Live News From Spain As It Happens

SUMMER sales on the high street officially start on Tuesday (July 1) and for the first time since the start of the financial crisis, the fashion industry is expecting to see a profit.

Discounts ranging from 30 to 50 per cent can be found in the first week or two, but as the sales progress and stocks become lower, goods at up to 70 or even 80 per cent off are fairly common.

Despite certain industry insiders' views that the government's having relaxed rules on when shops could hold sales means summer and post-Christmas 'no longer have the same ring to them', figures show that more stock is shifted during these two periods nowadays than before the recession.

And with an estimated turnover of 2.7 billion between July and early September this year, it will mean takings are up by 3.5 per cent on summer 2013.

Until July 2012, shops were only allowed to hold sales in summer and just after Christmas, lasting for a minimum of a week and a maximum of two months.

Now there are no limits as to when and for how long sales can be held, but instead of this leading to cut-price deals year-round which take the novelty off finding bargains, in practice it means shops are choosing to start their sales a week or two earlier to increase takings.

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EXPATS in Spain visiting family at home or European tourists on holiday in the country will get less of a shock when they receive their mobile phone bills upon return – the European Commission has just slashed 'roaming' prices by over a half.

The third price reduction brought in by the Commission since 2012, it will bring down the cost of using internet on a mobile in other member States from 45 to 20 cents per megabyte.

Making calls have gone down by over a fifth, from 24 cents a minute to 19, and receiving them has come down in price by 28.5 per cent, from seven cents to five.

Sending text messages now costs six cents rather than eight, a cut of 25 per cent.

The new prices will come into effect tomorrow (Tuesday, July 1).

Additionally, European mobile network providers will be able to offer a specific 'roaming' plan to their customers before they travel, which may sometimes include using a local network in their destination country for services such as sending emails, reading the news online, uploading photographs and watching videos.

European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda department, Neelie Kroes, said the discounted costs were 'great news' but that the move was 'not enough'.

She has been calling for 'roaming' to be eliminated altogether and this is likely to happen by the end of the year.

The European Union started taking steps to cut the cost of using a mobile abroad in 2007, and since then the prices have fallen by between 80 and 90 per cent.

According to a Eurobarometer survey published in February, nearly half – 47 per cent – of EU citizens never use their mobile phones for surfing the internet in other member States, and keep calls and texts to an absolute minimum, whilst 94 per cent of those who do connect use their phones purely for installed applications such as Facebook or their email boxes.

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Green puppies have been born to a breeder in the province of Valladolid, just north of Madrid.

One of Aída Vallelado's Podenco hounds, Micaela, gave birth to a litter of five earlier this month – two of whom were green in colour.

Madrid's Complutense University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is examining the puppies, who are now nearly a month old.

Both babies are weaker and smaller than the rest of the litter – about half the size of their brothers and sisters – and are having trouble feeding themselves from their mother, but are under constant veterinary care, says Sra Vallelado, who lives in Laguna de Duero in the province of Valladolid, just north of Madrid.

This situation has never been seen before in Spain, although a green labrador puppy in Brazil was born four years ago and was named Hulk, although he lost his unusual colour as he matured.

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MARC Márquez continues to break records with his seemingly unbeatable performances in MotoGP – this time becoming the first rider to win eight races on the trot since the iconic Italian, Giacomo Agostini in 1971.

Despite missing out on pole for the second week running, the 21-year-old reigning champion sailed past the chequered flag with a 6.7-second margin on his nearest rival, Italy's Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati).

A rain-soaked 26 laps at the Iveco circuit in Assen, The Netherlands, meant careful judgment of speed and bends were crucial, and Márquez, who took the championship title in his rookie year and looks set to repeat the performance in 2014, showed a faultless strategy from the start, pulling into the lead by lap seven after passing his compatriot Aleix Espargaró (NGM Forward Racing) who was first off the grid, then easing ahead of Dovizioso.

Márquez's team-mate and fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) took third just behind the Italian after successfully passing and then holding off Espargaró, who had to work hard for his commendable fourth place.

A miscalculated tyre strategy meant Italy's Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) fell back to fifth, whilst the two relative newcomers from Great Britain – Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Cal Crutchlow (Ducati) – came eighth and ninth, behind Italian Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Spain's Álvaro Bautista (Honda Gresini) but ahead of Germany's Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda).

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A 'MOTOR City' costing over five billion euros next to the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste (Valencia) is on the cards and could be open to the public by 2019.

Tycoon Mariano García Montes, the architect and technical designer behind Valencia's state-of-the-art Oceanogràfic aquarium, has put forward the plans and so far the regional government appears impressed.

Montes' business partner Carlos Martínez de Coca – a Valencian builder who fell victim to the housing market crash five years ago, has been seeking out private funding for the themed exhibition centre.

He presented the project, titled The Garage, at the Goodwood Motor Fair in the UK yesterday (Friday).

Land extending to 1.5 million square metres alongside the Cheste circuit has been bought from the bankrupt development firm Coperfil, based in Catalunya, which intended to build a logistics park in the area costing 100 million euros.

This has been left at half-mast after the company went into receivership.

Montes and Martínez de Coca, co-directors of the firm The Up54, predict that the Motor City will provide permanent jobs to up to 40,000 people and attract 10 million visitors a year.

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FOREST fires could be prevented 20 years ahead of their happening if the government would invest sufficient funds, says Spain's branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Effectively, a fire which breaks out this summer could have been avoided with proper planning in 1994, the leading environmental charity claims.

Every year, an average of 15,600 wildfires break out – mostly in summer – of which 28 are raging infernos wiping out massive areas of land and threatening the safety of property and people.

And 40 per cent of the serious damage to the countryside is caused by just 0.2 per cent of them, each causing considerable damage to the environment.

Governments spend 51 million euros annually on extinguishing forest fires, 18 million on preventing them and just 10 million on regenerating damaged areas – and yet the latter two are the most crucial, the WWF states.

The problem here is that politicians consider fire prevention an 'expense' rather than an 'investment', says secretary-general of the WWF, Juan Carlos del Olmo.

Regenerating fire-damaged areas can take up to 30 years but, done properly, can actually prevent a blaze taking hold in the future, says Lourdes Hernández of the charity's forestry team.

Most fires which cause major destruction happen in areas where 'invasive' species of plants or trees are grouped together, particularly where there are only one or two types at a time.

By choosing an 'irregular' mix of native trees and plants – a minimum of 65 per cent, and only occupying 23 per cent of the fire-damaged area, the risk is cut, as is the 'pattern' in which they are planted.

Sra Hernández explains that by planting trees in a mosaic pattern with more open forestry masses, a diverse selection of hardy and fast-growing species and strategically-placed shrubs forming a fire-break, a blaze is less likely to break out and, if it does, will be far easier to contain and less likely to spread and cause havoc.

