NEWSWORTHY
Boy, 19, handed an indeterminate prison term for killing girlfriend at her request
The Tokyo District Court on Friday handed down an indeterminate prison term of four to seven years to a 19-year-old boy for killing his girlfriend at her request last year. The defendant did not do his best to avoid the murder and subsequent arson although ...
Greek resort town said built like 'fire trap' after deadly forest blaze blamed on suspected arson
Greek authorities said Thursday there were serious indications that a deadly wildfire that gutted a vacation resort near Athens was started deliberately, while experts warned that the devastated coastal town had been built like a "fire trap," with poor safety standards and few escape ...
Firefighters in Northern California have partially contained a stubborn blaze that has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate areas west of Sacramento, although dry conditions and wind gusts are hampering efforts to stop the spread, authorities said on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said it ...
Alleged arsonist arrested after escaping from central Japan hospital
Police on Wednesday arrested an alleged arsonist who fled from a hospital in Nagoya, where he had been held for a psychiatric evaluation since March, police said. Yasuhiro Ogura, 57, was caught at a home appliance store in the city after the police launched an ...
Police suspect arson in 2017 apartment fire that killed six in Fukuoka
A fire that killed six men at an apartment building in Fukuoka Prefecture about a year ago could have been a case of arson, investigative sources said Tuesday. Police have found security camera footage showing a suspicious person walking around the two-story wooden apartment in ...
Two men, a woman and a teenager were arrested Monday on suspicion of setting fire to a house in Chiba Prefecture and killing its sole resident. The four friends were spotted near the house in Inzai when the fire broke out shortly after 4 p.m. ...
France sees surge in New Year's Eve car torchings and arrests
France saw a jump in arrests on New Year's Eve as well as an increase in the number of cars torched by vandals, a ritual among revelers in the country's high-rise suburbs. The number of vehicles set alight on the night of Dec. 31 climbed ...
Suspected arson fire engulfs huge area of UNESCO heritage-listed Brazilian national park
A fire suspected to have been caused by arson has engulfed 133,436 acres (54,000 hectares) of Brazil's Chapada dos Veadeiros national park in the central Goias state, officials said Tuesday. Almost a quarter of the protected nature area 155 miles (250 km) from the capital ...
Rain brings relief after Portugal wildfire death toll reaches 41; one person missing
Overnight rain and calmer winds on Tuesday helped firefighters tame a spate of deadly wildfires that broke out over the weekend, devouring homes and killing 41 people in Portugal and another four in northern Spain. Portugal's civil protection agency said the 15 biggest fires, which ...
Man admits torching Ibaraki flat with wife, five kids inside
A 32-year-old man who claimed to have deliberately started a blaze in an apartment in Ibaraki Prefecture early Friday morning where six people were found dead turned himself in to police. Ibaraki Prefectural Police officials said they had arrested Hirobumi Komatsu, who says he is ...
Arson blamed for Kenya girls school inferno deadly to nine, seen as part of a trend
Kenya's education minister said on Monday that arson was to blame for a weekend blaze that killed nine pupils at a girls' boarding school, part of a rising trend of deliberate school fires. "It was not an accident, it was arson," Minister Fred Matiang'i said ...
Arson suspected as over 90 wildfires rage in Greece, gutting homes, spurring evacuations
Firefighters battled more than 90 forest fires across Greece on Monday, an outbreak fed by dry winds and hot weather that saw blazes burning near Athens, in the Peloponnese, and on the Ionian islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. The fire near Athens was burning unchecked ...
