A Hampshire family were among those who fled from their homes in Portugal when wildfires drew dangerously close.

A fire near Odemira began on Saturday before strong winds drove it into the Algarve.

The Harvie-Watt family decided to evacuate their home in São Teotónio when flames approached.

Rosie Harvie-Watt, 15, described how her brothers and dad doused the building with water in an attempt to prevent it being engulfed.

More than 1,400 people were evacuated from the southern town of Odemira overnight on Monday, as firefighters battled the flames.

The family from Andover said they first noticed a plume of smoke rising above trees on their way home from the beach on Saturday, but continued as normal after agreeing the fires seemed a safe distance away.

Rosie said: “There was an amber glow on the horizon following us wherever we went, we took nightly watches to monitor the spread.”

By Monday, the wind direction had changed and the wildfires drew dangerously close, forcing the family of five to evacuate.

They moved to Zambujeira do Mar but within two hours the smoke surrounded that town too.

The family travelled on to Vila Nova de Milfontes before moving to a hotel further north in Setúbal.

The wildfire is estimated to have destroyed at least 6,700 hectares (16,600 acres) of land.

Around 800 personnel were tackling the fires on Monday and at least nine firefighters have been injured.

The family praised the emergency services and said the firefighters had been heroic in their attempts to control the blazes amid strong and unpredictable winds.

Rosie’s brother Tom, 20, said: “They have worked around the clock in extreme heat and thick smoke with little food and water, often on shifts exceeding 16 hours.

“Many of the firefighters are volunteers, who all donate their pay back into the departments as they are reliant on donations.”

The family returned to the property on Tuesday to assess the damage.

Their home is still standing while fires continues to burn in surrounding areas.

Norway evacuated thousands of people as rivers swelled to their highest levels in at least 50 years on Wednesday and homes and businesses were submerged or swept away by landslides.

Major roads were closed and train services suspended across wide parts of southern Norway as rivers breached their banks, and authorities warned of more flooding to come in the days ahead as the water moves towards lower-lying coastal regions.

Innlandet county, one of Norway’s worst hit areas, said many people were isolated by the floods and that first responders may not be able to reach those in need.

“We’re in an emergency situation of national dimensions,” Innlandet Mayor Aud Hove said in a press release.

The government on Wednesday decided to mobilise more helicopters to take part in the evacuation, the ministry of justice and public security told broadcaster TV2.

No deaths have so far been recorded from the disaster, Norwegian authorities have said.

Strong winds, intense rain and landslides hit different parts of the Nordic region in recent days, knocking out power lines in Finland, flooding villages in Norway and Sweden and bringing public transport to a standstill in hard-hit areas.

On Monday, a Swedish train derailed when a railway embankment was washed away by floods, injuring three people.

Authorities in Norway and Sweden maintained red alerts, their most severe flood warnings, for several regions on Wednesday.

Indonesia’s capital Jakarta topped the list as the world’s most polluted city on Wednesday, having consistently ranked among the 10 most polluted cities globally since May, according to data by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

Jakarta, which has a population of over 10 million, registers unhealthy air pollution levels nearly every day, according to IQAir.

Resident Rizky Putra lamented that the worsening air quality was putting his children’s health at risk.

“I think the situation is very worrying,” Rizky, 35, told Reuters TV by the side of a road in downtown Jakarta.

“So many children are sick with the same complaints and symptoms such as coughs and cold,” he said.

Jakarta residents have long complained of toxic air from chronic traffic, industrial smoke and coal-fired power plants. Some of them launched and won a civil lawsuit in 2021 demanding the government take action to control air pollution.

The court at the time ruled President Joko Widodo must establish national air quality standards to protect human health, and the health minister and Jakarta governor must devise strategies to control air pollution.

Still, Nathan Roestandy, co-founder of air quality app Nafas Indonesia, said the pollution level has continued to deteriorate.

“We take more than 20,000 breaths a day. If we take in polluted air everyday, (it could lead to) respiratory and pulmonary diseases, even asthma. It can affect cognitive development of children or even mental health,” he said.

