EUROPE: Forest fires burned across Europe yesterday, with the death toll from blazes in Portugal reaching 11 amid a heatwave gripping the continent.
The high temperatures strained power supplies in Italy. In Amsterdam zoo, chimpanzees were getting iced fruit to stay cool. Penguins at London zoo savoured fish-flavoured ice lollies as humans and animals alike tried to keep cool.
The heat has fanned forest fires from Poland to the Iberian Peninsula, with Portugal's fires so extensive they can be seen in satellite photos.
Portugal's Lusa news agency said the bodies of an 62-year-old man and an elderly woman were found near Oleiros, a town about 170 km northeast of Lisbon and near the centre of the fires. The man had signs of smoke poisoning and the woman was burned.
The deaths raise the number killed to 11 since the latest spate of fires started at the beginning of last week.
In Spain and Germany, 12 people have died in the heatwave. Portugal declared a national disaster on Monday because of the fires.
Some 3,400 firefighters and soldiers worked through the night to take advantage of a drop in temperatures, a spokesman for Portugal's National Rescue Operations Centre said.
"Weather conditions were favourable last night and we managed to put some fires out," he said. But daytime temperatures nearing 40 degrees and a wind coming from the east could hinder firefighting efforts, the spokesman added.
The Portuguese weather service has said Europe's hot spell was caused by a mass of hot, dry air moving from the southeast.
Forecasters expect today to be the hottest day of the year in Britain, with temperatures reaching up to 36 degrees.
Rail operators are imposing speed restrictions, fearing lines will buckle in the heat.
Frozen water mixed with fish, fruits or herbs were given to tigers, bears and monkeys at London zoo, while children's sunscreen lotion was lathered on pigs at Newquay zoo in Devon as temperatures topped 34 degrees.
Amsterdam zoo was giving its chimpanzees iced fruit and spraying ostriches with cold water to keep them cool as temperatures in the Dutch capital edged towards 30 degrees, Dutch news agency ANP reported.
Temperatures in Germany were expected to reach 38, close to the record of 40.2 degrees set in 1983.
In Poland, fire crews battled 35 forest fires on Monday and about a quarter of its woodlands were at serious risk of fire after temperatures topped 30 C for much of July, authorities said.