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Lung-busting: Around 700 runners took part in the race

Hundreds of runners braved a lung-busting ascent into the Alps in Switzerland’s Glacier 3000 Run on Saturday, albeit on a shortened course due to summer heatwaves melting the ice.

The event’s 14th edition was back without limitations after being cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19 and run in 2021 with restrictions imposed due to the pandemic.

The race is normally run over 26.2 kilometres but was contested on a slightly modified 25.2km course this year due to the glacier melting, with the last pass over its surface shortened.

“The accelerated melting of the top layer of the glacier has created an camber and a soft layer which the runner sinks into,” said race director Oliver Hermann.

“Rather than intervening to flatten the track, we preferred to deviate the course.”

The finish line is 1,886 metres higher than the start, at nearly 3,000 metres up in the mountains by the Scex Rouge peak.

The route begins in the jet set ski resort town of Gstaad, at 1,050 metres above sea level.

It passes through forests, green mountain pastures before heading into rocky lunar-like landscapes and taking in the Tsanfleuron Glacier.

The course follows the Saane river upstream for 15 km before climbing up 1,800 metres over the remaining 10 km to the finish line — at an altitude of 2,936 metres.

Some 311 men and 98 women completed the individual course, while 50 two-person teams also took part.

The first man to finish was Kenyan competitor Geoffrey Ndungu in two hours and 17 minutes. He had finished in second place last year.

He was followed by compatriot Abraham Ebenyo Ekwam in 2:21 and then Switzerland’s Jonathan Schmid in 2:23.

Victoria Kreuzer was the first woman to finish, in 2:46, ahead of Nicole Schindler and Pascale Rebsamen — a Swiss clean sweep.

The beluga is only the second one who has been recorded seen in a French river since 1948

French authorities were preparing Saturday to give vitamins to a beluga whale that swam way up the Seine river, as they raced to save the malnourished creature, which has so far refused food.

The visibly underweight whale was first spotted Tuesday in the river that flows through Paris to the English Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to around 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

“It’s quite emaciated and seems to be having trouble eating,” Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, a senior police official in the Eure department in Normandy, which is overseeing the rescue operation, told journalists.

Rescuers had tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, but it did not seem to accept either, she said.

It is hoped that injecting the animal with vitamins will stimulate its appetite, she said.

Authorities were deciding whether to keep the animal in the waterway so it could regain its appetite or guide it back toward the sea, she said, adding that no decision has yet been taken.

She said that small spots had appeared on its pale skin, but that scientists hadn’t yet determined whether these were a natural occurrence because of the fresh water or signs of health difficulties.

On Friday, Gerard Mauger of the GECC marine conversation society told AFP that despite being a notably sociable mammal, “it is behaving the same as yesterday, it seems very skittish. It rises to the surface only briefly, followed by long dives.” 

Based on sonar recordings, it was also emitting very few of the chirps and quicks the whales are known for, raising further concerns about the animal’s health.

Mauger appealed to the public to stay away from the animal.

“Even trying to approach it with a lot of precautions, it’s difficult,” he said.

– Rare sighting –

Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

An adult can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length.

It is only the second recorded sighting of a beluga in a French river since 1948, when a fisherman in the estuary of the Loire river found one in his nets.

The sighting comes just a few months after a killer whale — also known as an orca, but technically part of the dolphin family — became stranded in the Seine and was later found dead between Le Havre and Rouen in late May.

An autopsy found that the animal, more than four metres long, had likely suffered exhaustion after being unable to feed, though officials said they had also discovered a bullet lodged in the base of its skull — though it was far from clear that the wound played a role in its death.

burs/jj/ah

Intense and rare rainfall in California's famous Death Valley caused major flooding

Hours after rare and intense flooding hit California’s Death Valley, closing roads and stranding some 1,000 people, waters were receding Saturday and police escorted many of those trapped to safety.

