Live News From Spain As It Happens

CITY bye-laws in Seville ordering taxi drivers to learn English and banning them from wearing shorts whilst working have not gone down well in the sector.

Responses to the new rules, set to come into force shortly, have included: “When all politicians decide to learn English and speak it properly, so will we.”

Another driver interviewed said, “Learn English? But this is Spain, isn't it? It should be enough to speak our own language, Spanish.”

He also commented on the irony of 'politicians expecting taxi drivers to learn English' when a poor grasp of the language had made head of Madrid city council Ana Botella 'an international laughing stock' during the 2020 Olympic bid.

They are also unhappy about rules covering dress code whilst working. “If you're clean and tidy, and not scruffy, why should it matter if you wear shorts rather than long trousers?” asked one driver who works in the southern city, which reaches temperatures of 45ºC in the shade in high summer – a time when trousers are uncomfortable to wear. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUPERMARKET chain Mercadona has announced plans to create 1,000 new jobs in the next five years, and it plans to increase wages of its existing staff above the level of inflation every year until then at least.

The store, which is based mostly in the Valencia region but has branches all over the country, guarantees a minimum take-home salary of 1,260 euros a month for every full-time member of staff from their first day at work and says it will increase wages by 0.4 per cent every year from 2014 and by 0.8 per cent from 2018, or more if inflation goes above this level.

The firm has pledged to 'maintain buying power' for all staff, meaning their wages will always go as far as they do today even where the cost of living rises – and on top of its existing 74,000 positions, plans to create a further 1,000 between now and the end of 2018.

According to its chairman and founder Juan Roig – one of the top-five richest people in Spain – says a new collective working conditions agreement underwritten by the firm and the country's main unions, the labourers' commission (CCOO) and general workers' union (UGT) is designed to promote continual on-the-job training, in-house promotion, and a better work-life balance.

Flexible and part-time hours for those with children aged 10 years and under in their care will be guaranteed, as will extra time off – even if it has to be unpaid – for parents of children aged eight or under are included in the agreement. This can include career breaks of several months for the purpose, or up to three years in the case of victims of domestic violence. 

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TEMPERATURES of as low as -8ºC are expected to continue until at least Monday, and return again on Thursday after a brief respite mid-week.

Overnight, the mercury plunged to -5ºC in Madrid, -2ºC in Granada and, in what are normally the warmest parts of the mainland, as low as 1ºC. Córdoba, which reaches 50ºC in the shade in July and August, registered -1ºC on the thermometers this morning (Saturday) and is expected to see a repeat performance until Monday or Tuesday overnight.

The provinces of Valencia, Murcia and Alicante, which until recently were drenched in sunlight with midday temperatures rising to the mid-20s, are teetering on the edge of freezing this weekend with lows of 2ºC and 1ºC respectively.

Even Gijón (Asturias) in the far north, known for its Atlantic winds and exceptionally chilly winters, exceeded Mediterranean temperatures on Friday night and Saturday morning at 3ºC – the same as Sevilla in the far south, which again is known for its scorching summers with regular temperatures of 40-50ºC in the shade, and the region's other major city, Oviedo, plus Barcelona in the north-east of Spain, matched Murcia's and Valencia's readings of 2ºC.

Bilbao and Vigo, which also have some of the coldest winters and coolest summers on the mainland reached a comparatively 'warm' 5ºC, the same as Málaga on the south coast, whilst Zaragoza sat at 4ºC – again, higher than traditionally hotter areas of Spain such as the east and south-east.

A Coruña, surprisingly, was the warmest part of Spain on Friday night and Saturday morning – although the Galicia region's Atlantic winds and icy winter climates mean residents are frequently under extra blankets at times of the year when those in the south-east are still in T-shirts, its overnight temperatures are not expected to fall below 9ºC this week, warmer than many other regions in the daytime. 

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THE priest in charge of the cathedral in Borja (Zaragoza province) where 82-year-old Cecilia Giménez 'restored' a 19th-century fresco of the Ecce Homo has been arrested.

Although the charges which led to his being taken into custody are said to be 'of a financial nature', they are not in principle thought to have any connection with the painting itself, or the one-euro charge made to 'pilgrims' from all over the world who travelled to see Cecilia's attempted restoration.

The priest was not said to be involved in collecting fees for viewing the painting, and the matter he is thought to be involved with is said to be something the Guardia Civil has 'been investigating for some time'.

He has been released with charges pending an official communication from the Archbishop of Tarazona.

Dozens of villagers have gathered outside the cathedral carrying banners and showing their support for the priest. They include the Ecce Homo restorer Cecilia herself, who says she and the other residents have 'no idea' why he was arrested and that his being taken into custody has caused 'disgust and astonishment' in the village'.

“If he's looking for support, Borja's right here,” Cecilia stated. “He's a really good person, and everyone in Borja is very fond of him.” The priest has been based in the village for over 20 years.

Cecilia, who claimed she had restored numerous frescoes in the cathedral in the past and that the Ecce Homo work was not finished when its new appearance hit the world's headlines, initially took to her bed with a panic attack and feeling very distressed, particularly as the descendants of the original artist were threatening to sue her for criminal damage. 

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GOVERNMENT vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has voted for education minister José Ignacio Wert to cease his management role of the department – by mistake.

The socialists tabled a motion to censure Wert's schools reform and take him out of the hotseat at the head of the ministry, which was supported by votes in favour from CiU, Izquierda Plural, PNV, the Catalunya-based left-wing republicans ERC, and BNG – as well as the vice-president of the PP.

