Forest fires spread in record temperatures
to 110F (43.3C) inland, which could be deadly for the elderly, children and outdoor workers while air quality reached “very unhealthy” levels inland from LA.
High temperatures and dry gusts tripled the size of another Santa Barbara wildfire to nearly 30 square miles over eight hours and forced the evacuation of about 200 homes in a rural area east of Santa Maria.
After five years of severe drought, California got a big break with record rainfall in some areas this year that helped delay the fire season, but has also led to explosive vegetation growth that could fuel future blazes.
In Northern California, a Butte County wildfire swept through grassy foothills and destroyed 10 structures, including homes, and led to several minor injuries.
The blaze about 60 miles north of Sacramento grew rapidly to more than three square miles but was only five per cent contained. IRAQI troops have celebrated after driving Islamic State militants from some of their last strongholds in Mosul, though heavy fighting continued a few blocks away.
Lieutenant General Jassim Nizal of the army’s 9th Division said his forces had achieved “victory” in their sector, after a similar announcement by the militarised Federal Police.
His soldiers danced to patriotic music on tanks even as air strikes sent up plumes of smoke nearby.
Iraqi state TV reported that prime minister Haider al-Abadi had arrived in the city to declare victory in the eight-month operation to drive out IS militants.
State TV quoted Mr al-Abadi as saying he “congratulates the fighters and the people on the big victory” in the key city, even as fighting continued in a small sector in the city.
Iraqi Army soldiers gather in Old City of Mosul.
Iraq launched the operation to retake Mosul in October. Militants now controls less than one square kilometre of territory in the Old City, but is using human shields, suicide bombers, and snipers in a fight to the death.
The militants captured Iraq’s second largest city in a matter of days in the summer of 2014. Lt Gen Nizal said many of his men
were among those who fled the city at that time in a humiliating defeat.
“Some things happened here, that’s true,” he said. “But we have come back.”
US-backed Syrian forces have pushed into the group’s de facto capital, the Syrian city of Raqqa, but victory there could be months away, and the extremists still hold several smaller towns and villages across Iraq and Syria. THE leader of the main opposition party in Turkey was set to complete the final stretch of a 25-day March for Justice, from the capital Ankara to Istanbul, yesterday.
Hundreds of thousands gathered for a rally marking the end of the march.
Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu launched the 280-mile protest after an MP from his party was imprisoned in June.
The march has since grown to protest against massive crackdown on people with alleged links to terror groups that began after a failed coup attempt last summer.
Once seen as feeble in his role as opposition leader, Mr Kilicdaroglu has emerged as the voice of many Turks and been likened to India’s Mahatma Gandhi, who led a nonviolent march against British colonial practices.
Tens of thousands
of