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A FISCAL reform aimed at 'restarting consumer spending' and 'rewarding' the ordinary citizen for his or her 'sacrifices' in the last three years will in fact only save the average taxpayer around 170 euros a year.

Critics include the Troika – who want Spain to increase IVA – and opposition members of the government who say the only residents who will benefit from lower taxes will be the ultra-high net worth earners whilst the rest are unlikely to see a difference.

They also say the PP government has done little to clamp down on multi-million tax evasion or to boost employment or commercial or personal cash flow.

The highest earners will see their upper-quartile taxes fall from 52 to 45 per cent, whilst income in the second quartile - upwards of 12,000 euros - will see a tax reduction of just 0.75 per cent.

Seven tax bands have been cut to five, and the one applying to gross annual income between 20,200 and 33,007 euros will go up by one per cent, to 30 per cent, potentially ruling out any benefits for middle-income earners or even increasing what they have to pay.

Low-income self-employed workers will fare best, since tax retentions at source when they bill commercial clients will go down from 21 per cent to the 15 per cent they were across the board until September 2012 – a move that will take effect from this Tuesday, July 1.

For all other self-employed workers earning more than 12,000 euros in gross income – or more than 1,000 euros a month before tax – they will have to wait until January 1, 2015 when their retentions will fall from 21 per cent to 19 per cent.

These retentions are practised on all earnings from commercial clients without respecting the minimum threshold or 'personal allowance', set to rise from 11,000 euros to 12,000 euros, but will be adjusted during the income tax return period between May and July of the following year.

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BIRTH rates have fallen in Spain for the fifth year running as a result of the financial crisis, leading to an ageing population and fears that there will not be enough workers in the next generation to support the current one when they retire.

With just 425,390 babies born in Spain in 2013 – an 18-per-cent fall on figures for the year 2008 and a drop of 6.4 per cent on 2012, the average woman has 1.26 children, close to that of 2002 – when the average was 1.25 – and a significant reduction over the previous year when the birth rate stood at 1.32 children per mother.

For foreign women living in Spain, the average has gone down from 1.56 to 1.5 children per mother, whilst for Spanish women, it has dropped in the space of a year from 1.27 to 1.21.

The greatest fall in birth numbers have been seen in the northern regions of Asturias (12.5 per cent), Navarra (9.9 per cent) and La Rioja (8.9 per cent).

According to the High Council of Scientific Investigation (CSIC), having children a century ago was a very different story to how it is today.

In the early 1900s, life expectancy was three times lower and the cost of raising a child now takes up a much larger percentage of parents' income.

“People did not live as long 100 or so years ago, so there was more of an urgent need to get married and have lots of children as early as possible,” explains Julio Pérez, a demographic expert from the CSIC.

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KING Felipe's sister, the Infanta Cristina, could face up to 16 years in jail after being formally charged with money-laundering and tax evasion in connection with the trial affecting her husband, Iñaki Urdangarín.

Judge José Castro has completed his investigations into the 'Nóos case' and presented a 227-page report which names 16 people as being charged, including Urdangarín himself, his co-director Diego Torres, and the Infanta Cristina, also known as the Duchess of Palma.

He states that there are 'very clear indications' that the Duchess 'provided the means' for her husband to earn a fraudulent living, as well as offsetting personal expenses against the firm Aizoon, which she has a 50 per cent stake in, enabling her to avoid paying hundreds of thousands in taxes.

According to the report, money-laundering carries a prison sentence of between six months and six years and a fine of up to three times the amount defrauded, and where the sum in question exceeds 120,000 euros – the minimum threshold for tax evasion to be considered a criminal, rather than civil offence – and is less than 600,000 euros, a jail term of between one and five years applies plus a fine of up to six times the amount laundered.

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FOUR Guardia Civil officers have been sentenced to prison for reportedly beating up British tourists arrested in connection with a pub brawl in the Palmanova area of Calvià (Mallorca).

The Sergeant has been jailed for four years and struck off for 16, as well as being ordered to pay a fine of 360 euros, whilst three of his subordinates face two years behind bars and fines of 180 euros each and been banned from practising their profession for a further eight years.

A court heard that in November 2009, a British man involved in a pub fight punched an off-duty Guardia Civil sergeant in the face, causing him to keel over unconscious.

The holidaymaker and another Brit were taken into police custody and, whilst handcuffed in cells, were allegedly kicked, punched, threatened and insulted.

Both female judges trying the case said that the 'violent and humiliating actions' qualified as 'serious offences of torture' since they were not spur-of-the-moment incidences, but continued not only on numerous occasions while they were in police cells but also after they had been released.

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FOR the first time in history, gay and lesbian associations have been invited to an 'audience with' by the reigning Monarchs at one of their palaces.

José María Núñez Blanco of the Triangle Foundation, and Boti García of the FELGTB State Federation were surprised and thrilled to be invited to meet King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia at the El Pardo Palace in Madrid, and said this was a clear sign that the former 'meant what he said' in his coronation speech when he declared that 'there is room for all of us in Spain'.

Just a few years ago, in her biography penned by controversial author Pilar Urbano, Queen Sofía stated that she was against unions between same-sex partners being considered 'marriage', which led to both the FELGTB and Triangle Foundation sending a formal letter of complaint to the Royal household.

But yesterday (Tuesday), the new King 'listened to them attentively' and told the society representatives that it was his responsibility to 'fly the flag for the protection of human rights' for lesbian, gay and bisexual residents in Spain – as well as transsexuals, who are also represented by the group even though theirs is an entirely different situation – plus those in other countries.

Boti García recalled that in many countries – in fact, 77 nations worldwide – merely being gay or lesbian is against the law and punishable by prison and, in some places, by the death penalty and by torture.

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MEDICS at Valencia's La Fe hospital have had to step up precautions to prevent an outbreak of the potentially-deadly Ebola virus.

A man who had just come off a plane from an unnamed African country was admitted to the hospital on Monday night showing symptoms of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, a contagious as well as infectious disease which causes internal and external bleeding.

Death rates are extremely high and as many as nine in 10 people who catch it fail to survive.

All staff who have had contact with the patient have had to wear disposable gowns covering as much of their bodies as possible, as well as masks, which have since been burnt.

Although the diagnosis has not been confirmed, the man's symptoms make it appear 'very likely' he is suffering from the disease.

Tests have been carried out urgently and the patient is said to be in a stable condition in an isolation ward, with high-security and stringent cleaning and disinfecting procedures put in place.

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JUDGE José Castro is due to rule this week on whether King Felipe VI's sister Cristina will be formerly charged in connection with her husband, Iñaki Urdangarín's public fund fraud investigations.

The Duchess of Palma became the first member of the Royal family to testify in court last year when she was cross-examined in Mallorca over her 50-per-cent stake in the firm Aizoon, a company believed to have been used to launder funds and offset the couple's personal expenses against their commercial tax.

