Firefighters battled blazes on Thursday near Athens and on the island of Crete, where thousands were forced to flee holiday resorts, while blazes in neighboring Turkey claimed at least two lives.
More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers and residents were evacuated from the Ierapetra area along Crete’s southern coast, authorities and hotel association officials said. A small number of people fled into the sea and were rescued by local fishermen and divers.
Ierapetra Mayor Manolis Frangoulis said firefighters were working to prevent flare-ups and take advantage of a lull in high winds. “Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it’s a difficult situation,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Displaced tourists were relocated to other hotels or spent the night in an indoor basketball stadium. Several homes and businesses were damaged. Volunteers found dead farm animals, some burned alive while chained inside sheds.
Separately, a wildfire near the port of Rafina, about 30km east of the capital, Athens, disrupted local ferry services to the islands. Police went door-to-door to assist elderly residents while carrying out an evacuation order.
In western Turkey, a local forestry worker was killed while trying to contain the fire near the town of Odemis, and an 81-year-old resident died from smoke inhalation, authorities said. It marked the first fatalities in a series of wildfires that have forced thousands to flee.
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters, supported by aircraft and helicopters, were deployed to battle a wildfire near the Aegean coastal town of Cesme, a popular vacation destination about 190km west of Odemis.
That fire, which began on Wednesday, forced the evacuation of three neighborhoods and led to road closures. Television footage showed flames racing through dry vegetation on both sides of a highway.
Over the past week, Turkey has battled hundreds of wildfires fueled by strong winds, extreme heat and low humidity. Now mostly under control, the blazes have damaged or destroyed about 200 homes.
Summer wildfires are common in Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.
Late on Wednesday, the Turkish parliament adopted a landmark climate law targeting net zero emissions by 2053. The legislation includes measures to establish a carbon market board to oversee efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The law comes at a time when Turkey is increasingly grappling with issues related to climate change, from searing heatwaves to prolonged droughts, experts said.
“As a Mediterranean country, Turkey is highly vulnerable to climate change,” said Gizem Koc, a lawyer with the UK-based environmental advocacy group ClientEarth.
“The most striking vulnerability is the drought and water stress in some regions, but also there is [an] increasing frequency of floods and other extreme weather events,” she added.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS