Live News From Spain As It Happens

HALLOWE'EN was practically unheard of in Spain a decade ago, mainly known as the night before All Saints' Day when families traditionally go to the cemetery to tidy up the graves of their loved ones.

But now, it is in full swing and celebrated almost as much as in the USA, where it has become a major date on the calendar.

Over seven million people are expected to be out partying tonight dressed as ghosts, ghouls, witches, vampires, skeletons and and zombies, with over 70,000 organised Hallowe'en parties across the country, according to fancy-dress shops, bars and restaurants.

Hallowe'en discos at an early hour are taking place in many towns for children, and kids' TV programmes have been milking the 'scary season' in Spain over the last week or so.

In fact, Hallowe'en is now one of the five biggest bar-fillers in the country, after the Christmas and New Year holidays and the pre-Lent carnivals.

One in five restaurants and bars will be decorated in keeping with the moment, hanging up pumpkins and cobwebs, organising themed menus, or with staff in ghoulish fancy dress, a survey has revealed.

A celebration that went by completely unnoticed without so much as a chocolate pumpkin on sale in the supermarket until less than a decade ago, Hallowe'en was really only celebrated as a themed night in Irish pubs from the 1980s onwards.

Now, thanks to the rapid rise in American drama and comedy serials on TV dubbed into Spanish, and Erasmus students coming back from their year abroad with tales of other traditions, it is almost as big in Spain as elsewhere in Europe.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOVEMBER in Spain will see a sharp contrast to the weather experienced in October, with temperatures plummeting and rainfall from this Saturday – the first of the month – onwards.

Starting from the north-west, a cold front entering the mainland via Galicia will bring chilly winds throughout the country and heavy rain.

The first snows will be seen on the highest mountain peaks, says the State meteorological agency AEMET, from around 1,200 metres above sea-level and beyond.

Very heavy rain across the mainland and Balearics is expected to strike this coming Tuesday, November 4, but over the weekend will only hit Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Pyrénées, although light showers may be felt in the Canary Islands.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH Marie Curie Foundation employee kidnapped by her family in Algeria has escaped, reports her adopted father.

Mahyuba Mohammed Hamdidaf, 24, had been in the disputed Western Sahara territory since late July as appeals and negotiations back in her home country were ongoing.

Ex-president of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had offered to help, friends and family had set up a petition online and the provincial council had threatened to stop all aid to the Sahara people unless Mahyuba was freed.

The Faculty of Arabic Studies – where Mahyuba studied and gained a top-grade degree – at Alicante University called her being held against her will 'unacceptable' and wrote a formal letter to the Saharan authorities asking them to help their 'brilliant ex-student'.

During her most recent annual visit to her family of origin, Mahyuba's natural parents confiscated her Spanish passport, ordering her to give up her citizenship there, and took her money and mobile phone.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RAIDING bins for food or reusable rubbish in Sevilla could attract a fine of up to 750 euros, city mayor Juan Ignacio Zoido warns.

Although considered a breach of local bye-laws since 2003, from the beginning of this week the fine has risen to 750 euros from its original 300.

Nowadays, with families stricken by long-term unemployment, it is far more common to see people filching through wheelie-bins on the streets for leftover food, discarded clothing, or items they could restore and sell.

Zoido says once rubbish has been dumped, it is 'council property' and likens rifling through to 'petty theft'.

The previous city council only considered it an offence to 'manipulate' rubbish in bins, but Zoido has extended the definition to include 'extraction of' or 'sifting through' refuse.

Zoido has also banned playing darts or dominoes in bars in the city, and those who do so will be fined.

Opposition councillors on the PSOE call the rubbish-rifling fines 'repugnant', pointing out that those who do so are 'only trying to satisfy a basic human need' – that of obtaining food.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A TOTAL of over 840,000 European Union citizens qualify to vote in the local elections in Spain this coming May, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Anyone who has not cast their ballot in a town election before in Spain – no matter where they are from – may need to register to do so and should enquire at their town hall, although those who have previously voted in the same municipality will automatically be listed on the electoral census for May 2015.

The deadline for those not registered is December 30, 2014.

Most of the EU citizens eligible to vote next year are from Romania, the UK, Germany, Italy and France, in that order.

So far, the Electoral Census Office has sent out 422,008 letters to EU citizens residing in Spain who will be aged 18 or over on the day of the elections in May, asking them to register – but even those who believe they are not yet registered and have not received a letter should make enquiries before the end of the year.

Those who have will merely have to fill in a simple form and return it postage-paid in the mail.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of Europe's best-preserved woodlands with the most exotic variety of endangered species is just five kilometres from Spain's largest metropolis, according to the organisation Patrimonio Natural ('natural heritage').

A forest in the heart of the El Pardo mountain just a five-minute drive north-west of Madrid, covering a total of 16,000 hectares and surrounded by 90 kilometres of fence is home to such iconic indigenous species as the black swan, imperial eagle, mountain cat and wild boar.

Other fauna which runs wild in the area – of which less than a quarter is open to the public – includes badgers, deer, golden eagles and vultures.

Trees and shrubs typical of Mediterranean countries include holm oak, pistachio trees, pines, laurel, European fan palm and oak.

Although very much land-locked, the El Pardo reserve has huge lakes with sandy 'beaches' and dunes similar to those seen on the coast, home to aquatic birds, and its flora and fauna is much the same as those found in natural parks bordering the Mediterranean sea.

The El Pardo mountain forms part of the Europe-wide Natura 2000 network and is considered an official Special Bird Protection Zone (ZEPA).

According to Patrimonio Natural, the park's 'strong links with the Crown', including being used as a private hunting ground for the Royal family, is one of the facets that has led to its being so well preserved.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUMMER-LIKE temperatures and clear blue skies are predicted to continue this week throughout most of Spain – a sharp contrast to the usual climate for late October, according to the State meteorological agency AEMET.

Although today (Tuesday) could bring isolated and fairly heavy showers in parts of Catalunya, Valecia and the west of the Canary Islands, this is expected to be a blip and the rest of this week will be warm and sunny with temperatures in the mid- to high-20s.

More turbulent weather conditions are likely to be seen on Saturday, the first day of November, but Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – Hallowe'en – will continue much the same as they have been so far this month.

The south-west of the mainland is likely to remain dry and cloudless all week, and any fall in temperature will only be of around 1ºC or 2ºC except in the Canary Islands, where the mercury will plunge further, although will still remain higher than average for the time of year.

No further rain is expected until at least the weekend, and southerly winds will bring warmth to the Mediterranean coast – although they could be particularly strong across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FIFTY-ONE politicians have been arrested in a massive corruption swoop, including at least six mayors from towns in the Greater Madrid region, the president of León provincial council and a former mayor in Cartagena.

Ex-Secretary General of the PP for the Madrid region, Francisco Granados - who was Esperanza Aguirre's second-in-command when she was regional government president - is one of the most high-profile detainees, and police have carried out stringent investigations in town councils including those of Móstoles, Parla, Collado-Villalba, and Valdemoro where Granados was mayor from 1999 to 2003.

The current mayor of Valdemoro, José Carlos Boza Lechuga; of Parla, José María Fraile; of Collado-Villalba, Agustín Juárez and other Madrid towns have been taken into custody.

Others have been arrested in León - head of the provincial council, or Diputación, Marcos Martínez, and Murcia - former mayor of Cartagena José Antonio Alonso.

Some are said to have been arrested in the Valencia region and investigations have been carried out in the city council and regional goverment, or Generalitat, but names have not been released.

Mayoress of Valencia, Rita Barberá, says she is 'absolutely astonished, wide-eyed in disbelief, and intrigued', as she does not know much about the case since it has been declared sub judice.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BEER based on a liqueur manufactured in Alcoi (Alicante) has proven to be a sell-out in the USA and has returned across the pond to be sold in delicatessens across Spain.

