Nearly $1 billion has already poured in from ordinary worshippers and high-powered magnates around the world to restore Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a massive fire.

Construction teams brought in a huge crane and a delivery of planks of wood to the site Wednesday morning.

A YouTube fact-check feature which is meant to tackle misinformation accidentally tagged live broadcasts of a fire engulfing Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris with details about the 9/11 terror attacks.

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, after a colossal fire tore through the building, sending the spire crashing to the ground and wiping out centuries of heritage.

A fire swept across the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral while the soaring Paris landmark was under renovations Monday, collapsing its spire and threatening one of the world's greatest architectural treasures as locals and tourists watched aghast from the streets.

The French president pledged to rebuild a cathedral that he called "a part of us" and appealed for help to do so. The 12th-century church is home to relics, stained glass and other incalculable works of art and is a leading tourist attraction, immortalized by Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Sixteen bronze statues briefly took to the skies over Paris after they were removed from the Notre-Dame cathedral to undergo restoration work. 

Former pope Benedict XVI on Thursday blamed the Catholic clerical sex abuse scandals on the 1960s sexual revolution and a collapse in faith in the West, immediately drawing criticism from some theologians.

The Vatican on Wednesday accepted a voluminous dossier that puts French priest Jacques Hamel, who had his throat slit by Islamists in 2016, on the path to sainthood.

A Sudanese woman propelled to internet fame earlier this week after leading powerful protest chants in the capital told AFP Wednesday that women are key to the uprising against President Omar al-Bashir's iron-fisted rule.

Jordan's parliament on Monday amended marriage laws to allow judges in "exceptional" cases to permit minors to wed from the age of 16, up from a previous minimum of 15.

The move was approved by both the house of representatives and the senate.

Spain's Roman Catholic Church on Friday defended a bishop whose diocese near Madrid is being investigated after a newspaper reported it ran "courses" to "cure" gay men of their homosexuality.