Live News From Spain As It Happens

TRAFFIC on Spain's roads has multiplied now August is about to start and many companies shut down for the month, making it the favourite time of the year for holidays.

Foreign and Spanish tourists rise in number around the beginning of August and traffic heading in the direction of the south and east coasts is likely to be extremely heavy.

Around 2.7 million cars will be on the roads between this evening (Wednesday) and the night of Thursday, August 1, although this may continue through the weekend.

The most congested highways will be those through the central region of Castilla-La Mancha as hundreds of thousands leave Madrid for the coasts and countryside, as well as the N-roads and motorways of the Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia, and Andalucía.  

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KING Juan Carlos' youngest daughter, the Infanta Cristina is due to move to Switzerland for work – but her husband, disgraced businessman Iñaki Urdangarín, is forced to stay behind in Barcelona because of his ongoing court case.

Whilst Urdangarín grapples with accusations of fraudulent appropriation of public funds by setting up his profit-making business, the Nóos Institute, as a charity, his wife, the Duchess of Palma, is preparing a move to Geneva.

She has worked for 20 years for the La Caixa Foundation, the charitable and social arm of the high-street bank, which promotes culture, science and education, invests in humanitarian causes in Spain and the third world – such as helping the poor and assisting the disabled in getting into work – as well as funding aid following natural disasters.

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TEMPERATURES could rise to a sweltering 43ºC in the shade from tomorrow until the other side of the weekend as another heatwave is set to strike mainland Spain.

And night temperatures will be an average of 25ºC across the country, hot on the heels of Barcelona airport's 26.1ºC on Saturday, the 'highest low' since 1924.

No rain and only very light winds are expected throughout the country, and not even the usual damp and chilly north-west will see a drop until at least Thursday.

Even then, the rain will be little more than a drizzle, says the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Inland Andalucía and Murcia will see the hottest temperatures, with at least 43ºC in the shade by midday in land-locked provinces such as Córdoba, Jaén and Sevilla.

And the mercury will rise to at least 40ºC in the Ebro valley, the south and south-east, both inland and in coastal areas.

Colder regions of Spain including Galicia, Asturias and the north-west of Castilla y León, which tend to see more of a 'British summer', will experience highs of at least 38ºC in the shade, AEMET warns.  

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SECRETARY of State for Social Security Tomás Burgos says part-time workers should not have to be 'paying into the system' for as long as full-time employees to qualify for a State pension.

At present, to be eligible for any type of retirement pension, a person needs to show they have been on the Social Security system – either as a employee on a contract, as a registered self-employed worker, signed on with the dole office, on maternity leave or a State sick pension – for 15 years.

They then have to be in this situation for a minimum of 30 years – soon to rise to 35 years – to qualify for a full pension based upon their earnings over their working lives.

As contributions are based upon a 40-hour working week, this is then calculated on a pro-rata basis for those working part-time, meaning that a person who has always worked 20 hours a week will need to be paying into the system for 30 years to get a pension and 60 to 70 to get a full one, whilst people who have been working for 10 hours a week all their lives need to be 'in the system' for 60 years to receive anything and between 120 and 140 years to qualify for the full amount.  

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RECORDINGS of telephone conversations and subsequent statements from train-driver Francisco Garzón del Amo reported him as admitting he had been travelling at 190 kilometres per hour in an 80-kilometre limit.

And his colleagues across Spain, other members of the train drivers' union say 'better safety systems' in place on the A Grandeira curve at Angrois, four kilometres south of Santiago de Compostela, 'would have stopped the tragedy from happening'.

The automated braking system was not in place on that part of the line and the driver would have needed to slow down manually, they say, although they insist that it is a near-impossible feat, reducing speed from 200 kilometres per hour on the high-speed AVE line to 80 kilometres per hour on the regional line, both parts of the same track, within a matter of seconds.

Witnesses say the driver was standing on the line just after the accident, covered in blood, and repeatedly saying, 'I'm sorry'.

He told police, “I've messed up,” and admitted that he had 'wanted to die' when he saw what had happened.

A telephone conversation showed him as saying, “I've derailed, what am I supposed to do about it, what do I do.”