She realised her mistake immediately, but it was too late as her vote was binding.
UPyD (Union, Progress and Democracy) and the Foro de Asturias abstained, but the votes against by the UPN and the PP government were enough to constitute a majority and see the motion binned – even with Sáenz de Santamaría's having accidentally voted in favour.
As a result, the unpopular education reform has gone through and been given the seal of approval in Congress, a decision which is set to inflame the school and university communities across the country.

Among the aspects of the reform which have been most criticised are plans to deny tuition fee grants to university students who do not achieve 55 per cent in their blanket entrance exam, or Selectividad, even though the pass mark is 50 per cent and reaching this grade means they have not failed and cannot therefore retake the test – and refusing grants towards living costs to anyone whose Selectividad results do not amount to 65 per cent, the equivalent of a C or C+ grade.

The final grade is entirely exam-based with no coursework being taken into account, meaning a student having a bad day when they take the final test could scupper their college career forever unless they or their parents can afford to finance it in full. 

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ORDERS by the Valencia regional government to take Canal Nou and Ràdio Nou off air now that the closure of Radio TV Valenciana (RTVV) has become official have fallen on deaf ears – at least 40 workers in the studio have refused to leave the building and are broadcasting via a different frequency.

And Canal Nou (Channel 9) has continued to show programmes throughout the night and attempts have been made to prevent the liquidators from entering the control room to disconnect the cables and take the TV station off air.

Staff were allowed to enter in twos yesterday (Thursday) evening to collect their belongings, but faced with the multiple rebellion, police have been stopping them getting in since.

However, at around 02.00hrs, a number of employees managed to dodge the barriers and get back into their old workplace.

They have all been told via email that their job contracts have now ceased, but this has not stopped them going to work at the start of their usual shifts.

The overnight presenter on Canal Nou says no formal instructions were given to cease broadcasting, hence the team has continued to do so.

Some time around 04.15hrs this morning, head of security at RTVV met with the chief of police and the chairman of the committee for the company.

Vice-chairwoman Salut Alcover says that if the regional government has not taken the show off air yet, it is because they 'do not even know how to cut a cable'.
“And if they don't even know how to cut through a wire, how are they supposed to govern the region of Valencia?” She wondered.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HIGH-SPEED train-link between Barcelona and Paris is due to open on Sunday, December 15 and tickets are already on sale.

A single to the French capital from Barcelona on the new AVE line is 170 euros, and other routes include Madrid to Marseilles – changing trains in the Catalunya city – which is roughly a seven-hour trek and currently costs 172 euros one-way.

Other routes include Barcelona to Lyon, which takes five hours and costs 114 euros for a single ticket, and Barcelona to Toulouse, costing 77 euros one-way, taking three hours.
But discounted rates are applied to these, potentially bringing the price down to 59 euros one-way for the Barcelona-Paris route and 89 euros for the Madrid-Marseilles connection.

At present, only two daily connections run between Barcelona and the French cities, leaving at around 09.00hrs and 16.00hrs approximately from Sants station and changing in Lyon, then returning from Paris at 07.15hrs and 14.07hrs.

A buffet car offering drinks, light meals and bar snacks, plus bilingual staff, extra assistance for disabled passengers and both tourist-class and first-class tickets are available as part of the service.

This will mean 17 cities in France and Spain will be connected by high-speed rail, thanks to other services in different parts of each country which link up with Barcelona, Madrid, Lyon, Paris, Toulouse, and Marseilles. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Rafael Nadal was presented with the “Legend Award” on Tuesday night at the sports daily Marca’s silver anniversary gala in Madrid, after being selected by the paper's readers as the best Spanish athlete of all-time.

Dozens of other Spanish sporting legends, including four-time Grand Slam champion Manuel Santana, were in the audience to see Nadal, winner of eight Roland Garros titles, four Davis Cups and an Olympic Gold Medal amongst other titles, receive the award from the vice-president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.

“I would like to thank everyone who is here tonight and many others who aren’t, because I am not only a tennis player, but a huge sports fan in general,” said Nadal. “You have all given me some unforgettable moments and the excitement I get from sport, I'm not saying it's better or worse than other things, but it's different, and thanks to all of you for the thrills".

Nadal finished first in the Marca.com poll, held in commemoration of the paper’s 75 years, receiving 25.6 per cent of all votes cast.

Five-time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain finished second with 11.6 per cent of votes, and NBA star Pau Gasol third with 8.6 per cent. 

Gasol, who attended the all-Spanish final between Nadal and David Ferrer at Roland Garros this year, sent a video message congratulating his countryman. “I want to send a special tribute to my friend Rafa for winning this 75th Anniversary MARCA ‘Leyenda’ award,” he said. “Congratulations, enjoy it, you’re the best.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CONCERT pianist facing seven-and-a-half years in prison for 'noise nuisance' after her neighbour complained of 'psychological damage' has been acquitted.

Laia M., who was 26 at the time – in 2003 – was a concert pianist studying a music degree at the Conservatory in Puigcerdà (Girona province) where she lived.

She practised at home between 09.00hrs and 18.00hrs, Monday to Friday, with an hour's break for lunch between 13.00hrs and 14.00hrs.

