Oregon

With oppressively hot, dry weather looming over much of the Western U.S. and Canada on July 18, the enormous Bootleg Fire in Oregon grew again and authorities ordered new evacuations.

Bootleg, the largest of 80 major fires now active in the U.S., spread overnight from 274,000 acres to 290,000 acres -- three times the size of the metropolis of Detroit, officials said.

The measures are aimed at individuals

US Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who branded the Russian leadership "fascist" during Senate testimony on the alleged Russian meddling in the US elections, is "yet another US lawmaker who lost his senses," Russia's embassy in Washington has said.

The two people in the photo, Josiah and Stef, live in Portland, Oregon, and have found themselves at the centre of a Twitter moment after more than few people noticed a photo of them – passed out drunk, no less – had a Renaissance painting feel about it. Some have even gone so far as to alter the photograph to make it seem even more Renaissance-y.

One of the world's largest zoos, Gaziantep Zoo in southeastern Turkey, has become the scene of sweet competition with the recent arrival of a new lion cub.

The throne of chimpanzee Can as symbol of the zoo has been shaken by Cesur (Brave), a lion cub recently found abandoned in a car in the Şırnak province's Cizre district. 

A new educational tour starts at the Metropolitan Zoo - now you can participate in feeding of some of the most attractive and most visited animals, BGNES reports.

Every Saturday and Sunday, zoo visitors can get involved in feeding monkeys, predatory cats, otters and hippopotamuses while learning interesting facts about their habits, the zoo said.

A man fatally stabbed two passengers aboard a Portland, Oregon, commuter train after they tried to stop him from harassing two young women who appeared to be Muslim, police said on May 27.

Police identified the assailant, who was arrested soon after the Friday afternoon attack, as Jeremy Joseph Christian of Portland, a 35-year-old convicted felon.

The Attica Zoological Park houses more than 2,000 animals of 350 different species, including reptiles, big cats and dolphins. In addition to seeing the animals - and in some cases being able to walk among them - visitors can also watch feeding sessions or go on a guided tour with an animal keeper. The park is open every day from 9 a.m. until sunset.

Dubbed the "living genbank" since it is home to many endangered animals, the Faruk Yalçın Zoo in Darıca close to Istanbul received 400,000 visitors last year. 

Education and Marketing Director Gökmen Aydın said the zoo in the northwestern province of Kocaeli was home to 3,600 animals from 286 species, making it the zoo with the most species in Turkey. 

I know the country has a wide and active agenda ranging from child molestation, corruption, lack of effective policies to foreign policy and football; as a newspaper columnist, it is my duty to move within this agenda.  

However, as many people are writing and commenting on this agenda anyway, I want to focus on a different subject, with your permission.