Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris to reopenon Saturday five years after devastating fire

After five years of intense reconstruction efforts, a grand reopening ceremony will be held on Saturday to mark the return of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral before its doors open to the public once again on Sunday.

Unbowed in Face of US-Sponsored Terror, Syria Kicks Off Campaign to Revitalize Ancient Damascus

Syria is home to some of the world’s oldest continuously-inhabited population centers, with its cities and towns suffering extensive damage over the course of the dirty war waged by the CIA and the US’s regional allies against the government of President Bashar Assad.

Putin on the Crimean bridge discussed the details of its restoration, drove a car along

 

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 On Monday, Putin arrived to the bridge and personally drove across while receiving a report from Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.

Russian Transport Ministry Promises Unhindered Crimea-Bound Traffic For Passengers, Cargo

Passenger and cargo vehicles will be able to travel to Crimea unhindered after both road and railway traffic on the Crimean Bridge is restored, the Russian Ministry of Transport told Sputnik on Saturday.

Lavrov slams "pressure" on UNESCO bogging down restoration of Palmyra, Aleppo

Restoring monuments that were ruthlessly decimated by terrorists in the Syrian cities of Palmyra and Aleppo, has gotten stalled due to pressure being exerted on the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at a session of the country’s Commission for UNESCO.

In Cairo, Ban urges parties to Gaza conflict to end "cycle of building and destroying"

UN, 12 October 2014 – On the next stop of his tour of North Africa, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Egypt today at a conference on the reconstruction of Gaza urged all parties to last summer's war to address the root causes of the protracted conflict to prevent the “cycle of building and destroying” from becoming a ritual.
“We are here to stand with the people of Gaza who have endured a terrible summer of suffering,” said Mr. Ban in his remarks to the Cairo Conference on Gaza attended by the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, and several foreign ministers including of Egypt, and Norway.

Egypt’s Cairo to host Gaza restoration conference

More than 50 donor countries and humanitarian organisations will participate in an international conference on Gaza restoration in the Egyptian capital on Sunday.

The forum which is initiated by Egypt, the State of Palestine and Norway seeks to “help Palestinian people which suffered heavy physical and moral losses and sustained major material damage” in an Israeli military operation, Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Egypt has suspended agreements signed with the Turkish government for the restoration of antiquities.

Egypt has suspended agreements it had previously signed with the Turkish government for the restoration of Islamic and Ottoman-era antiquities, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said on Monday.

Ibrahim, who was touring historic sites near the coastal city of Alexandria, added that his ministry had taken the decision due to "the Turkish position on Egypt's June 30 revolution," in reference to official Turkish criticisms of the Egyptian military's July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.

Relations between Cairo and Ankara have cooled since the army's removal of Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president.

Atatürk’s House museum to open. The house shows the life of the founder of the Turkish Republic

The restoration works of the house in Thessaloniki where modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born, have been finished and the house is set to open to welcome its new visitors.

The opening will be organized by Turkish Tourism and Culture Minister Ömer Çelik on Aug. 16. The house has been re-organized according to the modern museum studies approach and the display has also been made accordingly.

Turkey had begun restorations of Atatürk’s birth house in Thessaloniki following complaints from the Culture Ministry that the dwelling was in an “appalling” state, on July 2012.