And Urdangarín, 51, could face up to 19 years in jail – having already seen much of the family property embargoed as he failed to pay a nine-million-euro civil bail bond for alleged fraud through the Nóos Institute.

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TENS of thousands of investors and workers in the solar panel sector plan to take over Madrid in a mass 'green' protest over budget cuts in the renewable energy sector which they say are going to 'ruin 62,000 families'.

With the upsurge in environmentally-friendly fuel sources in the past few years and Spain being one of the market leaders in the field, between 55,000 and 62,000 individuals and small companies decided to invest in solar panel 'farms' as a way to guarantee their financial future.

But most are now on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to ongoing funding cuts in wind and solar energy by the current and previous central governments.

Coaches are due to be thrown on to take demonstrators from practically every one of Spain's 17 autonomous regions to Madrid, where they will converge upon the central Paseo de la Castellana, the capital's main business district.

Farming associations, solar energy companies, environmental groups and representatives of all political parties except the reigning PP will be involved, as well as Greenpeace.

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TOURISM authorities in the southern region of Andalucía have warned that airports could close down if the public sector governing body AENA is privatised.

Department head Rafael Rodríguez says it would be 'hard' for some of the region's terminals to be considered 'economically viable' if they were in the hands of a private company, and that this could lead to their disappearance.

Rodríguez has not stated which airports might become casualties of the PP's 'neo-liberal obsession' with privatising hitherto State-run organisations, but says those with lower passenger numbers or which need heavy investment in infrastructure could be at risk as they would not be profitable for a company seeking to make money.

Minister of public works Ana Pastor has told Spain's 17 federal governments that the continued presence of existing airports would be 'guaranteed for a certain length of time'.

But Rodríguez says these words are 'merely placing a gauze pad on an open wound' which, over time when the 'pad is removed', would lead to 'the wound worsening and the limb having to be amputated'.

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A CONTROVERSIAL overhaul of the existing law on abortion could be approved in Parliament as early as this coming Friday, meaning only an official paper-pushing will stand in the way of its becoming effective in Spain.

Every political party except for Uniò and UPN - which support the legislation changes - has announced plans to present amendments to the text, some of which are practically a total rewrite of the rules.

But the PP government has an overwhelming majority, meaning it does not need the votes of any other party to push the law through and has the power to reject calls for alterations to the text out of hand.

Once the Parliamentary approval process has gone through, the abortion law is expected to come into effect in November or December.

This will be around a year before the next general elections.

Abortion became legal in Spain in 1985, but only where the woman's life or physical or mental health would be seriously at risk by continuing with the pregnancy, or in the event of the foetus suffering deformities that could leave the child handicapped.

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A 'FISCAL reform' lowering income tax is due to come into force in January after having been given the final seal of approval today (Friday) by the Council of Ministers.

Levels and divisions of personal income tax, known as IRPF, will be reduced and the upper quartile will go down from 52 per cent to 45 per cent.

The first 12,000 euros – rather than 11,000 – will be exempt from income tax, and anything above this up to the upper quartile threshold will be taxed at 24 per cent rather than 24.75 per cent.

As a result, they will be back to pre-September 2012 levels, when taxes rocketed for everyone across all income levels.

Tax retentions practised by corporate clients on behalf of the self-employed upon receipt of their invoices stood at 15 per cent of the total billed for many years, but were upped to 21 per cent in September 2012.

These will now drop to 19 per cent, meaning for every 1,000 euros billed, the self-employed worker will get 810 euros instead of 790 euros.

Social Security contributions for the self-employed, currently a flat rate of around 270 euros, have not been touched, and neither has IVA which increased in the summer of 2010 from 16 per cent to 18 per cent and two years later to 21 per cent.

At this time, many goods and services which previously attracted lower-rate IVA of four or seven per cent – the latter raised to 10 per cent – were moved into the top-rate bracket of 21 per cent, and included necessities such as school textbooks, funded by pupils' parents.

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MOVES under way to provide diplomatic immunity to former King Juan Carlos could thwart two ongoing cases against him by a man and woman who believe he is their father.

Under recently-passed Spanish laws, a reigning Monarch is unable to be prosecuted, but this legal privilege automatically disappeared as HRH Juan Carlos signed the abdication form to hand over the reins to his son, King Felipe VI, the night before the coronation.

As a result, Belgian-born Ingrid Jeanne Satiau and Spaniard Alberto Sola Jiménez, from Catalunya, who have been fighting through the courts to get the ex-Monarch to provide DNA samples, are technically no longer blocked from doing so.

Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, before the coronation, and the former Queen Sofía were given diplomatic immunity which meant any cases brought against them had to go straight to the Supreme Court, the second-highest in the land behind the Constitutional Court.

But for the ordinary citizen to have a case tried in the Supreme Court, they must first go through the local, provincial and then national court and have their appeals rejected by all three.

The same protection is due to be afforded to HRH Juan Carlos, meaning that once this happens, the two people who claim to be his illegitimate children as a result of alleged extra-marital affairs will now struggle to prove it.

Although DNA evidence showing Mme Satiau and Sr Sola Jiménez were indeed the ex-King's children would cause an international sensation and rock the already scandal-ridden Monarchy again, unless Sr Sola Jiménez was older than Felipe VI, he would not displace the new head of State.

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NEWLY-CROWNED King Felipe VI will start off his Royal agenda at a meeting with terrorist victims' associations and holding an audience with groups representing Spain's 'most vulnerable' residents.

This is after his post-proclamation tête-à-tête with president Mariano Rajoy at the Zarzuela Palace – the Royals' official residence – due at 09.00hrs this morning, during which the new Monarch will outline what he intends to do during his reign.

Some of this was briefly mentioned in his captivating coronation speech, which even had staunch Royal opponents Artur Mas and Íñigo Urkullu – presidents of Catalunya and the Basque Country respectively – reluctantly, if half-heartedly, joining in the round of applause at the end. 

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TOURISTS filled the streets of Madrid this morning for the proclamation of King Felipe VI with visitors from the UK, China, Hong Kong, the USA and several Latin American countries – but not all of them had realised today was such an historic moment for Spain.

A 23-year-old student from the USA, based in Sevilla and travelling through Madrid on her way to start the famous Santiago pilgrimage burst into tears when she saw the police and Armed Forces flanking the city centre.

She rang her family in the States in a panic to tell them there had been a coup d'état – but fortunately a news reporter explained that the extra security was because of the coronation of Felipe VI.

The young student then began to leap around euphorically, shouting, “how lucky am I!”

A couple from Texas standing in the Plaza Callao, moved to tears by the event, said they thought the Royal children Leonor and Sofía were 'real cute' and that King Felipe and Queen Letizia 'presented a very youthful image of Spain'.

But they were surprised not to see a huge and solemn religious ceremony, since they had always believed Spain was a 'very Catholic country'.

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ELECTRICITY board Iberdrola faces a multi-million fine over alleged 'fraudulent manipulation of prices', according to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC).

