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Added on the 17/01/2015 22:53:28 - Copyright : Reuters EN
More than 1,000 European Union citizens were evacuated from conflict-hit Sudan over the weekend, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says. "It has been a complex operation and it has been a successful operation," Borrell tells journalists. SOUNDBITE
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated in the Spanish regions of Valencia (south-east) and Aragon (north-east) where forest fires have already burnt some 900 hectares, according to local authorities. Four hundred firefighters, rescue workers and military personnel, fifteen planes, seaplanes and helicopters worked to extinguish the flames, according to the Valencia rescue service. A nearby field hospital was set up and the Red Cross opened a reception centre for evacuees in a gymnasium in the town of Segorbe. Spain was hit last summer by some 500 fires that burned over 300,000 hectares of land, making it the most affected European country, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. IMAGES
Hong Kong's leader John Lee announces that the city will fully scrap the mask mandate: "I have an announcement to make, the mask mandate will be fully scrapped starting tomorrow, 1st March." SOUNDBITE
The two gigantic fires that have been raging since 12 July in Gironde (south-west France) have burnt more than 19,000 hectares of forest and forced the evacuation of 34,000 people, according to the sub-prefect of Arcachon, Ronan Léaustic. SOUNDBITE
U.S. President Barack Obama attends an outdoor arrival ceremony in heavy rain, as the first sitting U.S. president to visit Laos. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).