AGUEDA, Portugal: Portugal’s firefighters have mastered most of the deadly forest fires in the north of the country, according to official data Thursday.
And improving weather conditions have raised hopes that they could extinguish the last of the blazes by the end of the day.
The wildfires, which sprang up over the weekend fed by crushing heat and strong winds, have killed five people, four of them firefighters. Another 77 people were injured, 12 of them seriously.
By late morning on Thursday the civil protection service website said 1,200 firefighters were battling the six remaining fires in the northern districts of Aveiro and Viseu.
A day earlier, 3,900 firefighters were tackling 42 active fires, supported by more than a thousand vehicles and around 30 aircraft.
But overnight, the teams brought several blazes in villages in the Aveiro region covering a front of around 100 kilometers (60 miles) under control.
Temperatures have dropped since the weekend and rain is forecast for Friday.
But there has been extensive damage in the north and center of the country, much of it to the eucalyptus groves there.
One estimate issued Wednesday by the Copernicus observatory said at least 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of vegetation had been destroyed.
And data from the European Forest Fires Information System (Effis) said the total area hit by the recent fires came to 100,000 hectares: 10 times more than the area burnt since the beginning of summer.
Dozens of houses were also destroyed or damaged.

The Taliban administration is in control of 39 Afghan embassies and consulates globally three years after it took over Afghanistan and the previous Western-backed government collapsed, the acting foreign ministry said on Thursday.

No international government has formally recognized the Taliban administration, though China and the United Arab Emirates have officially accepted its ambassadors in their capitals.

Many governments, especially Western nations including the United States, have said the path to any formal recognition of the Taliban will be stuck until they change course on women’s rights and re-open high schools and universities to girls and women and allow their full freedom of movement.

The Taliban say they respect rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and that restrictions on its banking sector and a lack of recognition are hindering its economy.

After the collapse of Afghanistan’s republic government in 2021, foreign embassies were thrown into disarray with many issuing documents such as visas and passports that in some cases the Taliban have said should not be recognized.

The Taliban has appointed its own diplomats to head several embassies, including ambassadors accepted in Abu Dhabi and Beijing and a charge d’affaires in neighboring Pakistan. At some missions, diplomats appointed under the previous government work with Taliban authorities.

“Thirty-nine embassies and diplomatic affairs obey the central authority, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said the Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at a press conference in Kabul.

He added that his ministry had sent dozens of diplomats to 11 countries in the past year, including Turkiye, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.

Muttaqi said Afghanistan would send a new ambassador to Uzbekistan this week and expected Russia to remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations “soon.”

In July, the Taliban said it was cutting ties with at least 14 Afghan diplomatic missions, adding it would not honor passports and visas issued by those embassies, mostly based in Europe. 
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Fatimah Amjad
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Editors Pakistan
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OnlinePK
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Taliban in control of 39 Afghan embassies globally

REUTERS

The Taliban administration is in control of 39 Afghan embassies and consulates globally three years after it took over Afghanistan and the previous Western-backed government collapsed, the acting foreign ministry said on Thursday.

No international government has formally recognized the Taliban administration, though China and the United Arab Emirates have officially accepted its ambassadors in their capitals.

Many governments, especially Western nations including the United States, have said the path to any formal recognition of the Taliban will be stuck until they change course on women’s rights and re-open high schools and universities to girls and women and allow their full freedom of movement.

The Taliban say they respect rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and that restrictions on its banking sector and a lack of recognition are hindering its economy.

After the collapse of Afghanistan’s republic government in 2021, foreign embassies were thrown into disarray with many issuing documents such as visas and passports that in some cases the Taliban have said should not be recognized.

The Taliban has appointed its own diplomats to head several embassies, including ambassadors accepted in Abu Dhabi and Beijing and a charge d’affaires in neighboring Pakistan. At some missions, diplomats appointed under the previous government work with Taliban authorities.

“Thirty-nine embassies and diplomatic affairs obey the central authority, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said the Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi at a press conference in Kabul.

He added that his ministry had sent dozens of diplomats to 11 countries in the past year, including Turkiye, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.

Muttaqi said Afghanistan would send a new ambassador to Uzbekistan this week and expected Russia to remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations “soon.”

In July, the Taliban said it was cutting ties with at least 14 Afghan diplomatic missions, adding it would not honor passports and visas issued by those embassies, mostly based in Europe.