The cost of the damage caused by devastating flooding in Germany last month is likely to exceed 26 billion euros ($30.6 billion), officials said. The losses in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone are expected to exceed 13 billion euros, state premier Armin Laschet told a special session of the region’s parliament Monday.

The damage in the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate resulting from the floods, which left 184 dead in the two regions, was expected to be at least as high. The planned national reconstruction fund would have to include funds between 20-30 billion euros, said Laschet, who is also currently the front-runner to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor following next month's national election.

Laschet said he now hoped that a special session of the national German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin would sign off on the fund to ensure the rapid flow of money from the fund.

In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, more than 150 schools were damaged, along with more than 200 day care centers, Laschet said. Doctors' surgeries, as well as more than 50 pharmacies, were damaged in the floods, which Laschet described as the worst natural disaster to hit his state since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in the years immediately following World War II.

The floods also left Germany with waste piles equivalent to a whole year's worth of refuse./agencies

An explosion has temporarily put South Africa's largest coal-fired power plant out of operation, just a week after it came online.

The state-owned power utility Eskom announced that an explosion occurred at the Medupi Power Station late on Sunday evening for reasons that are still unknown. Although there were reportedly no injuries, a total of seven employees had to be treated for shock.

The power plant came online just one week ago, some 14 years after construction began, the delay due to multiple cost and deadline overruns. Medupi, which can generate up to 4,764 megawatts of electricity, is one of the world's largest coal-fired power plants and cost 122 billion rand ($8.3 billion). The plant is expected to be in service for 50 years.

Despite global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and invest in renewable energy sources, coal-rich South Africa continues to rely on the fossil fuel, which supplies 75% of the country's energy supply./agencies

A firefighting plane crashed on the Greek island of Zakynthos on Sunday while it was responding to a fire there, authorities said.

The Fire Service said the pilot of the airplane, picked up by another firefighting aircraft on the island of Ionian, survived.

The aircraft was responding to a small-scale fire in the Lagopodo-Macherado area.

Greece has been fighting wildfires for six days with thousands of people have been evacuated so far./aa

Greece has been battling wildfires across the country on the sixth day of blazes that have spiraled into the evacuation of thousands of people from the areas in flames.

Scenes of inferno have been documented all over the country while the sky in the capital Athens turned dark with ash flying near cities surrounded by fire.

The fire in the northern island of Evia is still burning, obliterating thousands of hectares of pristine forests, burning homes, and forcing hundreds of vacationers to flee.

Fire department teams along with planes, helicopters, and reinforcement from other countries are battling with the blazes that continue burning on Sunday. More reinforcement is expected.

Some 575 firefighters, 35 teams on foot, 89 vehicles are fighting the Evia wildfire, while support from other countries has been sent as well. Around 112 Romanian and 100 Ukrainian firefighters are currently working to extinguish the fire, with four helicopters and three planes, including a massive Beriev-200 plane from Russia, joining the efforts.

Another three villages were evacuated in Evia on Sunday as they surrendered to the flames.

The Evia fire that has multiple fronts has now reached Galatsona, Ellinika, and Agriovotano villages, while Gouves, Artemisio, Kastri, Vouliki, and Pefki were also urged to evacuate through the 112 European emergency messaging system, asking residents to move towards Istiaia to the north.

"The fronts are endless," Angelos Missirlis, deputy mayor of Istiaia-Edipsos – where evacuees are directed – told state-run Athens News Agency.

"All villages are a single fire front. At places the fire expands, at other places it rekindles. This fire cannot be fought by heavy machinery" opening buffer zones, he said, "we need airborne forces immediately."

Since the early hours of Sunday, firefighters have been battling to save Vasilika Ktimata, the former summer royal residence in Varibobi that has been burning for almost a week, which triggered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the northern suburbs of Athens since Tuesday.

The fire erupted in Varibobi, a suburb of Athens, on Tuesday and it reignited on Thursday spreading to the east and has so far destroyed houses and businesses, including the Mt. Parnitha National Park, one of the last forests in Athens.

According to reports, the situation in Mt. Parnitha is currently under control.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias said on Sunday afternoon in a live briefing that the situation in the Peloponnese fire is currently stable with some rekindling of fires.

