Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

On July 4th, Americans celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of hot dogs

Children in costumes march down Main Street during the annual Fourth of July parade in Barnstable Village on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S., July 4, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Americans celebrated their nation’s 242nd anniversary of independence on Wednesday, with concerts, parades and a voracious display of hot dog-eating prowess in New York, as many cities and towns prepared for traditional fireworks displays after sundown.

At the White House, President Donald Trump planned to host a picnic for military families on the South Lawn during the afternoon, a few hours before fireworks were scheduled to light up the National Mall.

Independence Day festivities scheduled for Washington featured a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra on the lawn of the Capitol. “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett, The Temptations, The Beach Boys and Luke Combs will also perform.

The Fourth of July holiday marks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by congressional delegates in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

The document declared the young nation’s independence from Great Britain and advanced the principle “that all men are created equal,” and had “certain unalienable rights” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

More than two centuries later, however, it was the pursuit of hot dogs that defined the holiday at Coney Island on the waterfront of New York’s borough of Brooklyn, where Nathan’s Famous held its 46th annual hot dog-eating contest.

Joey Chestnut once again dominated the competitive eating spectacle. The 34-year-old from San Jose, California, won his 11th “Mustard Belt” by downing an astonishing 74 wieners -topping the record of 72 he set last year.

In the women’s division, Miki Sudo, 32, of Las Vegas, won her fifth title by putting away 37 hot dogs.

Heat and humidity hung over the competition, as well as much of the country. The National Weather Service issued heat advisories for the Plains states eastward to the Mid-Altantic region. Temperatures were expected in the 90s with the humidity making it feel like 105 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (40-43 degrees Celsius).

On a day that features countless patriotic parades nationally, the pro gun control group Moms Demand Action held several marches around the country, including one in Webster Groves, Missouri, where Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill joined them.

“It was hot! But wonderful,” McCaskill said on Twitter.New York is preparing to put on an evening fireworks display that ranks as the country’s largest, according to Macy’s, the retailer that sponsors the annual event.

More than 3 million spectators and 12 million television viewers are expected to watch 75,000 shells illuminate the night sky over the East River to the music of singer Kelly Clarkson.

Bostonians will celebrate with the Boston Pops along the Charles River, joined by pop vocalist Rachel Platten.

Los Angeles is also planning fireworks, as well as a concert and other celebrations at the Hollywood Bowl. Up the coast, San Franciscans can watch fireworks on the bay near the Golden Gate Bridge, if fog does not obscure the show.

In recent years, law enforcement agencies have been on the alert for suspicious activity during the holiday celebrations. Officials said they were taking extra precautions this year, but have not detected any credible security threats.

An Ohio man was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of planning to detonate a bomb at Cleveland’s Fourth of July celebrations.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; editing by Frank McGurty and G Crosse)

Two Britons poisoned with Novichok nerve agent near where Russian spy was struck down

Police officers stand in front of Amesbury Baptist Church, which has been cordoned off after two people were hospitalised and police declared a 'major incident', in Amesbury, Wiltshire, Britain, July 4, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

By Henry Nicholls

AMESBURY, England (Reuters) – Two British citizens were critically ill in hospital on Wednesday after they were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent which struck down a former Russian agent and his daughter in March, Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer said.

The British pair, a 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, were hospitalized after being found unwell on Saturday in Amesbury, just a few miles from Salisbury where ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked in March.

“I have received test results from Porton Down [military research centre] which show that the two people have been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok,” Neil Basu, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, told reporters.

UK counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation, though Basu said it was unclear how the two people came into contact with the nerve agent or whether they had been specifically targetted.

Amesbury is just seven miles (11 km) north of Salisbury, where the Skripals were found slumped unconscious on a bench on March 4.

Police have cordoned off at least five different areas, including a park and a property in Salisbury, and a pharmacy and a Baptist church community centre in Amesbury although health chiefs said the risk to the public was low.

Britain accused Russia of poisoning Skripal with Novichok nerve agent, the first known offensive use of such a chemical weapon on European soil since World War Two.

