The death toll from a landslide in northeastern Turkey has gone up to 12, the nation's official news agency reported Saturday. Rescuers pulled a woman's body in Gundogdu region after torrential rains pounded the region Thursday, according to Anadolu Ajansi news service.

The landslides and heavy flooding have damaged several houses and a school in the region. A day earlier, rescuers pulled three bodies from the debris of two collapsed homes, the news agency said.

Storms which left a trail of damage across Algeria killed at least seven people, a civil defence official told state radio.

Four bodies were recovered in the M'sila region, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Algiers, adding to three who died Wednesday in the town of Djelfa, 50 kilometres further south, he said.

Several major highways were closed by the storms which broke on Tuesday, and caused widespread flooding after a prolonged dry period.

In Nicosia, Cyprus, the temperature of 45.6C was the highest recorded since the beginning of last century, the second highest was 44.4C, recorded in Nicosia on August 8, 1956. The maximum temperature in Nicosia on Sunday was 8.4C higher than normal while minimum temperature reached 29C, 7C higher than normal. Prodromos, on the Troodos range, recorded a temperature of 36.1C, 8.2C above normal. Humidity was also high across Cyprus.

Italy is setting up an emergency telephone hotline to help people cope with a heat wave that is set to become even more fiery over the next few days.

Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio said on Wednesday that the hotline, 1500, would enable people to get help if they are in difficulty and obtain information on how to cope with the sizzling temperatures.

''We are in a situation of alert,'' said Fazio, adding that the service will be up and running within a few days.

A maximum temperature of 37°C was registered on Wednesday in Trapani, 36°C in Foggia and Taranto, 35°C in Catania, 34° in Bologna, Bolzano, Florence and Perugia. Temperatures are set to rise even higher from Thursday to Sunday.

At least 25 people have been killed after torrential rains caused the worst flash flooding for two centuries in a southern region of France.

Authorities in the Var, a popular holiday region, raised the death toll to 25 from an earlier count of 19 after the floodwaters engulfed streets in torrents of mud and drove people onto the roofs of their homes. Officials warned other bodies might be found as the search continued as rescuers continued digging through mud-filled cars and wreckage for 13 people still missing. The drama was centred in the town of Draguignan about an hour west of Cannes, where 12 people died.

Floodwaters reached more than six feet in some areas as 12 inches of rain fell in as many hours, with people being rescued from rooftops by helicopter crews. Floodwaters more than six feet high transformed the roads of Draguignan, between Marseille and Monaco, into gushing brown rivers that swept away cars, trees and ripped the sides of houses in the Var department of Provence.

Torrential rains - the equivalent of six months' rainfall fell within hours - caused water levels to rise so swiftly that many people had no time to flee to higher ground and were forced to seek shelter on the roofs of their homes. Scores of cars were piled on top of each other and holiday homes and camp sites in the region were devastated.

"We opened the door of the house and the water rushed towards us like the sea. There was a great wave. We managed to swim to our neighbours," said Christine, an inhabitant of Draguignan. "It wasn't a flood, it was a catastrophe."

According to Meteo France, the national forecaster, the region has not seen such floods since 1827. Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, described them as "an unprecedented catastrophe for the region" and said that the death toll could rise.

The floods also struck the popular tourist town of Fréjus, where more than 1,500 people were taken to safety in inflatable boats or by helicopter airlift to four shelters. Tourists were among those trapped by the floods, in particular in campsites along the Argens river. Firefighters rushed to prize people from their cars, houses or rooftops and searched for missing people.

"This morning, we woke up to find a city that was devastated, extremely battered with overturned cars floating in the streets, collapsed roads and gutted houses," said the head of the emergency operation, Corinne Orzechowski.

Emergency teams also moved 436 inmates from a flooded prison in Draguignan to nearby jails, while the rising waters also trapped a high speed train travelling from Nice to Lille with 300 passengers on board. Up to 200,000 homes suffered power cuts during the rainstorms and electricity had only been restored to around half of those by Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

All rail services between Toulon and Saint-Raphael were halted while water drained from tracks. Locals were angry that Meteo France had not given enough warning about the seriousness of the downpours in a region which regularly suffers from floods. An early warning flood system along three of the region's main rivers – long called for by locals – will only be in place next year.

A flash flood swept away a municipal worker helping in evacuation efforts in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul. Heavy rains, which have been pounding the city since the weekend, caused a river on the city's Asian side to burst its banks, inundating dozens of houses.

Heavy snowfall left thousands of homes without electricity and huge waves battered the coastline in southern France as winter made a surprise return. Trees and branches crashed down from the weight of snow and ruptured electricity cables in the southwest, cutting-off 23,000 homes in "an exceptional situation for the season", electricity company ERDF said. Snow also forced the airport in Perpignan to close and several flights were cancelled in Montpellier. Meanwhile on the French Riviera, which is preparing to host the Cannes Film Festival from 12th May, ten-metre-high waves battered the coastline, leaving one woman with a fractured leg and causing major material damage.

A tornado struck Wednesday afternoon at around 5pmk between Cadelbosco and Bagnolo in Italy. There were gusts up to 120 kilometres per hour. Dozens of people called the emergency centre for help. The tornado occurred in an area with  little traffic but a truck was blown down. An eyewitness reported that the tornado was about 15 minutes on the ground for about six kilometres.

The tornado also destroyed roofs, chimneys and uprooted trees. The COOP supermarket at Bagnolo was also badly damaged. Luckily, no one was injured.

At least nine people have been killed in storms that have lashed parts of Spain, Portugal and France. Winds of up to 140km/h caused chaos as they moved from Portugal up through the Bay of Biscay. Five people are reported to have been killed in France, three in Spain and a 10-year-old boy in Portugal.

The storm, which has been called Xynthia, has put five of the 95 French departments on red alert - only the second such warning since the new emergency system was introduced in 2001. Hundreds of thousands of homes in west and south-west France have lost electricity while a number of French coastal villages were flooded.

Some people had taken to their roofs in the Vendee region, one policeman told the Agence France-Presse news agency by telephone. Three people drowned in Vendee, while an 88-year-old woman also drowned in Charentes-Maritime, police said. The fifth French fatality was caused by a falling tree in the Pyrenees region.

A tree also claimed the lives of two Spanish men when their vehicle was hit and a Spanish woman aged 82 was killed by a falling wall in Galicia. The Portuguese boy was also killed by a tree. Rail services were severely affected in northern Spain.

Spain's Canary Islands, particularly La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, were hit by the storm, although there was no great damage.

Persistent heavy rain has left hundreds more homes flooded around Andalucia. The record rainfall, which has seen over 400 mm falling in many areas in under a week, caused dozens of rivers to burst their banks. The highest rainfall fell in Grazalema, where the town saw 709mm fall since December 21. Since September 1,200mm has fallen in Spain´s wettest town, which is 60 per cent higher than the average for this time of year. Algeciras saw 400mm of rain, while Torremolinos saw 322mm in under a week. In total over 2 cubic kilometres of water have entered the reservoirs in Andalucia over the last ten days. This is 20 per cent of the total capacity for the region. Some of the worst flooding was in Jerez where the Guadalete river burst its banks leaving 2000 homes flooded and dozens of families cut off. The La Ina area was worst affected, while 26 houses were affected in Las Pachecas. The water authority confirmed that the river was at its highest level for 'over 100 years'. In Granada two houses were swept away by floods in Guadix, while two electricity lines were blown over in Cadiz. There was 'incalculable' damage to farming land in Almeria, while 18 000 homes in Jerez were cut off from water.

A tornado struck Catania between 3.30 and 4.00 pm today. Two people were injured in the city and tragically, four naval officers were seriously injured when the tornado struck their helicopter hangar at the Maristaeli Base. One of them has since died. At Motta Sant'Anastasia, 15 kilometres away, roofs were blown off houses and trees were felled.

One man died and another was missing on Sunday, after storms washed away roads and flooded homes and farms across Greece. The body of a 41-year-old man was recovered by the coast guard near the central Greek city of Volos. He drowned after strong winds overturned his vessel, the coast guard said. Fire fighters rescued 10 people trapped in their homes in northern and central Greece. Dozens of animals drowned, as farms and crops were damaged by the heavy rains. The national road between Athens and the Peloponnese was blocked due to mudslides.

