World

Four dead and dozens stranded after torrents hit eastern Romania

Published

1 year ago

September 14, 2024

Four dead and dozens stranded after torrents hit eastern Romania

Rescue services also rushed to save 95 people in the hard-hit eastern counties of Galati and Vaslui.

Four people were killed in floods in eastern Romania as rainstorms left scores stranded, emergency authorities reported on Saturday.

Rescue services worked urgently to save 95 people in the heavily affected eastern counties of Galati and Vaslui.

The bodies of the four who died were discovered in the localities of Pechea, Draguseni, Costache Negri, and Corod, according to the Department for Emergency Situations, which did not provide details on how exactly they died. A fifth body that was found was determined not to have been killed by the flooding.

Emergency authorities released video footage showing a team of rescuers evacuating an elderly man on a small lifeboat before carrying him to safety.

The storms battered 19 localities across eight counties in Romania, with strong winds downing dozens of trees that damaged cars and blocked roads. Authorities sent text message alerts to residents, warning them of the adverse weather as emergency services rushed to remove floodwaters from homes. Some roads have also been closed.

Romania’s environment minister Mircea Fechet told The Associated Press Saturday that, in some of the badly flooded areas, more than 160 liters of rain fell per square meter which he said is a rare occurrence. “What we are trying to do right now is save as many lives as possible,” the minister, who was on his way to Galati to assess the situation, added.

Local media posted videos on X showing the extent of the flooding in Pechea county.

Meanwhile, other central European countries are bracing for severe flooding, which is forecast to hit Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany over the weekend.

Czechs prepare for ‘worst case scenarios’

Czech authorities erected metal barriers or protective walls from sandbags, while water was released from dams to make space in reservoirs.

Residents have been warned to get ready for possible evacuations.

“We are currently making preparations for a possible rise in the water level of the local river, so this is a precautionary measure. As in most places,” said Aleš Chovanec, Deputy Commander of the Holasice Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Some public events planned for the weekend have been cancelled at the request of authorities, including football matches in the top two leagues.

“We have to be ready for the worst case scenarios,: Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after a meeting of his government’s central crisis committee. “A tough weekend is ahead of us.”

Meteorologists say a low pressure system from northern Italy was predicted to dump much rainfall in most parts of the Czech Republic including the capital and border regions with Austria and Germany in the south, and Poland in the north.

Central Europeans are especially wary because some experts have compared the weekend forecast to devastating floods in 1997 in the region, referred to by some as’ the flood of the century.’

Over 100 people were killed in the floods 27 years ago, including 50 in the eastern Czech Republic where large sections of land was inundated.

The biggest rainfall was predicted in the eastern half of the country, particularly in the Jeseniky mountains. The second largest city of Brno, located in eastern Czech Republic, is among places that have not had flooding protection work completed, unlike Prague.

Czechs were asked not to go to parks and woods as high winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour were forecast.

Poland and Austria also prepare for flooding

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk travelled to the southwestern city of Wrocław where floods are forecast.

Authorities there have appealed to residents to stock up on food and to prepare for power outages by charging power banks.

Tusk, meeting with firefighters and other emergency officials, said the forecasts were “not excessively alarming.”

“There is no reason to panic, but there is a reason to be fully mobilised,” he stressed.

The German Weather Service warned of heavy precipitation across swaths of the country, including the Alps, where heavy snowfall and strong winds are expected at higher altitudes.

The Alpine nation of Austria is also getting ready for heavy rains, and a massive cold front that is expected to bring snow to higher elevations.

“I think that we have learnt a lot from the floods of 2002 and 2013. We have of course also made all the necessary investments. I’m thinking of flood protection, where numerous projects have been implemented and of course also in the whole area of data analysis,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the regional governor of Lower Austria.

The change in weather has come following a hot start to September in the region.

Scientists recorded Earth’s hottest summer on record, breaking a record set just one year ago.

And a hotter atmosphere, driven by climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

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World

Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

Published

7 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

A team of marine mammal experts had spent several days in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, searching for a sea lion with an orange rope wrapped around its neck. As the sun set on Dec. 8, they were packing up, for good, when a call came in.

The tangled animal, a female Steller sea lion weighing 330 pounds, had been spotted on a dock in front of an inn, leading into the bay in southwestern Canada.

The rope was wrenched four times around her neck, carving a deep gash. Without help, the sea lion would die.

The team had been trying to find the sea lion for a month, and on that day, with daylight running out, the nine members that day knew they needed to work fast. They relaunched their boats and a team member loaded a dart gun and shot her with a sedative.

“Launching the dart is the easiest part of the whole operation,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, executive director of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which conducted the rescue alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It’s everything that happens after that, that you just have no control over.”

Steller sea lions, also known as northern sea lions, are the largest such breed. They are found as far south as Northern California and in parts of Russia and Japan. A male Steller sea lion can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.

