- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
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- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
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- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
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- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
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- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
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- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
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- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
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- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
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- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
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- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
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- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
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- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
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Drought-hit Spain braces for early heat wave
Drought-hit Spain was bracing Monday for an unusually early heat wave, prompting fears for wildfires in a nation already so dry that some farmers have opted not to plant crops.
Temperatures are expected to be 15-20 degrees Celsius higher than the average in some areas, a spokesman for Spain's state weather agency AEMET tweeted.
Spain's civil protection agency warned there was a "high risk" of wildfires due the scorching weather.
The nation led Europe in land burned last year during a record hot 2022 that the government and independent experts said was the product of climate change.
A prolonged drought has caused the wildfire season to start earlier than usual, with March recording the first major fires of the year.
Blazes have ravaged some 54,000 hectares (133,400 acres) of land so far this year in Spain, compared with just over 17,000 hectares during the same time in 2022, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
The lack of precipitation has been especially severe in the northeastern region of Catalonia where water reservoirs are at just one-quarter of their capacity.
This has led to water use restrictions, with residents of Barcelona and its surrounding area banned from filling swimming pool.
The weather office said temperatures are expected to drop on Sunday and Monday, "ending this episode of exceptionally high temperatures for the time of year".
- 'Difficult moment' -
The agriculture sector has been hit hard. Many farmers have decided not to plant crops this spring due to the lack of water.
"We are in a difficult moment," Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said last week.
Spain's main farmers' union, COAG, estimates 60 percent of the country's farmland is "asphyxiated" by the lack of precipitation.
Influential farmers' group ASAJA has warned that cereal and olive oil producers were facing steep losses.
"The intensity of this drought is horrible," it said in a statement.
Parts of Spain are the driest they have been in a thousand years due to an atmospheric high-pressure system driven by climate change, according to a study published last year in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Nearly 75 percent of Spain is susceptible to desertification, according to the United Nations.
Spain must "reconsider" how it manages water, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last week, calling it "an increasingly rare resource".
Experts say climate change driven by human activity is boosting the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
J.V.Jacinto--PC