Southern,middle belt leaders call for restructuring

Aerial images show the aftermath of a fire which enveloped a Covid isolation unit and killed 64 in southern Iraq. The deadly blaze at Al-Hussein Hospital in the provincial capital Nasiriyah, which medics said was fuelled by the explosion of oxygen canisters, was the second such fire in Iraq in three months.

"I was out there. I saw the flames creeping up the side of the bluff," recalls Frank Lee Smith, a resident of Klamath County in southern Oregon, who had to evacuate due to the Bootleg Fire, which continues to grow. "It's slowly sinking in that I got no place to go to and now I gotta figure things out." Whipped up by dry conditions and strengthening winds, the Bootleg Fire has already devoured more than 212,758 acres (86,000 hectares) - the equivalent of 120,000 soccer fields.

Authorities said the van was carrying as many as 30 people, mainly migrant workers, at the time when it crashed on a highway in southern Texas after the driver lost control of the vehicle.

Buildings in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, are still damaged and charred from the recent fierce fighting which brought the Taliban back into power and ousted the former government.

A huge fire has ravaged the forests in the Sierra Bermeja mountains in the southern Spanish province of Malaga, forcing mass evacuations, including to a sports centre set up to house evacuees from neighbouring towns.

The European Union wants member states to halt air travel with South Africa and several surrounding countries over a new coronavirus variant. Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic were all quick to react.

At least seven people were killed following an explosion and fire in southern France, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said in a tweet on Monday. Darmanin said on his Twitter page he was planning to visit the scene.

The Russian military has said it wants "another way" to access Moldova's breakaway Transnistria region. Ukraine has warned Russia seeks to establish new "republics" in occupied areas.

A video taken after the incident showed people lying dead on the ground and women were heard screaming in the background.

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At least five people were killed when a 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook southern Iran. The quake's epicenter was in a comparatively sparsely populated area.

Abortion clinics in Florida and Mississippi were unsuccessful in putting up a legal fight to continue providing the procedure. Other states are likely to soon follow.