- Demand for Japanese content booms post 'Shogun'
- As India's Bollywood shifts, stars and snappers click
- Mystery drones won't interfere with Santa's work: US tracker
- Djokovic eyes more Slam glory as Swiatek returns under doping cloud
- Australia's in-form Head confirmed fit for Boxing Day Test
- Brazilian midfielder Oscar returns to Sao Paulo
- 'Wemby' and 'Ant-Man' to make NBA Christmas debuts
- US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
- On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year
- 'Like a dream': AFP photographer's return to Syria
- Chiefs seek top seed in holiday test for playoff-bound NFL teams
- Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat
- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
Greece battling wildfires amid high winds
Greece was battling several wildfires on Sunday, with smoke covering parts of the capital Athens in a haze, amid warnings for extreme weather conditions for the rest of the week.
By Sunday afternoon, firefighters had quickly dealt with 33 out of the 40 blazes that had broken out in the past 24 hours, fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told the press at an emergency briefing.
But the force was battling seven more in the high Mediterranean summer heat, he said.
The country's minister for civil protection had warned a day earlier that half the country was under a high-risk warning for fires due to high temperatures, wind gusts and drought conditions.
In the region of East Attica, an uncontrolled blaze in the Varnavas area spread to a pine forested zone with scattered houses, emitting so much smoke that Athens glowed red at one point on Sunday afternoon.
- Flames 25 metres high -
A force of 250 firefighters backed by 67 vehicles, 12 firefighting aircraft and seven helicopters was deployed to battle the flames, which "in many cases reached more than 25 metres high", Vathrakogiannis said.
In the nearby village of Metohi, which was yet to be threatened, Eugenia told AFP she was afraid of what might happen in the night.
"Every year we have to escape from our houses," she said speaking from the saddle of her motorbike fresh from checking up on her cats.
Another fire that erupted earlier on Sunday afternoon in Megara, West Attica, triggering an evacuation alert, was partially contained after destroying at least three houses and cars.
Forty-eight firefighters equipped with 13 vehicles and additional volunteers were working on the ground, along with aerial support.
In Thessaloniki, a fire in the Lagadas area was partially under control, with 20 firefighters, 10 vehicles and one helicopter at the scene.
- 'Extremely high temperatures' -
Temperatures are forecast to peak at 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) in Greece on Monday, with the highest temperatures expected in the west of the country.
Kostas Lagouvardos, director of research at the National Observatory of Athens, said on Sunday that given the current weather conditions, if the response to the fires was not quick enough the flames could quickly burn out of control.
With winds in some areas expected to reach 80 to 90 kilometres per hour, Lagouvardos told broadcaster ERT News that Sunday was expected to be the most difficult day to battle fires.
The Mediterranean country is exceptionally vulnerable to summer blazes, with this season seeing fires burn daily.
After the warmest winter on record, Greece also experienced its hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.
It registered its earliest recorded heatwave in June.
Scientists warn that human-induced fossil fuel emissions are worsening the length, frequency and intensity of heatwaves across the world.
The rising temperatures are leading to longer wildfire seasons and increasing the area burnt in the flames, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
O.Norris--AMWN