The Cowichan Tribes Marine Monitoring Team assisted the rescue society, calling it whenever the sea lion was spotted. The tribe named her Stl’eluqum, meaning “fierce” or “exceptional” in Hul’q’umi’num’, an Indigenous language, according to the rescue society.

After Stl’eluqum was sedated, she jumped from the dock into the water. Recent torrential rains and flooding had stirred up debris, making the water brown, and harder to spot the sea lion, Dr. Haulena said.

Several minutes after the sea lion dived into the bay, the drone spotted her and the team moved in.

The rope had multiple strands and it was wrapped so deeply that she most likely wasn’t able to eat, Dr. Haulena said. At first, the team had trouble freeing her.

“You couldn’t see it because it was way dug in underneath the skin and blubber of the animal,” Dr. Haulena said.

After unraveling the rope, the team tagged her flipper, gave her some antibiotics and released her.

Freeing the sea lion was the culmination of weeks of searching and missed moments. The first call about the tangled marine mammal was made to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline on Nov. 7, according to a news release from the rescue society. Then the society logged more calls.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium, searched for several days for the sea lion. The day they found her was the last of the rescue effort because bad weather was forecast for the area around the bay. The call that led them to Stl’eluqum came from the Cowichan Tribes, Dr. Haulena said.

The society, Dr. Haulena said, cares for about 150 marine mammals from its rescues every year — sea lions, otters, harbor seals and the occasional sea turtle. The group gives medical care to animals it takes in, such as Luna, an abandoned newborn sea otter who was three pounds when she was found and still had her umbilical cord attached.

Many of the society’s rescues involve animals tangled in garbage or debris, Dr. Haulena said.

Stl’eluqum was tangled in nylon rope commonly used to tie boats or crab traps, he said. When sea lions get something caught around their necks it can grow tighter until it cuts into their organs, sometimes fatally, he said.

“It’s our garbage; it’s our fault,” Dr. Haulena said. “It’s a large amount of animal suffering and not a good outcome unless we can do something.”

World

Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

Published

8 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

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Polish authorities have foiled a suspected ISIS-inspired plot to attack a Christmas market, charging a student accused of preparing a mass casualty bombing, according to officials.

The case comes as Germany and the U.K. also raised security measures around religious and cultural events after the Sydney shooting Sunday in which 16 people were shot dead at a Jewish Hanukkah party on Bondi Beach.

Polish authorities say the suspect, identified as Mateusz W., 19, was detained in late November at an apartment in Lublin by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

According to Jacek Dobrzyński, a spokesperson for the Minister’s Coordinator of Special Services, investigators believe the teen had been studying how to make explosives and intended to join a terrorist organization to help carry out the attack.

EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS FORTIFY SECURITY MEASURES AS TERROR THREATS FORCE MAJOR OPERATIONAL CHANGES

Polish authorities foil an alleged ISIS Christmas market bombing plot targeting holiday shoppers. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“The purpose of the crime was to intimidate many people, as well as to support the Islamic State,” Dobrzyński said in a statement shared on X.

Items linked to Islam and digital storage devices were seized, and the suspect has been remanded for three months as the Szczecin branch of ABW continues its investigation.

At a news conference, Dobrzyński also referenced a June case in which three 19-year-olds were charged over alleged extremist plots, including a reported plan to attack a school in Olsztyn.

MOSSAD–EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION LAUNCHES SWEEPING CRACKDOWN ON HAMAS GLOBAL TERROR NETWORK

Authorities arrested five on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria. (Juergen Sack/Getty Images)

“You are familiar with this issue from Olsztyn; now we have another example of preparing an attack before Christmas,” he told reporters, according to GB News.

In Germany, police in Lower Bavaria also arrested five men on Dec. 12 on suspicion of preparing an attack on a Christmas market, according to reports.

Authorities said an Egyptian national described as an Islamic preacher had allegedly called for an assault during gatherings at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area, per Euronews.

CANADIAN SPY CHIEF WARNS OF ALARMING RISE IN TEEN TERROR SUSPECTS, ‘POTENTIALLY LETHAL’ THREATS BY IRAN

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials have stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities. (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Image)

Special operations forces carried out the arrests, and investigators believe the group had begun early-stage preparations.

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities on Tuesday.

“Sadly, as shown by the appalling attack on Sydney’s Jewish community during a Hanukkah event, we know they can also be a target for terrorist activity,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell said in a press release.

He cited large festive gatherings, religious services and Christmas markets as potential targets.

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In the release posted Tuesday, he urged the British public to report anything that “doesn’t feel right” as part of the annual winter vigilance campaign.

Meanwhile, U.S. authorities say they separately disrupted a New Year’s Eve plot in Southern California.

Four alleged members of an extremist anti-capitalist, anti-government group suspected of rehearsing coordinated bombings against sites linked to two U.S. companies were arrested on Monday.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.