Rain douses Amazon fires

RAIN has put out virtually all the fires raging in the savannah and jungles of Brazil's northern Amazon, but one official warned there was still a risk of new outbreaks. Satellite images showed that more than 95 per cent of the worst Amazon fires on record had been extinguished by heavy rains on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company said.

Fires set by subsistence farmers and fuelled by a drought linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon have raged for more than two months in Roraima, ravaging an area the size of Lebanon, according to an official estimate. - Reuters, Brasilia