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MALLORCA'S worst forest fire in 14 years is still burning near Andratx and has already wiped out 1,600 hectares since Friday.

Homes in Estellencs, near Andratx were due to be evacuated last night (Saturday) and 40 fire engines, four helicopters and about another 20 hydroplanes were working round the clock with 186 members of rescue forces including forestry brigades, the Civil Protection squad and the fire brigade.

In total, 325 people have been drafted in to help, but they are working in shifts with a minimum of 186 on duty at any one time.

The number of planes and helicopters being used is partly due to the fact that the site of the fire is very difficult to reach on foot.

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THE driver of the train which crashed and broke into three killing 80 people and injuring 111 more has been summoned for questioning as excessive speed is cited as a cause of the tragedy – but rail engineering experts are flummoxed, saying modern control systems would 'not allow' a driver to break the speed limit.

New trains – and the ALVIA line which derailed and shattered was just two years old – are controlled by track equipment linked to controls in the driver's cab, which automatically regulates speed, preventing the train from going any faster than the track limit.

This control, known as the European Train Control System, means it is impossible for a driver to break the speed limit, but was not in place on the bend where the accident occurred.

Instead, a signal notification and automatic braking system, or ASFA, was in place, which sends light flares to warn the driver of excess speed and finally brakes automatically if the driver ignores these.  

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THE death toll from the train crash in Galicia has risen to 80, with 33 people in a critical condition in hospital, latest reports show.

Four of them are aged under 15 and remain in the paediatric intensive care unit.

A total of 95 people were admitted to hospital following the devastating accident, eight of whom have since been discharged.

Seven people died in hospital and 73 at the scene, which witnesses described as 'hell on earth' with bodies scattered all over the line.

The Alvia high-speed rail connection was heading to the far northern ship-building town of Ferrol, in Galicia, from Madrid's Chamartín station when it derailed four kilometres south of the pilgrims' cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela.

A video on youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccu4bA0CWuw) shows the horrific smash in which it took just 11 seconds for an everyday train journey to become the greatest rail tragedy in Spain's history.

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A RYANAIR flight bound for Alicante from Edinburgh had to land at Glasgow Prestwick airport just minutes after take-off due to having been struck by lightning, sources from the low-cost airline confirm.

The flight had just left the Scottish capital at 18.15hrs BST (19.15hrs Spanish time) during a storm when it was hit by a bolt of lightning and forced to touch down at the nearest airport.

Aviation engineers inspected the craft fully and gave it the green light to fly shortly afterwards.

The pilot then proceeded to Alicante, where the rest of the flight went without a hitch and landed with a slight delay at its Costa Blanca destination.  

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FORMER treasurer and senator of the PP Luis Bárcenas has been unable to pay the 43-and-a-quarter-million-euro bail release applied by judge Pablo Ruz.

As this bond relates to his civil liability in respect of possible money-laundering and acceptance of bribes on behalf of the PP party, it is not a payment designed to get him out of jail, but a measure applied so that those on trial do not try to 'hide' or 'lose' their assets to avoid having to pay compensation when the verdict on their case is passed.

Bárcenas has been in prison since June 27 and will remain there until the time of his trial where, if he is considered innocent, he will be released or if he is guilty, will serve the remainder of any custodial sentence awarded.

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A TRAIN has derailed in Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña) in the north-western region of Galicia, killing at least 60 passengers and leaving 111 others injured in a scene that has been described as a 'living hell',

Bodies were seen strewn across the tracks in what is said to be the worst rail-crash in Spain in over 40 years.

Survivors say they heard what sounded like 'an explosion', and thought the train had been bombed, then noticed dozens of people bleeding heavily.

The train, which was carrying 218 people on the route between Madrid and the far-northern coastal town of Ferrol, tipped over on a bend about three kilometres south of the famous pilgrims' cathedral city Santiago de Compostela, with all 13 carriages toppling over.

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MEMBERS of the German mafia who belong to the Hell's Angels Motor Club (HAMC) have been arrested in Mallorca and charged with money-laundering, blackmail, illegal possession of firearms, human trafficking, drug-dealing and causing grievous bodily harm.