After “unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused substantial flooding” in the famously parched park, around 60 cars were bogged down under mounds of debris, the National Park Service (NPS) said.

“Aerial searches are underway to ensure that there are no stranded vehicles in remote areas,” the Death Valley National Park said on its website Saturday.

“Hard work from road crews allowed visitors who were previously unable to leave the area hotels to be able to carefully drive out with law enforcement escorts,” the park said.

“At this time, there are no reported stranded visitors on park roadways and no reported injuries.”

Earlier, the NPS said that about 500 visitors and 500 staff had been “unable to exit the park,” which is in the Mojave Desert, straddling the California-Nevada border.

Death Valley, with its vast sand dunes, scorching salt flats and endless badlands, is the largest national park in the 48 lower states. 

It is the hottest and, normally, the driest of the national parks.

But the recent floodwaters tore up sections of paved roads, pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, and flooded offices and hotels.

“With over 1,000 miles of roadway in the park, and 3.4 million acres,” the NPS said, “it will take time to get a full assessment of the damage.”

The park service said that all roads serving the park will remain off-limits for now. 

Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds added that “with the severity and widespread nature of this rainfall it will take time to rebuild and reopen everything.”

A total of 1.46 inches (3.7 centimeters) of rain fell in the park’s Furnace Creek area, almost tying the previous daily record of 1.47 inches. The average annual rainfall is less than two inches a year.

According to UN climate experts, even if the world manages to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, some regions will experience increasingly intense and frequent rainfall.

The beluga is only the second one who has been recorded seen in a French river since 1948

French authorities were planning on Saturday to give vitamins to a beluga whale that swam way up the Seine river, as they raced to  save the malnourished cetacean refusing food.

The apparently underweight whale was first spotted Tuesday in the river that flows through Paris to the English Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to around 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

“It’s quite emaciated and seems to be having trouble eating,” Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, a senior police official in the Eure department in Normandy, which is overseeing the rescue operation, told a press conference.

Rescuers had tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, but it didn’t seem to accept either, she said.

It is hoped that injecting the animal with vitamins will stimulate its appetite, she said.

Authorities were deciding whether to keep the animal in the waterway so it could regain its appetite or guide it back toward the sea, she said, adding that no decision has yet been taken.

She said that small spots had appeared on its pale skin, but that scientists hadn’t yet determined whether these were a natural occurrence because of the fresh water or signs of health difficulties.

On Friday, Gerard Mauger of the GECC marine conversation society told AFP that despite being a notably sociable mammal, “it is behaving the same as yesterday, it seems very skittish. It rises to the surface only briefly, followed by long dives.” 

Based on sonar recordings, it was also emitting very few of the chirps and quicks the whales are known for, raising further concerns about the animal’s health.

– Rare sighting –

Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

An adult can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length.

It is only the second recorded sighting of a beluga in a French river since 1948, when a fisherman in the estuary of the Loire river found one in his nets.

The sighting comes just a few months after a killer whale — also known as an orca, but technically part of the dolphin family — became stranded in the Seine and was later found dead between Le Havre and Rouen in late May.

An autopsy found that the animal, more than four metres long, had likely suffered exhaustion after being unable to feed, though officials said they had also discovered a bullet lodged in the base of its skull — though it was far from clear that the wound played a role in its death.

burs/yad/bp

The beluga is only the second one who has been recorded seen in a French river since 1948

French authorities were planning on Saturday to give vitamins to a beluga whale that swam way up the Seine river, as they raced to  save the malnourished cetacean refusing food.

The apparently underweight whale was first spotted Tuesday in the river that flows through Paris to the English Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to around 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

“It’s quite emaciated and seems to be having trouble eating,” Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, a senior police official in the Eure department in Normandy, which is overseeing the rescue operation, told a press conference.

Rescuers had tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, but it didn’t seem to accept either, she said.

It is hoped that injecting the animal with vitamins will stimulate its appetite, she said.