Spigha Coffee Porter was created by Daniel Fernández of Beancurdturtle Brewing in California, inspired by an ancient coffee liqueur distilled in the inland town of Alcoi, after he went on a tour of Spain seeking out historic drinks to use as a basis for his ideas in his own real ale factory.

Now the height of fashion in the USA with its own sections in top-of-the-range supermarkets, it has also seen a revival in its home country.

Alcoi now shares the official origin stamp of 'Cerveses Spigha' ('Spigha beers') and manufactures the popular Spigha Coffee Porter.

The factory, Cervesera Alcoiana, won a gold medal this year in the Monde Sélection awards, run by the International Quality Institute in Brussels.

Spigha Coffee Porter came about after Fernández, accompanied by the Alcoi-based creators Pau Aznar and Toni Aló, went on a field trip tasting traditional spirits to use as a base for a new type of beer, before deciding upon the coffee liqueur drunk by the bottle during the famous Moors and Christians festivals - held in March in Alcoi but normally in the summer along the coast of the Alicante and Valencia provinces.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S banks have all passed the 'European stress test' with only one found to be a little weak, making the country's financial network the strongest on the continent.

Nine banks in Italy failed, and the European Central Bank (BCE) found capital deficits totalling 25 billion euros in 25 banks in the Eurozone.

As for Spain, the most solvent entity is Kutxabank, formerly known as the BBK, with an 11.9% 'cushion' of capital to call upon in times of trouble.

The others in the top five were named as Bankinter (11%), the State-owned firm Bankia (10.3%), CaixaBank (9.3%) and Novacaixagalicia, or NCG (9.1%).

This measurement, or 'stress test', analyses the ability of high-street financial institutions to maintain a capital buffer zone of at least 8%, or down to 5.5% in a worst-case scenario.

Although one Spanish entity, Liberbank, effectively failed the 'stress test' because of a capital deficit of 32 million recorded as at December 31, steps taken so far this year means its capital now sits at 640 million and would therefore be solvent enough to pass if the test was 'retaken' based upon today's figures.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEXT year's bank holiday calendar sees eight national fiestas, or shut-down days where most people will not go to work and the majority of shops and other services will be closed.

Talks about moving national and regional holidays to a Monday, to cut down on the number of puentes, or 'bridges' whereby the public sector takes off the days in between a weekend and a bank holiday have not borne results in most cases, meaning Tuesday, January 6, 2015 will be a day off as it always has been rather than moving this to Monday, January 5.

Seven other national holidays, which cannot be moved because of their nature – such as New Year's Day, which falls on a Thursday in 2015 – include Good Friday, on April 3, Labour Day on May 1, which is also a Friday, 'Hispanic Day' to mark the conquering of the Americas on October 12, which is a Monday next year, Day of the Immaculate Conception, which is on a Tuesday in 2015, on December 8, and Christmas Day on a Friday.

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SPAIN'S government has admitted to having 'serious doubts' that it could stop a potential public vote on Catalunya's independence via the courts. 

The country's president Mariano Rajoy has re-focused his arguments lately, calling Catalunya's leader Artur Mas 'anti-democratic', now that the State law service has warned that it is unlikely to be able to find any legal channels prohibiting a non-binding, non-compulsory public vote taking the format of an opinion poll. 

A referendum, mirroring the recent vote in Scotland, could indeed be blocked on legal grounds since it went against the Spanish Constitution, and effectively has been since Mas has decided not to go ahead with it on November 9 as planned. 

But if it was framed as an opinion poll based upon the public's right to participate in policy-making, and not compulsory for all residents in Catalunya or those born in the region but living elsewhere, the State law service believes there is little the courts can do.

"This is more difficult, and the government cannot, under any circumstances, risk losing - it would be catastrophic," says a communication from the presidential headquarters in the Moncloa Palace, Spain's answer to the Whitehouse or 10 Downing Street. 

Rajoy calls the whole situation a 'drama', stating that whilst in Europe, the talk is of union and integration, 'some want to go on a journey back to the Middle Ages'. 

"We have to protect the rights of the citizens of Catalunya, and I've given instructions for all decisions made by its regional government [the Generalitat Catalana] to be analysed," states Rajoy.

"If we can say with all certainty that there has been the slightest breach of the law, we'll go to the courts."

Rajoy and his deputy president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, say Mas' 'process' has 'no democratic guarantee' and is 'without precedent' in Spain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PROVINCIAL authorities in the north-western province of Pontevedra are taking the UK city of Bath, Somerset as its inspiration for attracting tourists - redeploying its Roman spas for modern-day relaxation treatment.

Mayoress of Bath, Cherry Beath is attending a world conference for towns and cities with Roman baths this week on the island of A Toxa, off the coast of Pontevedra, Galicia and provincial council leader of the latter, Rafael Louzán is hoping to pick her brains.

The west of England city sees more than four million tourists a year thanks to the baths after which it is named - quite a feat for a municipality of just 83,000 inhabitants which does not have beaches or great weather like those of the same size on the Spanish coasts which welcome roughly as many annual visitors.

And Pontevedra could go the same way if promoted properly, since the province has six towns with Roman baths - Caldas, Cuntis, O Grove, Mondariz, Tui, and Vila de Cruces - as well as nine 'active' spas based in the baths themselves, 11 spas in hotels, seven thermal baths in rural hotels and four in town centres.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOW is the time to fill up with petrol as prices have plummeted to lows not seen since July two years ago.

Diesel has also fallen to prices of the second quarter of 2011, having gone down by 1.8%, and petrol has dropped by 2.8%.

The price per litre of petrol is now an average of four cents cheaper than last week, sitting at 1.352 euros, being 3.9% cheaper than at the beginning of 2014 and having sat at below 1.40 euros for a fortnight now.

A litre of diesel still costs less than 1.30 euros, the price it fell to around 10 days ago, and averages at 1.274 euros – 6% lower than in January and 6.4% lower than in the same week in 2013.

These price reductions fly in the face of the recent devaluation of the euro, which would normally lessen the effect of petrol becoming cheaper, and have come because of crude oil having reduced in cost by eight US dollars a barrel.

This said, crude oil prices are only part of the story, since in the Mediterranean area and in northern Europe, taxes make up around 50% of the cost.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TENERIFE will be one of just eight sites with a state-of-the-art telescope installed to seek out other planets with life on them.

Part of a plan started eight years ago by Åarhus University and the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen – both in Denmark – a network of small telescopes specifically designed to hunt for Earth-like planets are being set up around the world to study the stars and their individual solar systems.

One of these, which forms part of the SONG Programme, went up yesterday (Wednesday) at the Teide Observatory on the Canarian island of Tenerife.

It is much smaller than most other modern telescopes, being only a metre in diameter, and sits on a transport container where it is controlled remotely using an ordinary, basic internet connection.

The cost of the telescope, at four million euros, is cheap in comparison to the majority of others, and has been designed, developed and built by the two universities.

Astronomers in Denmark aimed to design a latest-generation prototype of a robotic telescope relatively cheaply and easy and efficient to run, in order to make scientific discoveries for relatively little money.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TOURIST numbers in Spain this summer were the best on record with a total of 31 million visitors from abroad in July, August and September, says the ministry of industry.

So far, 52.4 million foreign holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2014, and the government predicts the year will close with a figure of 62 million - the highest in history.

Statistics are only available until the end of September, which means around 3.3 million a month are expected to have arrived this month, and again in November and December.

