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Lightning strikes in Greece start fires, kill cattle amid dangerous heat wave
Lightning strikes in northern Greece killed cattle and started fires during a dayslong heat wave affecting most of southern Europe.
Several fires were reported near the city of Kozani, 280 miles north of Athens following a dry thunderstorm in the area, authorities said Saturday.
Further north, near the Greek town of Florina, officials from a public agricultural insurance organization said lightning strikes killed nine cows at a cattle farm. Several other animals were injured.
Cattle farm owner Alexandros Tsikos told The Associated Press that he found the animals dead in a grazing area next to the cattle barn.
Temperatures eased slightly Saturday but remained as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the country, while the risk of wildfires was very high outside Athens and in much of southern Greece.
It’s not the first time dangerous heat has impacted the Mediterranean nation this summer. Three tourists visiting Greece died amid extreme temperatures and heat waves in June, CBS News previously reported, including an American man from New York.
Temperatures peaked at around 109 degrees, prompting closures of schools, historical sites and more. Meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos told Greek state television channel ERT that it’s the earliest such heat wave.
“This heat wave will go down in history. In the 20th century, we never had a heat wave before 19 June. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before 15 June,” Giannopoulos said.
Extreme heat has been a crisis worldwide. More than 1,300 people making the pilgrimage to the Hajj in Saudi Arabia died as temperatures in the Middle Eastern country reached over 120 degrees. In India, temperatures were consistently above 110 degrees, and at least 100 heat-related deaths have been recorded, CBS News previously reported. Similar conditions were reported across Asia. Like in Greece, the high temperatures came earlier than they typically do. The temperatures were also exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Across the United States, heat waves have roasted the nation this summer, causing transit issues, illnesses and more. Las Vegas saw temperatures of over 115 degrees for nearly a week straight in July, and much of the Southwest has experienced dangerously high temperatures. California’s famous Death Valley reached 129 degrees.
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The Pentagon freed two prisoners Wednesday from Guantánamo Bay, marking the second and third releases this week from the notorious wartime detention camp.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep were repatriated to Malaysia, where both are nationals, according to the United States Department of Defense. The men had been held by the U.S. since 2003 and imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay since 2006, for their ties to al Qaeda and an Indonesian extremist group called Jemaah Islamiyah.
The repatriation of Amin and Lep came as part of a plea deal and an agreement with the government of Malaysia, Defense officials said. Each pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to various war crimes, including murder, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, conspiracy and destruction of property. They also provided deposition testimony that can be used against a different prisoner, Encep Nurjaman, who is believed to be the “mastermind” responsible for al Qaeda attacks in Bali and Jakarta between 2002 and 2003.
Their conditions for release from Guantánamo Bay call for an additional five-year period of confinement for each prisoner, to be served either in the country where they are repatriated or a third-party sovereign nation.
Amin and Lep’s releases were announced one day after the Pentagon said another prisoner, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, was freed from incarceration at Guantánamo Bay and repatriated to Kenya. Detained by the U.S. for 18 years without criminal charges, Bajabu was the first prisoner freed from the camp in roughly a year. U.S. defense officials said a review board determined in December 2021 that detaining Bajabu “was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.” The board recommended with that determination that Bajabu be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Defense Department said in statements on the releases of all three prisoners.
The latest repatriation efforts leave 27 prisoners still detained at Guantánamo Bay. Of them, 15 are eligible for transfer, three are eligible for evaluation by the review board, and seven are being tried through the military commissions process. Only the final two prisoners have been convicted and sentenced by military commissions, according to the Pentagon.