Page 8 - aruba-today-20190629

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 29 June 2019

France fries: Record heat hits tourists, schools, hospitals

By ANGELA CHARLTON west Spain, the agency
SYLVIE CORBET said, and a 17-year-old boy
Associated Press died in the southern city of
PARIS (AP) — Thousands of Cordoba after diving into a
schools were closed, out- swimming pool and losing
door events canceled and consciousness.
volunteers were visiting the Four people have drowned
elderly at home as France so far in France this week,
and other nations battle a and a 12-year-old girl
record-setting heat wave drowned in a river near
baking much of Europe. Manchester, England.
Several people have died France’s health minister
around the continent in in- and British police warned
cidents that authorities are people to swim only in au-
linking to the weather. A thorized areas.
major wildfire raged Friday France has also seen an
in Spain, sparked when a uptick in so-called street-
pile of chicken dung spon- pooling, or illegally opening
taneously combusted in fire hydrants. A 6-year-old
the heat. child is in life-threatening
Several countries have re- condition after being hit
ported record tempera- by water shooting from a
tures this week, and France Girls wearing swimsuits sit along the Canal de l’Ourcq in Paris, Friday, June 28, 2019. cracked-open fire hydrant
hit its all-time heat record Associated Press in the Paris suburb of Saint-
Friday: 45.9 C (114.6 F) in volunteers to visit elderly lows migrants living in the people,” he said “But given Denis, broadcaster France-
the small southern town of people at home to ensure streets to take showers, also the intensity of the heat Info reported.
Gallargues-le-Montueux, they had fans and water. provided them with lots of wave, it’s the entire popu- More than 200 firefight-
according to French me- In Issy-Les-Moulineaux, a bottled water. lation who must be careful ers dealt with dozens of
dia. southwest Paris suburb, Paris city hall estimates that today ... both for oneself fires in the Gard region, in
The French national weath- Jean-Jacques Emerjian, 87, about 1,000-2,000 migrants and for loved ones and southeastern France, and
er service activated its and his wife Marie-France, currently live in makeshift neighbors.” a highway was closed for
highest-level heat danger 80 were relieved to see the camps, which are particu- Italy put 16 cities under safety reasons.
alert for the first time, put- Red Cross volunteers. larly exposed to the heat. alerts for high tempera- More than 600 firefight-
ting four regions around Marie-France Emerjian said Some criticized the govern- tures, and civil security ser- ers and six water-dropping
Marseille and Montpellier in “with my handicapped ment for going overboard, vices distributed water to aircraft were battling the
the south of the country un- husband I am worried be- but Prime Minister Edouard tourists visiting famed sites worst fire in two decades
der special watch Friday. cause I don’t have some- Philippe defended the ef- around Rome under a in the Catalonia region Fri-
About 4,000 schools were one who can come right forts after 15,000 people scorching sun. day, as Spain is forecast to
closed because they away (to help). He fell the died in a heat wave in 2003 Heat was blamed for the endure the peak of its heat
couldn’t ensure safe condi- other night and I couldn’t that woke up France to the deaths of two people in wave, with temperatures
tions. get him up and I was risks. Spain, private news agen- expected to exceed 40 C
Local authorities canceled scared. He had a malaise, “This heat wave is excep- cy Europa Press reported (104 F). In Berlin, a police
several cultural and sport he fainted.” tional by its intensity and its Friday. unit turned water cannons
events and many end-of- In the northern Paris suburb earliness,” he told reporters. An 80-year-old man col- — usually used against riot-
school-year carnivals. of Saint-Denis, the Salvation “Measures have been tak- lapsed and died in the ers — on city trees, to cool
City halls were also sending Army day center, which al- en for the most vulnerable street in Valladolid, in north- them down. q

Italy: Several EU nations agree to take migrants from ship

Associated Press willing to take in the asy- declared that until coun-
ROME (AP) — Italy’s appeal lum-seekers. tries are found to accept
to fellow EU nations to take Italy didn’t immediately say every one of the 40 asylum-
some of the 40 migrants still if the migrants would now seekers, none would disem-
aboard a rescue ship an- be allowed to disembark bark on Italian soil.
chored off a tiny Mediter- on Lampedusa, an Italian Originally, 53 rescued mi-
ranean island in a weeks- island south of Sicily. grants were aboard. But
long standoff has obtained Earlier, a German interior that number decreased as
a “positive” response from ministry spokesman said various passengers were
five countries, the Italian Germany would take in taken ashore because of
foreign minister said Friday. some of the migrants if medical conditions, includ-
In a tweet, Enzo Moavero other EU member states did ing one on Thursday eve-
offered his “sincere thanks too. ning and another early Fri-
to the governments of Fin- Later, Interior Minister Horst day.
land, France, Germany, Seehofer was quoted by Sea-Watch 3 captain Car-
Luxembourg, Portugal” for An Italian Coast Guard boat patrols next to the Sea-Watch German news agency dpa ola Rackete has defied or-
giving a “positive response” 3 vessel, in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coasts of the that he was very confident ders from port authorities,
about the migrants aboard southern Italian island of Lampedusa, Thursday, June 27, 2019. that there would be a so- first not to enter Italian wa-
Sea-Watch 3, a German Associated Press lution to the Sea-Watch 3 ters and second in her at-
humanitarian organiza- weeks ago. tion commissioner, Dimitris stalemate by the weekend. tempted approach to the
tion’s vessel which had res- Moavero also expressed Avramopoulos, for his ef- Italy’s hard-line interior min- port of Lampedusa, Italy’s
cued them more than two gratitude to the EU migra- forts in lining up countries ister, Matteo Salvini, had southernmost island.q