With an increase of 7.4% on last year, this includes an overwhelming seven million in September alone - 8.1% more than last year - partly due to an Indian summer which has seen temperatures of above 30ºC in the last two months in the south, east and the islands.

Despite predictions two years ago that the face of foreign tourism and holiday-home buying in Spain would be Russian, the number of visitors from the eastern country have plummeted this year by 7.6% across the board - 1.13 million fewer - and 19.5% in September alone, with 193,600 fewer than in the same month in 2013.

But the more 'traditional' markets Spain has been popular with for decades continue to be faithful to the country and to grow in number.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NURSE Teresa Romero is cured of Ebola, according to the results of her second test – and her blood can be used to treat others who suffer the deadly disease.

This said, it is unlikely to be needed in Spain – all the 'high-risk contacts', or people who have been near her and the missionary doctor she treated, remain symptom-free and, if they test negative by the end of the incubation period of 21 days, they will be released from hospital.

The key date is October 27 – and if none of them has the disease, Spain will be officially Ebola-free.

Although her condition was touch and go 10 days ago and Teresa admits she 'really thought she was going to die' – as did the doctors – she became progressively better and is now confirmed as virus-free.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PARTS of Spain saw the hottest late-October temperatures in 145 years yesterday (Tuesday) according to the Met office.

The national record was held by Valencia city, where the mercury soared to 35.8ºC – a figure more commonly seen in July than a week before Hallowe'en, when coats and jackets are normally seen for the first time on the streets.

This is the same temperature recorded in the city in the year 1869, and it has never reached that figure since – until yesterday.

According to the State meteorological agency AEMET, the typical temperature for mid-October on Spain's Mediterranean coast is around 23.5ºC at the hottest part of the day, just after lunch, normally falling to around 10ºC or 12ºC at night and sitting just below 20ºC the rest of the day.

In the city of Castellón, about an hour north of Valencia, thermometers registered highs of 33.4ºC – the warmest October day in 103 years, since 1911 – and, in fact, the hottest day of 2014, beating even the highest temperatures there in July and August.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE largest-ever exhibition of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí ever to be show in Latin America opened this weekend and will continue until the end of the year.

Arranged by the Salvador Dalí-Gala Foundation, the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, the display will include 164 works of art and 56 documents.

Starting from Dalí's work in the 1920s through to his final canvases, the exhibition - in the Brazilian city of São Paulo - covers most of the painter's career and shows the evolution in his technique and style over the decades.

Some of Dalí's best-known paintings on show in the largest metropolis in Latin America include Es Llaner, Cubist Self-Portrait, Portrait of My Sister, Atomic and Uranic Melancholic Idyll, Gala's Foot, and Topological Contorsion of the Female Form.

Works and documents have been lent to the so-called 'New York of the Tropics' by the three galleries organising the exhibition, which will be open until New Year's Eve.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FORMER councillor from Elche (Alicante province) pretended to have cancer for five years in order to claim a sick pension.

The ex-United Left (IU) member is said to have forged reports from three hospitals back in 2008 in order to sign up for incapacity benefit, after which he received 1,000 euros a month until he was caught.

A total of 70,000 euros was paid by the Social Security office to the fraudster, all of which he has refunded.

Óscar Morales is said to have convincingly forged a report from the Vall d'Hebrón hospital in Barcelona diagnosing him with colon cancer, another from the district hospital in San Juan de Alicante detailing his chemotherapy treatment, and a third from Elche General Hospital for radiotherapy.

He managed to fake the stamps, including the College of Medicine numbers, and signatures of real doctors at all three centres, and described in the reports in detail how the cancer had metastasised.

The scam was so convincing that his doctor prescribed opiates to help him with the side-effects of the treatment.

One-time councillor for Youth and Cooperation at Elche city council between 1995 and 1999, and chairman of Elche Football Club Foundation, Morales got away with claiming a disability pension and living off it until 2013.

He was called in for his annual medical check-up, a requirement of the Social Security when claiming a sick pension and in which, until then, the fact he did not have cancer had gone undetected.

His doctor became suspicious when the medical reports he supplied did not seem to bear any relation to his apparent state of health.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOLLYWOOD actor Antonio Banderas is set to receive an honorary Goya Award at the forthcoming edition of the star-studded ceremony, having been nominated four times in his career but never walked away with the coveted trophy.

The Málaga-born silver-screen veteran, known to his English-speaking fans for his roles in Shrek and The Mask of Zorro, has been Best Actor candidate at the Goyas for La piel que habito, ¡Átame!, Matador – all films by cult director Pedro Almodóvar – and Two much.

During his early years in cinema at home in Spain, Banderas did not speak a word of English, but from the 1980s onwards began to work his way into the world of international performing arts, attending fashionable parties and making contacts.

Madonna was one of his early fans, and convinced him to audition for the role of a Hollywood production about Cuban musicians alongside Andy García, The Mambo kings dance to love songs.

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A COSTA del Sol mayoress has resigned amid charges of corruption and nepotism.

Antonia Muñoz (pictured), leader of Manilva (Málaga) town council is believed to have given jobs and lucrative public works contracts to family members, in particular to a company owned by her husband, and to have made multi-million-euro transfers to firms her relatives may have been involved with out of public funds.

At least 470 cases of possible nepotism have been uncovered, as well as several suspected incidences of public fund fraud.

On one occasion the mayoress apparently paid a family member for overtime - 24 hours' worth in one day.

Sra Muñoz's sister and daughter-in-law have been employed by the mayoress as her department heads for foreign affairs and coordination in the case of the former, and promotion, image and protocol in the case of the latter.

And her daughter, who has been called to testify, was employed by the construction and planning firm El Hacho, owned and run by the council - an appointment which was reported at the time to the anti-corruption prosecution service.

Sra Muñoz is also under investigation for allegedly dubious expenses claims.

She is said to have used her council credit card, which is purely for work-related out-of-pocket costs, to spend two euros on an ice-cream, several breakfasts priced at 8.90 euros, and on one occasion 84.95 euros in a specialist coffee store.

Read more at thinkSPAIN

A NURSE from Madrid infected with Ebola is virus-free, according to tests carried out on her last night (Sunday) - just a week after hospital staff believed she was extremely unlikely to survive.

Teresa Romero, 44, was in a very critical condition on Friday last week and her family were told there was little hope that she would live to tell the tale.

But she has improved dramatically since then and is now off oxygen, eating small amounts of solids and drinking fluids.

A second test between 24 and 48 hours later - between tonight (Monday) and Tuesday evening - will be the deciding factor, since merely testing negative for Ebola on the first occasion is not considered enough to confirm the patient can now be considered mostly recovered.

Even if the second test shows Teresa is negative for Ebola - which appears likely - she will still have to remain in hospital for a while because the virus has caused damage to her lungs, liver and kidneys which need to be 'repaired' through dialysis and medication before she can go home.

As yet, Teresa does not know her dog, Excalibur, has been put to sleep after the regional health authorities obtained a court order to break into her house and put him down.

Teresa's husband, Javier Limón - who has not shown any symptoms of Ebola - refused to give his permission for Excalibur to be put to sleep, but this, and a series of public protests and petitions of over half a million signatures were not enough to save the beloved family pet's life.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH magistrates have refused to extradite ETA member Antonio Troitiño who fled to London in 2011.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot of Westminster Court has found the European arrest warrant calling for the return of Troitiño – who has used up to six fake IDs since being jailed in Spain – to be invalid.

She says the detention order 'completely lacks' details of one of the two offences which the former ETA prisoner is accused of by the National Court in Madrid, relating to possession of forged identification documents and for which he would be required to serve the maximum sentence applicable.

This is stated on the arrest warrant to be between six and 12 years, although in later communications, the National Court of Spain said it would be between one and three years in prison.