The Hell's Angels are made up of motorcyclists of numerous nationalities – although mostly German – and have branches or 'chapters' in 40 countries on all five continents.

One of these is based in Bulgaria and is responsible for forging documents, especially passports and national identity cards.

They are known to have kidnapped a large number of young women to force them to work as prostitutes in German brothels and even forced the victims themselves to deliver the proceeds to other Hell's Angels members in Spain, as well as stealing their identities for loans and purchases of goods to avoid capture.  

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A BRITISH mountaineer and climbing instructor has been found dead nearly a week after he disappeared in the Picos de Europa mountain range in the northern region of Cantabria.

The unnamed 24-year-old was found down a hole some 10 or 12 metres deep in the rocks in the Canalona area, near the hamlet of Peña Vieja at around 16.00hrs on Tuesday this week.

Rescuers firstly stumbled upon the deceased's rucksack, which led them to his body.

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SPAIN'S president Mariano Rajoy has agreed to give a speech in Commons at the end of this month or early August to answer the nation's questions about the Bárcenas case and his own economic policies.

The Premier firstly made this announcement during a press conference with the prime minister of Romania, Víctor Ponta, having previously discussed the matter privately with Congress leader Jesús Posada.

“I have done this because I consider that it is the right moment to analyse the future of things and what the government hopes to do in the next few months,” Rajoy stated.

He has stressed that his appearance in Commons will 'give all the explanations' and that he will describe everything that has happened from his own point of view.

His version is 'necessary for the people' and 'should be given in Parliament because 'it is the headquarters of national sovereignty', says the PP leader.

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RESIDENTS in Spain owe more than 89 billion euros on credit cards, according to a banking consumer association, ADICAE.

Its leader, Fernando Herrero, says this had risen from 26 billion in 2005 with bad debts at a fraction of this – 137.8 million euros – and rocketed to 70 billion in 2010 with bad debt from unpaid cards having increased five times over.

This works out at approximately 1,900 euros per inhabitant, although when taking into account those who do not own credit cards, including children, the average debt per head is considerably higher.

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A BRITISH tourist is critically ill in hospital in Mallorca after leaping from a fourth-floor balcony whilst drunk.

The 21-year-old, who has not been named, attempted to jump into the swimming pool of the Hotel Honolulu resort in Magalluf (pictured left) at around 03.25hrs this morning from the balcony, having consumed massive quantities of alcohol.

He was rushed to A&E at the hospital in nearby Son Espases, where he remains in a serious condition.

The victim was carrying out the infamous, widespread and highly-dangerous practice known as 'balconing', whereby inebriated tourists – usually British or from other northern European countries – either jump from balcony to balcony, or dive from hotel or apartment windows into the communal swimming pool.

In recent years, numerous cases of 'balconing' where holidaymakers have landed badly in the pool or missed it altogether have been reported, with dozens ending up in hospital suffering head injuries and broken bones.

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RAJOY'S presidency in Spain is 'invalid' and 'illegitimate' because the PP's election campaign in 2011 was paid for by unlawful donations, claims leader of United Left (IU).

Cayo Lara called the last elections a 'sham' because Rajoy 'could have won by cheating' and 'in absolute illegality' if the ongoing Bárcenas trial shows the PP received back-handers from companies in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.

Comparing the situation to doping in sports, Lara said that both cases were against the rules and that the PP had gained its landslide victory 'under false pretences'.

In response to Rajoy's refusal to stand down as head of State on the grounds that 'only the elections are what makes a government legitimate', the Izquierda Unida leader said he 'did not deny this' but that the PP 'may have violated the principle of equal opportunities' if it had secured the majority of the votes as a result of campaigns paid for out of bribe money.  

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MOST tax fraud in Spain – 71 per cent in total – is by large companies and people with extreme wealth, according to the fiscal authority, Hacienda.

President of GESTHA - Hacienda's technical department – Carlos Cruzado, says it is 'an error' to blame the average self-employed sole trader or small business for the majority of tax evasion.

According to Cruzado, where self-employed persons avoid tax, it is usually by not invoicing certain minor jobs, and small businesses tend to offset personal expenses against their business tax, but it is the large companies and people with multi-millions are the ones who consciously carry out large-scale fraud and corruption, such as the infamous Nóos case involving the King's son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín. 

