Winds drive major wildfire in Spain; Portugal goes on alert

MADRID (AP) — A wildfire burning out of control in Spain's eastern province of Valencia has become one of the country's biggest fires this year, and 35 aircraft were deployed to fight it as the blaze entered its fifth day, authorities said Friday. The wildfire has already scorched...

Hurricane winds, fierce storms leave 8 dead in France, Italy

PARIS (AP) — Violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds left at least eight dead Thursday in France and Italy, uprooting trees in Tuscany and on the French island of Corsica and ripping away brick shards from St. Mark's famed bell tower in Venice. Over 100 boats in the Mediterranean Sea...

California heat persists, but no call for power cutbacks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Heat advisories remained in effect Thursday in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and adjacent areas but managers of California’s power grid did not repeat the previous day’s call for voluntary conservation of electricity. Widespread triple-digit...

Californians urged to conserve electricity amid heat wave

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Californians were urged to conserve electricity to prevent mass power shutoffs Wednesday as a heat wave scorched the northern part of the state, prompting warnings that lightning, thunderstorm winds and parched vegetation could ignite wildfires. The heat...

Heat returns to Pacific Northwest Wednesday, Thursday

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Hot weather is expected again Wednesday and Thursday in western Oregon and Washington state. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, will offer people places to stay cool Wednesday as temperatures potentially reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees...

European firefighters join battle to stop French wildfires

PARIS (AP) — Firefighters from across Europe started arriving in France on Friday to help battle several wildfires, including a giant blaze ravaging pine forests in the southwest. A series of heat waves have compounded a critical drought in much of Europe to create prime wildfire...

Wildfires spread, fish die off amid severe drought in Europe

PARIS (AP) — Firefighters from across Europe struggled Thursday to contain a huge wildfire in France that has swept through a large swath of pine forest, while Germans and Poles faced a mass fish die-off in a river flowing between their countries. Europe is suffering under a severe...

AP PHOTOS: Struggling to stay cool in Budapest heat wave

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Inflatable swimming pools are the new must-have item around Budapest as residents of Hungary’s sprawling capital struggle to stay cool amid one of the most oppressively hot summers in the country’s history. The pools have been popping up everywhere —...

Motown songwriter-producer Lamont Dozier dead at 81

NEW YORK (AP) — Lamont Dozier, the middle name of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Heat Wave” and dozens of other hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, has died at age 81. ...

Lamont Dozier, who helped write and produce such Motown classics as 'Heat Wave' and 'You Can't Hurry Love,' has died