A woman living in the flat above claimed she had been signed off sick from work due to 'psychological damage' including 'panic attacks', 'sleep disorders' and 'anxiety' as a result of the constant piano noise from downstairs.

Laia was initially facing a seven-and-a-half-year jail term for noise nuisance or 'criminal offences against the environment', and for a criminal charge of 'inflicting psychological trauma' on a third party.

The court reduced the State prosecution service's proposed sentence to 20 months, which would mean Laia would not have to go to jail as it was a first offence and less than a two-year custodial term.

But the verdict passed by the court of Girona today (Tuesday) found that the pianist, now aged 36, and her parents had taken steps to sound-proof the room where Laia practised, and also found no evidence of any relation between the music and the plaintiff's mental health conditions. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TEENAGE girls in Spain smoke and drink more than any others in the developed world, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Girls of 15 admit to having been 'blind drunk' at least twice in their lives and to smoking regularly at least once a week.

And they are more likely to drink and smoke than boys of the same age, the research found.

Along with Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Italy and Estonia, Spain has one of the highest levels of smoking and drinking teenagers.

The country comes fifth in the 34 OECD countries for numbers of teenagers who smoke, the dubious honour of the highest number being held by Austria, followed closely by Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy.

Although on the whole, incidences of smoking in young people have dropped considerably in recent years to an OECD average of 16 per cent – less than one in five – in Spain this is as high as 25 per cent among girls.

Spain fares better than the UK for teenage drinkers – Britain has the third-highest levels, after Denmark and Finland in that order, but ahead of Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, with Spain 10^th out of the 34 countries.

The average for the OECD nations showed a total of 32 per cent of 15-year-olds, and 28 per cent of girls of this age had been drunk at least once.  

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TEMPERATURES across Spain are set to plummet to a teeth-chattering -7ºC this week, with no respite from the cold expected until at least Friday, reports the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Snow, ice and ground frost is predicted in most parts of the country more than an hour inland of the coast, and at altitudes of at least 300 metres above sea-level, particularly in the north of the country.

Rain is forecast for the Mediterranean coast of Spain's mainland and islands, especially along the east coast of the former but possibly also the Strait of Gibraltar and south-eastern provinces.

This could be heavy – over an inch of rain in 12 hours – and possibly combined with sleet or snow in the province of Castellón and the east of Castilla-La Mancha, such as the provinces of Albacete and Cuenca.

The Canary Islands will escape the worst of the cold snap, but heavy rain is due to set in by tomorrow (Wednesday) and is likely to continue until after the weekend. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SCIENTISTS in Aragón are hoping to clone a breed of mountain goat which is currently extinct using frozen cells from the last-known survivor of the species.

Named Celia, the only bucardo or Pyrénéen Ibex thought to be left, passed away 13 years ago after being crushed by a falling tree in the Ordesa National Park in the province of Huesca.

Fortunately for the future of her race, experts had taken cells from her the year before and frozen them in liquid nitrogen.

In 2003 – three years after the bucardo became officially extinct – they successfully cloned a kid after just seven of 57 nanny goats of a similar species who were artificially-inseminated became pregnant, with only one carrying the baby to full term.

But the offspring only survived for a few minutes, since it had a defect in one lung.

No further attempts have been made, but scientists are now carrying out tests to see whether Celia's cells – currently stored in liquid nitrogen at -196ºC – are still fertile.

If this is the case, they will attempt to clone bucardo embryos and implant them in surrogate mothers, being other types of female mountain goat.

The main problem, if babies were born, would be that the embryos would all be female as they come from a female bucardo's DNA.

But further experiments in the pipeline include either crossing them with a species in the same family – possibly the Spanish Pyrénéen Goat or the Gredos Pyrénéen Goat – the Capra Pyrenaica Hispanica or the Capra Pyrenaica Victoriae – two types of Ibex, or changing the gender of the DNA.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A THREE-DAY strike and mass protests over schools reforms are set to take place this coming week in an attempted social coup to oust education minister José Ignacio Wert.

The Social Summit, a countrywide group which organised this weekend's demonstrations across Spain, and the General Union of Students say they intend to strike 'whilst Wert is at his weakest'.

They say they are 'not prepared' to put up with the 'present and future' students face under the PP government – 'a future with no hope, a future of insecurity and unemployment'.

Education reforms, which minister Wert is determined to go ahead with even though only the PP is in favour and the majority of the school and college community of Spain is against it, will – according to teachers, students and parents – condemn those who struggle to a future with no qualifications, as well as failing to allow the brightest to flourish.  

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A COLD wave sweeping across Spain has proven to be great news for its ski stations – they have been able to start their season early and are already filling up.

With snow hitting the north of Spain and areas of high altitude, some of the major resorts in the country are looking forward to doing a roaring trade.

These include ski stations in the Pyrénées of Huesca, in the province of Teruel – both in Aragón – as well as Catalunya, Madrid, and Asturias, as well as in the south of Spain – the Sierra Nevada, in Granada.

Although ski resorts are hoping for a buoyant winter in terms of profits thanks to the early start, they still face challenges not seen in other, better-known slopes in Europe.

In Spain, only 10 per cent of skiers are tourists from abroad, and many of those who already live in the country simply hit the slopes for the weekend or even for the day.

But even then, Spanish ski stations collectively saw 4.8 million skiers last year, bringing in net profits of 100 million, allowing them to invest 14 million on improving facilities. 

