VATICAN CITY - The Holy See expressed their “shock and sadness” as Paris’ famed cathedral Notre Dame was Monday devastated by a fire.

 The Vatican Press Office stated that Pope Francis was in solidarity with the people of France in such a moment of national sorrow.

 "The pope is close to France, he is praying for French Catholics and for the people of Paris in face of the terrible fire which has ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral," tweeted Alessandro Gisotti, the head of the Vatican Press Office.

REGGIO CALABRIA - Three men in their twenties have been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl on a beach in Calabria, police sources have revealed.

 The perpetrators are believed to have taken advantage of the 18-year-old girl’s inebriated state, leading the girl out of a nightclub they were in to a nearby public beach.

ROME - In the run up to May's European elections, the European sea rescue organisation SOS MEDITERRANEE has appealed to election candidates to stop the progressive erosion of maritime and international law in the Mediterranean region.

 Through a European-wide call to action, all candidates of the future parliament were encouraged to insist on compliance with maritime law in the new legislative period.

ROME –  Candidates competing to be the next FAO director general set out their platforms during a Council Session last week but their speeches mysteriously were not broadcast on the webcast system of the UN agency despite explicit instructions to that effect by outgoing supremo José Graziano da Silva, FAO sources said.