The attack prompted the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the Cold War as allies in Europe and the United States sided with Prime Minister Theresa May’s view that Moscow was either responsible or had lost control of the nerve agent.

Russia denied any involvement and suggested Britain had carried out the attack to stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

Moscow has hit back by expelling Western diplomats, questioning how Britain knows that Russia was responsible and offering its rival interpretations, including that it amounted to a plot by British secret services.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said the government’s emergency response committee had met to discuss the incident.

Paramedics were called on Saturday morning to a house in Amesbury after the woman collapsed and returned later in the day when the man also fell ill.

The pair, who are being treated at Salisbury District Hospital, were initially believed to have taken heroin or crack cocaine from a contaminated batch but tests showed they had been poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the Soviet military in the Cold War.

“We are not in a position to say whether the nerve agent was from the same batch that the Skripals were exposed to,” Basu said. “The possibility that these two investigations might be linked is clearly a line of enquiry for us.”

The hospital is where the Skripals also spent weeks in a critical condition before slowly recovering and being discharged.

Russia has said it does not possess such nerve agents, did not develop Novichok, and President Vladimir Putin dismissed as nonsense the notion that Moscow would have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Kate Holton in London; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones)

U.S. swelters with brutally hot temps on Fourth of July but relief in sight

FILE PHOTO: People sit in the shade and cool off in a fountain during a summer heat wave in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

By Brendan O’Brien

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – Tens of millions of Americans from the Midwest to the East Coast faced brutally hot temperatures and stifling humidity on the Fourth of July holiday on Wednesday, but forecasters said cooler, drier air is on the way by the weekend.

Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings were in effect through Wednesday night, with heat index values – which combine temperature and humidity – in major U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago expected to reach well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32°C), the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“Relief is on the way, but don’t expect it before Friday night,” said Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“But it will cool off,” Bann said. “Instead of being in the 90s (Fahrenheit), it’ll dip into the mid-80s and with less humidity.”

“There’s a system of cool, dry air scooting across Canada and will dip down into the Midwest, parts of New York and New England by this weekend. And there’s a good chance for showers Friday night for much of the area.”

Until then, the dangerous heat wave will continue to sizzle a large swath of the U.S. Midwest and East Coast.

At least four people have died due to the heat over the last week, including a Pennsylvania woman who died while working in her garden on Saturday and a man who was running a race in New York on Sunday, CNN reported.

For the Fourth of July holiday, Dan Petersen, an NWS meteorologist, warned people celebrating outside to remain in the shade and drink plenty of fluids.

“Anyone outside in locations with expanded areas of heat is going to have to take precautions,” he said. “This is the peak of summer – the hottest time of the year.”

Later this week, a storm front is expected to roll through and cool down the Eastern Seaboard for the weekend, Petersen said. It is likely to provide relief to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia on Friday night before heading down to the Carolinas.

In a reversal of normal patterns, Petersen said, the hot weather will head west, hitting the central United States late in the week before reaching Los Angeles and San Diego on Friday.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Phil Berlowitz)

China issues U.S. travel warning amid trade tensions

FILE PHOTO: The People's Republic of China flag and the U.S. Stars and Stripes fly on a lamp post along Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit, in Washington, D.C.,U.S., January 18, 2011. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s embassy in Washington has issued a security advisory to Chinese nationals traveling to the United States, the latest such warning as trade tensions escalate between the two countries.

The embassy warned Chinese tourists to be aware of issues including expensive medical bills, the threats of public shootings and robberies, searches and seizures by customs agents, telecommunications fraud and natural disasters.

“Public security in the United States is not good. Cases of shootings, robberies, and theft are frequent,” the embassy said in the alert published on Thursday to its website.

“Travellers in the United States should be alert to their surroundings and suspicious individuals, and avoid going out alone at night.”

Aside from an additional warning about the risk of natural disasters, the advisory was similar to one the embassy posted in January.

Tensions are high between the two countries over the threat of tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of additional goods from China on Friday citing unfair Chinese trade practices, and has threatened successive waves of duties on up to $450 billion in Chinese imports.

China has vowed to retaliate in kind with its own tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and other goods and to take more “qualitative” measures if Trump escalates the conflict.