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FRICTION within the PP party at national government level over the Bárcenas slush fund scandal has been reported with undisclosed members calling for a new leader and dubbing the situation 'intolerable'.

President Mariano Rajoy has vowed not to give in to 'blackmail' or pressure from the opposition to stand down, saying the elections are and should be the only time when a head of State is nominated.

He has yet to make any public speeches on the matter and has only appeared in a press conference via a television screen in the very beginning to deny everything.

Although he has refused to testify, prosecutors say they have the jurisdiction to oblige him to do so and his decision will be announced on Wednesday.

Neither is Rajoy willing to make any drastic announcements concerning members of the party nor remove any ministers from office, saying he will simply allow justice to follow its course.  

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A 45-YEAR-OLD man has died after downing six litres of beer in 20 minutes in a drinking competition in Gea y Truyols (Murcia).

The victim, a local resident who worked as a porter and had a degree in history, won the competition which involved drinking as many quarter-pints – the size of a cup from a drinking-water dispenser – as possible in the 20-minute time-limit.

He downed the equivalent of nine pints of beer in this time, then began to vomit and suffer dizzy spells.

His friends called the 112 emergency hotline and an ambulance rushed straight to the scene.

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'LARGE families' who are eligible for concessions and benefits from the State will continue to be so until their youngest child is aged 26 – even if they have left home by then.

Until now, parents with three or more children – the only families entitled to any kind of financial assistance for child-rearing – stopped getting help from the government when the youngest of their brood turned 21.

With the new law, the upper age of 21 will apply to the eldest child if he or she is working, or 26 if the son or daughter is at college or unemployed.

It will have a positive effect on 84 per cent of Spain's 532,928 families who have three children – a total of 373,043 – who would have lost their 'status' as a large family once the eldest turned 21, even if he or she was not working.

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TWO men behind a spate of bag-snatching incidents at Murcia's San Javier airport have been arrested.

They used car-hire firms with fake passports for a week at a time in order to pass as holidaymakers.

The accused parties, Romanian nationals aged 23 and 28, live in Alicante and Valencia respectively and travelled around 5,000 kilometres a week between the two locations in hired vehicles.

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ONE in 10 drivers who have had too much to drink before driving have tried dubious techniques to 'sober up', including chewing coffee-beans and grass and even licking mobile phone batteries.

A study by motor insurer Línea Directa – Spain's branch of the UK's Direct Line – says these urban myths do not make a difference and that the only way to avoid a positive breathalysing reading is simply not to drink and drive.

They say as many as 10 per cent of motorists believe that the 'top five' old wives' tales – drinking strong coffee or crunching coffee-beans, waiting an hour or two after finishing drinking before getting in the car, chewing gum or boiled sweets, consuming large quantities of water, or carrying out physical exercises – will mean a breath test shows up negative for alcohol.

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ELDERLY people should not be looking after young children full-time, because they are neither physically nor psychologically up to it, say geriatricians.

Doctors at Valencia's Hospital Casa de Salud ('house of health') says the economic crisis is responsible for parents having to work much longer hours when they can find jobs and their wages not being enough to pay for childcare – a situation that is forcing them to effectively leave their own parents to bring up their children.

And with the average childbearing age rising, by the time grandparents have to take on the burden of care, they are often very old and not in the best of health.

Specialist geriatrician Dr Fermín García says: “It should not have to be the case that society's oldest residents have to look after young children when they are no longer physically or mentally able to do so.

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AT LEAST 8.3 million euros in undeclared cash was handled at the PP government headquarters in Madrid in a 20-year period, according to documents on a pen-drive ex-treasurer Luis Bárcenas is said to have handed to the judge.

Blocks of banknotes in briefcases, suitcases and bags were reportedly passed around in the offices on C/ Génova in the capital between 1990 and 2010, claims a report in Spanish national daily El Mundo.

The reporter, Pedro J Ramírez, says the majority of this 'off-the-books' money ended up in the pockets of PP members, with party consultant Pedro Ariola being the main beneficiary, receiving 1.5 million euros in cash in hand and the person who received the second-highest amount of undeclared money being Spanish president Mariano Rajoy, with 350,000 euros.  