The first ski station of the season to open was Masella, in the province of Girona, with 11 kilometres of slopes and eight pistes, plus two ski-lifts in operation – and by next weekend, the management intends to open all 41 pistes with 49 kilometres of slopes and five ski-lifts.

La Molina, Girona, Baqueira-Beret (Lleida) and Vall de Núria are all open this weekend, and on November 30, those of Espot, Port Aine and Vallter 2000 will start their seasons.

All these ski resorts in Catalunya will shut during the week and reopen in time for Saturday.
Ski stations in Asturias will start their season next weekend, on Saturday, November 30 – a week earlier than planned – provided there is enough snow by then.

The Sierra Nevada has opened its Borreguiles and Río stations, with special offer prices for the first week – 25 euros for adults, 10 euros for children between five and 12, and under-fives go free.

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A LEADING consumer organisation has started a petition to try to stop the constant rise in IBI property tax.

They say homeowners are becoming 'victims of an out-of-proportion money-grabbing exercise' with rates having risen by an average of 60 per cent since 2008, whilst residents' salaries have either stayed the same or gone down.

The organisation, OCU, is calling for the government to call off its plans to increase IBI again in 2014.

Whilst property values have fallen by between 30 and 50 per cent in the last five years and residents' wealth has been 'continually declining' over the same period, some towns have increased property tax by up to 100 per cent.

According to the OCU, the 'brutal' hikes in IBI are a result of a series of catastral reviews – a revision of the land value upon which taxes are calculated – increases in the base rate, scrapping of discounts for certain sectors of society, rises in interest for late payment, and the government's decision to apply an ongoing increase from 2012 onwards for several years. 

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TWENTY-THREE restaurants in Spain have been awarded Michelin stars for the first time, or have acquired additional ones, making the country one of Europe's top destinations for discerning foodies.

Now with 171 Michelin-starred restaurants, dining out in Spain is set to be an élite experience in any province – eight of them are three-starred, 19 two-starred and an additional 22 have been awarded their first stars, bringing the total of these to 144.

DiverXO in Madrid, run by David Muñoz, is one of the restaurants which has acquired its third star and now sits in a list that includes Arzak in San Sebastián; Quique Dacosta Restaurant in Dénia (Alicante province), which was formerly known as El Poblet; El Celler de Can Roca in Girona; Sant Pau in San Pol de Mar (Barcelona province); Akelarre in San Sebastián, and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu (Vizcaya province).

This is the first time since 1995 that Madrid has had a restaurant with three Michelin stars.

M.B., in the Hotel Abama, Guía de Isora (Tenerife), run by San Sebastián-based Martín Berasategui, and El Portal in the Hotel Echaurren in Ezcaray (La Rioja), run by Francís Paniego have gone up to two stars, and for the former this is the seventh star in total acquired by the owner who also has two- and three-starred eateries in Barcelona and Guipúzcoa (Restaurante Lasarte).

Restaurants that have acquired their first-ever stars in Catalunya are L'Angle; Gaig; the chic silver-service eatery 41º and the tapas bar Tickets, both belonging to famed Spanish chef Albert Adrià (all in Barcelona); Les Moles in Ulldecona (Tarragona); Malena in Gimenells (Lleida), and L'Ó in Sant Fruitós de Bagés (Barcelona province).

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SPAIN has the second-highest life expectancy in the EU after Italy, and levels of health among the population are generally good, even though chronic conditions are on the increase, says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Life expectancy in Spain is the third-highest on the European continent, at 82.4 years, beaten by Italy at 82.7 and Switzerland at 82.8 - coming out on top of the world. Worldwide, Italy and Japan were in joint second place at 82.7 years, putting Spain in fourth place on the planet.

Life expectancy for countries in the OECD was lowest for Mexico, at 74.2, largely due to poor nutrition, obesity leading to cardiovascular illnesses and diabetes, poor access to healthcare – insufficient numbers of doctors, nurses and hospital beds – and 50 per cent of healthcare expenditure coming out of Mexicans' pockets, leading to a downward sliding scale of life expectancy in relation to financial wealth.

This calculation did not include the so-called 'emerging' countries of the OECD – Brazil, Russia, India, China (known as the BRIC countries), Indonesia and South Africa.

South Africa's life expectancy is the lowest of all at barely 55 years, largely thought to be due to HIV and AIDS epidemics which broke out in the late 1980s and are taking their toll nowadays, and limited access to ongoing medical treatment which, in the first world, can ensure HIV-positive patients lead a normal life and live to old age.

Turkey and the USA had lower-than-average life expectancies, although that of Turkey has grown considerably in the last decade, and the OECD says there is a direct connection between how much the public has to spend on its own healthcare and how long they can be expected to live...

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THALIDOMIDE victims who have been fighting for decades to get compensation have won an historic victory against German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal.

Although thousands of Spaniards were born with deformations due to their mothers having taken the drug Thalidomide whilst pregnant to help with morning sickness, only 23 have been recognised by the government.

They have been awarded 20,000 euros per percentage of their disability.

To be registered disabled in Spain, a person normally has to be 33 per cent incapacitated, or 66 per cent to be officially considered as severely disabled.

This means members of the Thalidomide victims' association AVITE will receive a minimum of 660,000 euros each.

AVITE's chairman José Riquelme says the verdict is 'historic' because it is the 'first time in the world' that a group of ordinary citizens has 'brought down a pharmaceutical empire'.

He calls it a tribute to their mothers and says: “We have regained some of the dignity which we should never have had to have lost, but which we lost before we were born.”

