Turkey's agriculture and forestry minister on Saturday said his country has contained most (91 of 101) of the forest fires that started on Wednesday.

In a statement, Bekir Pakdemirli said efforts are underway to take the remaining blazes under control. He added that firefighters and volunteers are doing everything they can to stem their spread.

According to the figures he shared, forest fires are still continuing in Antalya, Mersin and Mugla provinces.

Emphasizing that the whole world is fighting wildfires, Pakdemirli said their risk has increased due to climatic changes induced by global warming.

"Each country uses firefighting tools and techniques suitable to its geography in the fight against forest fires," he said. We increased the number of helicopters, and aircraft are also being utilized, the minister added.

Besides material damage, at least six people have lost their lives in the fires./aa

At least 40 people have been apprehended in England’s West Yorkshire region for the alleged sexual abuse of nine girls, authorities said on Friday.

The West Yorkshire Police said 38 men and two women were arrested as part of Operation Teeford, a probe focused on abuse of girls “predominantly in the Dewsbury and Batley areas between 1989 and 1999.”

A statement said 27 people were caught in the Kirklees area, while the others were arrested in places including Bradford, Leeds, and Wakefield.

“This arrest phase has followed many months of investigation into reports of sexual offences against young girls in Dewsbury and Batley between 1989 and 1999,” said Ian Thornes, the chief investigator on the case.

Vowing to protect and provide justice to the victims, he said authorities will make sure that “no stone is left unturned to thoroughly examine all reports of these abhorrent offences.”

“This ongoing investigation again demonstrates our determination to investigate all reports of child sexual abuse in Kirklees and West Yorkshire, whether recent, or from a number of years ago,” Thornes added./aa

The count of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered worldwide topped 4.1 billion as of Saturday, according to Our World In Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University.

China, where the coronavirus originated in late 2019, ranks first globally with more than 1.64 billion vaccine jabs given across the country. India follows it with over 461.52 million jabs, according to the available data.

The list continues with mostly Western countries, with the US having administered over 344.93 million shots, Brazil 140.17 million, Germany 92.05 million, the UK 84.74 million, and Japan 84.01 million.

Turkey has so far administered more than 73.03 million vaccine shots, ranking eighth worldwide, while almost 41 million people have received one jab.

Turkey is followed by France with over 72.67 million shots, Italy 68.19 million, Indonesia 66.95 million, Mexico 65.63 million, Russia nearly 61 million, and Spain 55.71 million.

As COVID-19 vaccines are generally given in two separate doses per person, the count of administered vaccines does not mean that the same number of people has been vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 4.21 million lives across the world, with an excess of 197.5 million cases reported, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University./aa

Turkish authorities continue the efforts to contain forest fires in the Manavgat and Akseki districts of the southern Antalya province, with aerial and ground operations underway.

Fires in Manavgat had first emerged on Wednesday at four different points around noon, whereas the fire in Akseki emerged late Friday.

The wind blowing hard at some locations has made it hard to put out the fires, while settlements are at risk.

The aerial elements have begun to operate once again in the early hours on Saturday.

Locals, in addition to the professionals, also contribute to the efforts to take the fires under control.

Volkan Hulur, the governor of Akseki district, said a great deal of effort was put to prevent fires from spreading to settlement areas.

Hulur went on to say that 60 houses out of a total of 71 were burnt to the ground in the Kepezbeleni neighborhood and the fire was going in the direction of forest area while both air and ground operations were underway.

“Weather conditions make it difficult to take the fire under control,” he said, adding that ground units were battling the fires tirelessly.

Since July 28, a total of 98 forest fires erupted in Turkey, with most of them being in southern regions, while the Turkish authorities managed to take 88 of them under control, but six people have so far lost their lives due to fires.

Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli on Saturday said on Twitter the efforts were underway to take the remaining 10 forest fires under control./aa

A missile attack on Saturday targeted an oil company in Iraq’s northern Salahuddin province, according to a local police officer.

“Unidentified individuals fired a local-made missile at the headquarters of Masafi Al-Shamal company in the province,” the officer, who preferred not to be named since he was not authorized to brief the media, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the attack did not cause material damage or human losses.

"Security forces have launched an urgent investigation into the incident to locate the launching site and the parties behind it,” he added.

Masaf Al-Shamali oil company has a number of oil refineries with the largest being Baiji with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Baiji oil refinery, which is the largest in Iraq, was severely damaged as a result of the fighting for control of the territory by the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group in the summer of 2014, before it was restored in 2015.

In recent weeks, electricity transmission lines have been the target of attacks by suspected Daesh/ISIS militants in the northern provinces of Salahuddin, Diyala, and Kirkuk./aa

As the world observes Breast Feeding Day and Week from Sunday, the HIV-infected mothers in Zimbabwe have succeeded to build immunity in their babies by nourishing them through breastfeeding exclusively.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Lynet Mahachi, 41, an HIV-infected mother over past 19 years, said that her son Jack who is now 11 years old successfully battled the disease by developing immunity because of being nourished through breastfeeding.

“I cannot believe I am the mother of a healthy boy. My husband died because of HIV/AIDS within a year after I gave birth to Jack. I am still going strong despite living with the disease,” she said.

Mahachi said that at the time of delivery she was on anti-retroviral treatment. She said that her son has been never hospitalized since he was born.