Heavy rains and flash floods have killed 17 people in a semi-arid region of southern Tunisia. Witnesses said many of the dead were killed when the roofs and walls of their homes collapsed. Others were carried away by flood waters that rose to more than two metres (six feet) in some areas.

"As a result of these floods, 17 are dead and eight injured ... and the search for missing people continues," TAP said. "President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali gave his instructions to ensure an immediate and quick remedy to the situation."

September is normally a dry month in Tunisia but heavy rains have fallen for days across the north African country and in neighbouring Algeria, where 16 people have been killed in the past week, according to media reports.

Khamsa Ben Othman from the Tunisian town of Redeyef said six members of her extended family had died including two babies.

"What we saw was horrible," she told Reuters by telephone. "People have been surrounded by the waters for hours."

Redeyef lies in a deprived phosphate mining region that saw riots last year as residents demanded more government help to create jobs. Ben Ali, in power for more than two decades, is seeking re-election in October.

17 people, including the Swiss ambassador, were injured in a tornado in Nicosia which blew up out of nowhere, causing traffic chaos, the collapse of a theatre in Latsia and damage to houses and cars.

The tornado, accompanied by hammering rain, tore off rooftops and uprooted trees which smashed into cars during rush hour traffic. Parts of the city were blocked by trees, while flying debris smashed shop windows and factory roofs collapsed.

"It was unbelievable, the damage is huge. Thank God we had no victims," said Panayiotis Kyprianou, mayor of the Nicosia suburb of Latsia.

Police said those injured were hit either by flying debris or when trees crashed onto their vehicles. Their condition was not serious. One lane on Limassol avenue, Nicosia's main artery for incoming and outgoing traffic, was completely blocked by fallen tree branches. Minister of Interior Nikos Sykiliotis praised the authorities, which were quick to start clearing the debris.

A day after deadly water roared through this city, killing dozens of residents, hundreds of mourners gathered at a mosque for the funerals of seven women who drowned in a minivan. The seven -- employees of a nearby textile factory -- died Wednesday when a flash flood engulfed their vehicle as they were traveling to work.

Gulsum Senkoglu was one of the few to escape being trapped in the minivan. "I'm still in shock," said Senkoglu, who complained of memory gaps after Wednesday's ordeal.

Standing a few metrers from the felt-draped coffins of her co-workers in Istanbul's working class neighborhood of Halkali, Senkoglu said she believed that the minivan driver rescued her by pulling her through a window onto the roof of the vehicle. Then she described how he frantically tried and failed to cut into the roof of the minivan to save the other women as the water swirled around them.

A young man who gave only his first name, Volkan, sobbed uncontrollably beside the coffin of his cousin, 23-year-old Guldane Ciftci. "Her mother warned her not to go to work that day," he said, adding that Ciftci had begun working at the factory only three days ago. "She was happy to have a job during this economic crisis," Volkan said. "She was a young girl. She had dreams."

The flash floods killed at least 31 people on Tuesday and Wednesday in Istanbul and in neighboring Tekirdag province.

Late Wednesday night, Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a news conference at Istanbul's Disaster Management Center, called the floods the "disaster of the century." He blamed the high death toll on record rainfall and on developers, who have constructed buildings in vulnerable riverbeds and flood plains.

"As our ancestors used to say, 'The river's revenge will be strong,'" Erdogan said. "We should remember what our ancestors say."

But in the wake of the deadly floods, several urban planning experts said government officials also are partly to blame for the high death toll.

"The Istanbul administration, especially in the last 15 years, created these conditions by allowing high-density construction in these areas," Eyup Muhcu, chairman of Istanbul's Chamber of Architects, said in an interview with CNN.

Muhcu said his association tried and failed in court to prevent construction of industrial and commercial zones in western districts of Istanbul around the Ayamama River, where much of the flooding occurred Wednesday.

"They turn the river into concrete channels and, together with the buildings around it, the water rises since it cannot be absorbed," Muhcu said.

Residents of an entire Athens suburb have been ordered from their homes as out-of-control wildfires blaze around the Greek capital. The 10,000 residents of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, were to leave the suburb immediately.