The utility supplier hotly denies the accusations, originally made by the ministry for industry to the CNMC, which has opened a disciplinary inquiry.

Investigations centre on Iberdrola's 'alteration' of energy prices just before the supply contract was last put out to auction in December – a process that used to take place every three months but has now been scrapped.

The Spanish government declared the auction null and void, since it would have led to an 11-per-cent hike in electricity bills for residents.

According to the ministry at the time, there had been 'a clear price manipulation' which had led to the actual cost of energy being grossly inflated and the surplus passed onto the consumer.

The ministry has since announced plans to give the electricity supply system a thorough MOT which is likely to result in a restructure.

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THIS summer is set to be one of the warmest on record - at least on the east coast and in the Balearic Islands, says the State meteorological agency AEMET.

Summer officially starts this Saturday, June 21 at 12.50hrs midday, but is likely to see turbulent weather conditions throughout the country.

Rain and falling temperatures are forecast in the north-west, centre and across the south, but once the summer kicks in properly it is likely to be sweltering on the Mediterranean side.

Temperatures and rainfall in the Canary Islands and all of the mainland except the east will be fairly typical of those for late June, July and August, but could rise several degrees higher in Murcia, Almería, Catalunya, the Valencia region and the Balearics.

This spring has been very warm with higher temperatures than usual for the months of April to June.

The average temperature across the country was just under 15ºC, which encompasses day and night figures - often a difference of 10ºC or more - and typical readings across a very disparate area from the far north, which frequently sees temperatures in single figures in spring, and the south, where the mercury can soar above 30ºC at that time of year.

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DIVORCES and legal separations went up in the first quarter of this year, bucking the trend seen in the early years of the financial crisis when marital break-ups decreased.

From January to March 2014 inclusive, nearly 34,600 couples decided to put an end to their unions - an increase of 11.3 per cent on the same period in 2013.

Uncontested divorces rose in number the most, by 13.8 per cent or a total of 19,376 couples, but La Rioja holds the record with these having risen by 43.2 per cent, and contested divorces by 48.9 per cent.

Only the Canary Islands saw a reduction in 'messy' marital annulments involving the courts - by 2.3 per cent - and, across the country, the number of legal separations rose by 13.3 per cent in the case of uncontested splits and 4.9 per cent in the case of those involving solicitors and battles.

'Amicable' divorces increased the most in La Rioja, and in the western region of Extremadura - by 31.7 per cent - followed by Castilla y León (25.1 per cent) and Navarra (22.5 per cent).

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SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea opened its brand-new Valencia store this morning (Tuesday) at 10.00hrs, handing out 10,500 euros' worth of vouchers to the first customers to set foot in the door – many of whom have been camping outside the building since Friday night.

Everyone visiting the store today is encouraged to dress in blue and yellow, the colours of Ikea and the Swedish flag, and free trolleys full of goods given out hourly to customers whose names are drawn out of a hat.

The first customer through the door was given a 500-euro voucher, and the next 100 visitors got a voucher for 100 euros, all to spend in store.

Before the grand opening, a breakfast was held at 08.00hrs with a mixture of typically-Valencian and Swedish food for the Scandinavian country's ambassador in Spain, Cecilia Julin; the store manager Carolina García; regional government president Alberto Fabra and mayor of Alfafar – the town where the shop is located – Juan Ramón Adsuara.

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AN EXCLUSIVE interview given to a Catalunya regional newspaper by Pope Francisco calls for a complete overhaul of the current economic system, says society is too busy 'worshipping money' to care about its people, and shows he is dead against the area's independence from Spain.

“The secession of a nation without a previous history of forced union is something that should be analysed carefully from every angle,” the Pontiff stated in the interview in La Vanguardia.

He was referring to Scotland as well as Catalunya when he said: “Any division worries me,” and added that there is a great difference between 'independence through emancipation' and 'independence through secession'.

The former, the Pope explained, include the American countries which gained independence from their European colonisers – such as his own native land, Argentina – but the latter, for which he uses the former Yugoslav republic as an example, lead to 'fragmentation' which 'at times is very obvious'.

“Clearly, there are communities with such diverse cultures that not even glue would bind them together – the Yugoslavia case is very much like this, but I wonder if it is so in other communities which have always been together until now,” Pope Francisco commented.

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TORRENTIAL rain hit the south of the Alicante province and the Murcia Region yesterday (Monday) whilst much of the rest of the east coast were still basking in sunshine after the weekend's heatwave.

And further storms are forecast for today (Tuesday) across the country, with a general drop in temperatures after Sunday saw the mercury rocket to 48ºC in Sevilla and well into the high 30s elsewhere in the country.

In Villena (Alicante province), 80 litres of rain per square metre was recorded in just 20 minutes yesterday.

Rainfall of 40 litres per square metre in an hour is considered by home insurance companies to be sufficient to cause damage to a well-maintained and properly-constructed building, and storms of this magnitude in the Comunidad Valenciana are normally only seen in October and occasionally April.

In fact, in the last 12 months, practically no rainfall has been recorded in the region aside from a freak flash flood late in August in the north of the Alicante province, which has led to fears of drought and a water supply shortage by as early as next year.

Further south, in the Region of Murcia, garages and ground-floor properties were flooded and streets were several inches deep in water - up to a foot in some cases.

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NEW legislation aimed at protecting consumers came into force on Friday, and means members of the public can opt out of telephone 'spam' and will receive all their bills through the post in paper format unless they specifically request them to be sent via email.

No charges can be made for switching to paper bills, nor for those who currently receive them in this way.

Telesales departments are forbidden from making cold calls before 09.00hrs and after 21.00hrs, or on weekends and bank holidays.

The caller must give the name of the company, call from a recognisable number – not a withheld or private one – and must inform the consumer of his or her right to request they do not continue to receive sales calls.

Automated cold calls without human intervention, or telefaxes, may not be made without the consumer's express permission.

In the last couple of years, members of the public have been reporting a series of calls made to their numbers from a 981 number, which is the prefix for the province of Vigo, in north-western Galicia.

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A RAGING inferno in the Turia nature reserve near Valencia has forced emergency services to evacuate 400 villas and wiped out 31 hectares of land.

It is believed to have started near the sewage plant in neighbouring Paterna, close to the river Turia basin and the Vallesa del Mandor woodland, at around 14.00hrs yesterday (Saturday).

One of the firefighters tackling the blaze was rushed to hospital with second-degree facial burns, but he was later discharged.

High winds in the area fanned the flames, causing them to spread in the direction of the urbanisations Valencia la Vella and Masía de Traver, causing widespread panic among residents when they saw clouds of smoke just outside their windows.

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TEMPERATURES rocketed to an unseasonally-high 48ºC in the shade in Sevilla this weekend, making it the hottest city in Spain.

The State meteorological agency, AEMET, raised its weather warning to orange for most of Andalucía in southern Spain on Saturday and Sunday ahead of predictions that the mercury would soar to 40ºC in the shade – figures rarely seen outside of July and August.