The compensation will only be paid to the 23 recognised victims, but anyone who is not among these and feels they have a valid claim should attend a court for a medical examination to certify their condition.

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SPAIN'S State law service has lodged an appeal against the verdict over the Prestige, an oil tanker which split in half off the coast of Galicia in November 2002 and caused mass pollution.

This appeal is at the instigation of the ministry of the environment, which considers the verdict too lenient and says no compensation has been awarded for the mammoth clean-up operation needed in the months that followed.

Having taken exactly 11 years to reach a decision, the court sentenced the captain to nine months behind bars but acquitted the American Shipping Bureau (ABS), which claimed the Prestige was seaworthy.

Captain Apostolos Mangouras had been ordered to move the tanker away from Spain's coast, given its high-risk cargo, but he feared the financial costs of having to tow it and decided not to heed the warning.

When the ship broke in half, the 27 crew members survived, but 77,000 tonnes of oil caused a slick polluting 1,600 kilometres of coast right across the north of Spain and Portugal as well as part of the south of France, destroying the beaches and killing off thousands of species of aquatic flora and fauna.  

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A TRIPLE killer thought to be the most hated man in Spain could be about to leave prison due to the Parot Doctrine having been overturned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) – but he does not want to leave as he has nowhere to go.

Miguel Ricart, now 49, and his friend Antonio Anglés picked up three girls aged 14 and 15 who were hitch-hiking to a disco in Alcàsser (Valencia province) on Friday 13^th in November 1992.

The teenagers, Toñi, Désirée and Miriam, were brutally raped and tortured before being forced to walk into their own grave and shot in the head.

Forensic examinations on the bodies showed very large and in some cases extremely sharp instruments had been forcibly inserted into their orifices, one of the girls had a nipple cut off with a pair of pliers whilst conscious, and another had her arm sawn off above the elbow, also whilst alive and awake.

Antonio Anglés reportedly fled the area and caught a ferry from Lisbon to Plymouth and from there, another boat to Ireland, but jumped into the sea in an attempt to swim ashore when he was recognised and is believed to have drowned.

Ricart has been in jail for 21 years, has no friends on the outside and his family does not want anything to do with him.

A prison chaplain admits Ricart has become institutionalised and has 'no relationship with anyone' in the outside world.  

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NEW legislation attempting to limit public demonstrations and imposing fines ranging from 30,000 to 600,000 euros for 'insulting a police officer' or 'protesting in public without authorities' consent' has been slammed by judges, pressure groups and even the police themselves.

The association Judges for Democracy likens the Law of Public Safety to legislation passed during dictator General Franco's era which effectively censored freedom of speech.

These top-level legal professionals say the move is almost certainly against the terms of the Spanish Constitution and leaves ordinary citizens 'defenceless'.  

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A WOMAN whose boyfriend threw her out of a fourth-floor apartment in Elche (Alicante province) escaped with just a twisted ankle, emergency services report.

The aggressor and another man, both of whom were said to be very drunk, were arrested and will be called to testify in the domestic violence court in Alicante city.

Witnesses say the couple and the other man had a heated discussion in the early hours of Saturday morning, which led to the accused hurling the woman out of a window onto an enclosed courtyard within the apartment block on the C/ Ramón Jiménez.

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A MAN who did not return his hired car has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Police caught the offender when stopping him for a driving offence and found that he was long overdue for returning the vehicle to the unnamed company.

He had been due to return it five months previously, and had cost the firm at least 2,400 euros through having a car missing by the time he was caught in Granada.

The accused said he had been unaware of the fact that the car-rental firm in the south-eastern city had reported him to the police for theft and that, as he did not have the money to pay them in full – which he would be required to do upon returning the vehicle – he had agreed with them that he would settle the bill a month later.  

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A CLEANING strike in Spain's capital has ended after 13 days following negotiations between unions, staff, franchise companies and the city council which went on for 15 hours non-stop.

During the two weeks of the strike, which was over plans to make 1,100 of the four cleaning firms' 6,000 members of staff redundant and slash wages for those left, Madrid police worked round the clock ensuring pickets did not get out of hand, and another cleaning company, Tragsa, was called in when the situation became intolerable.

They removed 60 tonnes of rubbish from the streets and, between Tragsa and the police, Madrid city council has paid for 8,716 additional hours' work.

But mayoress Ana Botella says 'not one cent' will come out of the taxpayer's pocket, and the entire costs will be passed on to the companies whose employees were on strike.

She has called for a law reform on workers' right to strike, saying the three million residents in the capital were 'held hostage' for two weeks as a result of a build-up of filth on the streets.  

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FIFTEEN provinces in eight federal regions of Spain will see snow, icy winds and plummeting temperatures today (Monday).

Granada, Jaén, Madrid and Teruel will see between two and eight inches of snow as a cold wave sweeps across the centre, south and south-east of Spain.

Also in Aragón, Teruel's neighbouring province Zaragoza will be under a blanket of white at some point today and in Castilla y León, Segovia and Soria are expected to see a thick covering of snow.

Cuenca and Guadalajara in Castilla-La Mancha will also be affected.

The whole of Catalunya is predicted to see torrential rain, mostly localised and frequently with thunder and lightning whilst tidal waves due to high winds out at sea are forecast on the coast of the provinces of Granada and Almería in Andalucía, and that of the Spanish-owned city of Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast

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TO make any financial transactions involving bank account numbers, an IBAN number will be necessary from February onwards.