This is the second extradition proceeding concerning Troitiño (pictured above left) in the UK – the first, which began after his arrest there in June 2012, reached stalemate after the European Union overturned the so-called 'Parot Doctrine'.

Named after Henri Parot, this doctrine stated that any early-release credits – one day for every two days of full-time work carried out whilst behind bars – would apply to the actual sentence, not the custodial term to be served.

Many ETA terrorists, as well as the Al-Qaeda bombers who blew up a train at Madrid's Atocha station killing 192 people – have been given exemplary sentences of between 80 and 4,000 years, meaning early-release credits accumulated would never actually result in their getting out before time.

But with the Parot Doctrine overturned, these day credits now have to be applied to the actual time to be served – a maximum of 30 years in Spain.

It led to many dangerous criminals, including notorious ETA killer Inés del Río Prada and the man convicted of murdering the three Alcásser (Valencia province) teens, Miguel Ricart, being immediately released.

Troitiño, now 56, was jailed for the Guardia Civil bus bombing in Madrid's Plaza de la República Dominicana in 1986, along with Inés del Río Prada and released in 2011, but with the Parot Doctrine applied retrospectively at a later date, Spanish authorities wanted to put him back into prison to serve another seven years to complete his sentence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S minister of defence saw his meeting with his US counterpart Chuck Hagel postponed this morning (Saturday) due to a suspected case of Ebola at the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Pedro Morenés (pictured) was planning to discuss using North American-owned air-bases in Morón de la Frontera (Sevilla) and Rota (Cádiz) for refuelling and resting pilots and crew en route to west African countries affected by the deadly haemorrhagic virus in order to deliver medical supplies to help in the fight against the disease.

But just before the meeting was about to start at 18.15hrs on Friday local time (01.15hrs this morning in mainland Spain), a woman who had not long returned from Africa suddenly vomited in the defence department car park.

The meeting was put back as the woman was rushed to an isolation ward for testing amid stringent safety procedures.

It is thought that the meeting may have gone ahead later this morning.

Another topical issue due for discussion between the two ministers from either side of the pond is Spain's contribution to the international coalition led by the USA to stem the expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an extremist group purporting to be Muslim which has already beheaded two British aid workers and North American journalist James Foley.

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A 20-YEAR-OLD man defrauded over 25,000 euros out of top corporations by passing as a National Intelligence Centre diplomat, a leader of the PP at national government level, head of the finance office at the presidential headquarters, Guardia Civil police chief and numerous other high-ranking public officials.

Francisco Nicolás G.I., known as Nicolás - a student who in real life has no connection with politics, State secrets or any other government bodies - managed to get front-row seats at restricted-audience events including King Felipe VI's coronation, travelled to college in chauffeur-driven cars, had his photo taken with ex-president José María Aznar and his wife, Madrid's mayor Ana Botella, and former regional president of Madrid Esperanza Aguirre.

The above photograph is from his Facebook page and shows him in the line-up for the post-coronation greetings, which he managed to gatecrash by pretending to be a National Intelligence diplomat.

He even possessed a police siren to enable him to bypass red traffic lights and gridlocks, and recently contacted the lawyer working for ex-regional president of Catalunya Jordi Pujol and his family over their alleged multi-million money-laundering charges, pretending he was from the National Intelligence Centre and had been sent by the government's deputy presidential department.

He is believed to have made over 25,000 euros by convincing some of Spain's largest enterprises – many of which figure on the Ibex 35 list – of his powerful connections and persuading them to invest in lucrative property funds, which in practice did not exist.

Francisco managed to spread a rumour around the town of Ribadeo in the province of Lugo, in the north-western region of Galicia, that King Felipe VI was due to visit and stop for lunch – a rumour which led to a massive police presence in the area for security reasons and the mayor visiting the restaurant in question to greet the Monarch.

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SPAIN'S new justice minister is considering scrapping the concept of 'permanent prison subject to review'.

Rafael Catalá, who took over from Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón after the latter resigned last month, has already been told his plans are 'too ambitious' given that there are only 13 months left until the general elections, but says he is working out a 'realistic timetable' to guide him.

These plans include reforming the Penal Code, passing the Law of Criminal Judgment (LeCrim) and Law of Judicial Power (LOPJ), launching a new Mercantile Code and handing over management of the Civil Registry to the Registrars themselves rather than keeping it as part of judges' role, since he considers this to be unnecessary and bureaucratic.

Catalá also wants to start debate about criminal charges and sentencing for power-dealing and other forms of corruption, and exercise greater control over who has diplomatic immunity - currently held by over 17,000 people in Spain including judges, politicians and members of the Royal family.

He has not confirmed that the concept of indefinite prison 'subject to review' will be scrapped, but this is among the ideas he is considering for the Penal Code reform.

Whilst it 'does indeed have a place' in Spain's 'legal culture' when associated with 'certain crimes' – undefined – Catalá intends to float the suggestion and see whether he gets a consensus either way.

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A YOUNG Spanish woman who is being held hostage in the disputed Western Sahara region has appealed to her home authorities for help.

Mahyuba Mohammed Hamdidaf, 23, was visiting her biological mother and father several weeks ago in the refugee camp in Tindouf which has been their home for 40 years.

Although politically in Algeria, Tindouf is considered by its people to be in Western Sahara, and children brought up in the refugee camp visit numerous locations in Spain every summer to stay with families for their 'holidays in peace'.

Mahyuba has done this the other way around since she was eight years old, however – she was adopted by the Spanish family she was living with in Genovès (Valencia province) at age 11 and acquired Spanish nationality when she was 21, and has visited her 'real' parents in Tindouf every summer since 1999.

After being a straight-A student at school, Mahyuba studied a degree in Arabic, one of three languages she speaks including English, at Alicante University and has been working for the past year at the Marie Curie Care Foundation in London, where she was planning on starting a master's degree in humanities in September.

But her usual summer visit to her 'natural' parents changed all that – they confiscated her passport and mobile phone, and took her money off her, telling her they were not going to let her leave ever again.

She had been summoned out to the Saharan capital of Laayoune (El Aaiún) by her parents, who said her grandmother was very ill and about to pass away.

This, however, turned out to be a trap, and two months after she was due to return to London, Mahyuba remains in Laayoune.

On a few occasions, her biological parents allowed her to use their mobile telephone, meaning she has been able to call her adoptive parents and ask them to help get her out.

“She is tired of the situation and all she wants is to get out of there,” says her adoptive mother.

“Mahyuba is an adult and a free individual who has a right to choose where she wants to be and what she wants to do with her life – no parent can take that from her, and it is not a custody battle because she is over 18,” the young woman's Spanish family explains.

Spain's foreign affairs ministry says it has been on the case from the start, as has a 'violence against women' charity.

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THE number of millionaires in Spain has gone up by a quarter in the last year, and the richest 10% hold over half the country's wealth, or 55.6%.

A report by international bank Crédit Suisse reveals that the total now sits at 465,000, having risen by 89,000.

Wealth was calculated in US dollars rather than euros, meaning that for the purposes of world figures a millionaire in the Eurozone is someone with assets – fixed or liquid – of 740,000 euros or more.

Within this figure, the so-called 'Ultra-High Net Worths' are defined as those with assets of at least 50 million US dollars, or about 39 million euros – in Spain, they account for 1,766 people.

Net household wealth of the top stratum in Spain rose by 15% last year – beyond the European average of 10.6% - partly due to revaluation of variable income markets and the strengthening of the euro.

Across the board, the average wealth of an adult in Spain is 135,000 US dollars, or 106,000 euros – which includes the value of their main residence net of any mortgage, and the value of any cars they own net of any as-yet unpaid hire purchase finance.

