Firefighters and soldiers are battling a wildfire that broke out overnight and burned through forest near Greece’s capital city, Athens. Authorities have managed to prevent the flames from moving into a nature reserve near the city’s northern suburbs.

The fire department says nearly 300 firefighters, soldiers and volunteers struggled through the night to contain the blaze that broke out in the Varibobi area north of Athens. At first light Tuesday they were joined by 10 water-dropping planes and two helicopters. At least four homes in the area were burned.

The blaze broke out late Monday night, the fire department said in a statement. Earlier Monday, another large wildfire burned about 10 homes as it raged through a hamlet near Marathon, north of Athens.

In a bid to protect its ancient glories from modern perils, Rome has banned cars and motors scooters from the boulevard that slices through the city’s ancient Roman forums toward the Colosseum.

Traffic police started enforcing the new restrictions at dawn Saturday, diverting private cars and motor scooters to side streets so they will no longer clog the famed Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Only buses, taxis, bicycles and pedestrians will be allowed on that boulevard, which was constructed in the 1930s by dictator Benito Mussolini so military parades could roll past reminders of the ancient Roman empire.

Rome’s new mayor, Ignazio Marino, says the ban will stop the Colosseum from being a traffic “roundabout” and reduce pollution.

Sidewalks have been widened so people can stroll in leisure down the boulevard.

The bizarre behaviour of a troop of ‘hysterical’ s at a Dutch zoo has been blamed on everything from an earthquake to a UFO.

Ordinarily seen scampering around on their island at the in the northern Netherlands, the gang of 112 monkeys have been sitting frozen on the ground and turning their backs on visitors this week.

The baboons have even lost their appetites, say baffled zoologists at the park, who have heard various theories as to what may be behind the animals’ strange behaviour.

‘They became panicked at the end of the day on Monday, they were hysterical, not jumping around but behaving strangely,’ zoologist Wijbren Landman told AFP.

‘On Tuesday and Wednesday they just sat in the trees or on the ground, hardly moving or eating.’

Mr Landman described various theories put forward to explain the bizarre scenes at the zoo, with some suggesting the baboons may have spotted a predator – either a real one or an image of one on a visitor’s t-shirt – or felt the rumblings of an earthquake.

The zoologist admitted he was yet to hear an explanation that ‘holds water’.

‘The craziest suggestion was that it was caused by a UFO,’ Mr Landman said.

Baboons at the zoo, who were all born in captivity, have behaved this way four times in the past 20 years, the team at Emmen Dierenpark said.

But their activity has not been observed among any baboons anywhere else, either in captivity or in the wild, according to a report in the Huffington Post.

Experts consulted by staff at Emmen Dierenpark have so far failed to shed any light on the mystery, but the animals have shown signs of returning to normal.

The Government has stepped in to stop U.S. singer Kelly Clarkson taking a gold and turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen out of the country. The star, who shot to fame when she won the American Idol show, bought the jewellery at auction last year for more than £150,000, but culture minister Ed Vaizey has put a temporary export bar on the piece in a bid to keep it in the UK. The ring is one of only three surviving pieces of jewellery known to have belonged to the Pride and Prejudice author, having been given to her sister Cassandra and then passed down through the family before it was sold. Mr Vaizey said: ‘Jane Austen’s modest lifestyle and her early death mean that objects associated with her of any kind are extremely rare, so I hope that a UK buyer comes forward so this simple but elegant ring can be saved for the nation.’ The decision on the export licence will be deferred until September 30 and can be extended to December 30 if proof emerges of “a serious intention to raise funds” to match its six-figure price tag.

Filling the sky with a mass of colour, these extraordinary pictures show hundreds of balloons taking off during a new world record attempt.

A total of 408 hot air balloons took off from a former Nato base in Chambley, France, in the hope of setting a new record for a mass take-off.

The balloonists are taking part in the Lorraine Mondial international hot air balloon festival, which is held at the Chambley-Bussieres Aerodrome.

They were attempting to beat the previous record, which was only set on Saturday at the same festival when 343 balloons successfully took to the air.

This broke the previous record of 329 balloons, set in 2009.

The popular festival has been taking place in France since 1989 and attracts balloonists from around the world.

Previous record attempts at the festival have been hampered by bad weather. In 2011, hundreds of balloonists had to postpone their attempt while poor conditions cleared.

Hot air balloon festivals are held annually around the world every year.