ATHENS: Fire department officials in Greece arrested two men Saturday for allegedly starting wildfires on purpose, while hundreds of firefighters battled blazes that have killed at least 21 people in the past week.
One man was arrested on the Greek island of Evia for allegedly setting fire to dried grass in the Karystos area. The fire department said the man confessed to having set four other fires in the area in July and August.
A second man arrested in the Larissa area of central Greece also was accused of intentionally setting fire to dried vegetation.
Officials have said blamed arson for several fires in Greece over the past week, although it was unclear what sparked the country’s largest blazes, including one in the northeastern region of Evros, where nearly all the fire-attributed deaths occurred, and another on the fringes of Athens.
“Some ... arsonists are setting fires, endangering forests, property and above all human lives,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Thursday. “What is happening is not just unacceptable, but despicable and criminal.”
The minister said nine fires were set in the space of four hours Thursday morning in the Avlona area in the northern foothills of Mount Parnitha, a mountain on the northwestern fringes of Athens that is one of the capital’s last green areas.
A major fire was already burning on the southern side of the mountain at the time, and it continued to burn Saturday.
“You are committing a crime against the country,” Kikilias said. “We will find you. You will be held accountable to justice.”
Later Thursday, police arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of arson for allegedly setting at least three fires in the Avlona area. A search of his home revealed kindling, a fire torch gun and pine needles, police said.
A daily outbreak of dozens of fires has plagued Greece over the past week as gale-force winds and hot, dry summer conditions combine to whip up flames and hamper firefighting efforts. Firefighters tackled 111 blazes Friday, including 59 that broke out in the 24 hours between Thursday and Friday evenings, the fire department said.
Although most new fires were controlled in their early stages, some grew to massive blazes that have consumed homes and vast tracts of forest.
Storms were forecast Saturday for some areas of Greece, and lightning strikes ignited several fires near the Greek capital. The fire department said 100 firefighters, including contingents from France and Cyprus, backed up by four helicopter, brought fires in four outlying areas near the Greek capital under partial control within hours.
The fire department called on the public “to be particularly careful” and to follow directions by authorities “given that intense thunderstorm activity is occurring in various parts of the country.”
The Evros fire, Greece’s largest current blaze, was burning for an eighth day Saturday near the city of Alexandroupolis after causing at least 20 deaths.
Firefighters found 18 bodies in a forest on Tuesday, one on Monday and another Thursday. With nobody reported missing in the area, authorities think the victims might have been migrants who recently crossed the border from Turkiye.
Greece’s Disaster Victim Identification Team was activated to identify the remains, and a telephone hotline set up for potential relatives of the victims to call. A man reportedly trying to save his livestock from advancing flames in central Greece also died on Monday.
More than 290 firefighters, backed by five planes and two helicopters, were battling the Evros blaze. Another 260 firefighters, four planes and three helicopters were tackling the Mount Parnitha fire.
With firefighting forces stretched to the limit, Greece called on other European countries for help. Germany, Sweden, Croatia and Cyprus sent aircraft, while dozens of Romanian, French, Czech, Bulgarian, Albanian and Slovak firefighters helped on the ground.
Greece imposes wildfire prevention regulations, typically from the start of May to the end of October, to limit activities such as the burning of dried vegetation and the use of outdoor barbecues.
Since the start of this year’s fire season, fire department officials have arrested 163 people on fire-related charges, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Friday, including 118 for negligence and 24 for deliberate arson. The police made a further 18 arrests, he said.
Greek fire officials arrest 2 for arson as multiple wildfires continue to burn across the country
https://arab.news/6kx22
Greek fire officials arrest 2 for arson as multiple wildfires continue to burn across the country
- One man was arrested on the Greek island of Evia for allegedly setting fire to dried grass in the Karystos area
- A second man arrested in the Larissa area of central Greece also was accused of intentionally setting fire to dried vegetation
British king to visit Ottawa amid Trump-Canada tension
- The 76-year-old monarch is also Canada’s head of state as part of the Commonwealth
- Queen Camilla will accompany him on the 24-hour visit to the capital Ottawa
The 76-year-old monarch, who is also Canada’s head of state as part of the Commonwealth, has never publicly commented on the ambitions of the US president, a noted admirer of the royal family.