China’s Foreign Ministry, when asked on Tuesday if the timing of the alert was politically motivated, said the summer was the high season for Chinese going to the United States and that Chinese embassies had an obligation to warn citizens about potential risks abroad.

“This kind of reminder from the Chinese embassy in the relevant country, I think this is absolutely a matter that is in the scope of our duty,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing.

There was little mention of the latest embassy alert on Chinese social media.

China frequently issues travel warnings for Chinese abroad, generally in war-afflicted regions.

But some foreign governments have argued that Beijing uses other means, such as curtailing outbound tourism, to settle political or trade scores, though the Chinese government typically denies such issues are linked.

China banned all group tours to South Korea for part of 2017 in the wake of Seoul’s decision to install the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), which has a powerful radar Beijing worries can penetrate Chinese territory.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Greenpeace crashes Superman-shaped drone into French nuclear plant

A Superman-shaped drone crashes into the EDF's Bugey nuclear plant in Bugey, near Lyon, France, July 3, 2018. Greenpeace said it had flown the drone - piloted by one of its activists - into the no-fly zone around utility EDF's Bugey nuclear plant and then crashed it against the wall of the plant's spent-fuel pool building, to demonstrate its vulnerability to outside attacks, the environmental group said. Nicolas Chauveau/Greenpeace/Handout via Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – Greenpeace crashed a Superman-shaped drone into a French nuclear plant on Tuesday to demonstrate its vulnerability to outside attacks, the environmental group said.

Greenpeace said it had flown the drone – piloted by one of its activists – into the no-fly zone around utility EDF’s Bugey nuclear plant, near Lyon, and then crashed it against the wall of the plant’s spent-fuel pool building.

“This action again highlights the extreme vulnerability of this type of buildings, which contain the highest amount of radioactivity in nuclear plants,” Greenpeace said.

France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power in 19 nuclear plants operated by state-controlled EDF.

EDF said that two drones had flown over the Bugey site, of which one had been intercepted by French police.

“The presence of these drones had no impact on the security of the installations,” EDF said, adding that it will file a police complaint.

The drone stunt follows a series of staged break-ins by Greenpeace activists into French nuclear plants, which Greenpeace says are vulnerable to outside attack, especially the spent-fuel pools. These pools can hold the equivalent of several reactor cores, stored in concrete pools outside the highly reinforced reactor building.

Greenpeace says the spent-fuel buildings have not been designed to withstand outside attacks and are the most vulnerable part of French nuclear plants.

“Spent-fuel pools must be turned into bunkers in order to make nuclear plants safer,” said Greenpeace France’s chief nuclear campaigner Yannick Rousselet.

EDF said the spent-fuel pool buildings are robust and designed to withstand natural disasters and accidents.

Greenpeace’s security breaches have sparked a parliament investigation into nuclear security, which is due to present its report on Thursday.

In October, Greenpeace activists broke through two security barriers and launched fireworks over EDF’s Cattenom nuclear plant.

In February, a French court gave several Greenpeace activists suspended jail sentences while ordering the group to pay a fine and 50,000 euros ($58,300) in damages to EDF.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Richard Lough)

Top Supreme Court candidates’ views on abortion under scrutiny

FILE PHOTO: Trees cast shadows outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., June 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan/File Photo

By Andrew Chung

NEW YORK (Reuters) – From the moment Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court last week, speculation has centered on whether his replacement would vote to overturn a woman’s right to abortion.

But the individuals considered top contenders for Kennedy’s seat have produced a sparse record of legal rulings and writings on the subject, which makes it hard to predict how they might rule in abortion-related cases.

President Donald Trump promised during his campaign to appoint “pro-life justices” who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. In recent days, however, the president has said he will not ask candidates about their views on the subject. Trump has said he will announce his nominee on July 9 and that he will make his selection from a list of candidates compiled by conservative legal activists.

On Friday, the president said he had narrowed the field to about five, and sources familiar with the president’s thinking say the top contenders are Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals; Amy Coney Barrett, who was named by Trump to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Thomas Hardiman, who serves on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Raymond Kethledge of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; and Amul Thapar, whom Trump named to the 6th Circuit.