Authorities were deciding whether to keep the animal in the waterway so it could regain its appetite or guide it back toward the sea, she said, adding that no decision has yet been taken.

She said that small spots had appeared on its pale skin, but that scientists hadn’t yet determined whether these were a natural occurrence because of the fresh water or signs of health difficulties.

On Friday, Gerard Mauger of the GECC marine conversation society told AFP that despite being a notably sociable mammal, “it is behaving the same as yesterday, it seems very skittish. It rises to the surface only briefly, followed by long dives.” 

Based based on sonar recordings, it was also emitting very few of the chirps and quicks the whales are known for, raising further concerns about the animal’s health.

– Rare sighting –

Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

An adult can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length.

It is only the second recorded sighting of a beluga in a French river since 1948, when a fisherman in the estuary of the Loire river found one in his nets.

The sighting comes just a few months after a killer whale — also known as an orca, but technically part of the dolphin family — became stranded in the Seine and was later found dead between Le Havre and Rouen in late May.

An autopsy found that the animal, more than four metres long, had likely suffered exhaustion after being unable to feed, though officials said they had also discovered a bullet lodged in the base of its skull — though it was far from clear that the wound played a role in its death.

burs/yad/bp

Black smoke from a burning oil tank is seen from a street in Matanzas, Cuba, on August 6, 2022

A fire at a fuel depot in western Cuba sparked by a lightning strike has injured more than 60 people, three of them critically, officials said Saturday.

The official newspaper Granma attributed the fire, which began Friday evening, to an “electric discharge” that struck a tank at the depot outside the city of Matanzas, 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Havana.

The fire spread early Saturday from one fuel tank to a second, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the sky.

The Faustino Perez provincial hospital reported that 67 people had been injured, with 15 in serious or very serious condition.

And the Cuban presidency said 17 others, primarily firefighters, are listed as missing. And some 800 people had been evacuated from the area, according to regional officials.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero were supervising rescue efforts.

Upon hearing a first explosion, Yuney Hernandez and her family left their home just two kilometers from the depot, the 32-year-old mother told AFP. They returned a few hours later. 

But then around 5am Saturday (0900 GMT) they heard more explosions, “like pieces of the tank were falling,” she said.

The journal Granma quoted a senior official of state-owned Cubapetroleo as saying that the fire was due to “a fault in the lightning-rod system, which could not withstand the energy from the electrical discharge.”  

The depot supplies the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, but service to the plant has not stopped, the official said.

The fire occurred at a time when the island — with an outdated energy network and persistent fuel shortages — has faced mounting difficulties in meeting increased energy demands amid severe summer heat. 

Since May, the authorities have imposed energy blackouts of up to 12 hours a day in some regions — sparking at least 20 protests across the island’s interior. 

Near Verin toiwn, by the border with Portugal, Galicia authorities were managing to contain a fire that is suspected to have been arson

Spanish firefighters on Saturday struggled to contain wildfires that have ravaged large tracts in the northwest, as a third summer heat wave grips the country.

Firefighters were battling six blazes in Galicia that have scorched nearly 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres).

Some 700 people have been evacuated from the area around Boiro, where a blaze broke out on Thursday, according to regional officials.

But no casualties have been reported so far. 

“The situation remains complicated. Helicopters are not enough to control all of the homes,” the mayor of neighbouring A Pobra do Caraminal, Xose Lois Pinero, wrote on Facebook. 

Near the town of Verin, by the border with Portugal, authorities were managing to contain a fire that started Wednesday and is suspected to have been arson, Galicia government said.

Temperatures hit a 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.62 Fahrenheit) high on Thursday, according to the national weather agency. They have eased since, but were expected to remain around 35C across much of the country on Saturday.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events including heatwaves and droughts more frequent and more intense. They in turn increase the risk of fires, which emit climate heating greenhouse gases.

Spain has faced 366 wildfires since the start of the year, fuelled by scorching temperatures and drought conditions.