Despite battling cancer for over a year, Charles accepted an invitation from Canada’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mark Carney to deliver the “speech from the throne” at the reopening of parliament on May 27, outlining the new center-left government’s priorities.
Queen Camilla will accompany him on the 24-hour visit to the capital Ottawa.
“The King and Queen are very much looking forward to the program, mindful that it is a short visit but hopefully an impactful one,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said as the couple’s May 26-27 itinerary was released this week.
The throne speech is expected to draw close scrutiny, especially on sovereignty and trade, amid Trump’s renewed rhetoric about annexing the country of 41 million and his recent imposition of higher tariffs.
Charles “will outline our government’s plan to build Canada strong,” Carney said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Earlier he said: “This is a historic honor which matches the weight of our times.”
Traditionally, the speech is read by the governor general, the monarch’s representative in Canada.
The last British sovereign to deliver the speech in Canada was Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.
Carney, who became prime minister in late April, made defending Canada’s sovereignty central to his campaign.
During a May 6 meeting at the White House, he told Trump that Canada “is not for sale.”
“It won’t be for sale, ever,” he said, responding to the US president’s talk of the “tremendous benefits” of a “wonderful marriage.”
This will be Charles’s 20th visit to Canada, but his first since becoming king in September 2022. It is Camilla’s sixth visit and her first as queen.
The visit will begin Monday afternoon with a community event at the city’s Lansdowne Park celebrating Canada’s diversity and cultural heritage through music and crafts.
The king will also meet with Carney and Governor General Mary Simon.
At Rideau Hall, the official residence of the governor general, the king will plant a tree before a short reception with the lieutenant governors of Canada’s 10 provinces and the territorial commissioners.
On May 27, the king and queen will ride in a carriage pulled by 28 horses to the Senate for the throne speech, scheduled around 1500 GMT, with full military honors.
The visit will conclude with a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A Canadian doctor has been assigned to the king, who is undergoing weekly treatment for an unspecified cancer.
Paris court will deliver the verdict in Kim Kardashian jewelry heist trial
- At the heart of the trial is Aomar Aït Khedache, a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld
- Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence, the loot was never found
PARIS: A decade after robbers stormed Kim Kardashian’s luxury residence and tied her up at gunpoint, a Paris court is set Friday to decide the verdict in one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history.
Nine men and a woman stand accused of carrying out — or aiding — the crime during the 2016 Paris Fashion Week, when masked men dressed as police entered Kardashian’s Paris home, bound her with zip-ties and vanished with $6 million in jewels.
At the heart of the trial is 70-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld. Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence. His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. The loot was never found.
Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious “X” or “Ben” — someone prosecutors say never existed.
The accused became known in France as “les papys braqueurs” — the grandpa robbers. Some arrived in court in orthopedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. Some read the proceedings from a screen, hard of hearing and nearly mute. But prosecutors warned observers not to be seduced by soft appearances.
The trial is being heard by a panel of three judges and six jurors, who will need a majority vote to reach a verdict.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
Kardashian’s testimony earlier this month was the emotional high point. In a packed courtroom, she recounted how she was thrown onto a bed, zip-tied, and had a gun pressed to her on the night of Oct. 2, 2016.
“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she said. “I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”
She was dragged into a marble bathroom and told to stay silent. When the robbers fled, she freed herself by scraping the tape on her wrists off against the sink, then she hid with her friend, shaking and barefoot.
She said Paris had once been her sanctuary — a city she would wander at 3 a.m., window shopping, stopping for hot chocolate. That illusion was shattered.