Of that group, Barrett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School before Trump appointed her to the appeals court, has attracted the most attention on abortion.

She has spoken publicly about her conviction that life begins at conception, and in a 2003 law journal article, she argued that courts could be more flexible in overturning prior “errors” in precedent. She noted that courts have struggled over when to keep “an erroneous decision” on the books, citing as an example Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a major 1992 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Roe.

Some progressive groups have pointed to the article as evidence of Barrett’s willingness to overturn Roe. But she has also raised doubts about whether the high court would ever overturn Roe, according to a 2013 article in Notre Dame Magazine.

Her traditional Catholic beliefs became a flashpoint last September during her confirmation hearing in the Senate. “The dogma lives loudly within you,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said to Barrett during the hearing. Barrett told the senators that her faith would not affect her decisions as a judge.

While little is known about Kavanaugh’s personal views on abortion, last October he was part of a panel of judges that issued an unsigned order preventing an illegal immigrant teenager detained by the government from immediately obtaining an abortion. That decision was overturned by the full appeals court a few days later.

Dissenting from that decision, Kavanaugh warned that the court was embracing “a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in U.S. government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.” Litigation over the issue is continuing.

Hardiman joined an opinion in 2010 that overturned the conviction of an anti-abortion protester arrested outside the Liberty Bell Center in Philadelphia. Though the court said park rangers had violated his free speech rights, the case was not about the right to abortion itself.

In April, Hardiman allowed the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns, to intervene in a lawsuit against Trump’s plan to expand employer exemptions from an Obamacare birth control insurance requirement. For years, the organization has been at the forefront in challenging the mandate’s legality. Though the case was not directly about abortion, groups favoring abortion rights worry that Hardiman’s ruling signals his sympathies on the issue.

Democratic politicians and liberal groups have said they assume that all those on Trump’s list of potential candidates would overturn Roe v. Wade, given that Trump has said he will only consider such candidates.

“I take the president at his word,” said Daniel Goldberg, legal director for Alliance For Justice, a liberal legal advocacy group that has researched Trump’s judicial nominees.

Leonard Leo, a conservative legal activist on leave from the Federalist Society, is advising Trump on judicial selections, and he said no one asked the candidates about their views on abortion before they were placed on the list.

“These people weren’t even talked to when they were put on the list,” said Leo. “No one was asked these questions and as far as I know no one has been asked these questions if they were brought into the process in the White House.”

Republicans control the Senate by only a slim majority, making it important for Trump’s nominee to win the support of all Republican members, including moderates.

On Sunday, Republican Senator Susan Collins said on CNN that she would not support a nominee who “demonstrated hostility” to Roe.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Sue Horton)

Thai lucky 13 found, but still stuck as divers draw up cave rescue plans

Boys from an under-16 soccer team and their coach wait to be rescued after they were trapped inside a flooded cave in Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 3, 2018, in this still image taken from a Thai Navy Seal handout video. Thai Navy Seal Facebook/Handout via REUTERS

By Panu Wongcha-um and Patpicha Tanakasempipat

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – Rescuers battled intensifying rain to furiously pump water from a cave in Thailand on Tuesday, as officials thrashed out plans to extract a young soccer team located by divers after being trapped and incommunicado for 10 days.

Seven members of a Thai navy SEALS unit, including a medic and a counselor, were staying with the group after its dramatic discovery on an elevated rock late on Monday by divers who had struggled for hours through narrow passages and murky waters.

News of the survival of the “Wild Boar” team sparked jubilation in a nation gripped by the harrowing drama, with news websites, social media and the prime minister celebrating the event and hailing the rescuers as heroes.

“Thank you all Thais, thank you all foreigners, everybody is a hero and everybody helped each other,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters.

A family member looks at a photo near Tham Luang cave complex, as members of under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive according to a local media's report in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A family member looks at a photo near Tham Luang cave complex, as members of under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive according to a local media’s report in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

A video shot by the rescuers in flickering torchlight 4 km (2.5 miles) from the mouth of the cave in Thailand’s northernmost province showed boys clad in shorts and red and blue shirts sitting or standing on the rock above an expanse of water.