This includes payments made to or to be received from accounts within the same country – no longer just from abroad.

In Spain, IBAN numbers start with the letters ES, whilst in the United Kingdom they start with GB, and are followed by two numbers, which identify which bank the account is held in.  

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DOZENS of international tourists have cancelled their planned trips to Madrid at the last minute now that the cleaning strike has hit the world's headlines.

Christmas bookings are being called off constantly, say worried hotel bosses, and all businesses connected with the holiday industry are concerned they may face huge financial losses this year.

Madrid's tourism sector earns over 40 per cent of its annual profits from the Christmas period alone.

But would-be visitors from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, China, Russia and the USA have decided not to go to the Spanish capital after all, and some are choosing to spend a few days in Barcelona instead.

Travel agencies and tour operators say a sudden flood of cancellations have been received in the last two days and, although not everyone has said the filthy state of the city is their reason for doing so, the last-minute booking changes appeared to coincide with exactly when photographs of the insalubrious conditions in Madrid were published in the international media.

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SPAIN'S banks will come out of their 'bail-out period' in January without the need for any further European Union funding.

A Eurogroup report shows the country's financial institutions are now in a sound position, having only used 41.3 billion euros of the 100 billion bail-out fund applied for in spring 2012.

Spain has also avoided needing a bail-out for the country itself to cover its debts, as was the case with the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. 

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HEAD of the now-defunct CAM bank Roberto López Abad has paid a 1.5-million-euro bail release to get out of jail.

Legal sources say the former bank boss, held over siphoning funds out of the company and who allegedly planned to flee to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, left Madrid's Navalcarnero prison at 19.30hrs yesterday (Wednesday).

His second-in-command Daniel Gil paid a bail bond of 400,000 euros the very next day after being remanded in custody and was released, but his passport has been confiscated by High Court judge Javier Gómez Bermúdez and he has been ordered to report to the court every fortnight.

López Abad has been behind bars for nearly a week attempting to raise the funds for his release.

Along with another four top directors from the Comunidad Valenciana-based bank – which was swallowed up by Banco Sabadell last year – López Abad and Gil are accused of stashing 247 million euros in an offshore bank account on Curaçao, having laundered it through sales and purchases of land and hotels in the Dominican Republic and eastern México as a 'front' for their illicit operations.

They are also accused of deliberately effecting investments – namely, the hotels – which they knew the CAM bank's capital reserves could not cope with and which eventually caused the company to fold, leaving account-holders high and dry and shareholders having lost their life's savings as these were now worthless

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SPAIN, France and The Netherlands suffer more than any other countries in Europe from shoplifting and break-ins on retail premises, according to recent research.

Euromonitor International and Checkpoint say customers are tending to sleeve items more than they did in the past, but thefts by employees are virtually non-existent now since they are afraid of being caught and losing their jobs.

Food, drink, toiletries and other basics are the most-stolen items nowadays, especially in Spain, as a result of the financial crisis and customers being unable to afford the essentials, the report claims.  

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SPAIN'S foreign office is attempting to trace 14 citizens from the country believed to have been in The Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan struck, but does not think they are among the 10,000 reported dead.

Ten of them are tourists and the other four are Spaniards living in the Asian country, says the department led by José Manuel García-Margallo.

The foreign office is not fearing the worst, since all communications with The Philippines – internet, telephone and post – have broken down as power lines have been destroyed and no services are open since the devastating winds flattened the islands.

And as yet, no Spanish nationals have been reported dead or injured.

Survivors say they have been searching for days among the wreckage of their homes and towns for food and drinking water, neither of which is readily available, and it is feared that more deaths may occur from starvation or dehydration.  

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THIS year's Christmas lottery is set to hand out over 2.24 billion euros in prizes – and will be the first one ever where winnings are subject to tax.

Overall, this is 280 million euros fewer than last year, and the number of ticket series has decreased from 180 to 160.

Of the total prize money, 640 million will be handed out to winners of the most well-known festive lottery, the El Gordo, literally 'the fat one'.

This is one of Spain's favourites, since the chances of winning are much higher even though the prizes are much lower, typically running into tens of thousands rather than millions.  

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UNITED States Intelligence services say they are 'sorry for any bad feeling' caused by spying on countries in Europe, and for having tracked mobile telephone calls and messages of ordinary citizens in Spain.

They assure all civilians that their privacy is intact and the contents of their calls have not been recorded.

US ambassador in Spain, James Costos, met with Spanish minister of foreign affairs José Manuel García-Margallo last week and said he was sorry on behalf of his country for any 'tension' between the two nations, as well as guaranteeing that the United States 'respects the privacy of people in Spain'.

Costos understood Spain had 'legitimate' concerns about possible violations of privacy, but both agreed that the main concerns of both governments were those of 'guaranteeing safety' and 'the war on terrorism', as well as 'respect for citizens' and keeping any information sharing 'within legal boundaries'.

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FIVE more cases of pilots being blinded with laser beams have been reported at Manises airport (Valencia).

At least 40 'attacks' of this kind were registered last summer, and prompt action by National Police led to the arrest of a man caught in the act of shining lasers at the cockpit of planes, as well as tracing many of the others to a building about five miles from the airport and a location in Sagunto, about half an hour north of Valencia along the coast.