The robbery echoed far beyond the City of Light. It forced a recalibration of celebrity behavior in the digital age. For years, Kardashian had curated her life like a showroom: geo-tagged, diamond-lit, public by design. But this was the moment the showroom turned into a crime scene. In her words, “People were watching… They knew where I was.”
Afterward, she stopped posting her location in real time. She stripped her social media feed of lavish gifts and vanished from Paris for years. Other stars followed suit. Privacy became luxury.
Defense attorneys have asked the court for leniency, citing the defendants’ age and health. But prosecutors insist that criminal experience, not frailty, defined the gang.
On Friday morning, the accused will speak one final time before the court withdraws to deliberate.
Even for France’s painstakingly thorough legal system, observers commented about how long it took for the case to be tried.
Kardashian, who once said “this experience really changed everything,” hopes the verdict will offer a measure of closure.
Guests died of organ failure after toxic mushroom lunch, Australian court hears
- Erin Patterson is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in 202
- Patterson served them a hearty lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms
SYDNEY: Three Australians died of organ failure after eating a beef Wellington dish laced with toxic mushrooms, a medical specialist said Friday during a triple-murder trial sparked by the deaths.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in 2023 by serving them a hearty lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges in a trial that has drawn intense interest from around the world.
Intensive care specialist Stephen Warrillow told the high-profile trial on Friday how doctors had scrambled to save the lunch guests.
But as the toxins coursed through their bodies, causing multiple organs to shut down, there was little they could do.
“It was very apparent that this was not survivable,” Warrillow said, talking about one of the victims he treated.
Another victim got “relentlessly worse” even after receiving a liver transplant, he said.
“We had no other treatments to offer, no other therapies. He was dying,” the doctor said.
Warrillow was asked if the organ failure was caused by mushroom poisoning.
“That’s correct, yes,” he told the court.
Patterson was estranged from her husband Simon, who turned down the invitation to the July 2023 lunch.
But his parents, Don and Gail, died days after eating the beef-and-pastry dish.
Simon’s aunt Heather Wilkinson also died, while her husband Ian fell seriously ill but later recovered.
The court earlier heard how Erin Patterson had sent messages to a Facebook group chat in December 2022, several months prior to the lunch, saying she wanted “nothing to do” with her in-laws.
Patterson and estranged husband Simon were at odds over finances and child support, the court heard, and she had sought help from his parents, who refused to intervene.
“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” Patterson wrote in one message.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that she did not consume the deadly mushrooms herself.
Her defense says it was “a terrible accident” and that Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick.
The trial is expected to last another two weeks.
Music talent agent among dead after jet crashes into San Diego neighborhood
- The music agency says the dead include Dave Shapiro, the agency’s co-founder. Shapiro is listed as the owner of the plane and has a pilot’s license
- Sound Talent Group has represented artists including Hanson, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton
SAN DIEGO: A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.
With the home engulfed in flames and jet fuel rolling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles ignited while residents in the neighborhood of US Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4 a.m. by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions. Out their windows, they saw a wall of fire.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window, police officer Anthony Carrasco said.
Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement. Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Hanson is perhaps best known for its earworm 1990s pop hit, “MMMBop.” Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy,” the agency said.
Six people were on board the plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities were still combing the scene and recovering the bodies before releasing an official number and identifying the dead, though there were not believed to be any survivors aboard the flight.
Daniel Williams, former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page.
“No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever,” the band wrote.
A representative for the band referred to their social post when asked about Williams’ death.
Parts of Shapiro’s 1985 Cessna 550 Citation littered a large area, including fragments under the power lines and a section of wing on a road behind the homes, said Elliot Simpson of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Neighborhood hit hard
The home that was struck was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed, and about 10 others were damaged in Murphy Canyon, the largest neighborhood of Navy-owned housing in the country, officials said.
Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.
“My wife was screaming, and she’s like, ‘There’s a fire,’” McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told local ABC affiliate KGTV.
