- Author John Grisham joins bid to save Texas death row inmate
- Venezuela arrests fourth American over alleged 'plot' against Maduro
- 'Happy' Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- Man Utd hit Barnsley for seven in League Cup rout
- Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa facing concussion layoff
- Stylish Liverpool strut past Milan in confident Champions league opener
- Kane scores four as Bayern put nine past Zagreb in the Champions League
- Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- More than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Harris calls Trump as assassination scare sparks tensions
- Dow edges down from record as some eye a smaller Fed rate cut
- Sommer vows Inter will 'defend with all we have' to stop Haaland
- Report links meatpacking companies to 'war on nature' in Brazil
- Bolivian ex-leader Morales, backers set out on weeklong protest march
- Smith grateful to McCullum for launching his England career
- Arizona to ask court to rule on voting rights
- Villa make perfect start on Champions League return after 41-year absence
- Israeli supply chain infiltration likely behind Hezbollah pager blasts: analysts
- Rodgers backs Celtic to be 'really competitive' in Champions League
- Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
- Storm Boris toll rises to 22 in central Europe
- Nine dead, 2,800 wounded as Lebanon's Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
- Boeing, union resume talks as strike empties Seattle plants
- Over 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Australia's Zampa accepts Ashes chances remote as 100th ODI looms
- UN General Assembly debates call for end to Israeli occupation
- Marseille complete signing of French international Rabiot
- Easterby to fill in as Ireland coach while Farrell is with the Lions
- Hezbollah in Lebanon hit by wave of deadly pager blasts
- Postecoglou taken aback by criticism of his second season success claim
- US, European stocks rise on retail sales, rate cut expectations
- Fendi sees Roaring 20s at Milan Fashion Week in challenging times
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr part ways with coach Castro
- Scottish government backs Glasgow to stage troubled 2026 Commonwealth Games
- Storm Boris toll rises to 21 in central Europe
- Instagram, under pressure, tightens protection for teens
- Inflation slows again in Canada to 2%
- US, European stocks rise on eve of Fed rate decision
- EU bans Algerian spread toasted on social media
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs charged with racketeering, sex trafficking
- Trump returns to campaign trail after assassination scare
- Activist urges repatriation of Native Americans dead in Paris 'human zoo'
- US retail sales see slight rise, beating expectations
- US Fed begins two-day meeting set to end with rate cut
- Exploding Hezbollah pagers wound hundreds across Lebanon
- Runners-up Yokohama thrashed 7-3 in AFC Champions League goal fest
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs to plead not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking
- Jihadist group claims rare attack on Mali capital
- 'I am a rapist,' Frenchman tells trial over mass rape of wife
- Electric cars overtake petrol models in Norway
Heatwave grips France and Spain as temps set to rise
A punishing heatwave broke a string of records in France and Britain on Friday as Spain battled to contain forest fires that forced hundreds from their homes.
The hot weather is in line with warnings from scientists that heatwaves will be more intense and hit earlier than usual thanks to climate change.
In Spain, forest fires burned up to 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of land in the northwest Sierra de la Culebra region Friday, forcing some 200 people from their homes.
Firefighters were battling fires in several other regions, including woodlands in Catalonia where weather conditions complicated the fight.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez praised firefighters "who risk their lives on the frontline of fires" on Friday, which is also World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
Temperatures were above 35C Friday in most parts of the country and will top 40C in some areas.
- Hospitals full -
In France, temperatures also climbed Friday with one third of French departments at the highest or second-highest heat alert level.
Much of the country's southwest will see thermometers top 40C, prompting warnings for the vulnerable.
"Hospitals are at capacity, but are keeping up with demand," Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon told reporters in Vienne, near Lyon in the southeast.
Schoolchildren have been told to stay at home in the 12 departments at alert level "red" and the health ministry activated a special heatwave hotline.
"This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France" since 1947, said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at weather authority Meteo France.
With "many monthly or even all-time temperature records likely to be beaten in several regions," he called the unseasonable weather a "marker of climate change".
The heatwave has spread up from north Africa through Spain, also affecting Italy and the United Kingdom.
Several towns in northern Italy have announced water rationing and the Lombardy region may declare a state of emergency as a record drought threatens harvests.
The UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Friday with temperatures reaching over 30C in the early afternoon, meteorologists said.
It was the third day in a row that temperature records had been broken in the UK, where it was over 28C on Wednesday and 29.5C on Thursday.
- Climate change -
Experts warned that the high temperatures were caused by worrying climate change trends.
"As a result of climate change, heatwaves are starting earlier," said Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.
"What we're witnessing today is unfortunately a foretaste of the future" if concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to rise and push global warming towards 2C from pre-industrial levels, she added.
In France, special measures have been taken in care homes for elderly people, still marked by the memory of a deadly 2003 heatwave.
Buildings are being sprayed down with water to cool them and residents are being rotated through air-conditioned rooms.
"We're taking even more care than usual with the old folks. It's tough for them. They're often alone, worn down physically and unable to act independently," said Sarah Jalabert, a nurse making home visits in the Tarn department.
And speed limits in several regions, including around Paris, have been reduced to limit the concentration of harmful smog or ozone in the heat.
Electric grid operator RTE said increased use of fans and air-conditioners was also driving up power consumption.
burs-tgb/js/jv
F.Dubois--AMWN