Australia is expected to face up to AU$5 billion (US$3.5 billion) in losses as fires continue to rage across the continent, according to an Australian Westpac bank forecast. The natural disaster could also cut 0.2 to 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP, the bank said in its preliminary analysis released on Monday. The tourism and agricultural sectors have been hit hardest, while the most severely affected... 

Australians still in the path of forest fires 140 kilometres west of Sydney were told on Saturday it was too late to be evacuated and they should take whatever shelter they could find. Lithgow, at the foot of the Blue Mountains in the south-eastern region, had lost nearly 200 homes in the firestorm that swept through Thursday. The blaze is the latest of dozens in an emergency that Rural Fire Service... 

Wildfire flames are seen near Altemporada on July 22, 2012. The wind-fueled wildfire raged out of control in northeastern Spain. While raging wildfire in Spain’s Canary Islands of La Gomera has forced hundreds of residents to leave their homes, a separate forest fire leaves two people dead in the east of the country. According to authorities, at least one firefighter and an environmental agent lost...