New Greece wildfires outside Athens spur evacuation alerts
ATHENS, Greece — Fanned by strong winds, two new big wildfires erupted Monday in hard-hit Greece, triggering evacuation alerts for villages southeast and northwest of Athens — only days after blazes consumed large tracts of forest north of the Greek capital.
Greece has been roiled by hundreds of wildfires this month, on the heels of its most severe heat wave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries — Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them — have suffered similar problems.
Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.
The worst of the two blazes that erupted Monday was in the Vilia area northwest of the Greek capital, which triggered an evacuation alert for eight villages. Greece’s minister for public order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said the flames were coursing through a densely forested area with scattered villages, none of which were in direct danger.
“We are trying to stop the fire from spreading” toward the nearby large village of Vilia, he said.
That blaze was being fought by 240 firefighters — including 143 from Poland — supported by eight water-dropping planes and nine helicopters.
Another fire broke out earlier in the Keratea region southeast of Athens, burning shrubland and threatening a national park in the Sounion area. Three communities were ordered evacuated. Some residents desperately drenched their homes, while volunteers with hoses and branches helped fight the fires. More than 100 firefighters, eight water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were striving to contain the blaze.
Chinese scandal: Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was arrested Monday on suspicion of rape in a high-profile case that followed an accusation the singer had sex with a 17-year-old while she was drunk and lured young women into sexual relationships.
The prosecutor’s office of the Beijing district of Chaoyang said in a one-sentence statement that Wu’s arrest was formally approved but gave no details of the charges.
Wu, 30, earlier denied the accusation by a teenager that he had sex with her while she was drunk. The accusation prompted an outpouring of sympathetic comments online for the teenager and criticism of Wu.
The teenager said seven women contacted her to say the former member of Korean boy band EXO seduced them with promises of jobs and other opportunities. She said some were under 18 but gave no indication whether any were younger than China’s age of consent of 14.
Australia outbreak: Australia’s most populous state Monday reported its worst day of the pandemic with 478 new infections and seven COVID-19 deaths as pandemic restrictions tightened in other parts of the country.
The previous record daily tally in New South Wales was 466 new cases reported Saturday.
Two of the dead had received a single dose of a two-shot vaccine. The rest were unvaccinated, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Only 26% of Australians aged 16 and older had been fully vaccinated by Saturday. Australia has one of the slowest vaccine rollouts among wealthy countries, which is making the spread of the delta variant particularly dangerous. The first shipment of 1 million Pfizer doses that Australia bought from Poland arrived in Sydney.
Israel air raid: Air raid sirens sounded Monday in southern Israel after a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip, the first since the 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in May. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire. It came hours after Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen during a late-night arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, killing four Palestinians in one of the deadliest battles in the area in years. The Israeli military said in a statement that it identified one rocket launch that was intercepted by aerial defense batteries. Amateur video footage appeared to show the rocket being intercepted over the southern town of Sderot. The rocket fire could jeopardize three months of relative calm since Israel and the militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip struck a cease-fire.
Flooding in Turkey: Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday from the severe flooding that devastated parts of Turkey’s Black Sea coast last week, bringing the death toll to 77, officials said. Torrential rains battered the country’s northwestern Black Sea provinces Aug. 11, causing floods that demolished homes and bridges, swept away cars and blocked access to numerous roads. The Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, said at least 62 people were killed in the province of Kastamonu, 14 died in Sinop and one in Bartin. Emergency crews Monday pressed ahead with efforts to locate dozens of people who were still reported missing in Kastamonu and Sinop. AFAD said some 8,000 personnel, backed by 20 rescue dogs, are involved in the rescue and assistance efforts.
About 2,400 people were evacuated across the region amid the floods — scores of them lifted to safety by helicopters. Many are being temporarily housed in student dormitories. Around 40 villages remain without power, according to AFAD.
Heavy rains along the northern coast of the Black Sea last week also forced 1,500 people to evacuate in Russia. The heavy flooding came after Turkey endured a searing heat wave and as crews in the south were taming wildfires that raced across the country’s Mediterranean coast.
Flooding in Germany: Dozens of German rescue teams were searching Monday for missing people who witnesses said were tossed into a river in Bavaria’s Valley of Hell when a sudden flood tore down a bridge they were standing on, the German news agency dpa reported.
Police said rescue operations with about 150 police officers, firefighters and mountaineers were underway and at least eight people had been pulled out of the water in the valley known as Höllentalklamm near Germany’s tallest mountain, Zugspitze.
“One has to assume that more people are still missing,” spokesman Stefan Sonntag from the Upper Bavaria police headquarters told dpa. The agency later reported that it was likely two more people were missing Monday night.
He said witnesses told them that several people were carried away by the floods when the bridge collapsed after heavy rain.