The flames have destroyed more than 233,000 hectares, more than in any other nation in Europe, according to the European Union’s satellite monitoring service EFFIS.

Firefighters battled for eight days to keep the blaze away from Dadia's nesting grounds

Days after one of Greece’s top national parks narrowly escaped massive destruction from a massive fire that raged for over a week, the country’s environment ministry congratulated itself.

Among Greece’s underfunded and understaffed habitats, the Dadia national park is — on paper — one of Greece’s best protected areas as one of Europe’s most important breeding grounds for vultures and other birds of prey.

“Respect and protection of the environment was and remains a fundamental pledge of our government,” environment minister Costas Skrekas said in a statement on Tuesday.

But many Greek environmental groups differ.

Spyros Psaroudas, director of the Callisto wildlife group, says there is a “chronic failure” in Greece’s nature protection, adding that the present government seeks to create a business-friendly environment at the expense of wildlife.

“There is a lack of coordination among ministries and of a clear assignment of responsibilities…all this leads to illegal activities that are never punished,” adds Nadia Andreanidou, policy officer for the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles (Medasset).

“It is a vicious circle and it leads to poor management of the protected areas,” she told AFP.

Forestry engineer Dimitris Vasilakis, who helped draw up Dadia’s operational plan, says the park has just four rangers to patrol 800 square kilometres (308 square miles).

The local forest service in Soufli that supervises Dadia annually receives less than 50,000 euros from the state, a fifth of what it’s supposed to, Vasilakis said.

Over 300 firefighters battled for eight days last month to keep the blaze away from the Dadia nesting grounds at the heart of the park.

On Tuesday, the environment ministry said the July 21 fire had destroyed just over 2,200 hectares (54.6 acres) of forest at Dadia. 

Early estimates suggest predator nesting grounds were largely unaffected.

The incident has put a spotlight on Greece’s long and troubled history of environmental protection.

Even as the park burned two weeks ago, the government tried to push through parliament new legislation which nearly a dozen NGOs said further weakened protective restrictions in Greece’s national parks.

On the seventh day of the fire, the legislation was unexpectedly withdrawn by the government for “further consultation”.

The planned draft law would have permitted additional activities in protected areas, including roads, tourism sites and electricity and telecoms storage facilities. 

– Legal vacuum –

Greece has been repeatedly referred to the European court of justice over its failure to protect its natural habitats.

The court rapped Athens on the issue in December 2020, noting that the country by its own admission had created safeguards for less than 20 percent of over 240 protected areas.

A key omission, environmental groups say, is the absence of legal safeguards and regulations governing Greece’s share of the Natura 2000 network — core European breeding and resting sites for rare and threatened species that are protected under EU law.

Charikleia Minotou, head of the Zakynthos programme for the protection of loggerhead turtles run by the Greek chapter of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), says there are “hundreds” of complaints and fines against illegal development that authorities fail to follow up.

And in 2018, when a presidential decree was issued to protect the gulf of Kyparissia on the Ionian Sea — a key habitat for loggerhead turtles and deep-sea whales — it was challenged by three town councils, two tourism companies and scores of local residents.

– Focus on energy –

The emphasis of the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is on hydrocarbon exploration, says Minotou.

Even before the Russian attack on Ukraine in February sparked energy shortage fears across Europe, Greece had earmarked exploration sites in the Ionian Sea.  

In February, several Cuvier’s beaked whales washed up on coasts during seismic research in the Ionian. The state hydrocarbon management agency denied this was caused by its activities.

In the few instances where new legislation is introduced, the results often pose a threat to conservation, Greek environment groups say.

In 2020, Greece formed a new national body to manage its parks, the Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency (Necca). In the process, 36 park management bodies were merged into a new group of 24.

However, environment groups note that the new body has crucially excluded NGOs and local authorities and citizens’ associations from park governing boards.

