Global wildfires: Greece a ‘powder keg’ as thousands flee their homes

After the devastating fires that have ravaged Greece's second-largest island, many of its residents are angry with their government. They believe the disaster could have been prevented.

Fires sweep through a forest in Chiquitania, a transition zone between the Amazon and the Gran Chaco lowlands in eastern Bolivia, where large blazes have already ravaged at least 200,000 hectares, according to reports from local authorities.

Abubakar Adam has not seen seven of his 10 children in the two months since armed men snatched them from their boarding school in Nigeria's northern Niger state. He sold his car, a parcel of land, cleaned out his savings and along with other parents sought help from friends and relatives to raise 30 million naira ($72,993) to get their children back. But the bandits just took the money - and one of the men delivering it - leaving Adam with nothing. The rash of kidnappings across the largely poor northwest has left hundreds of parents facing the same desperate quandary: beg, borrow and sell assets, or risk never seeing their children again.

Russia's central regions are battling "extreme" wildfires fuelled by an unusual heatwave that comes after forest fires linked to climate change ravaged Siberia for most of the summer.

Afghan refugees in Greece are increasingly worried about their status. The EU’s differing and uncertain asylum policies are making it even harder for them to cope.

In a place where concrete is cheap, one man, Doudou Deme, dreams of an ecological, sustainable alternative. Compressed earth bricks, manufactured in his factory outside Dakar, offer better temperature regulation as well as benefiting the planet.

Residents in Mullica Hill, New Jersey come together after a tornado caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida destroyed many of their homes. "Thank God we were so lucky. I know that's such an unusual thing to say when you see this devastation, but nobody died," New Jersey's 2nd Congressional District Representative, Jeff Van Drew, tells AFP.

A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain's Canary Islands a day after the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted, forcing 5,500 people to leave the area, local authorities said. The volcano erupted on Sunday afternoon, sending vast plumes of thick black smoke into the sky and belching molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma.

The first of October means Britain is taking back control. As of this Friday, European travellers to post-Brexit Great Britain can no longer bring a simple ID card – they will have to show a passport. However, as petrol shortages continue, tempers are running short as lines get long. This Friday, around one quarter of British service stations ran dry, leading to scenes of shouting, fist fights and motorists hoarding fuel in water bottles.

In northern Senegal, a sea barrier is being thrown up in the hopes of holding back coastal erosion. Also, we meet Richard Odjrado, an emerging star of the African tech world whose company is priming Benin's rise as an entrepreneurial hub. And adventure sports in South Africa are becoming more inclusive as the country's first paragliding wheelchair goes into use.

The ceremony to light the Olympic flame was disrupted as Tibetan and Hong Kong activists held banners protesting human rights abuses in China.

Images show partially submerged houses, evacuated residents, and a flooded airport in Nepal where 31 people were reported dead after days of heavy rains across the country. Swelling rivers flooded homes in several districts, damaging roads and bridges and reportedly destroying crops. Landslides are a regular danger in the Himalayan region, but experts say they are becoming more common as rains become increasingly erratic and glaciers melt.