- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
Ecuador capital 'under attack' from five wildfires
Firefighters battled five blazes on the outskirts of Ecuador's capital Quito on Wednesday, as wildfires continue to rip through South American nations turned into tinderboxes by droughts linked to climate change.
Some 2,000 firefighters, military personnel and rescue workers have been deployed in Quito to try to contain the blazes and bring residents in affected areas to safety.
So far at least six people have been injured including two children and two firefighters, and around 100 families evacuated from their homes.
From Ecuador to Brazil, many Latin American nations are gripped by their worst drought in decades, fueling a blistering fire season that has set residents and governments on edge.
"Quito is under attack," the city's security chief Carolina Andrade told reporters.
Authorities in Ecuador believe that a fire that broke out Tuesday in the east of the city and swathed it in huge plumes of smoke was started by arsonists.
On Wednesday, they announced the arrest of a 19-year-old man caught with a gallon of fuel.
Pablo Munoz, Quito's mayor, vowed Wednesday to hunt down the perpetrators of the "terrorist" fires.
The emergency led President Daniel Noboa to cancel his speech at the UN General Assembly and return home from New York on Tuesday.
-'We lost everything' -
Schools suspended classes and government offices ordered remote work due to poor air quality in the city of around three million people.
"I wanted to save something, but we didn't get anything," said Alexis Condolo, a 23-year-old mechanic whose home burned down.
"We found the house in ashes. We lost everything. We only have a few clothes left."
Because of the smoke, "I had to sleep with a mask and wet wipes on top" of the mask, Claudio Otalima, an 82-year-old retiree, told AFP.
Quito has been battling forest fires for three weeks.
In Brazil, fires have consumed millions of acres (hectares) of forest and farmland in recent weeks, and smoke has clouded major cities such as Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with fumes at times wafting across the border to Argentina and Uruguay.
The Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service said Monday that fires in the Amazon and Pantanal wetlands were the worst in almost two decades.
The dry spell -- which scientists have linked to climate change -- has also sent fires burning out of control in Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Peru.
The situation across the continent on Monday saw Amnesty International urge leaders to do more to abandon fossil fuels and transform the industrial agricultural model.
"South American leaders must, more than ever, take urgent action to prevent climate catastrophe that could have irreversible consequences for humanity and for the planet," Amnesty International said.
- Power crisis -
Ecuador is facing its worst drought in six decades.
As a result, the country, which depends on hydroelectric power, is facing severe energy shortages and has implemented rolling blackouts and put 20 of its 24 provinces on red alert.
Over the past year, 3,302 forest fires have been recorded, burning 37,808 hectares (93,400 acres) of vegetation.
Fourteen people have been injured and 44,742 livestock have died, according to a report published Tuesday by the Risk Secretariat.
F.Bennett--AMWN