayor is determined to stay in close contact with the residents as the man who is trying hard to party can't always help the mayor is part of an opposition party after the cyclon he strongly criticized the central government for its slow response the city's annual budget is only about thirteen million viewers it was real very difficult when teaching heating heating until the understood that the need. we need they need us

we need them we need everybody that's why i spoke to the got us i spoke to the center and i told them that we need to join forces and i'm happy that they agreed with us. by now eight organizations active all over town the water supply has been restored some parts of the city have electricity again but they are also setbacks the number of malaria cases is on the rise and despite massive many stations with some big has reported to more than three thousand five hundred color cases may seem angry to eight workers in an improvised hospital i gets an update on the situation and wants to know how he can help you have to talk to the people sensitized i mean you have to tell them how to avoid color they have to boil their drinking water the doctors working here there's still wiring because there's still some cases coming in and we need to stop it i hope we don't we are going to do that

the most in support of myself and my team to be on the ground talking to the people advising. the care they need to do i'm sure that we're going to stop it. the next problems are waiting so see mungo is hitting the road again full of optimism and drive despite the difficult situation and for the challenge i. that's how it is. i feel that something has to be done and i feel as if somebody has to do something . so i feel great i feel. is the best and worst choice is the phrase yeah this disaster is abysmal it's always my god's mercy to try to dissuade me but. pretty soon someone goes next preplanned i do want a conference in may he wants to collect more aids money for the reconstruction of his city to the people of iraq and libya once again like they did before so i can be down. now voters in indonesia are gearing up to cast ballots for president

and a new parliament tomorrow the incumbent president is joe cole we don't know who rose from humble beginnings and was elected the president in two thousand and fourteen that apple time djoko was hailed as the first indonesian leader was no ties to the military or to the political elite but observers say that under djoko human rights respect for the rule of law and also protection of minorities have all deteriorated critics say that he has failed to root out corruption and as pandered to the religious right his vice presidential candidate is known is a senior muslim cleric known for his anti-gay views but polls show that joker remains the most popular politician in indonesia he is widely expected to fend off a challenge from a former general. elvis presley indonesian style but instead of classic rock n roll this version prefers islam infused beats. the

popular local music culture dang dude is here to drum up support for candidates in the upcoming election. and i know it's can when there's music we come alive and there are also islamic clerics preaching. yeah she's a supporter of travel to the former son in law of indonesia's then dictator suharto setting a nationalist and populist tone the retired military general banks on the support of conservative voters. his rival. is seen as more of a moderate the incumbent seeking a second term as president to carry on with the reforms he promised five years ago with heavy metal music he wishes to capture the hearts of young voters which he says is crucial to win the pole.