Fires have been burning in a wide arc north-east of Athens, pushed by strong and unpredictable winds. The fires - the worst since those in 2007 which killed about 70 people - are being called an environmental disaster. Italy, France and Cyprus are sending aircraft to help the hard-pressed Greek fire crews.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has said the country is facing "a great ordeal" but has praised the emergency services for making "a superhuman effort". Dozens of homes have been torched and authorities have declared a state of emergency in the Athens area but no casualties have been reported.

"I call on all residents to follow the instructions of the police as to where they will go," the deputy mayor of Agios Stefanos, Panayiotis Bitakos, said on Skai TV. "We had been begging the authorities since early in the morning to send forces... It is too late now. Too late."

Police with loudspeakers went through the suburb telling residents to head immediately to Athens. "The winds are stronger and change direction all the time, spreading the fire even further," fire brigade spokesman Giannis Kapakis told Reuters. The fires are reported to have begun late on Friday near the site of a planned waste disposal facility in Grammatiko, near the ancient town of Marathon.

They have spread rapidly across the hills outside Athens, burning through forests, olive groves and encroaching on suburbs. The fires grew larger over Saturday and spread to Varnavas. By Sunday morning, houses were burning in the Athens suburbs of Drafi, Pikermi and Pallini. Overnight, fires also crested the top of Pendeli, a hilly, northern suburb with a panoramic view of Athens, setting houses alight.

Much of Pendeli mountain was laid waste in 2007, the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens says. Three of the four mountains surrounding the capital have already been stripped of their trees by previous fires and further erosion of the forest cover would be an ecological disaster, our correspondent adds.

Hundreds of firefighters and soldiers - backed by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water - are battling the fires but they are too numerous and widespread to contain, our correspondent says.

"The situation is tragic. Fires are out of control on many fronts," said a regional Athens governor, Yiannis Sgouros. He told Greek television more than 30,000 acres of land had been burnt in what he described as "an ecological disaster".

Many residents of the threatened towns and suburbs have fled by car, motorbike and on foot, but others have stayed behind to try to defend their homes. Two children's hospitals, a summer camp and a psychiatric clinic have been evacuated.

"We urge everyone to comply with the instructions of those responsible," Mr Karamanlis said. "We face a great ordeal." Another governor in the Athens region, Leonidas Kouris, called the fires "a very significant environmental disaster, perhaps the gravest in recent years". The fires have sent a thick haze of smoke spreading across much of Athens.

Other fires are burning in the central Greek region of Viotia, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, which has already been hit by fires this summer, and on the Aegean islands of Skyros and Evia.

In July, dozens of fires burnt through thousands of hectares of land in Greece, Spain, France and Italy. According to the conservation group Greenpeace, heat waves and drier conditions are leading to larger and more uncontrollable forest fires across the whole Mediterranean region.

A large forest fire raged out of control on the northern outskirts of Athens today, sending thick clouds of smoke over the Greek capital as it burned homes and threatened three villages.

Fanned by strong winds, the fire broke out late yesterday and spread to residential areas overnight, the fire brigade said. At least two homes were engulfed, a police source said. Six airplanes, five helicopters, 35 fire engines and 150 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames.

Gale-force winds fanned more than 100 blazes across Greece in less than 24 hours yesterday. Another fire raged on the island of Zakynthos, in western Greece, without threatening homes, the fire brigade said.

Parts of Greece and Spain continue to suffer from wildfires caused by high temperatures and strong winds. In Athens, a fire which broke out in forest brush came dangerously close to warehouses to the west of the city. Meanwhile firefighters in Spain continued their week-long battle with wildfires in the northeastern Aragon region.

Four firefighters were killed while trying to tackle forest fires in north-eastern Spain. Another two were badly burned in the same incident, when the wind changed direction and the firefighters were suddenly overwhelmed by the flames. The firemen were trying to contain a fire in the Els Ports national park near Tarragona in the Catalonia region. Temperatures of around 40C have helped fan fires, not only in the north but also near Madrid in central Spain.