More than drugs breast feeding over the years has come a panacea for HIV positive mothers to prevent transmission of the disease to their children.

Zimbabwe’s religious leaders have now stepped in creating awareness about breastfeeding to curb HIV transmission to babies.

Maxwell Kapachawo, pastor of Abandoned Grace Ministries, said the best antidote against HIV was that the parents should subject the newly born babies to exclusive breastfeeding.

Chamunorwa Mashoko, an HIV/AIDS activist in Zimbabwe, said to fight the transmission of HIV to babies, Zimbabwe has adopted global World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to prevent transmission of disease to babies through their mothers.

He said the effective policies have significantly led to the reduction of mother-to-child transmission.

“As you know treatment is prevention, the chances of a pregnant mother to transmit are reduced,” said Mashoko.

Another health activist, Tariro Kutadza, said Zimbabwe has succeeded to help mothers infected with HIV to give birth to healthy babies and make arrangement that they are able to safely breastfeed their babies without transmitting the disease.

According to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) -- the world's largest philanthropy that focuses on improving children's lives – said some 37,852 new infant infections were averted and 13,072 children’s lives saved from 2015-2017 due to awareness programs and boosting immunity of infants.

Dr. Menelisi Ndlovu, a medical practitioner in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, said breastfeeding helps consolidate the baby’s immune system and stop transmission of HIV to the child.

“When HIV positive mothers religiously take their antiretroviral treatment and administer nevirapine during the pregnancy and after delivery, this together with breastfeeding stops the transmission of HIV to the newborn, “he said./aa

A Syrian girl, 22, has graduated first in her class with top honors in Turkey.

Yasmin Nayal, who fled the Syrian civil war in 2016 and went to Turkey with her family, completed her undergraduate education in the new media department at Bahcesehir University (BAU) in Istanbul. She completed a double major in the psychology department.

Nayal, who is continuing her studies by doing a minor in the department of political science and international relations, told Anadolu Agency about her academic success and dreams in Turkey.

Recounting that she quickly adapted to Turkey and could learn Turkish easily thanks to her Turkish friends, Nayal said she dreamed of being at the top of the class but at first she could not believe it when she graduated at the head.

She said she researched a university to complete her studies before coming to Turkey and because she liked the country, she eliminated other countries.

"My brother lives in Canada and he wanted me to go there, too. However, I did not want to go to Canada or other European countries. I especially wanted to come to Turkey and study," she said.

Her goal is to work in the media sector and Nayal said she wants to develop more and plans to work in an international organization and then open her own company.

"I would like to thank Turkey very much because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Turkey,” she said. “It's really fun to study here. I hope I will do a favor to Turkey in the future."

BAU Global President Enver Yucel highlighted that the university has the highest number of international students in Turkey.

Stating that the success rate of foreign students is high as that of Turkish students, Yucel said: "Last year, a student from Zanzibar graduated top in electrical and electronics engineering. Now he has started to do great things in the country he lives in. This year, a Syrian immigrant graduated top of her class. This made us very proud.”/aa

Coronavirus infections are up 80% in the past four weeks in five of the World Health Organization's (WHO) six regions, the head of the UN’s health agency said Friday.

In Africa, deaths have risen 80% in that period, mainly driven by the Delta variant found in at least 132 countries.

"Almost 4 million cases were reported to the WHO last week, and on current trends, we expect the total number of cases to pass 200 million within the next two weeks. And we know that is an underestimate," Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a webinar.

The WHO had warned that the virus continues to change with four variants of concern emerging, "and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread," said Tedros.

He said increased social mixing and mobility, inconsistent use of public health and social measures and inequitable vaccine use are also driving the increase.

- Hard-won gains in jeopardy

"Hard-won gains are in jeopardy of being lost and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed," said the chief of the WHO.

The climbing number of infections is creating a shortage of treatments such as life-saving oxygen and 29 countries have high and rising oxygen needs with many having inadequate supplies of essential equipment to protect frontline health workers.

Testing rates in low-income countries are less than 2% of those in high-income countries and that is "leaving the world blind to understanding where the disease is and how it's changing," he said.

Tedros stressed that the world could not fight the disease without better global testing rates or mitigate the risk of new, more dangerous variants emerging.

The WHO's goal remains to support every country to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by October.

The UN agency wants jabs for at least 40% of the world by the year’s end and 70% by the middle of next year, said Tedros, but he acknowledged that those targets are "a long way off."

A little more than half of countries have fully vaccinated 10% of their populations, less than a quarter have vaccinated 40% and only three nations have vaccinated 70%.

- ‘Vaccine nationalism’

Tedros said almost one year ago the WHO raised concerns about "vaccine nationalism."

He reiterated a WHO statement in January that the world was on the verge of a "catastrophic moral failure" and still "the global distribution of vaccines remains unjust," putting all regions at risk, especially Africa.

"On current trends, nearly 70% of African countries will not reach the 10% vaccination target by the end of September," he said.

Around 3.5 million to 4 million doses are administered weekly on the continent but to meet its September target, it must rise to 21 million doses at the very least each week.

"Many African countries have prepared well to roll out vaccines, but the vaccines have not arrived," said Tedros.

Less than 2% of all doses administered globally have been in Africa. Just 1.5% of the continent's population is fully vaccinated.

This is a severe problem "if we're going to take action against this pandemic and end it," he said./aa