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AN UNBEATABLE Marc Márquez has made it seven out of seven in the Catalunya Grand Prix yesterday (Sunday) despite every effort from its nine-times winner Valentino Rossi and the young Honda rider's compatriot Dani Pedrosa.

And for the first time ever, two members of the same family won at the same venue on the same day - Álex Márquez, the current World Champion's younger brother, netted his first victory of the season and the second of his career in Moto3 after gaining pole in Saturday's qualifier.

Marc Márquez's unbroken run of victories this season was challenged on Saturday after he lost pole to his team-mate Dani Pedrosa , but despite a thrilling battle between the pair in the final two laps, a last-minute error saw the latter falling to third place as Italy's Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) stormed ahead to overtake him, netting second place in the final line-up.

Rossi, who holds the record for wins at the Montmeló circuit in Barcelona, was a force to be reckoned with, clashing with Márquez in the first few laps and then right at the end, but lost the battle at the eleventh hour.

Márquez said it was 'very special' to win in front of his 'home fans', given that he is from Catalunya, albeit his native province is Lleida rather than Barcelona.

And the whole family enjoyed a successful home turf run with Álex taking the top spot after building up a three-second advantage over his nearest rival, 16-year-old Italian Enea Bastianini (KTM) whose sensational speed amazed fans and fellow riders alike and knocked Spain's Efrén Vázquez into third.

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EDUCATION authorities are considering replacing Spain's student grant system with loans in the same format as seen in the UK, given that costs to the State of higher education have rocketed in recent years.

Secretary of State for Universities, Professional and Vocational Training and Education, Montserrat Gomendio pointed out that in Spain, students are given 'sizeable sums of money' enabling them to study without getting a part-time job on top, and do not have to pay it back when they finish college.

Gomendio, during an international seminar on education in Spain, explained that in Britain those who go to university borrow money from a student loan company, paying it back 'in comfortable, interest-free quotas', and only once they have found a job paying more than 21,000 pounds a year before tax.

“It's not a question of whether or not university education is free of charge – it's a matter of who pays it, when and how,” Gomendio stressed.

She considers it 'very important' for private-sector credit to increase within the university environment – not just in terms of students paying for their education, but with job and work experience contracts and research fellowships sponsored by high-street banks.

Spain has a total of 82 universities, with an average of one per year having been created in the last decade, offering 7,000 degrees to 1.5 million students, and until recently they all received government grants covering at least their tuition fees and normally a subsidy towards living costs.

Typically, students in Spain attend the college nearest their home and return to the parental nest at weekends and during the holidays.

In the last two years, only pupils who achieve a grade of 55 per cent, or roughly a low grade C, in their university aptitude test – taken just after their bachillerato (A-levels) and upon which entry to college depends – have been entitled to grants covering their tuition fees.

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MASS redundancies at four Coca-Cola factories in Spain due to be shut down have been declared null and void by the National Court, forcing the firm to take back all employees who lost their jobs as a result.

Protests took place all over Spain after the multinational announced the closure of four plants and the relocation of staff to other parts of the country as well as jobs being axed.

Coca-Cola was not suffering financial troubles, but wanted to 'restructure' its factory network and 'centralise' production, in order to 'provide a better service'.

This meant 1,190 workers of Coca-Cola Iberian Partners in Alicante, Mallorca, Asturias and Fuenlabrada (Madrid) were either retired early, given the option to take voluntary redundancy or to move to another part of the country, and in the end laid off altogether if they were unable to reach an agreement with the firm.

Unions working on behalf of the affected employees took the matter to court, and this week a judge declared all the redundancies, early retirements and relocations null and void.

This was because in centralising production, Coca-Cola effectively created a new company which has not been registered, and substantially changed working conditions for staff without prior consultation.

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THE Prince of Asturias may change his name when he is crowned king this month to avoid upsetting Catalunya, sources from the Palace of Zarzuela say.

It has already been assumed the Prince will become King Felipe VI, but in fact he may decide to add his middle name, Juan, to his title.

This is because the first King Felipe – known as Felipe El Hermoso, or 'the beautiful', was the monarch of the Kingdom of Castilla – the centre and western half of Spain before the Catholic rulers Isabel and Fernando married and united them.

So, although the Prince will be the sixth King Felipe for Castilla, he will only be the fifth for the eastern side of Spain, once the Kingdom of Aragón which also encompassed Catalunya and the upper half of what is now the Comunidad Valenciana.

Royal household sources fear that, as Catalunya is vying for independence from Spain, certain nationalist politicians may be incensed by the King being given the title of Felipe VI – as if to suggest that only the ancient Kingdom of Castilla is 'really Spain', shutting out Catalunya still further and giving it more drive to seek secession.

Dean of Madrid's Complutense University's Faculty of Documentation, Dr José María de Francisco Olmos, says: “With the political situation the way it is at the moment, the Zarzuela Palace might think it is not a good idea to start off a new reign by making certain citizens believe they are sticking their fingers in their eyes.”

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TAX inspectors have called for 'soft' drugs and prostitution to be legalised to cut down on the 'negative effects' on society and the economy and generate more tax income.

Latest estimates by the tax office, Hacienda, prostitution and established brothels in Spain have an annual turnover of around 18 billion euros and, if this were taxed at 30 per cent, would mean an extra six billion a year clawed back for public funds.

The same would be true if cannabis was legalised as a recreational and therapeutic drug, since it would generate a huge hike in tax income and reduce the problem of illegal dealers and the associated crime and violence, says Hacienda.

As a result of cannabis and prostitution becoming legal, Spain's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is barely one per cent at present, would rise to around 4.5 per cent.

From the beginning of June, the National Statistics Institute (INE) will be obliged to include drugs and prostitution in its GDP forecasts, as have a number of other countries in Europe, and say that so far these illicit activities generate about three per cent of the country's income, or around 30 billion euros.

Tax inspector Domingo Carbajo says there is 'a lot of hypocrisy and misplaced morals' surrounding the issue.

Other measures mentioned include scrapping 200-euro and 500-euro notes from circulation, pushing for more businesses to accept credit and debit card payments and discourage cash by placing restrictions on these, obliging banks to provide identity details of their customers, exchange of information between countries, and between the Social Security office and the tax authorities.

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NEW speed limits on all Spanish roads are expected to be in force by the end of the summer, announces the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT).

According to its leader, María Seguí, certain town roads will see their limits reduced from the standard 50 kilometres per hour to 30 or even 20, meaning first gear only for most cars.

And speed limits on all secondary roads will reduce to 90 kilometres per hour, as opposed to 100 as many currently stand at.

Seguí says this is because a quarter of all fatalities in road accidents happen in towns, and involve pedestrians and cyclists more than drivers or passengers.

Certain stretches of the motorways will increase to 130 kilometres per hour, provided they meet specific requirements relating to road and weather conditions.

