York skeleton is ‘first evidence of Roman gladiator battling a lion'
However, 1,800 years after an especially gruesome demise, his bones have provided an astonishing glimpse of Roman Britain — and what appears to be the first forensic evidence found anywhere of a gladiator being pitted against a wild animal.
His skeleton, excavated from a site in York — formerly the Roman city of Eboracum — has deep puncture wounds on a pelvic bone that match with unsettling precision the bite radius of a large cat, almost certainly a lion.
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Straits Times
18 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Three killed in European wildfires as heatwave intensifies
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A firefighter battling a wildfire in the village of Parafita in Spain, on Aug 12. MADRID - Three men died and thousands were forced from their homes on Aug 12 as wildfires fuelled by a heatwave scorched southern Europe. Heat alerts were issued in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans, with temperatures expected to soar above 40 deg C. The heatwave is another sign of climate change, which is fuelling longer, more intense and increasingly frequent bouts of extreme heat. 'Thanks to climate change, we now live in a significantly warmer world,' Dr Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the meteorology department in Britain's University of Reading told AFP, adding that 'many still underestimate the danger'. An employee of a Spanish equestrian centre died from his injuries in Tres Cantos, a wealthy suburb north of Madrid, officials said – reportedly as he tried to save horses. Later, officials in Castile and Leon in north-western Spain confirmed another man had been killed while fighting fires. And a soldier in the Balkan country of Montenegro died and another was seriously injured when their water tanker overturned while fighting wildfires in the hills north of the capital, Podgorica. A child died of heatstroke in Italy on Aug 11. The equestrian centre employee was the first fatality from dozens of wildfires that have hit Spain since a heatwave began last week. Hundreds of residents of Tres Cantos fled from the fast-moving blaze, which was contained on the morning of Aug 12. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that rescue services were 'working tirelessly to extinguish the fires' and warned: 'We are at extreme risk of forest fires. Please be very cautious.' Saved at 'last second' Elsewhere, about 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the popular beaches of Tarifa in Andalusia, southern Spain. The wildfire broke out near where a similar blaze forced evacuations earlier this month. 'We managed to save the residential area at the very last second,' said Mr Antonio Sanz, the Andalusia region's interior minister. In Castile and Leon, dozens of blazes were reported, including one threatening Las Medulas, a Unesco World Heritage site known for its ancient Roman gold mines. The head of the regional government of Castile and Leon, Mr Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, vowed 'to act quickly and generously' once the fire is over to restore the site 'to its full glory as soon as possible'. In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters battled three large wildfires, with the most serious near Trancoso in the centre of the country. More than 700 firefighters were deployed there. Church bells rang out on the morning of Aug 12 in Mendo Gordo, a hamlet near Trancoso, to sound the alarm as a thick column of smoke rose in the distance, images broadcast on Portuguese television showed. Smoke and greenhouse gas emissions related to forest fires since the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere are among the highest ever recorded, according to the EU climate monitor Copernicus. 'Too hot' Temperature records were broken at four weather stations in southern France on Aug 11 and three-quarters of the country was under heat alerts on Aug 12, with temperatures forecast to top 40 deg C in the Rhone Valley. The Rhone department banned outdoor public events. Temperatures started rising on Aug 8 in France's second heatwave in just a few weeks and could remain high into next week, according to the national weather office Meteo-France. That would make it a 12- to 14-day stretch of extreme heat. 'It's already too hot,' said Mr Alain Bichot, 34, as he sat at a cafe terrace early on the morning of Aug 12 in Dijon in eastern France. 'I would rather just go to the office. At least there is air conditioning there.' Eleven Italian cities, including Rome, Milan and Florence, were placed on red alert on Aug 12 due to the heat. In Montenegro, fire crews aided by military personnel were fighting a blaze around Podgorica for a second day when the water truck flipped, killing the soldier, the defence ministry said in a statement. Authorities warned residents to stay indoors due to smoke from a forest fire raging in the hills above Podgorica. Hundreds of soldiers and firefighters were also battling wildfires in Albania, while Greece has requested EU assistance to battle more than 100 wildfires stoked by fierce winds and dry conditions on its territory. Athens has requested four water bombers from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism after evacuating 20 villages in the Achaia region. More than half (52 per cent) of Europe and the Mediterranean basin was hit by drought in July for the fourth consecutive month, according to an AFP analysis of European Drought Observatory (EDO) data. Drought levels in the region are the highest on record for the month of July since data collection began in 2012, exceeding the 2012-2024 average by 21 percent. AFP
The Hindu
19 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Finally, a fresh lease of life for Victoria Public Hall in Chennai
