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ALGIERS, Algeria (AFP) — Wildfires fanned by blistering temperatures and tinder-dry conditions have killed at least 42 people in Algeria, authorities said on Tuesday, adding that the fires had criminal origins. Late Tuesday the toll stood at 25 soldiers and 17 civilians killed. Photographs posted on social media show huge walls of flame and billowing clouds of smoke towering over charred trees in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers. […]
by Alexandros Kottis with John Hadoulis in Athens AVGARIA, Greece (AFP) — Backed by a huge multinational force, Greek firefighters on Tuesday struggled for an eighth day to control wildfires on the island of Evia that have caused massive damage, prompting an apology from the prime minister. Nearly 900 firefighters, reinforced overnight with fresh arrivals from abroad, were deployed on the country’s second largest island as major towns and resorts remained under threat. Most of […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German train drivers voted to go on strike from Tuesday over a wage dispute, their union said, in a blow for summer vacationers and adding to logistics and supply woes already plaguing the industry. The walkout will affect cargo trains from 7 pm (1700 GMT) on Tuesday, before extending to passenger traffic at 2 am on Wednesday, said the leader of the train drivers’ GDL union, Claus Weselsky. Some 95 percent […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Guinea confirmed a case of Marburg disease, the World Health Organization said on Monday, the first recorded in West Africa of the lethal virus that’s related to Ebola and, like Covid-19, passed from animal hosts to humans. The virus, which is carried by bats and has a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, was found in samples taken from a patient who died on August 2 in southern Gueckedou prefecture, […]
by Florian SOENEN with Sabine WIBAUX in Bordeaux PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Monday began enforcing a Covid pass championed by President Emmanuel Macron in cafes, restaurants and trains, a tightening of rules the government hopes will boost vaccinations but which has prompted weeks of angry protests. The pass, already needed for the last three weeks to go to a cinema, attend a concert or visit a museum, will be needed to partake in […]
by Alexandros KOTTIS with Katerina NIKOLOPOULOU in Athens GOUVES, Greece (AFP) — Hundreds of Greek islanders packed up their belongings and fled their homes on the Greek island of Evia on Sunday as wildfires continued to rage after a record heatwave. Greece and neighbouring Turkey have been battling the devastating fires for nearly two weeks, with 10 people confirmed dead and dozens needing hospital treatment. While rain brought some respite from the blazes in Turkey […]
Passes and vaccine passports are increasingly being used across the world to limit entry to public places to those who have been vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 or tested negative. Here’s an overview: – European pioneers – From March, Denmark, Austria and Hungary were among the first countries to introduce health passes, either on paper or in digital form. You still need a pass to go into restaurants, hotels and sports centres in Austria. In Denmark […]
Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece on Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought respite to hard-hit Turkey. More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the blazes, with reinforcements arriving from abroad, the fire service said. In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears. “This is a horrible disaster,” he […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations said Friday it urgently needed funds to feed people in Myanmar amid fears that up to 6.2 million could be plunged into hunger by October. The UN’s World Food Programme said it was 70 percent short of the $86 million needed over the next six months, as the country goes through multiple crises. A major wave of Covid-19 infections is surging through Myanmar, compounding hunger, rising food and […]
by AFP bureaus ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze on the outskirts of Athens on Friday as dozens of fires raged in Greece in what the prime minister dubbed a “critical situation,” while neighboring Turkey came under increasing pressure over its handling of wildfires. Greece and Turkey have been fighting blaze upon blaze over the past week, hit by the worst heatwave in decades, a disaster that officials and experts have […]
by Rosa SULLEIRO BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Staff in the intensive care unit at Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar are battling exhaustion as they grapple with a new surge in Covid-19 patients that is straining the region’s health system. Ten new intensive care beds have been added at this one hospital alone, bringing the total to 30. All of them are full — and it is overwhelmingly unvaccinated, and younger, patients who are occupying them. Nurses […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — More than 70 percent of fires that have swept Italy this summer are caused by human action, aided by climate change, a government minister said Thursday. Firefighting planes were deployed again overnight to tackle forest fires in the southern region of Calabria and on the island of Sicily, where flames threatened a nature reserve in the north. They are the latest in hundreds of blazes that have broken out across the […]