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SPAIN has apologised in writing to Evo Morales for their 'regrettable behaviour' in searching his plane amid suspicions US whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board.

The Bolivian president was held up for 13 hours in Vienna airport as Spanish embassy officials inspected the craft and France, Italy and Portugal refused to let him land there or cross their air-space.

Spanish ambassador in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, Ángel Vázquez, said he was 'disappointed' by his counterpart in Vienna Alberto Carnero two weeks ago, and has hand-delivered the apology letter to Morales' office.  

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EX-SENATOR and treasurer of the PP has confessed to being the author of handwritten accounts uncovered by a Spanish national daily newspaper showing wage top-ups in cash of over 2,000 euros a month were given to high-level party members, including the current president, over a period of 10 years.

Despite having always maintained that the documents, published by centre-left broadsheet El País, were not in his writing and volunteering to take a test to prove it, Luis Bárcenas (pictured left) appears to have decided he has nothing to lose and is now beginning to speak out.

Having recently confirmed that two lawyers linked to top-flight PP members had tried to strike a deal with him – if he confessed, his wife would go to jail, but if he remained silent they would arrange for justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón to be fired and Bárcenas' case archived – the accused now adds that the party tried to pay him to keep quiet

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FRESH revelations from Spanish national daily newspaper El Mundo claim the PP tried to strike a deal with its former treasurer Luis Bárcenas (pictured left) so that he would stay silent over the alleged cash-in-hand wage top-ups and illegal financing of the party.

Hot on the heels of the broadsheet's publishing text messages between Bárcenas and Spanish president Mariano Rajoy between May 2011 and March this year, the latest leak has sparked outrage from the general public, the opposition and the media.

According to El Mundo's article, Bárcenas' successor – ex-treasurer Álvaro Lapuerta – spoke to him 'in representation of the PP party' via the latter's solicitor, Javier Iglesias, to convince him not to drop the current reigning government in it.

After Bárcenas had been remanded in custody, Lapuerta reportedly said to him: “If you say anything, your wife will go to prison. If you keep quiet, Gallardón will leave and the case will be thrown out.”

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BRITISH sovereignty of Gibraltar is now 300 years old and the ongoing tug-of-war between the UK and Spain over the Rock has never relented in that time.

Three centuries ago on Saturday – on July 13, 1713 – the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in which the Kingdom of Spain ceded Gibraltar to Great Britain, a move that the Spanish authorities still call today 'an historic mistake'.

Spain wants the Rock to be returned to its Crown and form part of the southern region of Andalucía, as it was 300 years ago when Article 10 of the Treaty was signed to end the Spanish War of Secession – nine years after the tiny 5.5-square-kilometre enclave was conquered and occupied by Anglo-Dutch forces.

Back then, taking over the Rock gave the UK and Holland a strategic point for setting up military bases and maintaining control over trading routes by sea – and in fact, a Naval base remains there today.  

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TEXT messages by mobile phone between Spanish president Mariano Rajoy and former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas have been published by national daily newspaper El Mundo.One of the most recent, from Bárcenas to Rajoy (pictured left), thanked the president for his 'continuing support'.According to the article, a text sent by Rajoy to Bárcenas' wife Rosalía Iglesias between May and September 2011 said: “I will always be there for you – at the end of the day, life is about hanging in there and having someone to help you.”A later SMS between February and April 2012 from Rajoy to Bárcenas said: “Peace of mind is the one thing that one must not lose.”These two messages were sent after the news broke about the ex-senator and treasurer of the right-wing party having held 22 million euros – which has since turned out to be more than 48 million – in Swiss bank accounts, and being accused of paying leading PP members wage top-ups in cash, undeclared.

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AMERICAN tycoon Sheldon Adelson says he will put off starting work on building the Eurovegas complex until Spanish president Mariano Rajoy agrees to change the law so that visitors can smoke inside the building.

Inside sources say Rajoy has already told Adelson he will do this, although the president himself denies having commented either way – merely that the two men discussed the issue.

