Europe

BRUSSELS, Aug 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Mediterranean has become a wildfire hotspot, with Turkey hit by its most intense blazes on record and a heatwave producing a high risk of further fires and smoke pollution around the region, a European Union atmosphere monitor said.

Wildfires are raging in countries including Greece and Turkey, where thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.

The fires have struck as southern Europe experiences an intense heatwave, with some places in Greece recording temperatures of more than 46 degrees Celsius.

LONDON, Aug 8 (NNN-Xinhua) — Britain has reported another 28,612 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 6,042,252, according to official figures released Saturday.

The country also recorded another 103 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,281. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

PSAROPOULI, Greece, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Thousands of people have fled their homes on the Greek island of Evia as wildfires burned uncontrolled for a sixth day on Sunday, and ferries were on standby for more evacuations after taking many to safety by sea.

Fires that had threatened northern suburbs of Athens in recent days died back. But the blaze on Evia, a large island east of the capital, quickly burgeoned into several fronts, ripping through thousands of hectares (acres) of pristine forest across its northern part, and forcing the evacuation of dozens of villages.

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Lyubov Sobol, a prominent ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has left Russia days after being sentenced to parole-like restrictions amid a crackdown on the opposition, Russia's RT and REN TV channels cited sources as saying on Sunday.

Sobol could not be reached for comment. Her allies declined to speak on her behalf. The outlets said she had flown to Turkey on Saturday evening. The chief editor of the Ekho Moskvy radio station also said she had left the country.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarusian authorities long ago removed the makeshift memorial to a protester shot by police at the start of last year’s massive protests against the country’s autocratic president, replacing flowers and placards with a garbage can.

Alexander Taraikovsky died as protests swelled, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko’s reelection to a sixth term in the Aug. 9, 2020, presidential vote that the opposition denounced as rigged. Police dispersed the peaceful demonstrators with rubber bullets, stun grenades and clubs in a stunningly brutal crackdown.

MADRID (AP) — Struggling to control his emotions, Lionel Messi said Sunday in his farewell to Barcelona that he wasn’t prepared to leave the club.

Messi began crying even before he started speaking at his farewell ceremony at the Camp Nou Stadium, and had to stop talking to compose himself few times.

“This is very hard for me after so many years, after being here my entire life,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — Despite a sluggish start, the European Union’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has caught up to that of the United States, where the slowdown of the country’s once-vaunted campaign has contributed to the virus’s deadly comeback.

In mid-February, less than 4% of people living in the 27-nation EU were at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus, compared with nearly 12% in the U.S, according to Our World in Data, an online science publication connected to the University of Oxford.

GENEVA, Aug 07 (APP): A reputed Bangkok-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) has called on India to end human rights violations in occupied Jammu & Kashmir, echoing growing global concerns over the “Domicile Rules”, introduced last year, that have enabled non-Kashmiris to obtain permanent residency and jobs in the UN-recognized disputed region.

KIEV, August 6. /TASS/: The activity of President Vladimir Zelensky and his team is looking more and more like a dictatorial system to intimidate its own citizens and evict unwanted ones, the Opposition Platform — For Life party said on Friday.

MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia grew by 22,320 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected to 6,424,884, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

The increase in new cases totaled 0.35% in relative terms.