 Unusually
hot summer weather is melting alpine glaciers in Italy and causing
numerous forest and brush fires in the rest of the country, including
the island of Sicily.
Temperatures
up to 38C and high humidity is forecast to continue for several
more days.
More than
7,000 forest and brush fires have been reported so far during
August alone - 20% more than last year.
Many fires
are believed to have been set by arsonists who hope to profit
from the development of land that has been burned.
Glaciers melting
The government
has recently announced new legislation which will enable the courts
to hand down long prison terms and heavy fines for crimes of arson.
In the Italian
Alps many glaciers are receding at a rate which exceeds that of
the normal summer melting period.
One mountain,
the Marmolada, shed two metres of ice in only two days, revealing
signs of an often talked about but never seen before nest of bunkers,
barracks and storage areas built by Austro-Hungarian troops during
World War I.
The body of
an Italian soldier killed during heavy mountain fighting more
than 80 years ago has been found by hikers at an altitude of 2,700m.
The body had
been partly preserved by glacial ice.
Fortifications
built by the Italian army facing an onslaught from Austria have
also been uncovered by melting snow, luring tourists hunting for
war souvenirs to the area.
Summer skiing
has been banned in some parts of the Italian Alps because of the
risk of avalanches.
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