BBC在线收听下载:日本称炎热天气致多人死亡

Hello, I'm Jerry Smit with the BBC News.

At least fifty people have been killed in Greece as wildfires continue to ravage coastal towns and holiday resorts near Athens. The deaths include the discovery of 26 bodies at a villa. More bodies have been found at sea as people have taken to the water to escape the flames. A journalist Alinda ladru-Pollo is on the outskirts of the Greek capital. Most of the confirmed victims were trapped in the seaside resort of Mati, which is about forty kilometers to the northeast of Athens and most died in the homes or their cars while trying to flee. Dozens of homes have burned completely as have many dozens of cars, so we're looking at images of complete destruction.

Official figures in Japan showed that a record-breaking heat wave killed 65 people last week. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency says more than 22,000 people were admitted to hospital suffering from heatstroke during the same period, nearly half of them elderly.

South Korea is considering withdrawing some troops and equipment from its heavily fortified border with North Korea. The plan, which would be on a trial basis, is aimed at reducing tension along what's known as the demilitarized zone or DMZ. Michael Bristow reports. This buffer zone is one of the world's most recognizable military flash points as a concentration of weapons on both sides. Now the truce village of Panmunjom, opposing troops are literally eyeball to eyeball. Occasionally, there were skirmishes. When they met in April, the leaders of North and South Korea pledged to make the border more peaceful. To mark an improvement in relations, South Korea is now planning to make good on that promise by reducing some troops and equipment at the border.

Members of the Thai youth football team who were trapped in an underground cave for two weeks before being rescued, will shortly begin the process of becoming novice Buddhist monks. One of the reasons for their short spell in a monastery is to thank those who helped free them. Nick Beake reports. Eleven of the players will spend nine days, a Thai lucky number, meditating, praying and cleaning their temple. Their coach, who's been both criticized for allowing them into the cave in the first place and praised for helping them survive, would join them. The boys' heads will be shaved before ceremony intended to reclaim their souls, which may have been troubled during their ordeal underground.

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