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SPAIN'S Marc Márquez has made history as the youngest-ever MotoGP World Champion and the first since Kenny Roberts in 1978 to scoop up the title in his first-ever year.

The 20-year-old rookie only needed a fourth place at today (Sunday)'s Valencia Grand Prix at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste to be sure of snatching the championship spot from his nearest rival and reigning world leader until now, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

In the end, Lorenzo won the race and Márquez came third after deciding not to take any unnecessary risks and stay well away from the battle at the head of the race between his two compatriots, Mallorca-born Lorenzo and his own team-mate, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda).

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HOLIDAYMAKERS and expatriates in Spain who assume 'everyone will speak English' had better put their names down for a Spanish language course – the country ranks 23^rd out of 60 for its linguistic abilities in Shakespeare's tongue.

Whilst Sweden and Norway came out top of the list for having highest portion of citizens who speak English competently, Spain did not fare so well in the research carried out by EF Education First.

The results of their third English Proficiency Index showed Asians are becoming more fluent, with far weaker levels of the language in Latin America and the Middle East.  

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A RYANAIR flight from Tangiers to Düsseldorf made an emergency landing in Sevilla on Friday night after the cabin filled with smoke, sources from the Irish low-cost airline reveal.

Just before 21.00hrs and shortly after leaving the northern Moroccan coastal city, a passenger advised the crew of smoke inside the craft, which was traced to the air-conditioning unit.

The pilot made the decision to land in Sevilla and to activate the emergency-landing procedures, which involved contacting the 112 hotline for firefighters and ambulances with mobile intensive care units and paramedics to attend the scene.

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OVER 100 'looky looky' men staged a protest in Madrid outside the ministry of justice this week over a Penal Code reform which means their street-selling activities will now be considered a criminal offence.

Until now, it was classed as a civil offence and the sellers could be fined – and at the decision of some town councils, even customers who bought items from them – but it will henceforth mean a prison sentence of between six months and two years.

They carried banners which read, 'my street-selling is my bread and butter', and 'no human being is illegal', and chanted, “Trying to survive is not a crime.”

The sellers, usually sub-Saharan Africans and frequently Senegalese, say the Penal Code reform will 'aggravate their situation even more'.  

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JUST days after announcing the closure of regional television channel Canal Nou citing the cost to the taxpayer of keeping it on air, Valencian government president Alberto Fabra has invested 25 million euros in the ill-fated airport in Castellón – frequently dubbed as one of Spain's main 'white elephants'.

This week, a judge overturned the redundancies of 1,000 employees at the channel, which broadcasts entirely in the regional language valenciano (or valencià in its own tongue).

As a result, the government of the three provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón said it could no longer afford to keep Canal Nou ('Channel Nine') running. 

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INTEREST rates in the Eurozone have gone down by another quarter of a percent to a record low of 0.25, further reducing monthly mortgage payments for Spain's homeowners.

European Central Bank chairman Mario Draghi says the decision was to stimulate credit flow and increase consumer spending.

As well as mortgages going down, the reduction in the Euribor means credit card, car finance and loan repayments – both personal and business – will be cheaper across the Eurozone, and exporters will have a greater profit margin, bringing more money into the countries which use the common currency.

Economists say this reduction is not particularly drastic, since in 2011 the Euribor went down below one per cent for the first time – from nearly 5.5 per cent in 2007 – because there is very little margin left to decrease it.

And it will not be a miracle cure, say experts, nor generate noticeable or quick results, since growth remains very weak across the Eurozone, something which continues to be a great risk and a huge hurdle for the region's financial future.

Additionally, even though personal loans, business finance and mortgages will cost less for the end consumer, banks are likely to continue to be reluctant to lend money – except in rare circumstances, the possibilities of obtaining credit at the moment are very limited, economists claim.  

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GLACIERS in the Spanish and French Pyrénées could disappear within less than 60 years, warn environmental experts.

Global warming has led to the 45 square kilometres of glaciers in the mountains to reduce to just five between 1870 and now.

The Pyrénéen Climate Change Observatory has collected data on atmospheric warming and says up to 60 per cent of the plant life in the area is in danger of extinction, something which is expected to worsen given predictions of a temperature rise of between 2.8ºC and 4ºC by the High Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) in Spain.

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A NATIONAL Court judge has ordered the arrest of the former CAM bank's managing director and four other members of the board in connection with alleged illegalities in their management of the Comunidad Valenciana-based financial institution.

The CAM has now been swallowed up by Banco Sabadell, but during its presence on the high street as a savings bank, managing director Roberto López Abad and director Daniel Gil are said to have obtained 'personal benefit' from a five banking operations jointly with a shareholder, Valfensal.

They are believed to have used the sales and purchases of three hotels and the acquisition of two plots of land in México and the Dominican Republic as a front for illicitly transferring funds from the CAM to Valfensal.

And the investigations say the board of directors deliberately carried out transactions which they knew the bank's assets could not cope with, for their own benefit, which would cause financial loss to creditors, customers and shareholders.  

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Rafael Nadal made sure he finishes the year ranked No.1 in the world after battling hard to overcome Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6, 7-6 at the ATP World Tour Finals in London today.

It will be the third time Nadal has finished a year top of the rankings, following similar success in 2008 and 2010.

He is also the first man through to the semi-finals of the end-of-year event, with two straight-set wins from two group stage matches, having already beaten fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2 in the Group A opener on Tuesday.

