A deadly blaze near California's Big Sur coast could widen to more than five times its current size and has destroyed some 60 homes, threatened hundreds of others and spurred mass evacuations, authorities said on Saturday.
The so-called Soberanes Fire, which started on July 22 and is burning just south of the oceanside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, has roared through nearly 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) of drought-parched chaparral, grass and timber in the Los Padres National Forest.
The blaze is estimated to have a final size of 170,000 acres (265 square miles), according to California Interagency Incident Management Team 1, which is comprised of federal, state and local authorities. The cost of fighting the fire is now at about $6 million a day, it said on its Twitter feed.
The estimated final size of the blaze is roughly equivalent to the size of Singapore.
More than 5,000 personnel were fighting the blaze that has so far destroyed 57 homes and 11 outbuildings, with at least five other structures damaged, officials said on Friday evening. Some 2,000 other structures were threatened, officials added.
More than 500 fire trucks along with 14 helicopters and six air tankers have been deployed to fight the blaze. Containment stood at 15 percent on Friday, up from 10 percent in the previous few days.
Mountainous terrain combined with extremely hot, dry weather has hampered efforts by firefighters to hack buffer lines through dense vegetation around the perimeter of the blaze, officials said.
The fire threat has prompted authorities to close a string of popular California campgrounds and recreation areas along the northern end of the Big Sur coastline, including Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Point Lobos Natural Reserve.
Highway 1, the scenic route that winds along seaside cliffs overlooking the Pacific, remained open, though motorists were advised to allow for traffic delays caused by firefighting equipment entering and exiting the roadway.
Firefighters battled for an eighth day on Friday to quell a deadly blaze near California's renowned Big Sur coast that has destroyed dozens of homes, threatened hundreds more and forced several state parks to close at the height of summer tourist season.
The so-called Soberanes Fire ignited last Friday just south of the upscale oceanside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea and has roared through nearly 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) of drought-parched chaparral, grass and timber into the Los Padres National Forest.
Mountainous terrain combined with extremely hot, dry weather conditions have hampered efforts by nearly 4,300 firefighters to hack buffer lines through dense vegetation around the perimeter of the blaze, officials said.
Fire managers hope steady reinforcements to their ground crews over the past few days will help make a difference, said Robert Fish, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
"The key here is high temperatures, rugged, steep terrain - a very difficult firefight," Fish said. Much of the effort is focused on halting the advance of flames in the direction of Big Sur communities, he said.
The fire threat has prompted authorities to close a string of popular California campgrounds and recreation areas along the northern end of the Big Sur coastline, including Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and Point Lobos Natural Reserve.
A crowd has been protesting near the Incirlik military base in Adana, Turkey. The facility houses US and NATO forces. The demonstrators are calling for the closure of the base, where arrests and searches were made in connection with the failed coup.
Regional television has been broadcasting the rally.
Protesters have been shouting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, according to an RT stringer.
American officials have informed US citizens that the consulate in the city will be closed at the time of the protest.
The base has made the headlines recently in connection with the failed coup in Turkey, and searches have been conducted at the facility by Turkish prosecutors and police. The air base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, has been detained at Incirlik by the Turkish authorities along with over a dozen lower ranking officers, all accused of complicity in the attempted coup.
Incirlik is used by NATO and stores US tactical nuclear weapons. Washington has been using the base in its campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
1,000s Turkish forces surround NATO’s Incirlik air base for ‘inspection’ amid rumors of coup attempt
Some 7,000 armed police with heavy vehicles have surrounded and blocked the Incirlik air base in Adana used by NATO forces, already restricted in the aftermath of a failed coup. Unconfirmed reports say troops were sent to deal with a new coup attempt.
“I’m somewhat taken aback by the hyperventilation on this,” the US media quotes Clapper as saying at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
“I’m shocked someone did some hacking,” he added sarcastically. “[As if] That’s never happened before.”
When asked if analysts in the media and elsewhere were getting ahead of the facts when it came to attributing the attack, Clapper said:
Meanwhile the US-based website reporting on the US politics and current affairs was more vocally critical of the attempts to put the blame on Russia.
“A flood light suddenly shines on your party apparatus, revealing its grossly corrupt machinations to fix the primary process and sink the Sanders campaign, and within a day you are on about the evil Russians having hacked into your computers to sabotage our elections — on behalf of Donald Trump, no less?” reads article of Salon’s foreign affairs columnist Patrick Lawrence.
“Is this a joke? Are you kidding? Is nothing beneath your dignity? Is this how lowly you rate the intelligence of American voters?” the author wonders.
He is outraged that while putting the blame on Russia, Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, provided no names or otherwise proof apart from saying plainly that “experts” have “told him so.”
“In a clear sign the entire crowd-control machine is up and running, The New York Times had a long, unprofessional piece about Russian culprits in its Monday editions. It followed Mook’s lead faithfully: not one properly supported fact, not one identified “expert,” and more conditional verbs than you’ve had hot dinners — everything cast as “could,” “might,” “appears,” “would,” “seems,” “may.”
The author then urges to take the last few days’ events “as a signal of what Clinton’s policy toward Russia will look like should she prevail in November.”
The German leader, who cut short her summer holiday to speak after a string of Islamist attacks rocked the country, said the entire continent was being “ravaged” by terrorism.
She described recent attacks in Ansbach, Wurzburg and Munich as “horrifying and depressing” but insisted Germany would not turn its back on people fleeing the Middle East.
In the wake of the killings, Mrs Merkel said Germany now needed a better “early warning system” to spot radicalised Muslims among the newly-arrived migrants.
She said the central government would “redouble its efforts” against the threat, increasing staff numbers and resources for security services.
Merkel's premiership is hanging by a thread today as thousands gathered to call for her resignation while a key political ally dramatically withdrew his support over immigration policy.
More than 5,000 protested in Berlin and thousands more throughout Germany over the 'open-door' policy that many have blamed for four brutal terrorist attacks that left 13 dead over the last month.
The Chancellor faced a fresh wave of fury after it emerged that two recent terror attacks and a third killing were carried out by men who entered the country as refugees.
Despite the massive waves of criticism, Merkel defended her policy this week, dramatically proclaiming 'we can do it' as she pledged not to let the violent acts guide political decisions.
But now her key ally in Bavaria - which bore the brunt of the attacks - has launched a fresh attack on her leadership, distancing his party from Merkel and straining the coalition that keeps her in power.
'Merkel must go' has been trending on social media, with people posting powerful pictures including one claiming that she has blood on her hands after recent attacks.
The picture shows her splattered with blood, while another depicts her wearing a Burka.
A new survey found that 83 per cent of Germans see immigration as their nation's biggest challenge - twice as many as a year ago.
Recent attacks have fuelled the right-wing movement, which has long called for stricter immigration controls, particularly in Bavaria, where she faces heavy criticism from high-profile politicians.
Today, thousands of protesters calling for her to step down also met counter-protests from the anti-right-wing movement, in Germany - which is still in a state of high alert.
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