The European average wealth per adult is 145,977 dollars, or 114,935 euros – but the worldwide figure is 56,000 dollars, or 44,000 euros.

Concerning levels of unequal distribution of wealth, Crédit Suisse shows that the top 10% in Spain possess 55.6% of the country's personal assets – a figure similar to that of the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Finland.

But the exact number has increased slightly between the years 2007 and 2014, meaning financial inequality is marginally greater than seven years ago.

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A BRITISH fugitive has been caught after detectives recognised his location from one of his 'holiday' snaps.

Scott Kelly, 33, was jailed for attempted murder aged 25 and then fled the UK when released on probation in October 2013.

He had been ordered to stay in a bail hostel for five years as part of his sentence for stabbing Stephen Rank in an Exeter pub in March nine years ago.

Since then, he has been taunting police by posting photos online of his life of freedom.

These have included pictures of him skiing and, later, chilling out in bars and restaurants with groups of friends.

Police believed he was in Spain, but his Facebook photos did not give any clues as to his location.

But in September, when Kelly uploaded a picture of a sunset over a beachfront esplanade, the net closed in on him – literally.

With the help of Interpol, British police identified the picture as being the seaside promenade on the El Postiguet beach in the city of Alicante.

Spanish police were tipped off and within days, caught him whilst he was driving round the the city.

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CATALUNYA'S regional president Artur Mas has decided not to go ahead with the 'public consultation', or non-binding referendum on November 9.

The Bill of Law passed recently in the regional Parliament has been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court while it looks into the matter in greater detail, but this is unlikely to be resolved by the due date.

It means if Mas goes ahead, he could face criminal charges for sedition, or mutiny.

Part of the Bill has been agreed by the court – the section relating to the public being allowed to take part in policy-making processes – but the rest remains blocked, at least for the meantime.

To this end, Mas has not been able to publish the provisional register of voters, based upon the electoral census, which was due to appear on Friday (October 10).

He called a summit meeting at the Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona yesterday (Monday) with the leaders of all parties who are in favour of a referendum.

These include his own deputy president, Joana Ortega and the minister for the presidency Francesc Homs; Oriol Junqueras of Esquerra Republicana Catalana ('Catalana Left Republic', or ERC); Jordi Turull (CDC); Ramon Espadaler of Unió i Convergència ('Convergence and Union', or CiU); Joan Herrera (ICV-EUiA) Joan Mena (Eco-Socialists); and Isabel Vallet and David Fernández of CUP.

A BRITISH acrobat aged 94 spent 25 minutes tied to a biplane doing a 'loop-the-loop' across Gibraltar on Saturday.

Tomn Lackey, a retired builder, first did this several years ago to raise funds following the death of his wife, and it has become an unlikely hobby.

Smiling and apparently completely calm, Tom was seen harnessed to the wing on top of a Boeing Stearman in a standing position as the craft crossed Gibraltarian airspace twice and carried out a number of somersaults en route.

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ONE in seven young tourists heading for Spain is already drunk by the time they get on the plane, according to a survey by Jetcost.com.

The research found that holidaymakers of an average age of 18 arrive at the airport a typical three hours and 52 minutes before their flight, giving them more drinking time.

Of those who admitted they were tipsy on board, 49% say they had started consuming alcohol in the airport before embarking, and the remainder began drinking once they were on the plane.

Whilst a few of them said they drank to calm their nerves, as they were scared of flying, most admitted it was the euphoria at being about to go off on holiday that led them to celebrate with wine, beer and spirits.

Nearly a third of their fellow passengers – 31% - said they felt uncomfortable or slightly scared when they shared a plane with people who were drunk.

Jetcost.com chairman Antoine Michelat said getting on a plane drunk is 'never a wise decision'.

“Even the best person in the world can act completely out of character when they are under the influence of alcohol, and when confined to a small space with loads of other people for several hours at a time, all types of situation can arise.”

The survey found that the cabin crew, at times, had to order passengers to be quiet, or attempt to reason with them, because they were making such a racket that the rest of the travellers could not hear the safety instructions.

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SPAIN'S Marc Márquez is world champion again – for the second year running and in his second MotoGP season.

As well as being the youngest-ever rider, at 21, to clinch two consecutive top titles, the Repsol Honda rider from Cervera, Lleida province is also the youngest to win the world championship in both of his first two years at premier class level.

The Catalunya-born rider knew he was comfortably in the lead in the standings after winning all bar two races this season, so opted to take it steadily at the Motegi circuit today (Sunday).

He finished second, with his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) winning by a 1.638-second margin.

Even though the 2014 season has three races to go, whatever results Márquez gets, they will not affect his world title now he is on 312 points, 82 points ahead of Italy's Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and his team-mate and fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, who are in joint se3cond.

Lorenzo is fourth in the standings on 227 points, just three behind the two in joint second, meaning the next few races will see a very close battle for the reserve champion title.

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NEARLY half of all residents in Valencia and Castilla y León would happily go without sex for a year in exchange for being fluent in English, a survey by Cambridge University Press has found.

And two-thirds of residents in La Rioja would rather be able to speak English well than be able to make themselves invisible at will.

If a 'magic pill' were available for a cost of 10,000 euros which, after taking it, the person would be able to speak English like a native, seven in 10 residents in Extremadura and half of all those in the Canary Islands would save up the money.

The surreal opinion poll found that the ability to speak English is considered to be one of the most important and longed-for skills among Spaniards, and most would sacrifice a great deal to be able to do so.

This is less the case in Galicia, Madrid, Cantabria and the Canary Islands, where the majority of residents would choose the power to make themselves invisible over being able to speak English fluently, and only a third of Galicia's population would be prepared to give up sex for a year if it meant they had a native level of the language.

Respondents were also asked what they thought about the level of English among Spaniards, and most believed it was well below par.

In the land-locked western region of Extremadura, 85% said it was 'very bad' and all of the remainder said it was 'bad'.

Only 38% believed the level of English teaching in their region was 'good'.

Despite their apparent good intentions, only 20% of Extremadura's population is currently studying English – a figure that is not much higher in Madrid or Navarra where a quarter of residents are learning or improving their skills in the language.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NURSE Teresa Romero, the first person to catch Ebola outside of Africa, is 'slightly better' after a touch-and-go night between late Thursday and the early hours of Friday when she was reported to be on a life support machine and her organs starting to fail.

By around 05.00hrs on Friday, reports claimed her situation was 'very critical' and her life in 'serious danger', but by 09.00hrs she was said to be 'serious but stable'.

It is believed the virus has been contained within her body and not spread, partly with the help of blood from Equatorial Guinea-born Spanish nun, Sister Paciencia, who survived Ebola with nothing but prayers and paracetamol to treat her as she was left to die in a 'pre-morgue ward' in a Liberia hospital.

ZMapp and a very similar drug, ZMAb, have been brought in and are also being used to treat Teresa.

She is now said to be conscious and 'talking to staff', although she is not out of the woods yet and although stable, is still said to be in a serious state.

Another 17 people have been admitted to isolation wards at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, the country's only specialist unit for treating infectious and tropical diseases.

Some have attended voluntarily, including doctors and nurses who treated missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo, repatriated from Sierra Leone, who died in September.

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INEXPERIENCED and newly-qualified nurses were recruited for dealing with Ebola patients and threatened with the loss of their career if they refused, reports a regional healthcare personnel board.

The Madrid Area North Healthcare Workers' Board, which covers the La Paz University Hospital – upon which the Carlos III depends – says it was given 'orders' to draft in brand-new professionals straight out of college on the nurses' jobseekers' register.

And existing nurses were to be threatened with disciplinary proceedings or sacking if they refused to carry out care duties for Ebola patients, even if they insisted they did not have the knowledge or experience necessary.

