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Greece is trying to prepare for another summer of wildfiresAuthorities have presented new plans for tackling wildfires which often ravage Greece during its hot, dry summers.The new plans come after massive fires last year killed more than 20 people and decimated vast tracts of forest and farmland, including a blaze in northeastern Greece which raged out of control for about two weeks, growing into the largest wildfire recorded in a European Union country since the European Forest Fire Information System began keeping records in 2000.They include changes in the deployment of firefighting aircraft and increased staffing in specialized forest firefighting units. The government has pointed to a changing climate and extreme weather that has included drier winters and more frequent summer heatwaves as contributing to an increased risk of forest fires.The new plans were presented by the head of the fire department, Lt. Gen. Theodoros Vagias, to coincide with International Day of Forests on March 21.
Greece Eyes New Water Bombers As Fire Season LoomsGreece, one of the EU nations worst hit by wildfires, on Thursday said it would finalise an order for seven DHC-515 water bombers this month to spruce up its ageing fleet.Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said five of the aircraft produced by Canada's De Havilland Aircraft will be part of Greece's civil protection fleet.The remaining two will operate under the European Union's RescEU resource-sharing reserve, he told reporters.The government says the new planes will cost around 360 million euros ($393 million).
How polluted is your holiday destination? The dirtiest locations across Europe revealedItaly, Greece and Turkey have been named as most polluted holiday spots in Europe, while Iceland’s air is amongst the cleanest on Earth
Women affected by state pension rise owed compensation and apology from government, report saysThousands of women affected by changes in the state pension age are owed compensation and an apology, a report has concluded.The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman says the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to adequately communicate changes to women's state pension age, and that those affected are owed compensation.The ombudsman has asked Parliament to intervene and “act swiftly” to make sure a compensation scheme is established.The group of women born in the 1950s known as "Waspi women" (Women Against State Pension Inequality), say the rise in the state pension age in 1995 led them to suffer financially.The 1995 Pensions Act and subsequent legislation raised the state pension age for women born on or after April 6 1950 from 60 to 65, then further to 66 - making it the same as the men's state pension age.
Apple made the iPhone worse to keep its monopoly over smartphones, US DoJ says in antitrust lawsuitThe US is suing Apple over its control of the iPhone.The Department of Justice accused the company of using its control over the device to unfairly control the market for smartphones, and take money from its users.The lawsuit accused Apple of making the iPhone worse in various ways – including reducing privacy protections and restricting features – in order to keep its monopoly over the smartphone market.
Great Escape heroes ‘were betrayed by English collaborators’Mapmaker who survived the daring breakout believed he and the other 75 men who fled the Stalag Luft III camp were victims of informantsGreat Escape prisoners of war were betrayed by English informants, according to claims in newly unearthed intelligence documents.The 1944 mass breakout from Stalag Luft III, immortalised in the 1963 war film, led to the arrest and execution of 50 Allied escapers, on the direct order of a vengeful Adolf Hitler.A new document has been unearthed by a surviving PoW which claims that his murdered comrades were betrayed by English informants.The claims were made by RAF pilot Flt Lt Desmond Plunkett, who escaped along with 75 other prisoners, only to be recaptured and detained for the rest of the war.He was the basis for Donald Pleasence’s expert forger character Colin Blythe, who discovers in the Great Escape film that he is slowly going blind.Plunkett was eventually released in 1945, and made to fill in a questionnaire about his imprisonment which has now been unearthed in the National Archives.The questionnaire suggests that there were two individuals whose activities impacted the fates of the executed PoWs. There is no evidence Plunkett’s claims were pursued, as no informants have ever been recorded in relation to the mass escape.
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Topic: 21/03/24 (Read 456 times)