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A TEAM of Spanish archaeologists have discovered a tomb belonging to the enigmatic 11^th Dynasty in Luxor, Egypt.

Dating back to between 2150 and 1990 BC, the necropolis was discovered in the Dra Abu al-Naga area just outside the ancient city in the south of the country whilst historians from Spain were digging in three known common graves, near that of the high dignatory Djehuty, who led the Egyptian Court over 3,500 years ago.

Head of the mission, José Manuel Galán, said the period between the 11^th and 17^th Dynasties is a crucial era in the history of what used to be known as Thebes and is now Luxor: the time when the city became the capital of the recently-united kingdom of High Egypt (in the south) and Lower Egypt (in the north).

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THIS year's Top Ten Most Innovative Products list for Spain has been released by Kantar World Panel and shows the most popular supermarket in the country to be Lidl, followed in joint second by Mercadona and Día%. And it shows that new product design in Spain is extremely limited compared to the rest of Europe, with only two Spanish brands having more than one item in the Top Ten. In fact, another two brands in the list were not even Spanish, but French and British-cum-Dutch. The German store accounts for 79.5 per cent of the market share, with Mercadona and Día% taking 55.5 and 55 respectively and Eroski Supermarkets 32.6 – as opposed to Eroski Hypermarkets with 27.6, just 0.1 per cent higher than Carrefour. Consum and AhorraMás hold 28.2 and 29 per cent of the market respectively, whilst Caprabo accounts for 21.3 and Alcampo just 17.9. In Spain, eight in 10 people shop at just 2.1 grocery stores a year, says the Kantar World Panel Innovation Radar. Two in three new products are not discovered until a customer goes into the store, and Spain is near the bottom of the European heap for innovation in mass-marketed products, with Romania and Sweden at the top and the UK somewhere in the middle. Conclusions say innovation in Spain is very scarce, poorly distributed and has little success, mainly because of lack of funds to invest in new products and ideas and the fact that most of those which are launched are not available in stores frequently used by the average consumer.  

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INSULTING graffiti has appeared all over the outside walls of a television studio where leader of independent party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias was due to start on a morning talk show this week.

The local station headquarters at Telek, in Vallecas (Madrid) bore letters in spray-paint reading, 'Pablo Iglesias, pro-ETA and anti-Spanish', and 'Podemos = $ystem', hinting the burgeoning party which has just acquired five seats in the European Parliament is in collusion with, or 'no better than', the mainstream PSOE and PP whom he refers to as 'The Caste'.

The graffiti is signed off with a reference to the website www.jfe.es, the portal for the Young Falangists, or a new generation of those who were on the side of Franco during the Civil War.

And on the metal blind which covers the entrance door when the building is closed for the night, someone has painted the Falangist symbol of crossed archery arrows.

Iglesias, a 35-year-old lecturer at Madrid's Complutense University with a doctorate in international politics, who lives with his dog in a rented flat on a wage of 900 euros a month, said: “The fact we're the target of attacks like these only goes to show that we're correctly pointing out the cause of Spain's suffering.”

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AN 81-YEAR-OLD man who went missing at Granada's Alhambra Palace whilst on holiday with his wife was found five days later in his California home, according to National Police.

The specialist homicide unit had been combing the area, fearing the worst, when the North American tourist disappeared without trace and his distraught wife reported him missing.

He was last seen on Wednesday, June 4 at 17.00hrs when he and his wife were part of an organised tour group.

And he was found yesterday (Monday) at his home on the west coast of the USA having apparently just turned up.

Sources claim he took a taxi to Barcelona, over eight hours north, to visit the city and from there to Amsterdam, a trip of around four days by road.

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THREE-TIMES Wimbledon winner Boris Becker has saved his Mallorca mansion from being forcibly auctioned off with five minutes to spare before bidding started.

The 8.2-million-euro house measures 2,900 square metres - making it around 10 times the size of a typical family villa or about 20 times that of a large apartment - and stands on roughly a square mile of land in the Son Coll area of Artà.

It was put up for auction for a cool seven million euros, or 80 per cent of its value, after the German tennis star was found by a court to have a debt of 430,000 euros with the Mallorca-based construction company Melchor Mascaró.

Just five minutes before the villa was due to go under the hammer at the order of a Palma judge in order to settle the payment, Becker came forward with the 430,000 euros plus interest, enabling him to keep the property.

He was ordered to pay off the debt in 2012, two years after the firm filed legal action, but refused to do so since he said he had never ordered the works and that the instructions were given to carry them out by business-owner Matthias Kühn and that he would pay them once he had sold the property - although no more than 80,000 euros.

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SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea will finally open in just one week on the newly-built Parc Alfafar industrial estate in the town of the same name in the outskirts of Valencia.

Fans of the eclectic mixed bag of funky, cut-price flat-pack home goods have been waiting for this moment for many years - residents in the Comunidad Valenciana have always had to travel to Murcia or even Madrid to kit out their houses at the Scandinavian chain.

And 400 new members of staff had been taken on - just a fraction, however, out of more than 30,000 who jammed Ikea's server within hours of its advertising a recruitment drive.

A further 40 are waiting in the wings to cover Sunday opening if the store eventually decides to do so.

Ikea says it is ready to follow through with this if need be, because it 'needs to offer the best possible customer service' and adds that in the Madrid store, Sunday is the second-most profitable day of the week in terms of takings.

At present, Ikea is up against a refusal from Alfafar town council, which says Sunday opening would take business away from local family-run furniture stores that do not open on a Sunday anyway, and will have to make the most of the 10 local, national and regional bank holidays it has been allowed to trade on.

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Spain's Rafael Nadal has been crowned King of the Roland Garros clay for ninth time after defeating Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 in three hours and 31 minutes.

Nadal is the first man ever to win five consecutive French Open titles and the first to net the same major title nine times. Today's victory takes his Grand Slam total to 14, just three short of Federer's 17, and means he holds onto his number one ranking.

Djokovic's hopes of winning the one Grand Slam title he lacks have now been ended three times in a row by the Spaniard. Today's match wasn't the classic battle between the world's top two players that fans saw last year, and struggling in the 27ºC heat on court today, the Serb served up a double fault to hand victory to Nadal on his first match point.

"In matches like this every moment is crucial. Playing against Novak is always a big challenge, I had lost against him the last four times," Nadal said on court. "I feel sorry for him today, he deserves to win this tournament."

"Congratulations to Rafa and his team, it is incredible to win this tournament nine times," Djokovic said. "It was an emotional day. I have tried with all my power, my strength, my capacities but Rafa was the strongest on court."

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A SIXTH season of the scrap-for-cash 'Plan PIVE' has been launched with a government grant of 175 million euros in a bid to boost the car sales industry and reduce the number of older vehicles on the roads.

Grants for purchasing electric cars with a total budget of 22 million euros, and a 'Plan PIMA' – the commercial vehicle answer to the PIVE – have also been rolled out.