It is not clear whether these orders came from the regional, or the national, ministry of health.

Newly-qualified doctors and nurses, among other professionals such as teachers, are entered on registers with a 'points' system and, when jobs arise – permanent or temporary – are contacted in order of those with the highest points first.

If they refuse to take up the post, they are normally removed permanently from the list, effectively ending their chances of working in the profession – a potentially difficult situation if they are forced to give up a permanent job in another field to fill in for sick leave for a few weeks halfway across the country at a day's notice.

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MADRID nurse Teresa Romero is due to be treated with the experimental serum ZMapp after a supply was imported into Spain.

The same drug cured doctor Kent Brantly in the USA, but failed to save missionary Miguel Pajares and by the time Manuel García Viejo was repatriated to Madrid, supplies worldwide had run out.

Teresa's condition is said to be 'serious but stable' and the virus has not spread any further, claims the Carlos III hospital where she is held in isolation.

Reports in the early hours of this morning stated that she was in a 'very critical' condition and that her organs were failing.

Teresa is on an artificial breathing machine due to lung problems, revealed her brother yesterday.

José Ramón Romero Ramos said in a TV interview that there was little hope.

"Is there a chance? It's possible, but the doctor says there's not much hope, it's very complicated at the moment," he told a Galicia TV station mid-afternoon yesterday.

Head of the regional nurses' union Elvira González confirms José Ramón's claims, although the Carlos III hospital has denied this.

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HEALTH workers have slammed the PP government's attempts to blame Teresa Romero's Ebola infection on her own 'lack of due care' rather than admitting responsibility for poor preparation and procedures.

National Parliamentary healthcare spokesman Rubén Moreno retracted the department's initial admission that protocol in dealing with Ebola patients had been 'relaxed'.

“We have not relaxed protocol. What has happened, though, is a relaxation in compliance with this protocol by one person,” Moreno stated.

“It is clear that the patient herself has admitted she did not comply strictly with procedures.”

Teresa, 44, speculated that she may have caught Ebola whilst treating repatriated missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo by 'touching her face with her gloves on' as she took off her overalls.

Moreno's comments were backed by Madrid regional health boss Javier Rodríguez, who said: “Some have a greater capacity for learning than others, and you don't exactly need a master's degree to know how to take off and put on an overall.”

Even the PP has said Rodríguez has gone too far with his series of near-the-knuckle comments, including stating that Teresa had 'lied to her doctor' by omission when first visiting because of feeling unwell, and that 'if she hadn't taken days to admit she touched her face with her gloves, it would have saved us a lot of work'.

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HOSPITAL workers at the Carlos III heckled Spanish president Mariano Rajoy and regional government leader Ignacio González as they left the premises, throwing latex gloves at their cars.

Calling them cowards, staff in uniform got as close as they could to the official vehicles - and some of them rubbed their faces with gloves on, a gesture of support for Ebola patient Teresa Romero who speculated she may have caught the disease by doing the same after treating missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo.

They blame funding cuts and redundancies in the health service - which severely affected the Carlos III hospital, Spain's only specialist unit for treating infectious and tropical diseases, two months after it was known that the Ebola virus was out of control in Africa.

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MEMBERS of several political parties have called for the regional health minister of Madrid to be struck off based upon a series of 'inappropriate comments' in light of the Ebola contagion in Spain.

Critics include the PP, the party currently in power in the Greater Madrid region.

Javier Rodríguez's department was responsible for ordering Excalibur, the dog owned by nurse Teresa Romero and Javier Limón, to be put to sleep even though he showed no signs of having been affected by the virus and there is as yet no evidence to show that domestic pets can catch Ebola from or pass it onto humans.

Rodríguez firstly accused Teresa Romero of 'lying' to her doctor, although when ordered to rectify, said she 'probably withheld information' by not telling him on the first of three visits that she had been part of the team treating missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo, 69, who died three weeks ago after being repatriated from Sierra Leone.

“I said she could have lied, because she concealed information and took several days to admit she had made a mistake,” the minister stated.

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MADRID nurse Teresa Romero's condition is 'getting worse' and she is now on an artificial breathing machine, reveals her brother.

José Ramón Romero Ramos says there is little hope.

"Is there a chance? It's possible, but the doctor says there's not much hope, it's very complicated at the moment," he told a Galicia TV station just an hour ago.

The 44-year-old, who caught Ebola after treating the dying missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo, took herself to hospital after suffering a fever for six days, having not been under any surveillance by health authorities since being in contact with the patient.

Serum made from the plasma of Sister Paciencia, a Spanish nun who has recovered from the disease, appeared to be working until recently.

Her brother has just revealed that Teresa's condition has got considerably worse in the last few hours and she is suffering from lung problems.

The 14 doctors treating her are now trying another type of medication, but Teresa's brother says she is 'not very well at all'.

Her express wishes not to go into detail about her current situation or the treatment she is receiving mean full information is not known.

Teresa does not know how she caught Ebola after being involved in treating García Viejo – she once attended to him to change his bed sheets and another time to dispose of tissues and gauze after he had died – but believes she may have touched her face with her gloves on whilst removing her overalls.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO medics who treated the Madrid nurse infected with the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic virus have been placed in isolation at the Carlos III hospital.

They have been joined by another nurse who treated the two missionaries, Manuel García Viejo and Miguel Pajares, who is awaiting results of tests to find out whether he is suffering from the disease.

Whilst none of the patients has shown symptoms or a body temperature of 38.6ºC or above – the cut-off point before a person thought to be at risk of infection is taken into isolation – anyone who has been near the three confirmed Ebola sufferers in Spain are being monitored.

Teresa Romero Ramos, 44, from Galicia and living in Alcorcón (Madrid) was in contact with García Viejo once when he was alive, to change his sheets and incontinence pad.

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PETITIONS signed by over 300,000 people in several countries failed to stop regional health authorities from putting Excalibur to sleep.

Nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, 44, is being treated for confirmed Ebola caught from the late missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo, and her husband, Javier Limón Romero, is in hospital under observation.

Both did what they could from their isolation wards to save their beloved pet, to no avail.

This included granting legal custody to TV vet and animal shelter boss Carlos Rodríguez, which would give him full decision-making power over Excalibur's fate.

But this was overruled by the court, and even Rodríguez was unable to prevent the dog being put to sleep. 

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found what they believe to be the exact point from where Christopher Colombus set off for his discovery of the Americas in 1492.

It has long been suspected the point of departure may have been in or near La Fontanilla, in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva province), but this has only just been confirmed on Monday this week.

Argentinian Consul Enrique Martínez Ituño, based in Málaga, had said back in 1908 that he wanted to try to restore the port in Los Palos.

But nothing would happen for another 106 years.

Part of the Mediaeval port, comprising seven kilns for making bricks, pottery, roof tiles, limestone and cooking food, is said to be unique in Spain and one of the only examples of its kind.

Remains of a customs office, a small fountain or 'fontanilla' – hence the name – and a warehouse with a storeroom, a tavern and a mooring bay for the ship have also been dug up. 

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ANOTHER nurse who treated the two missionary doctors repatriated from Liberia and Sierra Leone has been admitted to Madrid's Carlos III hospital with suspected Ebola.

She was found to be suffering from a fever and is undergoing tests to find out whether she has caught the haemorrhagic virus from the two patients who were air-lifted home in August and September.

Along with a Spanish engineer who has just returned from Nigeria, and a third female nurse who has so far tested negative, the latest patient is the fifth person being held in isolation – although only one case has been confirmed.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE husband of the Madrid nurse being treated for Ebola is fighting to save the life of the couple's dog, since the regional government wants him to be put to sleep.

