Asia

Islamabad: The death toll from a suicide blast near a public gatheringin Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has risen to 14, while 26 others were injured, police sources told Xinhua on Sunday. The victims included many police personnel who had been deployed to provide security for the rally, the sources said. "The explosion occurred near the gate of a police station at the time when a public gathering was concluding in a closer proximity," Muhammad Umar, district police officer of Swat, told Xinhua. The killed and injured include both civilians of the rally and the policemen, he added. The suicide bomber attempted to enter the police station, but was intercepted by a policeman at the main gate, where he detonated the explosives he was carrying, he added.

Europe

Athens: The two-man crew of a firefighting helicopter in Greece were killed in a mid-air collision with another chopper Sunday as both aircraft were deployed to battle a wildfire near Athens, a fire department spokesman said. "The pilots... were taken unconscious to hospital, where their death was confirmed," the fire department's director of communications Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said in a televised address.

Europe

Porto Germeno, Greece: Two fire helicopters collided in Greece on Sunday as forces battled multiple wildfires that have devastated swathes of land, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warning of "extremely difficult" days ahead. The hired Bell helicopters collided while battling a wildfire in the Psatha area west of Athens, the fire service said on Sunday. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Peninsula Qatar (@peninsula_qatar) "Search and rescue teams were immediately mobilised to locate and assist the crews," it said. State broadcaster ERT reported that one crewmember had been found safe, while rescuers were searching for the second. Television footage showed one of the helicopters explode and plunge to the ground in flames after an apparent rotor collision. Mitsotakis earlier said Greece was experiencing "extreme weather conditions" with winds that had reached 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour. "When the winds blow with such force, even the dozens of aircraft we have at our disposal cannot operate safely," he wrote on Facebook. Nearly 500 firefighters were battling blazes around the popular coastal village of Porto Germeno, 70 kilometres northwest of Athens, the fire department said. They were attempting to keep the fire from approaching the western outskirts of Athens after it scaled a mountain overnight.