Notre-Dame fire: ‘To see the skyline change so drastically in minutes really was something’

Authorities started evacuating people from several Catalan villages as the forest fire spreads near the French border. Strong winds have fanned the flames while preventing water-bombing planes from taking off.

Thousands of people have been evacuated as authorities rush to tame fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Hurricane Dora fueled the wildfire, while power outages impeded rescue operations.

Sudanese-British billionaire Mo Ibrahim, who has spent much of the last two decades addressing the importance of good governance in Africa, says Sudan has no government. Ibrahim called for an arms export ban.

At least seven children were killed in eastern Congo on Saturday after a fire broke out at camp for people displaced by flooding, local official Thomas Bakenga said. Hundreds of families had been living in makeshift huts at the refuge in the town of Kalehe since May, when devastating floods destroyed their homes in the villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi in South Kivu province.

Climate change is making wildfires more frequent and more destructive. Scientists are calling for a radical rethink of how we fight them.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling the blaze at the edge of Greece's Dadia national park. The European Commission described it as the largest single fire in the history of the EU.

Protesters led by a pastor marched through a gang-controlled area near the capital. Rights groups reporting on the incident blamed the pastor for leading protesters into such a dangerous situation.

At least 63 people were killed and 43 injured in a fire in the central business district of South Africa's biggest city of Johannesburg on Thursday, the municipal government said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday called the more than 70 deaths in an apartment block fire in Johannesburg "a tragedy." Johannesburg officials initially suggested the building had been occupied by squatters, but Ramaphosa said that criminal gangs were exploiting vulnerable families by levy rents on buildings like the one that burnt.

Some 70 people were rescued from the multi-story apartment block, which is believed to house 150. Deadly fires have engulfed several Vietnamese establishments in recent years, including entertainment venues.

The French Catholic Church is facing new accusations of a sexual abuse scandal within Paris’s Foreign Missions Society, an organisation dedicated to spreading Christianity overseas. As a criminal investigation has been opened into accusations against three clergymen from the group, a FRANCE 24 investigation by journalists Karina Chabour and Julie Dungelhoeff sheds light on the allegations against the society.

Polish consulates reportedly handed out visas to migrants from Asia and Africa in exchange for thousands of dollars. The allegations could hurt Poland's anti-migration ruling party in upcoming elections.