Amazon forest fire rages, people nearby face breathing problem

The fires tearing through the Amazon represent a "tipping point" for the health of the rainforest, the head of a top global forestry management body said Wednesday, urging the world to do more to save the trees.
The situation in the Amazon is "very urgent," stressed Gerhard Dieterle, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organisation, an intergovernmental agency group that promotes sustainable forestry use.
"This is something that might affect the integrity of the Amazon as a whole, because if the forest fires spread, the grasslands become more prone to forest fires," Dieterle told AFP on the sidelines of a conference on African development.