“How many of you are there – 13? Brilliant,” a member of the multinational team tells the boys in English. “You have been here 10 days. You are very strong.”

“Thank you,” responded one of the boys.Aged between 11 and 16, the boys and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23, after they set out to explore the caves in a forest park following a training session.

Aged between 11 and 16, the boys and their 25-year-old coach went missing on June 23, after they set out to explore the caves in a forest park following a training session.

Rear Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, commander of the SEALS unit, said rain was still a challenge but the boys would be taken out safely as soon as sufficient water could be pumped out of the cave.

“But if that doesn’t work, with the seasonal rain, we’ll do it another way,” he told reporters.

“We have Plan ‘A’ and Plan ‘B’, and ultimately, everyone will return to their parents’ embrace.”

The 13 have been given a gel with high calorie and mineral content to sustain them while rescue plans are worked out.

Officials declined to say what plans ‘A’ and ‘B’ were, but said they aimed to bring the boys out the same way they had entered.

Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province, addresses journalists near Tham Luang cave complex, as members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive according to a local media report, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 3, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya

Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province, addresses journalists near Tham Luang cave complex, as members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive according to a local media report, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 3, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

HIGH-PROFILE RESCUE

Options included teaching the group to use smaller diving apparatus and guiding them out of the caves, from which 120 million liters of water had been pumped continuously for 75 hours by Tuesday evening.

The SEALS tried to get phone lines into the cave to allow the boys to speak to parents and families staying at a nearby shelter throughout what could be Thailand’s most high-profile rescue mission.

At the Tham Luang cave complex in Chiang Rai, security personnel turned away scores of people who came to show support, while more journalists joined hundreds of media representatives who have covered the drama blow-by-blow.

Two British divers experienced in cave rescues, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, were first to reach the boys, accompanied by the SEALS divers.

Their search targeted an elevated mound they believed could have provided a refuge, but that was already flooded, so they went 400 meters (1,312 ft) further, and found the team.

News of the discovery sparked jubilation among relatives and rescuers and spread swiftly enough to figure on the front pages of Tuesday’s newspapers.

“Found the 13 ‘Wild Boars’, safe and preparing to come out,” was the headline in the country’s biggest daily, Thai Rath.

Caricatures of smiling volunteers, rescue workers and media spread on social media and messaging platforms, applauding a search mission that involved citizens of Australia, Britain, China, Japan, Myanmar and the United States, among others.

“Take our hearts – thank you,” read one cartoon, while another read “You are our heroes,” followed by “Thank you,” in eight languages.

Thais posted messages of joy and relief on Facebook, showering praise on Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osottanakorn. “Have to applaud this man,” said one, while another asked, “Why not try for prime minister?”

His deputy, Passakorn Bunyalak, dismissed rumors that the mission could last up to four months, but said the boys’ safety was paramount and their extraction should not be rushed.

Sura Jeetwatee, a doctor involved in the operations, said the team survived by staying put and drinking water that dripped from stalactite formations.

SEALS commander Apakorn said the flow of a cave stream had slowed and water once at head level was now at shin level. He said the boys were in relatively good condition.

“The children have been in there for ten days, they have food, doctors – they are doing well,” he said. “There is no rush.”

For a graphic on the lost boys in Thailand cave, click: https://tmsnrt.rs/2MqrPOB

(Additional reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng, Pracha Hariraksapitak, Panarat Thepgumpanat and Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Trump says nuclear talks with North Korea ‘going well’

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un walk together before their working lunch during their summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore June 12, 2018. Picture taken June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that talks with North Korea were “going well” as U.S. officials seek to reach an agreement with Pyongyang over a denuclearization plan following last month’s summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The White House has characterized ongoing meetings as positive but not commented on recent news reports of U.S. intelligence assessments saying North Korea has been expanding its weapons capabilities.

In a Twitter post, Trump said that North Korea has conducted “no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months.”

