Spanish firefighters hope to contain Ibiza blaze

MADRID:   Despite wind and heat Spanish firefighters said they hoped to contain Tuesday a blaze on the resort island of Ibiza that has forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 partygoers and scorched hundreds of hectares.

All the Mediterranean island's firefighters have been mobilised to combat the blaze, which threatened a hotel and around 30 homes.

"The heat has made the work (of the firefighters) difficult," said a spokesman for the island's emergency services.

Read more...

UK police: Suspect arrested in 1999 suitcase death

LONDON:   Authorities in Bahrain arrested a suspect Tuesday in the case of a Canadian singer whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at London's Heathrow Airport in 1999, according to London's Scotland Yard.

The force said that Youssef Ahmed Wahid was arrested in the Gulf state in what it described as a planned operation and his extradition was pending.

The body of 28-year-old Fatima Kama was found when a member of the public spotted a black suitcase abandoned on the third floor of a Heathrow Airport parking lot July 17, 1999. A security guard forced the bag open to find her in the fetal position. A post-mortem revealed she'd been stabbed more than 10 times.

Read more...

WikiLeaks founder hires star lawyer over Swedish claims

STOCKHOLM:   WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hired one of Sweden's top defence lawyers ahead of a looming decision by prosecutors about whether he will face molestation charges, reports said Tuesday.

Leif Silbersky, a high-profile attorney and co-author of a long line of crime novels, has been hired to represent the 39-year-old Australian, the Aftonbladet daily reported on its website.

"I can confirm that I will represent him," Silbersky told the paper.

Read more...

Floods kill at least 6 in Eastern Europe

WARSAW:   Flooding caused by heavy rains has killed at least six people in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic, officials said Saturday.

Lenka Moravcova, a spokeswoman for a rescue service in the northern Czech Republic, said two men drowned in a region on the border with Poland and Germany Saturday. Details were not immediately available.

At least a thousand people had to be evacuated, some from areas below two dams threatened by rising waters. People in the towns of Chrastava and Frydlant were rescued by police and military helicopters from the roofs of their homes.

Read more...

Russian troops dig canal to bar fire from atom site

MOSCOW:   Russian troops dug a 8-km (5-mile) long canal to keep fires caused by a record heatwave away from a nuclear arms site, local media said on Saturday as air pollution from the crisis rose to more than six times above normal.

Forest and peat fires caused by the hottest weather ever recorded in Moscow have killed at least 52 people, made more than 4,000 homeless, diverted many flights and forced Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter out foul air.

"The fire situation in the Moscow region is still tense, but there is no danger either for residential areas or for economic sites," an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said.

Read more...

More Articles...