
WATCH: Fire Breaks Out At Spain's Iconic Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba
Firefighters are responding to the blaze at the major tourist attraction and UNESCO-listed heritage site in Andalusia.
Footage shows thick smoke billowing out from the millennia-old building as flames lapped at its roof.
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Indian Express
39 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Chandigarh heritage conservation panel ‘has no basis in law,' says MP Manish Tewari, citing Culture Ministry
Congress MP Manish Tewari has questioned the legal authority of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC), saying that a recent reply in Parliament confirms it is 'purely an administrative fiction created by an executive order' and not backed by any statutory enactment. Responding to his unstarred question in Lok Sabha on Monday, the Ministry of Culture stated that the CHCC was set up by the Chandigarh Administration through a notification on April 20, 2012, after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved its creation in response to an Expert Heritage Committee report. Chandigarh, the reply clarified, is not a declared heritage city, though 13 heritage zones in Sectors 1 to 30 have been identified for their historical and architectural significance, along with heritage buildings graded in three categories. Tewari said the answer makes it 'evident' that the committee was not constituted under any law like the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, or the Punjab Act of 1964. 'It has no basis in law and has not been constituted pursuant to any parliamentary enactment,' he asserted. The reply also cited a Supreme Court judgment which, it said, strengthened the CHCC's legal status for approving matters like re-densification of government housing pockets in Phase I and framing of heritage-related rules. Tewari, however, pointed out that the answer did not specify which judgment was being referred to. According to the MP, even the Expert Heritage Committee's report recognised no heritage site beyond Sector 30. 'From Sector 30 onwards there is nothing that is heritage…the remit must be circumscribed to the conservation of the 13 heritage zones,' he said, adding that the CHCC 'cannot become the final arbiter of Chandigarh's progress and development.' Since its inception, the committee has held 25 meetings and reviewed projects ranging from the UNESCO-listed Capitol Complex to masterplans of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Panjab University, and restoration of the Le Corbusier Centre. Tewari maintained that while conservation is important, the committee's jurisdiction should be 'clearly defined and legally sound.'


Al Etihad
an hour ago
- Al Etihad
Firefighters battle 'fire whirls' in northern Spain
11 Aug 2025 17:02 CUBO DE BENAVENTE (Reuters) Extreme heat and strong winds caused "fire whirls" as a blaze burned several houses and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from near a UNESCO-listed national park in northern Spain, authorities said on fires broke out in the north of the Castile and Leon region, with about 700 people told to abandon their homes in half a dozen fires were still live, Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, chief of environment for the regional government, said on Monday morning. Firefighters had extinguished the other temperatures on Sunday had caused the so-called fire whirls near Las Medulas park, forcing firemen to retreat and burning some houses in the nearby village, according to Suarez-Quinones."This occurs when temperatures reach around 40 degrees Celsius in a very confined valley and then suddenly (the fire) enters a more open and oxygenated area. This produces a fireball, a fire whirl," he said."This explosive and surprising phenomenon was very dangerous. It disrupted all the work that had been done, forcing us to start practically from scratch," he say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, dry vegetation and strong winds can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control, sometimes provoking fire whirls.A prolonged heatwave in Spain continued on Monday with temperatures set to reach 42 C in some or three fires may have been started by lightning strikes, Suarez-Quinones said, but there were indications that the majority were the result of arson, which he described as "environmental terrorism".In the northern part of neighbouring Portugal, nearly 700 firefighters were battling a blaze that started on Saturday in Trancoso, some 350 km northeast of far this year about 52,000 hectares, or 0.6% of Portugal's total area, have burned, exceeding the 2006-2024 average for the same period by about 10,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Firefighters were also battling blazes in Navarra in northeastern Spain and in Huelva in the southwest, authorities said.


The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Firefighters battle 'fire whirls' in northern Spain
A warehouse burns in a wildfire in Cubo de Benavente, Spain, August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Susana Vera CUBO DE BENAVENTE, Spain (Reuters) -Extreme heat and strong winds caused "fire whirls" as a blaze burned several houses and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from near a UNESCO-listed national park in northern Spain, authorities said on Monday. Thirteen fires broke out in the north of the Castile and Leon region, with about 700 people told to abandon their homes in half a dozen villages. Four fires were still live, Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, chief of environment for the regional government, said on Monday morning. Firefighters had extinguished the other nine. High temperatures on Sunday had caused the so-called fire whirls near Las Medallas park, forcing firemen to retreat and burning some houses in the nearby village, according to Suarez-Quinones. "This occurs when temperatures reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in a very confined valley and then suddenly (the fire) enters a more open and oxygenated area. This produces a fireball, a fire whirl," he said. "This explosive and surprising phenomenon was very dangerous. It disrupted all the work that had been done, forcing us to start practically from scratch," he added. Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, dry vegetation and strong winds can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control, sometimes provoking fire whirls. A prolonged heatwave in Spain continued on Monday with temperatures set to reach 42 C in some regions. Domingo Aparicio, 77, was evacuated to a nearby town from his home in Cubo de Benavente on Sunday after a warehouse in front of his home burned down. "How am I supposed to feel? It's always shocking for people close to the catastrophe," he said. Two or three fires may have been started by lightning strikes, Suarez-Quinones said, but there were indications that the majority were the result of arson, which he described as "environmental terrorism". In the northern part of neighbouring Portugal, nearly 700 firefighters were battling a blaze that started on Saturday in Trancoso, some 350 km (200 miles) northeast of Lisbon. So far this year about 52,000 hectares (200 square miles), or 0.6% of Portugal's total area, have burned, exceeding the 2006-2024 average for the same period by about 10,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Firefighters were also battling blazes in Navarra in northeastern Spain and in Huelva in the southwest, authorities said. (Reporting by David Latona and Susana Vera in Cubo de Benavente, Charlie Devereux in Madrid and Andrei Khalip in Lisbon; Editing by Olivier Holmey)