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2 Volunteers Die Fighting Türkiye Wildfires, Raising Deaths to 17 Since Late June 

Residents and firefighters attempt to extinguish a wildfire as smoke and flames rise from a forested area in the Gursu district of Bursa early on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
Residents and firefighters attempt to extinguish a wildfire as smoke and flames rise from a forested area in the Gursu district of Bursa early on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
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2 Volunteers Die Fighting Türkiye Wildfires, Raising Deaths to 17 Since Late June 

Residents and firefighters attempt to extinguish a wildfire as smoke and flames rise from a forested area in the Gursu district of Bursa early on July 27, 2025. (AFP)
Residents and firefighters attempt to extinguish a wildfire as smoke and flames rise from a forested area in the Gursu district of Bursa early on July 27, 2025. (AFP)

The death toll from wildfires outside the city of Bursa in northwest Türkiye rose to four late Sunday after two volunteer firefighters died.

The pair died in hospital after they were pulled from a water tanker that rolled while heading to a forest fire, news agency IHA reported. Another worker died earlier at the scene of the accident and a firefighter died Sunday after suffering a heart attack.

Their deaths raised Türkiye’s wildfire fatalities to 17 since late June, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir, western Türkiye.

Huge fires around Bursa, Türkiye’s fourth-largest city, broke out over the weekend, leading to more than 3,500 people fleeing their homes. On Monday morning, fog-like smoke from ongoing fires and smoldering foliage hung over the city.

Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires, with Türkiye and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean experiencing record-breaking heatwaves.

The fires around Bursa were among hundreds to have hit Türkiye over the past month. While firefighting teams have contained the damage to a limited number of homes, vast tracts of forest have been turned to ash.

The water tanker crew comprised volunteers from nearby Bolu province heading to the village of Aglasan, northeast of Bursa, to combat a blaze when the vehicle fell into a ditch while negotiating a rough forest track, IHA reported.

Türkiye battled at least 44 separate fires Sunday, Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said late Sunday. He identified two fires in Bursa province, as well as blazes in Karabuk, northwest Türkiye, and Kahramanmaras in the south, as the most serious.

The government declared disaster areas in two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik. Prosecutions have been launched against 97 people in 33 of Türkiye’s 81 provinces in relation to the fires, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.

A crowd of people gathered Sunday evening outside a police station in the village of Harmancik, 57 kilometers (35 miles) south of Bursa, after learning a suspected arsonist was detained there.

The angry crowd demanded for the suspect to be handed over to them. The crowd dispersed after police assured them a thorough investigation would be undertaken.

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Varieties

Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
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Jane Austen Fans Celebrate the Author’s 250th Birthday in Britain and Beyond

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)
One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. (AP)

Fans of Jane Austen celebrated the acclaimed author's 250th birthday on Tuesday with a church service in her home village, festive visits to her house — and a virtual party for those paying tribute from afar.

Thousands of enthusiasts around the world have already taken part in a yearlong celebration of one of English literature’s greats, who penned “Pride and Prejudice," “Sense and Sensibility” and other beloved novels.

On Tuesday — to mark 250 years since she was born on Dec. 16, 1775 — Jane Austen’s House, in the southern English village of Chawton, hosted talks, tours and performances for dozens of visitors, with celebrations concluding with an online party for fans from all over the world.

“Regency dress strongly encouraged,” organizers said, adding that more than 500 people had signed up for the Zoom party.

The cottage, now a museum with Austen artifacts, was where the author lived for the last years of her life and where she wrote all six of her novels.

A church service featuring music and readings is held in Steventon, the rural village where she was born.

Fans, who call themselves “Janeites," have marked the anniversary year with Regency balls and festivals staged in the UK, US and beyond.

At the weekend, the city of Bath, where Austen lived for five years, hosted the Yuletide Jane Austen Birthday Ball, the finale of many grand costumed events held there this year.

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Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
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Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints Found on Alpine Cliffs Near Winter Olympics Site

The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)
The Director of the Stelvio Park, Franco Claretti, poses next to a reproduction of a dinosaur prior to a press conference in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, on a discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks at the Stelvio Park. (AP)

Italian paleontologists have uncovered thousands of dinosaur footprints on a near-vertical rock face more than 2,000 meters above sea level in the Stelvio National Park, a discovery they say is among the world's richest sites for the Triassic period.

The tracks, some up to 40 cm wide and showing claw marks, stretch for about five kilometers in the high-altitude glacial Valle di Fraele near Bormio, one of the venues for the 2026 Winter Olympics in the northern region of Lombardy.

"This is one of the largest and oldest footprint sites in Italy, and among the most spectacular I've seen in 35 years," said Cristiano Dal Sasso, paleontologist at Milan's Natural History Museum in a press conference on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Lombardy Region.

Experts believe the prints were left by herds of long-necked herbivores, likely plateosaurs, more than 200 million years ago when the area was a warm lagoon, ideal for dinosaurs to roam along beaches, leaving tracks in the mud near the water.

"The footprints were impressed when the sediments were still soft, on the wide tidal flats that surrounded the Tethys Ocean," said Fabio Massimo Petti, ichnologist at MUSE museum of Trento, attending the same conference.

"The muds, now turned to rock, have allowed the preservation of remarkable anatomical details of the feet, such as impressions of the toes and even the claws," Petti added.

As the African plate gradually moved north, closing and drying up the Tethys Ocean, sedimentary rocks that formed the seabed were folded, creating the Alps.

The fossilized dinosaur footprints shifted from a horizontal position to the vertical one on a mountain slope spotted by a wildlife photographer in September while chasing deer and bearded vultures, experts said.

"The natural sciences deliver to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games an unexpected and precious gift from remote eras," Giovanni Malagò, President of the Milano Cortina 2026 Organizing Committee told journalists.

The area cannot be reached by trails, so drones and remote sensing technologies will have to be used to study it.

Varieties

Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
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Another Home in British Village Torn Down Due to Seaside Erosion

The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 
The bulldozers have moved in to demolish The Chantry (ITV News) 

Demolition work has begun on a second clifftop home in a picturesque seaside spot, just weeks after another property was knocked down in the village.

Bulldozers have started tearing down The Chantry, in Thorpeness on the Suffolk coast because of its proximity to the crumbling cliff edge, according to ITV News.

The four-bedroom home on North End Avenue was put up for auction in September, selling for £200,000, according to the agents' website.

But East Suffolk Council said demolition had to begin after “critical safety levels” were reached.

At the end of October, neighbor Jean Flick, 88, saw her clifftop home in Thorpeness demolished after what the council described as “significant erosion.”

Evelyn Rumsby, who has lived in the village since 1977, described the latest demolition as “heartbreaking.”

“I don’t think unless you live here, you can’t experience anything like it... the noise of these lovely homes going,” she said, holding back tears.

“The erosion has been extreme over the last months, really extreme, and our only hope now is the shingle might come back if the winds change and we don’t have the intensity of these high winds that we’ve had over the last few months.”

“I do have fears,” she said. “We have to acknowledge that if it [erosion] moved in and this road went, there would be no access to our home site. It’s the access to the properties that is a big consideration.”

A spokesperson for East Suffolk Council said: “We have been working closely with affected property owners following significant recent erosion and sadly, critical safety levels have now been reached for another property on North End Avenue.”

He said demolition is in progress and we will continue to support the owners and their contractors to ensure the building can be taken down safely.

“This is a distressing situation, and we would request that people respect the owner’s privacy at this difficult time,” the spokesperson said.

“It is impossible to accurately predict when further losses may occur as erosion is not linear. Therefore, we are regularly monitoring the area and engaging with property owners on an ongoing basis.”