More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Firefighters worked Thursday to put out the remnants of two wildfires on a Sicilian island that forced fashion designer Giorgio Armani and dozens of others to flee their vacation villas overnight.
A photo from the island of Pantelleria showed flames appearing to encroach on Armani's villa, but the Italian designer's press office said they stopped short of the property. Armani and guests evacuated to a boat in the harbor.
The head of the region's civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, said arson was suspected in two wildfires that forced around 30 people to seek refuge in boats or on safer parts of the island. Firefighters used Canadair planes to douse the flames, along with ground teams to protect homes. Authorities said no structures appeared to have been lost.
The island's mayor, Vincenzo Campo, told Italian news agency ANSA that two planes were working on putting out the last flames on difficult terrain and that the wind had dropped off.
"After the great fear of last evening and the night spent at work, Pantelleria is returning to normal," Campo said. "It seems the worst is over."
Local officials appealed for any information that would help identify the cause of the blaze, which started in two places 400 metres (a quarter-mile) apart.
Pantelleria, located between Sicily and Tunisia, is a popular beach and trekking destination that includes ancient archaeological sites and natural geographic formations.
Scientists say global warming will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. Much of western Europe saw little rain this summer, and drought conditions coupled with hot weather have fueled destructive forest fires.
So far this summer, wildfires in Spain have blackened more than 700,000 hectares, the largest area since the European Union started collecting satellite data in 2006.
The EU's Earth Observation Program said more torrid weather was forecast for Spain as two "disastrous" wildfires burned in the eastern part of the country. The fires in the Mediterranean provinces of Alicante and Castellon have each charred more than 13,000 hectares, the EU agency said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Portugal reported that a wildfire burning for almost two weeks in the pine forests of Serra da Estrela national park was brought under control. However, officials warned of weather forecasts indicating a dangerous new heat wave would arrive soon.
High temperatures, strong winds and a severe drought helped sustain the blaze in the park, where deep ravines and steep hillsides make firefighting difficult.
More than 1,100 firefighters remained in the Serra da Estrela, keeping an eye out for hot spots and embers that might be blown into untouched forest, the Civil Protection Agency, a government department, said.
The blaze charred more than 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) of woodland, according to European Union data -- about one-fourth of the park's area.
On Wednesday, the fire's perimeter measured 160 kilometers, emergency officials said, and jumped 125-meter-wide firebreaks that had been cleared since the area's last major blaze, in 2017.
Fire officials said that was an indication the country is fighting a "new generation" of wildfires that are harder to stop amid the consequences of climate change.
Temperatures in Portugal were due to start climbing, reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 F) in inland areas on Saturday, as the country endures its third heat wave of the summer.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”