ROME: Around 1,000 tourists were evacuated on Wednesday after a wildfire broke out in the southern Italian region of Puglia, firefighters said.
Three Canadair water bombers and a helicopter were deployed to try to contain the blaze in a wooded coastal area in the Gargano sub-region.
“The fire is being tackled from the land and from the air,” a fire service spokesman told AFP, confirming that around 1,000 tourists had been evacuated.
According to reports, tourists from a complex near the bay of San Felice are among those moved.
Puglia attracts tourists from around the world with its clear waters, white sandy beaches and distinctive architecture.
The area hit by the fire is dominated by the Gargano National Park.
“The situation is critical,” the mayor of nearby Vieste, Giuseppe Nobiletti, had earlier told reporters, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
He expressed concern that the winds were pushing the flames toward the tourist complex.
After weeks of hot weather, fires have broken out almost daily across Italy, particularly in the south and on the islands.
Two firefighters died last week fighting a blaze near Matera in Basilicata, a region that neighbors Puglia.
1,000 tourists evacuated after fire in southern Italy
https://arab.news/z5sjq
1,000 tourists evacuated after fire in southern Italy
- Three Canadair water bombers and a helicopter were deployed to try to contain the blaze
- According to reports, tourists from a complex near the bay of San Felice are among those moved
US Republicans back Trump on Iran strikes, block bid to rein in war powers
- Republicans blocked prior efforts to curb Trump’s war powers
- Prolonged war could affect November mid-term elections
WASHINGTON: US Senate Republicans backed President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a bipartisan resolution aiming to stop the air war and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress.
As voting continued, the tally in the 100-member Senate was 52 to 47 not to advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with almost every Republican voting against the procedural motion and almost every Democrat supporting it.
The latest effort by Democrats and a few Republicans to rein in President Donald Trump’s repeated foreign troop deployments, sponsors described the war powers resolution as a bid to take back Congress’ responsibility to declare war, as spelled out in the US Constitution.
Opponents rejected this, insisting that Trump’s action was legal and within his right as commander in chief to protect the United States by ordering limited strikes.
“This is not a forever war, indeed not even close to it. This is going to end very quickly,” Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech against the resolution.
The measure had not been expected to succeed. Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and have blocked previous resolutions seeking to curb his war powers.
US Senator Ted Cruz speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2026, ahead of the vote on a resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump's authority to continue military strikes on Iran. (AFP)