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Asked about Jakarta’s pollution problem on Tuesday, President Widodo told reporters the solution would be to move the country’s capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara, which his government is currently building from the ground up on Borneo island.

Indonesia is set to name Nusantara as the new capital next year and at least 16,000 civil servants, military and police are due to move there.

Flights were cancelled and trains halted on Wednesday as heavy rain from Typhoon Khanun pounded southern regions of Japan and South Korea, just as another storm approached from the east to threaten Tokyo ahead of Japan’s peak summer holiday season.

Khanun could make landfall at the southeastern South Korean port city of Tongyeong on Thursday, before tracking up the Korean peninsula, authorities said.

North Korea’s state media also said on Wednesday that industries such as textile mills there were working to minimise potential damage by typhoons and downpours.

The storm is currently in the sea south of Kyushu, Japan’s southwestern main island some 860 km (530 miles) from Tokyo, after wreaking havoc in the southwestern Okinawa region.

It is maintaining its strength and moving at an unusually slow 10 kph (6 mph), meaning the wind and rain will linger for longer.

Areas of Kyushu have already been inundated with a whole month’s worth on rainfall in the past week, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

The agency issued heavy rain and high wind warnings to many parts of southern and western Japan, prompting automakers including Toyota (7203.T) to suspend some production.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cancelled his attendance at a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, in Kyushu.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday hopes to forge a united front among rainforest nations when they engage in international climate negotiations, building on an accord a day earlier at a summit of Amazon nations.

Representatives from the eight Amazon nations gathered in the northern Brazilian city of Belem for the summit are set to meet with leaders from countries including Indonesia, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday.

The Congo Basin and Southeast Asia are home to the world’s largest rainforests after the Amazon.

Lula, a two-time former president who has long sought to build multilateral blocs with less developed nations, has repeatedly called on rich, industrialized countries to deliver on commitments to finance actions on climate change in poorer countries that did little to cause global warming.

The first day of the Amazon Summit resulted in a broad agreement for the region to cooperate on areas like combating organized crime and scientific research.

But environmentalists criticized the joint declaration for failing to commit to ending deforestation by 2030, while also falling short of expectations on stopping oil drilling in the Amazon and halting illegal mining.

Some developed nations are attending the two-day summit. Norway and Germany, major contributors to Amazon conservation in Brazil, will participate as well as France, technically a rainforest nation because of its overseas territory of French Guiana.

Bojnice Castle is a big medieval castle which is located in the historical town that has the same name, within the central part of the Slovak Republic.

Standing on a travertine hill overlooking the town, Bojnice Castle is a Romantic castle with some original Gothic and Renaissance elements which is considered to be the oldest and the most important monuments in Slovakia.

Being first mentioned in 1013 in some records as a wooden fort, the big walled castle was built in 12^th century, with some important rebuilding and reconstruction carried out in 1528, 1889 and 1950.

As the owners of Bojnice changed throughout the years, it is worth mentioning that the most notable Hungarian families owned it, where the last of them was the family of Pálfi.

As a matter in fact, the Count János Ferenc Pálffy made a serious romantic reconstruction according to the design of the architect J. Hubert to the entire place between 1889 and 1910, and gave it the look which we are able to see nowadays.

What we see nowadays is something of a pattern from romantic castles which can be seen all around the Loire in central France, however, Bojnice Castle is giving sort of a more impressive charm which is certainly alluring for the visitors of Slovakia.

Seized by the Czechoslovak government in 1945, the castle was turned into a seat of several state institutions, but in 1950 there was a huge fire that destroyed it, and with help from the government it was reconstructed to what we are able to see today.

Still, the typical silhouette is enhanced by the steep roofs of the palace, chapel and towers, and the castle is renowned for its attractions.

Belonging to the Slovak Republic, within the premises is the museum which has collections of artistic and historical artifacts, among which is the original furniture and the artistic collection of the Pálffys family.

All in all, being the perfect place where one can learn a great deal of the castle’s and Slovak history, everyone can also enjoy in the park that surrounds the castle, making it a fairytale place for people to have a fantasy of being on one of Disney’s stories.