On Monday, the White House said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would travel to North Korea this week to continue talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

A U.S. delegation met over the weekend with North Korean counterparts at the border between North and South Korea to discuss the next steps to implementing the June 12 summit’s declaration, according to the U.S. State Department.

“Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well!” Trump said in his Twitter post, echoing his sentiments following the historic meeting with Kim in Singapore.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Volcano on Indonesian island of Bali hurls out ash and lava

Mount Agung volcano erupts in Bali, Indonesia, July 2, 2018 photo obtained from social media.

DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) – A volcano on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali erupted late on Monday, hurling lava and ash kilometers into the air and prompting panicked residents to flee their homes. Mount Agung in northeast Bali has been rumbling since late last year and on Friday there was a temporary closure of the island’s international airport, disrupting flights and stranding thousands of travelers.

Mount Agung volcano erupts during the night, as seen from Bugbug village in Karangasem regency in Bali, Indonesia, July 2, 2018. Picture taken July 2, 2018. Andre Ardiansyah/Handout via REUTERS

Mount Agung volcano erupts during the night, as seen from Bugbug village in Karangasem regency in Bali, Indonesia, July 2, 2018. Picture taken July 2, 2018. Andre Ardiansyah/Handout via REUTERS

Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency said residents heard a loud explosion and saw flaming volcanic rocks thrown at least 2 km (1.2 miles) out of the crater. The eruption lasted for about seven minutes and photographs posted by the agency showed glowing lava streaming from the crater, setting fire to vegetation. “Residents have started evacuating voluntarily,” said Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the agency, adding the airport remained operational and there was no change in the volcano’s alert status.The last time Agung staged a major eruption was in 1963, when more than 1,000 people died and several villages on its slopes were razed.

The airport on Bali reopened on Friday after ash had forced a brief closure and the cancellation of more than 300 flights.

(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Ed Davies and Andrew Roche)

Hundreds of homes imperiled as Northern California fire spreads

Smoke rises in distance from County Fire near County Road 63 and Highway 16 in Rumsey Canyon in this #CountyFire image on social media in Brooks, California, U.S., July 2, 2018. Courtesy California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection/Handout via REUTERS

By Dan Whitcomb and Keith Coffman

(Reuters) – A wildfire in Northern California continued to spread on Tuesday, as firefighters battled the blaze that threatened hundreds of homes and other structures, sending thick black smoke across the San Francisco Bay Area.

The County Fire, which broke out on Saturday afternoon in rural Yolo County, west of Sacramento, blackened more than 70,000 acres (28,800 hectares) of grass, brush and dense scrub oak. That was 17 percent more than the 60,000 acres (24,280 hectares) it had burned as of late Monday.

The United States is in the midst of a more-active-than-usual fire season, with the risk significantly above normal for many western states, according to federal forecasters.

The County Fire was only 5 percent contained early on Tuesday, with more than 2,100 fire personnel battling the flames, the California Fire authority said.

The blaze threatened about 700 homes, a local NBC affiliate reported on Monday, as authorities issued evacuation orders and advisories to hundreds of residents.

The job of hand crews and bulldozer operators trying to cut containment lines was made more difficult by high winds, which were blowing embers and starting new spot fires, Scott McLean of the California Department of Forestry and Fire protection said on Monday.

“The potential for growth remains high as crews battle the fire in difficult terrain,” Cal Fire said in an advisory.

The smoke reached about 75 miles (120 km) south to San Francisco, leaving a film of ash on cars and windows. No casualties have been reported.

Wildfires have burned through nearly 2.5 million acres in the United States from Jan. 1 through Monday, well above an average of about 2.3 million for the same calendar period over the last 10 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Western Colorado, where six major wildfires have charred more than 100,000 acres, along with much of Utah and Eastern Nevada were under a Red Flag warning on Tuesday when wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour, extremely low humidity levels and hot temperatures were expected, the National Weather Service said.

The largest blaze, the Spring Fire in southern Colorado, has burned nearly 61,000 acres, destroyed at least 104 homes and forced the evacuations of hundreds of residents, officials said.

That fire, caused by humans, was just 5 percent contained, according to InciWeb, a federal government wildfire website.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and Makini Brice in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum)