SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT COMPLEX IN CAPE TOWN ON FIRE

By Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada: 

Firefighters battled a blaze at South Africa's national Parliament complex on Sunday that sent a dark plume of smoke and flames into the air above the centre of Cape Town.
The fire started on the third floor of a building that houses offices and spread to the National Assembly building, where South Africa's Parliament sits, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille said.

"The fire is currently in the National Assembly chambers," De Lille said. "This is a very sad day for democracy, for Parliament is the home of our democracy."
Authorities feared that parts of buildings, some of them first built in the late 1800s, might collapse because of the heat.