"We have another difficult afternoon ahead, and another tough night," Hardalias said, asking people to faithfully observe orders for evacuations. "The battle is ongoing," he remarked./aa

A Saudi criminal court on Sunday sentenced former Hamas representative Mohammed Al-Khudari to 15 years in prison on charges of supporting the Palestinian group, according to his brother.

Abdel-Majed Al-Khudari told Anadolu Agency that the court reduced his brother’s sentence by half.

His son Hani Al-Khudari was also sentenced to three years in prison, he added.

Khader Mashayekh, the head of a committee tasked with following the affairs of Jordanian detainees in Saudi Arabia, confirmed the jail sentence against Al-Khudari.

Saudi authorities have yet to confirm the verdict.

According to Hamas, Saudi authorities have arrested 60 group members and sympathizers, including Al-Khudari.

Riyadh has declined to comment on the issue, only saying that the detainees are enjoying their rights enshrined in law.

There was no comment from Hamas on Sunday’s verdict.

In February, Amnesty International said Al-Khudari, 83, had undergone surgery and was being treated for prostate cancer when the Saudi authorities arrested him and his son on April 4, 2019.

The London-based rights group called on the Saudi king to ensure that “unfounded charges” against Al-Khudari and his son are dropped and that they are released./aa

Pakistan on Saturday welcomed the "reaffirmation" of the UN position on the long-running Kashmir dispute.

"Pakistan welcomes the reiteration of the position of (the) United Nations on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute by the Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General. The statement reaffirms that UN position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is well-established and has not changed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement.

Responding to media queries at a press briefing in New York on Thursday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said: "Our position on Kashmir is well established and has not changed. I will leave it at that."

His statement coincided with the second anniversary of India's scrapping of the Himalayan valley's long-standing semi-autonomous status on Aug. 5, 2019.

The statement, according to Chaudri, denies the "self-serving" remarks by India's Permanent Representative to the UN claiming that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.

Numerous UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, he maintained, have established that the final disposition of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people "expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite held under the UN auspices."

"India would do well to remind itself that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognized dispute and one of the longest outstanding items on the UN Security Council's agenda," Chaudhri said, adding: "It never was and never will be a part of India. Regurgitation of false and fabricated claims does not change the reality."

Ultimately, India will have to give in to the will of the Kashmiris and the commitment of the international community as enshrined in numerous UNSC resolutions, he asserted.

"We particularly appreciate the timeliness of the statement as it coincides with the completion of two years of India's illegal and unilateral actions of Aug. 5, 2019, in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), that were in violation of the UN charter, UNSC resolutions and international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention," he added.

- Disputed region

Kashmir has been the main ingredient in the long-simmering rivalry between Pakistan and India since the two nuclear-armed neighbors gained independence from the British Empire in 1947.

The picturesque Himalayan valley is held by the two countries in parts but claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since 1947, the two neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict since 1989.

The president of the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) said on Saturday that Islamophobia is not a simple sociologic phenomenon and cannot be explained with a single reason.

Islamophobia "is an illness, an anomaly that emerges with the coinciding of the temporal and spatial dynamics," Taha Ayhan told Anadolu Agency.

Noting that discourse against all religions, including Islam, has been escalating across the world, Ayhan said discriminative efforts target Islam, especially.

"Although Islam was sent for all humanity, is a common religion for humankind, and is accepted as its common legacy, it is attacked as if it belongs to a certain civilization and is foreign to all others," he said.

Ayhan said politicians like French President Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, are trying to open up areas for themselves in domestic and international politics, positioning themselves through Islamophobia.

Recalling efforts to reshape Islam has been underway in European countries, chiefly France and Germany, Ayhan said: "The discrimination against Muslims is against the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the founding values referred to by the European Union, the Council of Europe and the European Commission."

"Despite these rights, the German and French politicians resort to legal means and pass laws to make room for themselves and to make their citizens conform to a belief system which they propose," he said. "These are efforts that should definitely be condemned and avoided. Their own democratic laws and criteria are against the decisions they have taken, anyway.”

Underlining that the foundation of think tank institutions is necessary to effectively fight Islamophobia, Ayhan said: "The think tanks, television and radio channels or press units will take up a serious role globally in claiming rights.”/agencies