France: Arson suspected in major fire at Nantes Cathedral

At least 20 nursery school children died in Niger on Tuesday in a fire that trapped them in straw-hut classrooms in a school in a poor neighbourhood of the West African nation's capital, government officials said.

An associate of R. Kelly has confessed to pulling off an arson attack in a possible attempt to silence a witness in the incarcerated singer's racketeering case.

A firefighting plane works on extinguishing a fire raging in a forested area west of Jerusalem. The massive fire on the outskirts of Jerusalem has paralysed traffic as dozens of firefighters and 10 aerial tankers battle the blaze.

Dozens of firefighters battle to contain a blaze that ignited in a fabric shop in the Indian capital Delhi. The fire spread quickly to neighbouring stores in a busy shopping district, according to local news media. There are no reports of casualties.

A huge blaze engulfs more than a dozen yachts in a Hong Kong typhoon shelter. The Fire department said it took six hours to put the fire out, adding that about twenty people were evacuated and a boy was sent to hospital. Some of the yachts in the Aberdeen marina are occupied full time by locals and expats. Ten boats sank according to local media.

Crews from the Truckee Meadows Fire & Rescue use bulldozers to construct firelines to help stop the spread of an "aggressive" fire near Reno, Nevada. A combination of two blazes sparked by lightning near the California-Nevada border last week, the Beckwourth Complex fire has rapidly grown to some 90,000 acres. It is reportedly California’s largest fire so far this year and has prompted evacuations in both states.

A firefighter drives through flames and sparks from the Tamarack Fire in Markleeville, California, as he races to protect a housing development from the blaze. Wildfires continue to ravage the western US and Canada amid oppressively hot, dry weather.

Smoke columns from fires in the US state of California could spawn lightning storms that cause more blazes, experts warn. Several communities have been evacuated.

A total of 141 firefighters have been mobilised to contain a forest blaze at the base of Mount Penteli north of Athens. The fire service are backed by 10 helicopters and eight firefighting planes, but said strong winds were complicating operations.

Flames and smoke rise above a forest in the Athens suburb of Varympompi as a fire broke out, cutting a section of the main motorway linking Athens to northern and southern Greece, as the nation reels under a severe heatwave.

A new fire broke out on the island of Evia, just hours after officials said the blazes were now under control. Public anger has been growing at the government's response.

Taiwanese residents voice anguish and outrage after 46 people perished in an inferno that tore through a dilapidated housing block, as investigators searched for what sparked the island's deadliest fire in decades.