The start of the process in constructing the Las Vegas style casino resort in Alcorcón (Madrid) is already behind schedule by three months, but regional president Ignacio González has not placed any importance on this, given the sheer size of the project.

And the company behind the resort, Las Vegas Sands, stresses it still fully intends to go ahead.

But the smoking law is rumoured to be a condition as to whether the casino complex will in fact open in Spain.

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MORE brands of cigarettes are about to go up in price as a result of the increase in the tax element on tobacco products.

Pall Mall will now cost 4.20 euros a packet and Lucky Strike 4.35 euros, both having risen by 10 cents.

Other 'premium' brands, including Vogue, Rothman's, Prince and Kool will go up 10 cents to 4.75 euros, and Golden American will rise to 3.95 euros, an increase of 15 cents.

All of these are manufactured by British American Tobacco (BAT) which has followed in the footsteps of its main competitors, Altadis and Philip Morris, after Spain's government announced a tax hike on June 28.

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A GERMAN toddler has drowned in a private swimming pool on the urbanisation La Siesta in Torrevieja (Alicante).

The two-year-old is the 10^th child to have perished in water since the beginning of July, the eighth to drown in a pool and the third in the Valencia region in less than two weeks.

Emergency services say the little boy, who was on holiday in the area with his parents, was taken to the local health centre by his family, but attempts to revive him via CPR failed.

The cause of his drowning, which happened at 15.30hrs yesterday (Thursday) have yet to be clarified.

Four people – three of whom were children – have drowned in pools this month in the region.

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EIGHT different types of contraceptive pill will no longer be financed by the Spanish government from August 1, meaning women who use them will have to pay full price to do so even with a prescription.

The ministry of health, led by Ana Mato, says the pills in question do not provide any other health benefits besides those of birth control – such as hormone or menstrual cycle regulation – and that there are plenty of other contraceptive drugs on the market which are 'tried and tested' and can be used instead.

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THUNDER and lightning in the province of Almería caused three fires yesterday and emergency services are still working on putting them out.

Over 3,500 bolts of lightning hit the country in the early hours of Wednesday, of which 2,000 were in the Almería province and seven people, including two children, had to be evacuated from their homes in Mojácar.

Several other houses in Huércal Overa were also going to be evacuated but they turned out to be unoccupied.  

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SPAIN is set to increase the minimum age for sexual consent from 13 to 15 – in line with many other European countries but still lower than recommended by the ministry of health, which advised raising it to age 16.

This is in a bid to fight sex crimes against children and was partly provoked by the death of a 13-year-old girl in a village in Albacete, who was shot by her 39-year-old boyfriend.

The girl's mother had been trying to get the police to take action against the boyfriend since he was 38 and she was 12, since the family disapproved of the relationship.

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NINETEEN people have drowned in just 10 days since the start of July in swimming pools, rivers or the sea, half of these being children.

Four children lost their lives over the course of one weekend and two fishermen in their 30s plus a bather aged 80 drowned in rivers in Galicia in three separate incidents.

A four-year-old boy lost his life in a public outdoor swimming pool in Borja (Zaragoza) on Saturday and a two-year-old boy drowned in the pool at his home in Campotéjar Alto, near Molina de Segura (Murcia) the following evening.

And the body of a 12-year-old boy was pulled out of the river Daró in La Bisbal d'Empordà (Girona) over the same weekend.  

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THE European Commission is calling for Spain to increase State retirement age even further because the Social Security pot is running dry.

Vice-president of the EC's department of economics, Ollie Rehn, says the country needs to raise minimum pension age higher than the relatively recently-approved 67 years 'in line with higher life expectancy' and to 'guarantee that the government will be able to pay State pensions'.

According to Rehn, Spain's Social Security fund is 'in deficit' and that it paid out 10.1 per cent of its GNP in pensions in 2010, which will rise to 13.7 per cent in 2060 – above the average for the rest of Europe as a whole.

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FIVE regional governments in Spain are appealing against the newly-redrafted Coastal Law, or Ley de Costas, via the Constitutional Court.

Andalucía, the Canary Islands, Catalunya, the Basque Country and Asturias say the law text violates the right to equality and invades regional government jurisdiction.