Javier, whose wife Teresa, 44, is in isolation at the Carlos III hospital, was ordered to give consent for their dog to be put down in case he spread the virus to other humans or animals.

When Javier refused, the regional government announced that it would simply obtain a court order, break into the family home, and put the animal, Excalibur, to sleep.

And he is helpless to be able to stop them, because he, too, is in isolation in the same hospital as a precaution.

Javier has written to the Villa Pepa animal shelter, says it is 'unjust and unfair' that due to 'mistakes made by the health authority' in failing to ensure the safety of its hospital staff that they should 'decide to solve the problem quickly'.

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GAS giant Castor will be compensated to the tune of 1.35 billion euros for being forced to down tools after a series of earthquakes were reported in the Vinaròs (Castellón province) area.

And mains gas customers will pay for it through their bills over the next 30 years.

Spain's central government has passed a bill of law allowing Castor to receive compensation, which will initially come from gas transport company Enagás and will be gradually refunded by the customer between now and the year 2046.

The payback set-up is very similar to that which is in place to cover the State's electrical energy deficit, whereby customers are paying back the government's debt through their bills.

Various banks, including a syndicate formed by Banco Santander, Bankia and La Caixa, have presented bids for the debt, which Enagás is hoping to 'sell'.

The first payment via customers' bills will be made on April 25, 2016, and will affect gas users throughout the country.

Castor has been attempting to exploit a pocket of natural gas found below the subsoil of the sea bed near the coast of the Castellón province, setting up a gas storage warehouse on a rig out in the Mediterranean.

But the building work was stopped in September 2013 as a result of a series of quakes, the greatest of which measured 4.2 on the Richter scale.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A NURSE who was treating missionary doctor Manuel García Viejo has caught the Ebola virus, health authorities reveal.

She was admitted to the University Hospital Foundation in Alcorcón (Madrid) last night (Monday) with a fever and has tested positive for the deadly haemorrhagic virus, which has necessitated her being transferred to the Carlos III hospital in Madrid.

It was here where she treated García Viejo, 69, who passed away after being repatriated from Sierra Leone where he caught the disease whilst treating other Ebola patients in a hospital he had been in charge of for 12 years.

She is also believed to have been part of the team treating Miguel Pajares, 75, another missionary doctor who caught Ebola from patients he was caring for in a Liberia hospital and who was repatriated to Spain.

The nurse had not had any physical contact with Pajares, but had done so on two occasions with García Viejo – once when he was still alive and once after his death.

She went on holiday immediately afterwards, and after a week of suffering fever and noticing strange marks on her skin, her doctor advised her to go to A&E.

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A WEEK'S worth of protests will be held across the country against education reforms that threaten the State schooling system.

Starting from today (Monday, October 6) until Friday, human chains around and lock-ins inside school buildings will take place to send out the message that education centres 'belong to the people and not to the government', reveals the Spanish Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations (CEAPA).

The Union of Students (SE) will stage a blanket strike covering all classes from infants to university from October 21 to 23 inclusive.

So far, all bar the Teaching Federation of the major union labourers' commission (CCOO) has backed a general strike in schools across the country this autumn, but both the FE-CCOO and the SE have called for the CEAPA and the Teaching Federation of the second main syndicate, the general workers' union (UGT) to rethink their refusal to support a 72-hour shutdown and 'fight for the interests of the majority of families, teachers and pupils'.

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SIX people have been injured and three arrested during a massive protest in the centre of Madrid calling for an end to the Monarchy.

The latest in the series of 'Surround Parliament' (Rodea el Congreso) demonstrations which gathered around the central government's main meeting point started out last night (Saturday) at 19.00hrs in the Puerta del Sol square.

Two women, one of whom is a lawyer, and a man, all three of them on the organisation team, were taken into custody for 'attempting to pass police barriers', meaning they could be charged with an 'attack on authority figures'.

One of the arrested parties had already filed criminal action against MP for Madrid Cristina Cifuentes for banning a demonstration on the day of King Felipe VI's coronation.

After the initial march, where the three arrested parties say they were 'brutally attacked and beaten' by police, the two women and the man involved went up to the officers to say the rest of the demonstration would be called off – but were insulted and threatened with being thrown in a police cell, they claimed.

They were pinned down and handcuffed as they left the Puerta del Sol with the rest of the crowd in the direction of the C/ Alcalá and the Parliament building.

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A CAR-POOLING network operating worldwide which has fallen foul of Spanish taxi drivers and authorities will come under the microscope from Monday in Madrid.

Über, which started in the USA and now operates in several European countries, allows ordinary people planning to travel in their cars to get in touch with others going in the same direction and share the ride. 

Far cheaper than travelling by taxi, Über operators get to cut the costs of their petrol or even make an income, and it reduces emissions and traffic. 

All operators are required to show at least third party insurance cover so that any injuries to passengers are covered, must have a clean licence and their vehicles must be well-maintained and fully legal.

Deputy minister for transport in the Greater Madrid region, Borja Carabante, has promised taxi drivers to clamp down on and fine Über operators starting from this coming Monday, October 6.

Vehicles will be stopped and inspected, and Über itself has been given 10 days to supply 'all necessary documents' in order to 'prove it is operating within Spanish law' – a deadline which expired yesterday (Friday).

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AN IMAGE of Jesus Christ with short hair and no beard dating back to the fourth century AD has been found in Linares (Jaén province) in southern Spain.

Fragments of the 22-centimetre glass plate, used for serving up bread during pre-Mediaeval Eucharist rituals, are so well-preserved that historians have been able to piece together over 80% of the original artefact.

It was found by archaeologists on the FORVM MMX Project who were excavating an old church in what used to be the now-defunct city of Castulo some 1500 years ago.

Jesus stands in the middle of the engraved picture on the plate next to a cross, in between two of his disciples who are believed to be Paul and Peter, all three of them with halos.

Experts say the image as a whole is that of the 'celestial orb', which sits between two curved palm trees.

This Christian iconography depicts heaven, the afterlife and immortality, they explain.

Curiously, Jesus does not appear in this early picture in his usual guise, with a beard and long hair, but instead with short light-coloured hair and no beard.

This has caused historians at FORVM MMX to question Christian imagery, as it could effectively rewrite the history of religious art.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASSIVE expenses scandal totalling over 15 million euros has been uncovered involving dozens of directors and consultants of the now-defunct bank Caja Madrid which, along with Bancaja, now forms part of the State-owned entity Bankia thanks to a multi-million EU bail-out. 

Of the 86 directors of the high-street bank – most of whom are politicians – only three have been cleared of any wrongdoing. 

They were all in possession of corporate credit cards to be used for work-related expenses – a common practice in large firms worldwide so that staff do not have to fork out for hotels, transport tickets or petrol out of their own pockets when travelling and wait for a refund from their companies. 

Expenses incurred in the course of business can be legitimately offset against income tax, and the IVA part against the firm's or the self-employed worker's own IVA returns. 

But the 83 directors and consultants at Caja Madrid found to be involved in the scandal were using them for their own, personal spending – for holidays, shopping, entertainment and leisure – with these amounts paid off out of company funds and offset against taxes.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S foreign affairs minister says the country will not be sending troops to Iraq to help in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), nor will the Spanish Armed Forces take part in air raids. 

José Manuel García Margallo (pictured) said Spain's involvement would be limited to the supply of arms, logistical support, information and intelligence, equipping aircraft, and use of air-bases, but not front-line combat as the UK and USA have already embarked upon. 

The British Parliament agreed to the country's Armed Forces joining the military mission a week ago and sent out Royal Air Force Tornados, which struck Islamic State targets on Tuesday after carrying out raids every day against weapons positions and vehicles in Iraq to help out Kurdish troops on the ground.