It was hot in Morocco. On Monday, maximum temperatures included 48C at Agadir. Nouasser, near Casablanca/Dar el Beida, had 47C. On Tuesday, 45C was recorded at Rabat. This heat came from a southerly to southeasterly wind flow strong enough to stave off the usual cooling sea breeze.

On Saturday 20th June at around 1:30pm, a 33-year-old man died while kite surfing at Campo di Mare in the Lazio region in Italy. He was kite surfing with two other companions when a tornado swept him up and hurled him against the roof of a building nearby. Falling back to earth he ended up on some iron railings. He was killed instantly. Another kite surfer was luckier as he was dumped onto a car. He was seriously injured but survived.

A devastating storm hit some parts of Italy causing the collapse of houses and sheds, uprooting trees and injuring 28 people, some seriously.

The worst damage was caused in Veneto where a tornado tore down a sports centre and the roofs of some houses, leaving behind a scene of devastation similar to that of a bombing. Most of the damage was caused by the very strong winds - 70-80 km/h even in the town of Treviso. Strong hailstorms also hit the province of Vicenza.

Most of the children and their parents who were in the sports centre managed to escape before the collapse of the sports centre, but some children were slightly hurt. However, a 45-year-old woman was seriously injured when she was hit by an electricity pylon while she was out jogging.

Those same strong winds also caused damage in Milan. Here, trees were torn down, branches broken and slight damage caused to some houses. An 8-year-old child was injured by some flying debris from the roof of a house. In the outskirts of Milan a man was injured by some falling branches. Another woman was slightly injured when a tree came crashing down on her car.

A freak twister and hailstorm swept through Larnaca yesterday, uprooting trees, tearing off rooftops and snapping power cables.

All it took was five minutes for the storm and whirlwind, which broke at the same time, to wreak havoc on the town and its outskirts, as walnut-sized hail stones struck homes and the fierce wind shook cars.

The worst happened in the area near the Antonis Papadopoulos stadium and the Kokkinos refugee settlement. Debris sucked by the twister was hurtled on vehicles, kiosks and residences.

Heavy hail fell on the section of the Nicosia-Larnaca highway close to the suburb of Aradippou and the roundabout junction. Traffic was briefly affected as motorists slowed down to cope with the slippery conditions.

A few minor accidents, involving two slight injuries, took place on the Larnaca-Ayia Napa highway, as cars on both lanes were forced to pull over to the side of the road until the storm died down. The villages of Athienou, Leivadia, Oroklini, Pyla and Dasaki were also affected.

The police, Fire Department and Civil Defense responded to dozens of calls from distressed residents. The twister near the football stadium left residents shell-shocked.

“Never in my life have I seen such a thing,” said Eleftheria Pavlou, whose sun lounge window was smashed by flying debris. Frightened residents told how their cars wobbled when caught in the eye of the tornado.

In northwestern Africa, particularly Algeria, strong winds blew. At Chlef, winds on Thursday rose as high as 80mph. At Oran, speeds topped 65mph. Well inland, high winds whipped over the northern Sahara, driving visibility to 100m or lower. This happened from eastern Algeria to southern Tunisia and northwestern Libya.

Hurricane-force winds have swept across Spain and France, leaving 16 people dead, authorities and media have reported. Four boys were killed and nine other people, including two adults, were injured Saturday when the roof collapsed at a sports center outside Barcelona, authorities said. Eight other people were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in Spain and four in France

The sports complex collapsed shortly after 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) in Sant Boi de Llobregat, a suburb just west of the city, near the Prat airport. The boys who died, who were aged nine- to 12-years old, were among 17 youngsters playing baseball outside when strong winds began blowing. The adults took 11 of the children into the building, authorities said. Six boys remained outside.

The winds caused the metal roof and part of the building's concrete siding to collapse on those inside, where the deaths and injuries occurred, a spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government's fire brigade told CNN. The six boys who stayed outside were not hurt. Earlier official reports that said they had been injured were wrong.

Catalan Regional President Jose Montilla and other top officials, along with emergency services, rushed to the complex, an aide to Montilla said. Emergency workers thought they had rescued all survivors and recovered all bodies from the building by early afternoon, the CNN+ reporter said.