“We need national parks where local society participates and is represented democratically,” says Psaroudas from the Callisto wildlife group.

Intense and rare rainfall in California's famous Death Valley caused major flooding

Major flooding in California’s Death Valley on  Friday stranded approximately 1,000 people, buried cars and shut down all roads into and out of the famously parched national park.

No injuries were reported, according to the National Park Service, but around 60 cars were bogged down under several feet of debris.

“Unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused substantial flooding,” the National Park Service said in a statement, adding that “there are approximately 500 visitors and 500 staff currently unable to exit the park,” which is in Eastern California’s Mojave Desert.

The floodwaters tore up sections of paved roads and pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, causing the vehicles to collide. The rain also flooded offices and hotels, the park said.

The park service added that all roads serving the park will remain off-limits until officials can determine the extent of the damage. 

A total of 1.46 inches (3.7 centimeters) of rain fell in the park’s Furnace Creek area, almost tying the previous daily record of 1.47 inches. The average annual rainfall is less than two inches a year.

Higher temperatures caused by climate change mean the atmosphere holds more moisture, unleashing more rain.

According to UN climate experts, even if the world manages to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, some regions will experience an increase in frequency, intensity and quantity of heavy rainfall.

The risk of heavy precipitation episodes increases with temperature rise.

A Pakistan zoo is auctioning off a dozen of its 29 lions to private buyers to free up space

A Pakistan zoo is auctioning off a dozen lions to private collectors next week to free up space for a pride that won’t stop growing.

Lahore Safari Zoo now has so many big cats that their lions and tigers have to take it in turns to access the paddocks, said Tanvir Ahmed Janjua, the zoo’s deputy director.

“Not only will we free up more space here, but our expenses for meat to feed them will also decrease,” he told AFP.

The zoo is currently home to 29 lions, and officials plan an auction on August 11 to sell 12 of them, aged between two and five years old.

There are also six resident tigers and two jaguars.

Conservationists are opposed to the sale, with the environmental group WWF saying the creatures should be moved to other established zoos, or breeding females sterilised or given contraceptives.

“Animal exchanges and donations between zoos are a widely accepted practice,” the organisation’s Uzma Khan told AFP.

“Once an institution such as a zoo places a price tag on a wildlife species it is promoting trade — which is counterproductive to conservation,” she added.

Keeping lions, tigers and other exotic wildlife as pets is not uncommon in Pakistan, and is seen as a status symbol.

Wealthy owners post images and video clips of their big cats on social media, and rent them out as props for movies and photoshoots.

Zoo officials have set a reserve of 150,000 Pakistan rupees ($700) per cat, but hope each will fetch around two million rupees.

Not just anyone can take part in the auction, however.

Janjua said buyers will have to be registered with provincial authorities and show they have the means to provide proper care and shelter for the creatures.

Zoo veterinary officer Muhammad Rizwan Khan told AFP an initial attempt last year to auction lions fell through as potential buyers lacked the necessary documentation or licences.

Nouman Hassan, who fell foul of authorities in the past when he was filmed walking his pet tiger on a leash in Lahore, plans to take part.

“I will try to buy two to three lions for sure,” he told AFP, adding the auction was a good way to diversify the gene pool for private collectors who already owned a big cat.

With little legislation to safeguard animal welfare, zoos across Pakistan are notorious for their poor facilities, but the Lahore Safari Zoo is considered one of the best, set over 200 acres.

In April 2020 a court ordered the only zoo in the country’s capital to shut after poor facilities and mistreatment of the animals there were revealed.

The facility had drawn international condemnation for its treatment of an Asian elephant named Kaavan, who was later airlifted to retirement in Cambodia in a jumbo project spearheaded by US popstar and actress Cher. 

Veterinarian Khan said the animals at Lahore Safari Zoo were being given the best possible care — something reflected in their fecundity.

“They are experiencing a good life in captivity with us,” he said.