When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit. They grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape.
The plane also hit both of the couple’s vehicles, which burned.
“It put my truck into our living room,” McCarty said.
Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One stubborn car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.
Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a “whooshing sound” and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.
One of the family’s cars was “completely disintegrated,” and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.
“I definitely do feel blessed, because we’ve been spared,” she said.
At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.
“We have jet fuel all over the place,” Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said.
Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that “you could barely see in front of you.”
The plane originated from a small Ne
w Jersey airport
The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to San Diego, according to Simpson.
Based on the flight path, it was bound for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it struck power lines about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) southeast of the airfield, Simpson said.
Audio recorded by www.liveATC.net includes a brief transmission from the pilot saying he was on final approach to the airport and was about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) out at 3:45 a.m.
NTSB investigators planned to spend Thursday and Friday at the scene gathering evidence, Simpson said. He welcomed video or other details from any witnesses.
The plane was attempting t
o land in foggy weather
At that hour and in foggy weather, the plane was likely operating on an instrument flight rules plan, which is typically used during reduced visibility, said Barry Newman, a board-certified aviation attorney.
However, for that airport, once an aircraft reaches 673 feet (205 meters), the pilot also has to rely on sight.
“If a pilot descends to that level and he can’t see the runway, he has to call for a missed approach or divert to another airport,” Newman said.
In October 2021 a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.
And in December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diego’s University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.
US judge blocks Trump’s mass layoffs in blow to government overhaul
- US District Judge Susan Illston barred agencies from mass layoffs, a key piece of Trump’s plans to downsize or eliminate many federal agencies
- The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to pause Illston’s temporary ruling
A federal judge extended on Thursday a temporary block on a bid by President Donald Trump’s administration to lay off hundreds of thousands of federal employees, saying he needed permission from Congress before restructuring the US government.
In her order, US District Judge Susan Illston barred agencies from mass layoffs, a key piece of Trump’s plans to downsize or eliminate many federal agencies, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by unions, nonprofits and municipalities.
On May 9, Illston had blocked about 20 agencies from making mass layoffs for two weeks and ordered the reinstatement of workers who had already lost their jobs.
In Thursday’s order, she largely continued the relief provided in the temporary restraining order, with some refinement.
The administration has asked the US Supreme Court to pause Illston’s temporary ruling, saying she improperly infringed on Trump’s constitutional powers to control the executive branch.
That bid is likely to be moot after Thursday’s ruling, which the Trump administration can immediately appeal.
Federal agencies have broad authority to implement large-scale layoffs government lawyer Andrew Bernie said at Thursday’s hearing.
Trump’s executive order merely asked agencies to determine what cuts can be made without calling for any concrete actions such as layoffs or office closures that plaintiffs could sue over at this point, he added.
“Those decisions will be disclosed when they are made, and when they are made, the plaintiffs can challenge them. Indeed, the plaintiffs have challenged individual decisions,” Bernie said, citing pending lawsuits over cuts at the departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.
Danielle Leonard, who represented the plaintiffs, said directives from Trump and other White House officials made clear that agencies had little say in whether to gut their workforces.
“They are saying what to cut, when to cut, where to cut, and all they’re asking the agencies to do is come forward with a plan,” she said.
The case involves the departments of agriculture, health and human services, treasury, commerce, state and veterans affairs, among others.
Trump has urged agencies to eliminate duplicative roles, unnecessary management layers, and non-critical jobs while automating routine tasks, closing regional offices and cutting back on outside contractors.
About 260,000 federal workers, most of whom have taken buyouts, have left or will leave by the end of September. And several agencies have been earmarked for deep cuts, such as more than 80,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and 10,000 at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dozens of lawsuits have challenged the administration’s efforts, and Illston’s earlier ruling this month was the broadest yet of its kind.
An appeals court has paused another judge’s March ruling requiring agencies to reinstate nearly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have been in their current roles for less than a year or two.