Spanish media have reported winds of up to 99 mph in parts of Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona. Strong winds have also had much of northern Spain on alert. The winds would signify a Category 2 hurricane, which has wind speeds that range from 96 to 110 mph, according to the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The strong winds led officials to put much of northern Spain on alert. Residents were advised to stay inside. Various airports in northern Spain suffered delays, as did the high-speed train service between Madrid and Barcelona, authorities said.

A Civil Guard officer in northwestern Spain died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear other fallen trees, and a woman in Barcelona was crushed by a wall that caved in. A fire brigade spokeswoman also said that two people were killed by falling trees in separate incidents near the city.

A 73-year-old woman in the Spanish province of Burgos was killed when a door slammed into her, and a sailor who was part of a crew rescued from a ship about 70 miles off the northwestern Spanish coast died after being taken to the city of La Corunya, state and local media reported.

The severe weather, which began Friday night, has also pummeled southwestern France, knocking out power for about 1.2 million homes, according to Electricite de France. Regions hit included Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrenees, Gers, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Aude and Pyrenees-Orientales, officials said, with fallen trees and damaged roads hindering access.

On Saturday, two drivers in the city of Les Landes were killed when heavy winds downed trees that fell on their cars. A 78-year-old man also died after being struck by debris near his home, police said. In Gironde, a 73-year-old woman who was on a respiratory machine died after her home lost power.

A storm spun eastward over northwest Africa, reaching the shore near the Tunisia-Libya border today. This big storm has whipped up widespread dust storms over Algeria and snow along its Tell Atlas. But the cold, soaking rain that pelted the northernmost Sahara stood out. El Oued was splashed with 85mm of rain as of Thursday morning. This would be more than the normal yearly rainfall of about 76mm. Eight people died and 15 others were injured as a result of this weather in Algeria since Tuesday. Heavy rain accompanied by hail and snow were reported Tuesday and Wednesday in northern Algeria including Tlemcen, Ain Temouchent, Oran, Mostaganem, Médéa, Algiers, Boumerdès, Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia. A sudden drop in temperature has been registered since Tuesday evening in the north of the country where abundant snowfalls were also recorded. Some 25cm of snow have fallen in particular in the Department of Sétif, according to the National Office of Meteorology.

Large parts of the Spanish Interior were hit by heavy snow with Madrid being badly affected. Between 6cm and 10cm of snow have fallen in parts of the capital causing disruption on roads and affecting rail transportation. One of Europe's busiest airports, Madrid Barajas, was forced to close during Saturday morning due to the heavy snowfall and poor visibility. Across the border in France, more than 1000 homes still remain without electricity after heavy snow caused white-out conditions in the Marseille region.

At least four workers were killed when the upper floors of a hotel on the Spanish island of Mallorca collapsed after torrential rain. "The hotel was being refitted and was closed to the public," an emergency services spokesman said. Mallorca has suffered nearly two days of heavy rain, which has closed roads and forced the evacuation of 120 people from their flooded homes.

Violent storms flooded parts of Rome, killing at least one person as the sea threatened to once more inundate Venice. Firefighters in the capital said they had to evacuate dozens of people trapped in cars on flooded streets and on ground floors of buildings. Civil protection officials said more rain was expected Friday, further swelling the roiling Tiber river, which runs through the city. From midnight to 8 a.m. Thursday, 60-100mm of rain fell in Rome - more than the average for the entire month of December.

High tides hit Venice (Italy), leaving it submerged again, just a day after experiencing its worst floods in 20 years. On Monday as water levels rose to a height of 156cm the city was brought to a virtual standstill. As much as 99% of the city was left submerged by the time the waters peaked mid-morning. This was the fourth highest tide to have hit the city since records began in 1872, and the highest level seen since 1986. The highest tide recorded was during the disastrous floods of November 1966 when the water level rose to 193cm. The recent high tides have been caused by low pressure which has been sitting in the eastern Mediterranean over the last few days. Strong winds funnelling up the Adriatic Sea have created the unusually high tides, driving the sea in across the country.

One person has been killed and dozens of boats have been severely damaged or sunk by storms on the Spanish island of Majorca. The storms hit the island frequently last week, and the weather finally calmed on Sunday.

