A fire destroyed 200 hectares (500 acres) of forest near the Aegean resort town of Bodrum on Saturday, AP QUOTED the Turkish authorities as saying. Several firefighting helicopters and planes, sent in from nearby provinces, were battling the blaze, which has been raging through pine trees and brush near Bodrum since Saturday morning, said Ibrahim Aydin, a senior forestry official in the area. It was not clear what caused the fire. Brush fires are common in Turkey during hot and arid summer months.