Top seed Nadal, who has never won the season-ending event, improved to a 12-0 head-to-head record against Wawrinka, with the Swiss No. 2 yet to win a set off him.

Wawrinka and Berdych both have a chance to join Nadal in the semi-finals, having both recorded one win and one loss in the group matches. David Ferrer cannot now qualify after losing to both Nadal and Berdych.
   

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THE first prisoner released after the Parot Doctrine was overturned by Strasbourg has gone to ground and is not registered anywhere, official sources say.

Inés del Río Prada, 55, a militant of the Basque terrorist cell ETA, gave an address whilst in jail of a house in the village of Tafalla (Navarra region), where she was born, but has not been there for 26 years, since she was imprisoned.

None of the villagers know her personally, even council officials of a similar age.

She has never had a single day's leave during her entire custodial term, meaning she has only ever seen the four walls of a jail in over a quarter of a century.

In the past, Inés del Río had also given two addresses in the city of Pamplona, capital of Navarra, one of which is where her sister Cristina lives.

Reporters were camped outside all three when Del Río Prada, member of the bloodthirsty Madrid Commando and responsible for 24 deaths in a bombing in the capital, was released – but she did not appear.

She was last seen smiling in the back seat of a car two weeks ago after being picked up by family members, and after meeting a group of relatives and friends at the prison gates, carrying the Basque flag.  

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EMPLOYEES facing the chop at a leading electrical appliance firm staged a lock-in yesterday (Monday) at one of the factories and plan to stay there 'for as long as is necessary' to make bosses reconsider.

A group of 16 workers at Edesa, part of the Fagor group which manufactures white goods, shut themselves into the portokabins used for office work in the unloading area of the factory in Basauri (Vizkaia province) in the Basque Country.

“We have to do something to save our company, because otherwise it will have a knock-on effect and end up with the closure of other firms – not jus in the Basque Country, but nationally,” said one of the workers, Teresa Pérez.

By this they mean that if the Fagor plants in the region close, the mass unemployment generated will lead to reduced consumer spending and affect the economy in general.

They have hung out banners reading 'Save the industry in Euskadi', the Basque name for the region, written in both Spanish and the Basque language, euskera.

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STUDENT scholarships for study abroad have suddenly been slashed and without warning by Spain's ministry of education, leaving many young people overseas with no money.

No warning was given and nothing was mentioned in the national media, meaning affected students already out of the country had no way of preparing for their sudden loss of a grant.

Erasmus scholarships, provided in many countries to university undergraduates to spend up to a year in another country studying, come from the individual governments – and in Spain's case, it has been decided that only those already in receipt of a regular student grant can have them.

University tuition fee grants are only available to those who achieve 55 per cent in their post-sixth form college aptitude test even though the actual pass mark is 50 per cent.

And grants to help towards living costs whilst at college are only paid to those students who achieve 65 per cent – the equivalent of a C-grade.

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A TOTAL of 16 people have died in road crashes in just three days over the 'All Saints' bank holiday weekend, reports the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT).

In the 14 fatal accidents between 15.00hrs on Thursday and 20.00hrs last night (Sunday), seven people have also been seriously injured and numerous others suffered minor wounds.

Sunday, as those who had gone away for the bank holiday weekend – Friday being a national day off – was the worst for tragedies on motorways and minor roads alike.

Six of the 16 were killed in five major accidents and four seriously hurt, with one person suffering minor injuries.  

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NUMEROUS well-known personalities in the legal, political and academic world have written to socialist leader Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba (pictured) offering their support in 'bringing down the right-wing'.

They include former National Court judge Baltasar Garzón, who was struck off after it was found he ordered telephone-tapping in his investigations into the massive Gürtel corruption trial involving high-level politicians, actions which implicated many of them.

Others include Pilar Río, chairwoman of the José Saramago Foundation, in honour of the author, as well as Dean of Madrid's Complutense University Dr José Carrillo, union bosses, business owners, and former leaders of the left-wing party Izquierda Unida (United Left).

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AN alleged 'offensive' by a Spanish Guardia Civil patrol boat against British Naval ships in Gibraltar's waters has raised hackles within the UK's ministry of defence.

The Gibraltar Squadron was reportedly protecting an auxiliary tanker from the Royal Navy fleet in seas which officially belong to the Rock on Wednesday, when the Spanish military police patrol craft, the Río Tormes, breached security protocol by passing too close to the HMS Scimitar.

British Naval officers, who were armed, ordered the Guardia Civil craft to move out of the area, but the crew allegedly refused to do so.

Baroness Hooper, a Conservative peer, said both parties pointed guns at each other, although it is not clear which side did so first.

As well as ignoring Navy officers' warnings, the Guardia Civil boat apparently collided with a boat crewed by Gibraltar's defence police, although no damage or injury was caused.

According to the UK's foreign affairs ministry, the Royal Navy acted entirely in keeping with normal procedure in such a situation.

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A SURVEY on Gibraltar sovereignty was rigged by Spain's ministry of defence, according to The Telegraph newspaper.

The British broadsheet put the ownership of the Rock to the vote on its website with the question, 'Is Gibraltar British or Spanish?' and the option to click on either.

A total of 835,243 votes were registered, of which 89.9 per cent called for Gibraltar to be Spanish.

Only 93,891 wanted the Rock to belong to the UK.

But an analysis of the IP addresses of voters carried out by Telegraph IT technicians showed that over 5,000 of them were from within the ministry of defence in Spain.

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