In San Telmo, a 62-year-old man died when he tried to save his sinking yacht. Winds of up to 60 mph were reported with gusts reaching 75 mph. Boats could be seen sinking into the water for several days after the storm, with people unable to rescue them due to the conditions.

Local residents stated that they were the worst to hit the island, which has a large number of ports, in ten years, with the clean up effort continuing into this week.

Violent storms have battered much of Morocco producing torrential rain and flash flooding, killing at least seven people. The thunderstorms and prolonged downpours lashed the country throughout Monday causing rivers to swell and break their banks. Dozens of homes were inundated by the flood waters and many clay homes completely collapsed leaving scores homeless. Five people were reported to have drowned in the fast flowing flood waters with at least two others killed by lightning strikes. Some of the worst affected areas were across the provinces of Zagora, Essaouira, Azilal and also Oujda in the northeast close to the border with Algeria.

A British woman and her 14-year-old daughter have drowned in a flash flood in eastern Spain which has been lashed by torrential rains. The pair had tried to cross a swollen stream on foot near the town of L'Olleria after rising flood waters forced them to abandon the car they were travelling in. The flood waters reached between 12 and 16 inches "but they did not correctly measure the force of the stream and they were swept away," a spokeswoman said.

Torrential rains in the Algerian Sahara caused flash floods that killed 30 people and injured dozens in a historic oasis region, officials in the North African nation said Thursday. Hundreds of people had to be rescued by helicopter, and up to 600 houses were destroyed in the rains Tuesday and Wednesday around the medieval town of Ghardaia, the official APS news agency said. Security services and the military were helping in the rescue operations. The country's head of public health, Ali Belkhir, told national radio that 29 people had died. But the region's governor said 30 were counted dead by late Thursday, APS said.

The storms this week caused a local wadi -- or seasonal river that remains dry for most of the year -- to rise at some points by 26 feet (8 metres) within hours, APS said. While Belkhir said 84 people had been injured, the Interior Ministry lowered that number to 48, including three people who have been hospitalized in serious condition.

The army has been deployed in Ghardaia to prevent looting, APS quoted the ministry as saying. It reported some 400 tons of food were being sent to the zone, along with 1,000 tents and 200,000 blankets. There was concern that drinking water was contaminated, and authorities were working to reopen damaged roads and downed electricity and gas links. Phone lines to the area remained disrupted Thursday, and local officials could not be reached for comment.

A town of about 100,000 people, Ghardaia lies about 370 miles (595 kilometers) south of Algiers on the edges of the Sahara Desert in a long and narrow valley known as the M'zab, which is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. It is the seat of the Mozabite people, who practice a form of dissident Islam unique to their region.

Spanning much of Northern Africa, the Sahara is the world's largest desert and one of the driest. But thunderstorms can occasionally bring massive rains to the region, and the engorged rivers can cause serious damage. Celebrated explorer and travel writer Isabelle Eberhardt, for instance, drowned in the overflowing wadi where she was camping in the Algerian Sahara in 1904.

In neighboring Morocco, the MAP news agency reported that two people drowned and several were missing in similar floods near the southern city of Marrakech.

Showers and storms broke out early on Sunday evening of 10th August 2008 in several regions across Greece. A strong hailstorm hit the central Greek cities of Megara and Elefsian, while thunderbolts sparked fires in the areas of Alepohori and Karaouli. The downpour that followed put out the fires.

Similar conditions prevailed in the towns of Gythio and Zaharo in southern Greece. The Fire Service received dozens of calls to have flood waters pumped out. Serious problems were also caused in the northern Greek towns of Halkidiki and Kavala, while landslide and flood waters suspended traffic on Egnatia Odos near the town of Asprovalta for two and a half hours. The hailstorm also caused serious damage to crops in Thessaly.

Yesterday's storms and hailstorms caused damages to crops in Greece, in Orfanos municipality in Kavala, Farsala and Korinthia while thunders sparked fires in Elefsina, Korinthia and Eboia. Also traffic was suspended in part of Egnatia road outside Thessaloniki due to flood water. In the Karditsa prefecture hailstorms caused damages mainly to cotton and corn crops while strong winds blew away roofs and broke trees.