So the long-awaited restoration of Victoria Public Hall ends, and we have a magnificent Town Hall once again. The photographs of it illuminated at night had me regretting is that S. Muthiah, Tara Murali and K. Kalpana (the conservation architect who worked on Senate House) are not around to see it. All three expressed the hope that the building will one day regain its place as a city centre. It is spoken of as being Indo-Saracenic in style of which there is very little in the design. It is more Roman and topping it is a Travancore cap, a finial that RF Chisholm the architect adored ever since he designed the Napier Museum in Thiruvananthapuram. In many ways it complements Central Station and the old Moore Market. The Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar Choultry which stands diagonally opposite was also planned and executed at the same time (1882-1887) is far more Indo-Saracenic than V.P. Hall. That said, V.P. Hall had all the history. Within a decade of its completion it had played host to Swami Vivekananda, fresh from his success at the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. In 1915, Mahatma Gandhi spoke here. The list of speakers at V.P. Hall is long indeed. Also impressive is its contribution to sport. Thanks to the Chennapuri Andhra Maha Sabha and the South Indian Athletic Association which were tenants in the ground floor for long, it was where tennis, billiards, chess, athletics and table tennis, all found a home. Many competitions were held here and many were the champions it produced. It was its long tryst with theatre that made V.P. Hall also an important centre for nationalist and Dravidian politics. The Suguna Vilasa Sabha (SVS) which was a tenant on the ground floor, made it the venue for plays it hosted from the 1890s. Most members of the SVS were lawyers, who led political thought. S. Satyamurti was an active member and many of his kind were nationalists. Several others were Justice Party members and it in fact had its first meeting at V.P. Hall in 1916, thereby making it the birthplace of Dravidian politics. V.P. Hall was also where cinema in Madras was first displayed, in December 1896. With that the city's long-standing affair with that medium began and ironically it was to spell doom for V.P. Hall. With the SVS vacating in the 1930s, the hall was the venue for many social reform plays and it was at a staging of his Chandrodayam here in 1943 that Anna was introduced to MGR! But the growth of cinema meant the slow decline of theatre and by the 1960s V.P. Hall was no longer what it was. The trust that administered it even contemplated demolishing it and building a cinema theatre here and it was Anna as CM who scotched the move in 1967. The 99-year lease of the 57 grounds at a rent of 50 paisa per ground ended in 1985 and litigation began between the trust and the Corporation of Chennai. A hotel had come up fronting the hall and to its rear the Chennapuri Andhra Maha Sabha had built its own premises. All of these were evicted/demolished in 2010 following a High Court order and work began on restoration. Even prior to this, in the 1990s, industrialist Suresh Krishna as Sheriff of Madras took initiatives to restore it. But several fits and starts later, the current restoration, largely spearheaded at Chief Ministerial insistence, has been the most comprehensive. Heritage deserves a few success stories every now and then. (V. Sriram is a writer and historian)
RTHK
2 hours ago
- RTHK
Three killed in European wildfires amid heatwave
Three killed in European wildfires amid heatwave A firefighter battles a wildfire in the village of Parafita in Spain. Photo: Reuters Three men died and thousands were forced from their homes on Tuesday as wildfires fuelled by a heatwave scorched southern Europe. Heat alerts were issued in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans, with temperatures expected to soar above 40C. The heatwave is another sign of climate change, which is fuelling longer, more intense and increasingly frequent bouts of extreme heat. "Thanks to climate change, we now live in a significantly warmer world," Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the meteorology department in Britain's University of Reading told AFP, adding that "many still underestimate the danger". An employee of a Spanish equestrian centre died from his injuries in Tres Cantos, a wealthy suburb north of Madrid, officials said – reportedly as he tried to save horses. Later, officials in Castile and Leon in northwestern Spain confirmed another man had been killed while fighting fires. And a soldier in the Balkan country of Montenegro died and another was seriously injured when their water tanker overturned while fighting wildfires in the hills north of the capital, Podgorica. A child died of heatstroke in Italy on Monday. The equestrian centre employee was the first fatality from dozens of wildfires that have hit Spain since a heatwave began last week. Hundreds of residents of Tres Cantos fled from the fast-moving blaze, which was contained on Tuesday morning. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X that rescue services were "working tirelessly to extinguish the fires" and warned: "We are at extreme risk of forest fires. Please be very cautious." Elsewhere, about 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the popular beaches of Tarifa in Andalusia, southern Spain. The wildfire broke out near where a similar blaze forced evacuations earlier this month. "We managed to save the residential area at the very last second," said Antonio Sanz, the Andalusia region's interior minister. In Castile and Leon, dozens of blazes were reported, including one threatening Las Medulas, a Unesco World Heritage site known for its ancient Roman gold mines. The head of the regional government of Castile and Leon, Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, vowed "to act quickly and generously" once the fire is over to restore the site "to its full glory as soon as possible". In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters battled three large wildfires, with the most serious near Trancoso in the centre of the country. More than 700 firefighters were deployed there. Temperature records were broken at four weather stations in southern France on Monday and three-quarters of the country was under heat alerts on Tuesday, with temperatures forecast to top 40C in the Rhone Valley. The Rhone department banned outdoor public events. Temperatures started rising on Friday in France's second heatwave in just a few weeks and could remain high into next week, according to the national weather office Meteo-France. Eleven Italian cities, including Rome, Milan and Florence, were placed on red alert on Tuesday due to the heat. (AFP)