The previous five Plan PIVE sessions have allowed owners to buy 540,000 new cars which are 'less polluting' than older vehicles, as well as providing a massive business boost for dealerships at a time when high unemployment and reduced spending power would otherwise have meant that very few people in Spain could afford to replace their cars.

As a result of the Plan PIVE, anyone with a car over seven years old can trade it in for a brand-new one with a hefty discount on the asking price, since their old vehicle will effectively be scrapped and used for parts.

In practice, some of them are probably sold on cheaply to first-time drivers or those on a very low budget.

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HUNDREDS of members of a national criminal organisation selling 'doctored' diesel at knock-down prices have been arrested.

At least nine different gangs operating in 11 of Spain's 17 autonomous regions, throughout 23 provinces, were said to be colluding with service stations with under-the-mattress dealing of fuel which had been tampered with before being sold to the public at just over half the price of 'genuine' diesel.

The service stations which sold it did not pay tax on the proceeds, but the exact amount defrauded has not yet been fully calculated.

Thousands of motorists are believed to have filled up with the knock-off diesel, which could potentially have damaged their cars.

Police say diesel type B, used for agricultural vehicles and machinery, and type C, used for industrial heating, was altered by adding hydrocarburates and other substances to make it look like type A, used by cars and lorries, and to dilute it in order to increase its volume.

The much more refined type A is of greater quality than the other two, contains additives to increase performance when in contact with heat and reduce pollution, as well as making it safe to use in the more delicate engines of cars.

Using industrial fuel, especially diluted, leaves dirty residue on the engine, pollutes more, and if used regularly and long term, will cause the car to break down – normally irreparably.

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MADRID has created its own 'Little London' with red telephone cabins and post boxes, black cabs, union jacks, 'mind the gap' signs and road names bearing the Westminster postcode.

Unfortunately for Spaniards who have always dreamed of visiting the British capital but never got around to it, they only have until tomorrow (Sunday) night to enjoy a taste of the UK with sun, since the Beefeater London District is a temporary trade fair site which will be taken down after the weekend.

Around 20 entrepreneurs starting up quirky, creative new business projects were picked out of a total of 200 entrants to join in the fair by a panel of judges involving three reporters and blog writers expert in design and the latest trends in fashion, music, travel, food and other lifestyle and leisure features, together with the IE Business School, Spain StartUp, Womenalia and AJE Madrid.

Stands in the square outside the Príncipe Pío metro station offer exciting new ideas such as the concept of Street Food, a fusion of oriental and Latin American cuisine sold in outdoor kiosks which includes sandwiches and baguettes made with ingredients produced locally.

An open-air bar will serve a full menu of gin-and-tonic cocktails, and other novelties include 3D DIY technology, the first robot waiter – named Macco – an electrical appliance which converts used cooking oil into soap, furniture made from recycled wood and cardboard, and the smallest hotel in the world.

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MORTGAGES in Spain are set to get cheaper now that the Euribor has plummeted to its lowest level in history.

Already at a record low of 0.25 per cent - compared to over five per cent in 2007 - the European Central Bank (BCE) has revealed plans to drop the interest rate affecting the common currency zone to 0.15 per cent.

The idea is to enable credit to flow more easily and create liquidity within the Eurozone, since the interest rate reduction will bring down mortgages and personal and business loans.

It also means savings will get a lower return, but speculators across the continent have jammed the stock markets in a bid to buy shares at low rates and sit on them in the hope they will eventually rise in value.

Both the French socialist president François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel have praised the move, saying it is necessary to help restart the EU's economy.

Economists in Spain say the impact on the average householder will be minimal, since rates were already very low, but will save a few euros a year for those with mortgages - although all bar the most cautious of investors will need to revisit their financial planning arrangements to help increase their spending power through the resulting returns - decisions which will inevitably force savers who rely on a certain level of interest to take on more investment risks.

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Spain's Rafael Nadal, World No. 1, lost his first set of the the 2014 Roland Garros tournament to his friend and compatriot David Ferrer, but made it safely through to the semi-finals, where he will face Britain's Andy Murray, who beat local favourite Gael Monfils in a topsy turvy five-setter.

The Nadal-Murray clash will be a remake of the 2011 semi-final, the furthest the Brit has ever gone on the red clay of Roland Garros, the only Grand Slam where he hasn't reached a final.
 
Nadal cut short his progress in 2011, on his way to lifting his sixth Coupe des Mousquetaires. But much has happened since then in the life of the 27-year-old World No. 8 from Dunblane, Scotland. He has won two Grand Slam titles (the 2012 US Open and Wimbledon in 2013) and an Olympic gold medal.

His clay court game has also progressesd and he pushed Nadal hard in the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters 1000 a couple of weeks ago.

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AN ANTI-AGEING face cream declared by a leading consumer group to be the most effective on the market has sold out within days of the report hitting the news.

According to the OCU, tests on 14 anti-wrinkle moisturisers found that the majority did not do as they claimed and that the cheapest available were frequently better than top-of-the-range brands.

Most of them do not work, the OCU states, but the one which does and produces the best results is Cien Crema de Día ['day cream'] Q10, budget German supermarket chain Lidl's own brand.

Since the results of the research were published less than a week ago, stocks have completely run out in all stores in Spain.

Head of PR, Víctor de Bobes Martínez, says sales of the moisturiser have increased twentyfold and the chain is having to work around the clock to ensure stocks are replenished as soon as possible.

“This is not the first time a product in our range has managed to compete successfully with other, more recognised brands,” Sr Bobes commented.

After the study went public, scientific director of the National Perfume and Cosmetics Association, Carmen Esteban, was quick to point out that all products do indeed work to some degree, but conceded that the price is not always a reflection of the results seen.

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EXPATS struggling to get to grips with their Spanish should keep at it - because being able to speak, read or write one or more foreign languages slows down the ageing process in the brain, scientists reveal.

And the effect is the same whether you learn it as an adult or in earliest childhood.

Research by an Edinburgh University expert in loss of cognitive functions sought to find out whether foreign language abilities were the cause or the effect - whether learning a new tongue increased brainpower, or whether those who already had a strong capacity for learning and memory were more likely to learn a language.

IQ tests on 262 people from the Scottish capital carried out when they were aged 11 were studied, and the same people were re-tested once they were over 70.

Volunteers for the research had to be capable of speaking and writing in at least one foreign language, their mother tongue being English.

Only 65 of these had learnt their new language as adults, and the rest, in their childhood or teens.

Intelligence in general, eloquence, literacy and fluency in one's mother tongue with the ability to draw on a much wider vocabulary were found to be present in those who spoke at least one foreign language.

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AN INVESTIGATION commission has concluded that the Santiago rail tragedy which killed 79 passengers was caused by excess speed and the driver's 'lack of concentration'.