And three days after the UK's first strike on the IS, a video has been released apparently showing the beheading of 47-year-old British aid worker Alan Henning, a Salford taxi driver and father of two who was kidnapped in February whilst delivering humanitarian provisions to Syria. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRESIDENT of Catalunya Artur Mas has decided to go ahead with the public consultation on November 9 whether or not the Constitutional Court eventually sanctions it in time.

He says he wants residents and citizens of Catalunya to 'be able to exercise their right to vote'.

Yesterday (Thursday) Mas officially set up the electoral board and chose its members, despite the legality of what is effectively a non-binding referendum being up in the air.

The Constitutional Court has not outlawed the public consultation as yet, but given that time is running out, it has suspended the law reform recently signed by Mas allowing it to go ahead in response to a formal objection by the central government, in order to stall for time and investigate further.

Unlike the recent Scotland independence referendum, Mas does not intend to seek a decisive vote either way at this stage, but says he wants to know 'what the people want'.

If a majority 'yes' vote on independence were to arise, he would then 'cross that bridge when he came to it', he confirmed.

Independent parties CiU (Convergència i Unió), ERC (Esquerra Republicana Catalana, or 'Left Republican'), ICV-EUiA and CUP met this morning and elected members of the consultation committee.

Mas pointedly did not choose the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, or magistrate Pedro José González-Trevijano, and called for them to abstain from any intervention at regional government level in the process.

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THE number of couples aged over 65 who have separated or divorced has doubled in the last year in Spain, according to the national institute of statistics (INE).

And Spain has the fourth-highest proportion of pension-age residents among the population on the planet.

Most-recent census figures date back to the end of 2011, when 17.3% of Spain's headcount was aged over 65, with 3.5 million in total being aged over 80.

These figures show that in 2001, a total of 1.36% per cent of couples in their late 60s or older had split up, but by 2011, this had risen to 3.17%, having more than doubled.

Although 60% of the over-65s live in couples and the number of widows and widowers fell from 33.2% in 1991 to 31% in 2011 then to less than 29% now, sole occupants in Spain are much less commonly found than in other European nations.

In Spain, 21% live alone, compared with 40% in northern Europe, and those who are single, widowed, divorced or separated normally live with other family members.

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CATALUNYA'S president has warned of an 'extreme risk of violence' in the streets unless the Constitutional Court allows the public consultation on independence to go ahead on November 9.

Artur Mas refers to a verdict dating back to 2003 from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which states that if governments do not resolve political challenges and the public feels it is deprived of its right to participate in making decisions, this tends to fuel 'public contempt for Parliamentary democracy', 'political extremism' and 'even violence'.

The central government's response has been to send extra riot police to Catalunya in anticipation of public upheaval on the streets.

Mas stresses that the Constitution is 35 years old and 'cannot be read or interpreted in the same way' as it was when it was originally created in the late 1970s.

Public consultations, if not actually referenda, are 'normal procedures' in 'international western democracies' including those of the UK, Ireland, Canada, France, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland, Mas stresses.

He cites the verdict by the Canadian High Court in relation to the French-speaking region of Québéc, which states that 'the system must reflect the aspirations of the population'.

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A SPANISH potholer stuck in a cave for 12 days has finally been rescued.

Cecilio López Tercero, from Madrid, suffered a fall whilst exploring a cave in the Peruvian Amazon on September 18 with the climbing group Espelokandil.

Two friends from Valencia flew out to Perú to help with the rescue operation, which proved extremely tricky as Cecilio was over 400 metres below ground inside the Intimachay, or 'cave of the sun', in Leymebamba.

Whilst stuck down the shaft, Cecilio managed to write a letter thanking everyone for their efforts in trying to get him out.

He had to wait for over an hour and a half in a tent set up at the entrance to the cave for a helicopter to take him to the nearest town, Chachapoyas, since weather conditions prevented the craft from landing.

The Peruvian Air Force then flew him to Lima, where he arrived at 19.00hrs local time (02.00hrs mainland Spain time) yesterday (Tuesday).

Cecilio survived his ordeal thanks to a doctor and nurse who had accompanied him as far as where he had fallen, and who supplied him with energy drinks and painkillers.

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BARCELONA and Madrid are among the most expensive cities in Europe to be a tourist, according to a recent study by the motoring association RACC.

Based upon the cost of a 'basic basket of goods', defined as simple foodstuffs, eating out, public transport and entry to typical tourist attractions including safari parks, museums, monuments, galleries and theme parks, Madrid was the fifth-most expensive and Barcelona sixth.

The cost of buses, trains, trams, taxis and the metro is very similar in all cities studied, whilst the others differ greatly.

South-eastern Europe was found to be the cheapest part of the continent to visit, whilst cities in the south-west and the north, the most pricey.

A basket of basic groceries in Oslo, the most expensive city in Europe, costs an average 153 euros – just 10 euros more than in Paris, which was second, and London, in third position.

Paris was found to be more expensive than London purely based upon the cost of eating or drinking in its bars, cafés and restaurants, but the British capital had higher prices for its attractions such as the Tower of London, the London Eye, and some of its museums.

Both cost more to visit than Copenhagen – in the Danish capital, it costs 134 euros to fill a grocery basket, compared to 127 in Madrid and 126 in Barcelona, or 124 in Amsterdam and 123 in Brussels, which came seventh and eighth respectively.

The top eight on the list were considered 'very expensive'.

Berlin and Lisbon, with a typical shopping-basket price of 104 and 101 euros respectively, were slightly below the average which was calculated at 106 euros.

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ELECTRICITY bills are set to go up yet again following an 11% hike this summer.

Wholesale energy suppliers have seen the highest prices of the year this month since December 2013.

As at today (September 30), the price per megawatt per hour (MWh) stands at 66.98 euros, meaning the average monthly figure is 58.90 euros.

In August, it was much lower at 49.91 euros and in July, 48.21 euros.

This means the average for the third quarter is 52.34 euros per MWh, some 31% higher than the 39.93 euros for the months of April, May and June and 102% higher than the typical 25.80 euros seen in February.

Prices were considerably lower in the first few months of the year due to heavy rainfall in parts of Spain and high winds allowing power supply wholesalers to produce a greater amount of wind-farm and hydraulic energy.

The amount of an electricity bill that relates to actual consumption is only 37.48%, whilst 21.38% relates to taxes and 41.14% for standing charges.

This means the rocketing cost of the energy itself translates to a rise of 11% per bill.

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AUTHORITIES in Liechtenstein claim Catalunya's regional president may be linked to the multi-million money-laundering and corruption racket centred on his predecessor Jordi Pujol and family.

Investigators – via the Bank of Spain - contacted money-laundering prevention teams in all tax havens ordering them to send details of accounts held there by Pujol, who has now retired from politics, and his nearest relatives, friends and associates.

And the Financial Intelligence Unit in the central European principality has replied with information that may incriminate Mas through the firm owned by Jordi Pujol's son, Brantridge Holdings Ltd, set up in Liechtenstein in 2005 and dissolved in March this year after tax authorities in Spain began digging into the financial affairs of the ex-politician.

The information given is objective and inconclusive, providing databases, registers of activity and files, and leaving the Spanish courts to reach their own judgment on the contents.

Brantridge Holdings has been under scrutiny by Spain's financial fraud team UDEF ever since Vicky Álvarez, Jordi Pujol's son's ex-girlfriend, shopped her former partner to judge Pablo Ruz – the same legal expert who is trying the Bárcenas slush-fund case involving the PP government and its ex-treasurer's multi-million Swiss bank accounts, and also the Gürtel corruption racket centred on the PP.

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