10,000 evacuated from French camps

PARIS • French officials evacuated 10,000 people from three different campsites on Monday as hot winds fanned fires in drought-hit Provence.

Thirty mobile homes went up in flames in one camping site about 40km west of Cannes, and 10 in another.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Spy death: Man backs out of giving evidence

LONDON • A Russian wanted in Britain over former spy Alexander Litvinenko's death has backed out of appearing by video-link from Moscow at the inquiry into the 2006 poisoning, just days before its conclusion later this week.

Dmitry Kovtun and a second Russian are wanted by British police for allegedly poisoning Kremlin critic Litvinenko in a London hotel in 2006 using tea laced with polonium-210, a radioactive isotope. High court judge Robert Owen, who chairs the inquiry, said if Kovtun was genuine about giving evidence, obstacles have been put in the way of his doing so.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

$1.36m gold haul from sunken fleet

ORLANDO • A Florida family which has hunted treasure for years found more than US$1 million (S$1.36 million) worth of gold artefacts from the wreckage of a 1715 Spanish fleet that sank in the Atlantic, according to a salvage company's estimate.

The find included 51 gold coins and 12m of ornate gold chain.

REUTERS