over wednesday night. the head of a siberian region has declared friday a non working day and urged residents to stay home due to the threat of forest fire smoke to public health. according to the russian forestry commission this seasons wildfires have burned away 9.2 million hectares of forest, an area the size of portugal. and emergency teams in northern india have now rescued thousands of people stranded by floods in the state of uttar pradesh. india s most populous state is suffering some of its worst flooding in decades, following days of torrential downpours. monsoon rains in india have led to hundreds of deaths sincejune. extreme weather in many parts of the world contributed to near record costs for the global insurance industry worth around a0 billion dollars in the first half of the year. it s the second highest total ever according to insurance firm swiss re. it says overall losses, including uninsured costs, reached 77 billion dollars.