Forest fires raging across Greece have killed at least 20 people, the government says, as the authorities seek international assistance.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blazes and people have left their homes near the capital, Athens.
A search and rescue operation is underway for 10 tourists who fled one of the fires in a boat, officials say.
“We will do whatever is humanly possible to control it,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told reporters.
He cut short an official trip to Bosnia in order to help coordinate the response to the situation, which firefighters have described as “extremely difficult.”
Early on Tuesday, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos confirmed that the death toll had risen to 20.
Most of the victims had been trapped in the seaside resort of Mati, 40km (25 miles) north-east of Athens, and died either in their homes or their cars.
More than 104 are injured, 11 seriously, he added, with 16 children among the casualties.
Miltiadis Vyronas, from the country’s Ekav emergency service, said that 25 people had been taken to hospital and four were seriously injured.
Dramatic video posted on social media showed damaged buildings, orange smoke-filled skies, and people fleeing the fires by car.
Residents in the worst-affected areas were forced into the sea to escape the flames.
“Thankfully the sea was there and we went into the sea, because the flames were chasing us all the way to the water. It burned our backs and we dived into the water… I said my God, we must run to save ourselves,” Kostas Laganos in the coastal resort of Mati said.
Prime Minister Tsipras said that “all emergency forces have been mobilised” and declared a state of emergency in the Attica region around Athens.
The government has asked other European countries for helicopters and additional firefighters to help tackle the fires.
Earlier on Monday, residents of a coastal region near Athens were told to abandon their homes as the uncontrolled fires spread.
Hundreds of children were also evacuated from holiday camps.
The extreme weather comes as dozens of wildfires continue to rage in Sweden.
Countries including Italy, Germany, Poland and France have all sent help in the form of additional planes, vehicles and firefighters.
But with temperatures set to soar again, they are in a race against time to get the fires under control.
The wildfires are the worst to hit Greece since 2007, when dozens of people were killed in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
N Korea ‘begins dismantling’ rocket launch site
North Korea appears to have begun dismantling part of a key rocket launch site in the country’s north-west.
Satellite images of the Sohae station seen by US-based monitoring group 38 North suggest Pyongyang is complying with a promise made to the US in June.
US President Donald Trump said North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un had vowed to destroy an engine test site, but did not specify which one.
Pyongyang has maintained that Sohae is a satellite launch site.
But US officials suspect that it has been used to test ballistic missiles.
During a landmark meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore last month, the two leaders signed a deal to work towards the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”
The deal was criticised for a lack of details on when or how Pyongyang would renounce its nuclear weapons.
The apparent dismantling of the Sohae test site comes amid rising questions over North Korea’s willingness to stick to the pledges made at the 12 June summit.
Earlier on Monday, President Trump said that he was “very happy” with the progress in relations with North Korea, saying that Pyongyang had not launched any missiles or carried out any nuclear tests during the last nine months.
It follows comments from the US president last week that there was “no time limit” for North Korea to denuclearise and no need to rush the process.
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But according to recent reports based on US intelligence leaks, North Korea might secretly still be continuing its weapons programme.
Those reports indicate that North Korea’s only official nuclear enrichment site at Yongbyon is being upgraded, and that the country was stepping up enrichment at other secret sites.
The reports cannot be independently verified, but have been deemed accurate by respected North Korea watchers.
Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega rejects demands he step down
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega has refused to bow to protesters’ demands that he stand down.
He said the deaths of about 300 people during three months of protests were caused by paramilitary groups, during an interview with the US news channel Fox News.
He denied the government had financed the groups and said they were funded by opposition MPs and drug cartels.
Mr. Ortega said they had attacked the police during the protests.
He insisted he would continue in office until elections in 2021, defying calls for his resignation.
“To move up the elections would create instability, insecurity and make things worse,” the president said.
Daniel Ortega, who was president of Nicaragua between 1979 and 1990 and returned to power in 2007, also denied the government had ordered hospitals not to treat the wounds of anti-government protestors.
He also rejected reports of attacks on Roman Catholic priests, who he said should continue to mediate in stalled peace talks between the protesters and the government.
He qualified the anti-government protests as “terrorism” designed to end his government.
Calm was beginning to return this week, he said, with both pro and anti-government protests taking place peacefully.
President Ortega also accused the US Congress, which is due to pass a motion of censure against Nicaragua this week, of trying to hurt his country’s image.
“It has been a campaign of lies, terrible lies to try to destroy the image of Nicaragua and its government,” he said.
He made a direct appeal to US President Donald Trump: “We are a small country with a fragile economy but we deserve respect.”
The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the UN’s High Commission for Human Rights have both accused the Nicaraguan government of serious human rights violations during three months of anti-government disturbances which began in April over social security reforms.
Nicaraguan human rights groups say the authorities are continuing to arrest hundreds of people in a continuing crackdown and that many of the detainees were seized on suspicion of taking part in the marches.
Bangladesh cafe siege: Briton Hasnat Karim freed without charge
A British man detained in Bangladesh following a deadly cafe siege two years ago has been freed without charge.
Hasnat Karim was celebrating his daughter’s 13th birthday at the Holey Artisan cafe with his family in the capital Dhaka in July 2016 when it was targeted by Islamist militants.
Twenty-two people, mostly foreigners, were killed over the course of the 12-hour siege, in what was the country’s worst terrorist attack.
Eight other suspects have been charged.
Mr. Karim, who is in his late forties and has dual British-Bangladeshi citizenship, was taken hostage when gunmen stormed the cafe.
Eyewitnesses at the time said he became a police suspect because he agreed to become a human shield during the siege.
Human rights group Amnesty International had campaigned against Mr. Karim’s continued detention.
The head of the police’s counter terrorism and transnational crime unit Monirul Islam said on Monday that Mr. Karim had been acquitted.
“During our two-year long investigation, we did not find any involvement [of Karim] in this attack directly or indirectly, so he was acquitted from this case,” Mr. Islam said.
The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, although Bangladesh disputed this and said a local militant group was responsible.
Five militants inside the cafe were killed by police.
Eight others have now been charged over their involvement, six of whom are in custody, according to Mr. Islam.