Their regional environmental and planning ministers recall that over half of Spain's coastline is in these federal communities - the rest belonging to Cantabria, Galicia, Murcia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands - and that they should therefore be allowed to make their own judgments rather than being dictated to by the central government in Madrid, which does not even have a coastline.

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EX-TREASURER of the PP Luis Bárcenas has allegedly owned up to 'illegal' financing of the party by companies in exchange for preferential treatment, according to the editor of a leading Spanish national daily newspaper.

The normally right-wing broadsheet El Mundo published an article this week by its leader Pedro J Ramírez, who had held a four-hour interview with the former senator just days before the latter was sent to jail based upon the judge's opinion that he was a flight risk.

“Bárcenas explained to me, in the course of a long conversation, that for at least the last 20 years the PP had been financed illegally, receiving donations in cash from construction firms and other business-owners who, in turn, obtained contracts for jobs awarded by government departments led by the party,” Ramírez claimed in his article.

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BOLIVIAN president Evo Morales has announced he will offer asylum to former CIA technician and whistleblower Edward Snowden as an act of protest against Europe after at least three countries refused to let his plane land.

Spain has denied refusing to allow Morales' flight to pass through its airspace or touch down in its airports after the leader of the Andean country was forced to wait for 13 hours in Vienna airport.

Portugal, Italy and France all denied him entry to their airspace amid suspicions that Snowden was on board.

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IBERIA says it has 'no option' but to go ahead with the 3,141 redundancies it has announced to save the company from 'possible ruin'.

The Spanish airline, which merged with British Airways to form the company IAG (International Airline Group) says its situation is 'calamitous' and that if it does not lay off thousands of staff it could face 'disappearing altogether'.

They have admitted the redundancies are 'a national tragedy', but say they have 'no choice'.

Agreements between Iberia and the unions have been approved by the National Court since, if the redundancies are not carried out 'with immediate effect', the firm could be forced to make 'even greater sacrifices' including its 'ultimate closure'.

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EX-TREASURER of the PP Luis Bárcenas has turned into something of a celebrity in jail, with fellow inmates asking for his autograph and for envelopes filled with cash, sending up the suspected 'off-the-books' wage top-ups he is accused of having paid to high-level party members for over 10 years.

Bárcenas, who is remanded in custody pending trial as the judge believes there is a risk of his absconding due to the multi-millions he holds in bank accounts abroad, is in Cell Block IV of Madrid's Soto del Real prison, a unit for non-violent, first-time criminals.

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A THREE-YEAR-OLD sleepwalker was found wandering along the C-1413 road in Rubí (Barcelona) this week.

He was discovered near the Egara rural park at around 18.45hrs on Tuesday, police have just revealed.  

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A BOY of six has lost his life in a swimming pool on a private residential complex - the fourth child to drown in similar circumstances in three days.

He had gone with his family to spend the day at the villa of some friends on the urbanisation Maset del Pou in Monserrat (Valencia) on Monday when he fell into their pool just after 19.00hrs, say Local Police officers.

The people who were with the child took him to the health centre in Monserrat, where employees called an ambulance staffed with paramedics, but he had already passed away by the time it reached the scene.

He is the fourth child in Spain to drown in private pools since the start of July.

The day before, an eight-year-old boy drowned in the communal swimming pool on his housing development in Cabra de Santo Cristo (Jaén province), and the day after the tragedy in Monserrat, a girl of 17 months old lost her life in a paddling pool in Priego (Córdoba province).

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ARMED conflict in Mali and Syria is causing applications for asylum in Spain to rocket, says the ministry of foreign affairs.

A total of 2,480 asylum-seekers in the first six months of the occupations of Mali and Syria, have asked for residence in the country on humanitarian grounds, due to the life-threatening situation in their homelands.

This is nearly as many as in the whole of 2012, when Spain received 2,588 cases.

According to the UN, applicants from Mali by May this year totalled 880, compared to 101 in the whole of last year.

Syrian refugees total 280 already for 2013, compared to 225 for the whole of 2012.

But the Spanish government stresses that the number of requests it receives is far lower than that of many other European countries.  

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CATALUNYA'S regional government has announced plans to restrict people from wearing headgear which covers their faces in public areas – but has included balaclavas and motorcycle helmets in the description so as not to face uproar over religious discrimination.

Although the ban is mainly aimed at the Burkha, given the high population of Muslims in the region, it is purely a public safety issue, says regional minister for the interior, Ramón Espadaler.

Balaclavas are less common, but will also be regulated.

They are more likely to be worn when committing crimes, to avoid identification.

Bike helmets will also have to be removed when entering public buildings, such as shops and offices, since they preclude the wearer from being identified.

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SEVEN years on from the introduction of the points-based driving licence, three-quarters of motorists in Spain have all their points intact.

This translates to 20 million drivers in the country.

Just 0.6 per cent – 167,517 in total – have lost their licences altogether through having all the points confiscated.

And 0.3 per cent, or just over 80,000 only have three points remaining, having lost all the others.

New holders of Spanish licences, and those who acquired one when the points system was launched, had 12 points, which would then rise to 15 over the next three years if the holder did not commit any traffic offences.

Unlike the UK system, where licences are point-free but infractions can lead to three, six or nine points being imposed – and the licence being withdrawn once 12 have been accumulated – in Spain, a licence starts with 12 points and these are lost, usually in threes, where the driver is in breach of road regulations. 

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EX-BOND actor Sean Connery has been given six months to decide whether he wants to testify in court over a property he owns in Marbella, or go to prison.

Every time the former 007 – who played the spy in Goldfinger, in 1964, among others – was called to attend court, this was frustrated by various turns of events.

Sean Thomas Connery and his wife, Micheline Anne Jeanne Connery own one of the 72 holiday apartments in the Malibú block in the élite Costa del Sol seaside town and are said to 'form part of the management structure of a firm of solicitors which is implicated in the infamous Malaya property corruption case, dating back to 2006.

This said, the 200-page case report says it 'seems clear' that the overall control of the firm, and the operations in which Mr and Mrs Connery were involved, were carried out by two of the solicitors who have been charged in the Malaya case

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IBERIA long-haul flights will soon have Wi-Fi access on board – albeit at a cost.

The airline confirms that 25 Airbus A330 and A340 will include internet access at five euros for 5MB.

Although this is one of the more expensive in-flight Wi-Fi services – Gogo costs 14 USD for 24 hours with no download limit – the facility is still very hard to find among airlines in general and shows a massive step forward in passenger convenience in the 21st-century, as well as a pioneering move in Europe.

Other highly-modern services to be offered by Iberia in the near future include a new social network site, a personalised 'app' for Smartphones, a brand-new user-friendly website with a much 'cleaner' layout and easy connections to Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Spain's David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco are both through to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, but Carla Suárez Navarro was beaten in straight sets by Petra Kvitova.

No.4 seed David Ferrer beat Croatia's Ivan Dodig 6-7, 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 to book his place in the quarter-finals for the second year in a row. Javea-born Ferrer squandered eight break points  in the first set, but gained in confidence after winning the second set and raced through the third and fourth sets.

An ankle injury sustained in the first round is causing Spain's top-ranked player some discomfort, but he has insisted in playing through the pain. Next up is the No. 8 seed Juan Martín del Potro, against whom Ferrer has a good record.

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ON THE eve of the 11^th day of the Bretón trial, evidence appears to be closing in on the father-of-two accused of killing his children on a bonfire in his parents' orchard after reporting them missing in October 2011.

Ruth, six, and brother José, two, were picked up from the family home in Huelva by their father José Bretón (pictured) on October 8 that year for his first weekend access visit after his wife and the mother of his children, Ruth Ortiz, announced she wanted a divorce.

He took them to Córdoba, where he had moved to as a result of the separation and where his family lived, and later that day reported that they had gone missing in the Cruz Conde park in the city.

Bones were later found on the remains of a bonfire, carefully constructed with flammable materials, bricks and a metal table-top to raise the temperature to 1,200ºC, and were said to be those of human children of the same ages and genders as Ruth and José junior after four different forensics had examined them.

The jury – comprising men and women in equal numbers – were said to have been moved to tears by mother Ruth's statement in the early days of the trial.....

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