The report, released by the ministry of public works and infrastructure, said that even if the modern European Train System braking had been in place on the track, it would not have stopped the crash.

According to the commission, the train was travelling at 179 kilometres per hour when it hit the notorious A Grandeira bend in the town of Angrois, just south of Santiago de Compostela in the north-western region of Galicia.

The speed limit was 80 kilometres per hour.

In the final conclusions, the report claimed the driver's attention was elsewhere as he answered a call on his mobile from the control station and did not brake far enough ahead of the bend.

The commission says the call was 'excessive and repeated', lasting for over 100 seconds.

During this time, the train travelled just over five-and-a-half kilometres, and there was no intervention from the driver.

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A 'FISCAL reform' due to come into effect next year will see personal income tax and company profits duty 'decrease substantially', claims Spanish president Mariano Rajoy.

The PP leader has also announced a 6.3-billion-euro investment into creating employment.

IVA will remain at 21 per cent for top rate, with no decrease, and Rajoy (pictured here with German chancellor Angela Merkel) says he has no intention of increasing it despite the European Union putting pressure on him to do so.

In principle, the reform will include profit tax, or Impuesto sobre Sociedades, being reduced from 30 to 25 per cent, but it is not known how far income tax, which increased by over a third between summer 2010 and September 2012, will come down.

Rajoy has spoken cryptically of 'eliminating barriers' for start-up companies or traders and those branching out into new areas, and reducing obstacles affecting businesses' 'capacity for growth and expansion overseas'.

Other plans referred to, but with very little detail, include setting up a 'one-stop shop' for job-hunting, moves to guarantee work for young adults, and a complete overhaul of the professional training system.

He says he will actively encourage investment and the creation of job opportunites in 'more open sectors' which have a greater capacity for growth and international expansion, rather than 'more closed sectors' which are 'privileged through some type of in-house financial advantage or another'.

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DYNASTY actress Joan Collins caused a stir in Benidorm this morning (Tuesday) where she has travelled to film a chapter for the British series of the same name.

UK-born Joan, 81, showing that age was no barrier to glamour, looked resplendent as she posed for a photo with councillor Gema Amor and series producer Pere Agulló.

Sister of 'bonkbuster' novelist Jackie, Joan has already featured in the comedy Benidorm during its sixth season and will appear again in another episode later this year.

The show, based on location in the Costa Blanca town using its hotel facilities, streets in the old town and cabaret club Benidorm Palace, centres on a working class Lancashire family, Janice and Mick Garvey and their teenage son Michael, plus a couple of middle-aged swingers from Middlesborough, Janice's chain-smoking, bad-tempered, chewed-leather mum Madge, and snobby Kate and put-upon husband Martin, among others.

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Spain's top two male tennis players, Rafa Nadal and David Ferrer, will square off against each other in the quarter-finals of the 2014 French Open, in what will be a re-match of last year's final.

Ferrer beat the South Africa's Kevin Anderson, seeded 20th, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 to set up a meeting with the World No. 1. Apart from a brief fightback by Anderson in the third set, Ferrer was in dominant form but is well aware of the task ahead of him in the next round.

"I will try to do my best," said Ferrer about his upcoming match against Nadal. "I will try to play aggressively with my forehand and try to finish the points on the net. But of course it's going to be difficult with Rafael on a clay court."

Defending champion Nadal despatched Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic in ruthless fashion, booking his place in the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-0 victory in just over an hour and a half. Nadal outclassed Lajovic from the outset, winning 17 straight points at the start of the second set before the Serbian got a single point on the board.

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EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz has just become the youngest heir to the throne in Europe now that her father, Prince Felipe, is due to be crowned King between June 30 and July 3.

The little girl currently holds an Infanta title, which is the form of address for direct descendants of the reigning monarch where they are not the immediate heir to the throne, and of which the male version is 'Infante'.

But Leonor will get a new title very soon and be classed as Princess, as her ex-TV reporter mum Letizia has been for the past 10 years.

This said, she will not be able to be sworn in to her position of future Queen of Spain until she is 18 years old.

And if her father abdicates or dies before she reaches majority age, it is likely the throne will be handed to the closest adult male blood relative of the soon-to-be King Felipe VI.

Although the Spanish Constitution does not provide for the abdication of a reigning monarch, it does include a section on swearing in as King or Queen and states that the subject should pledge to carry out his or her Royal duties faithfully, adhere to and ensure others adhere to the Constitution and laws of the country, respect the fundamental rights of the people, and of the 17 autonomous regions in Spain.

Princess Leonor will be expected to pledge all this, as well as declaring her loyalty and faithfulness to the King, her father.

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HUNDREDS of thousands of Spanish people took to the streets yesterday (Monday) evening to call for a referendum on whether the country should become a republic following the shock news of King Juan Carlos I's abdication.

At least 10,000 demonstrators gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and another 5,000 in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, carrying the tricolour – red, yellow and purple – republican flag.

Those in Barcelona and other towns and cities in Catalunya also used the situation to call for a referendum on the north-eastern region's independence.

They carried banners reading, España, mañana, será republicana ('Spain, tomorrow, will be Republican'); Los Borbones, a las elecciones ('The Bourbons should hold elections'); 'Royal transition without a King', referring to the transition to democracy upon dictator General Franco's death in 1975 which led to the crowning of HRH Juan Carlos I, son of the Count of Barcelona; 'long live the fight of the working class', and 'Things happen in threes, another republic, please', since if their wishes were to be granted, it would be Spain's third republic in its history.

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EUROPEAN Commissioners have refused to ban private taxi services such as Über and BlaBlaCar despite pressure from licensed cabbies saying they are taking business away from them.

Neelie Kroes and Ryan Heath, from the Digital Agenda department of the European Commission say the only people who would benefit from banning car-pooling companies would be taxi drivers themselves, which would go against competition rules and allow the latter a monopoly over the transport service.

Über, based in the USA and BlaBlaCar, in France, operate jointly in 115 cities and towns worldwide, of which 15 are in the EU.

They allow drivers who are travelling to certain destinations to get in touch with people who want to go in the same direction, paying a fee which normally covers fuel, wear and tear on the vehicle and a small profit.

Participating drivers are required to have their cars in perfect condition and be able to prove this through their service history, have no motoring convictions considered criminal – meaning, in effect, a parking fine would not count – and have at least third party insurance cover.

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KING Juan Carlos I decided to abdicate from the throne five months ago and told president of the government, Mariano Rajoy and outgoing PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba in March, reports claim.

The Monarch said at the time that he had thought this momentous decision through 'very carefully', but that it had 'nothing to do with his health', nor with 'any other issues' – referring to his falling popularity of late.

Scenes of the former WWF chairman posing with an elephant he had shot in Botswana, and the criminal charges against his son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín for public fund fraud – which the King's younger daughter, the Infanta Cristina, may not escape from – have led to calls for Spain to go back to being a republic as it was 39 years ago after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

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SOUTH Koreans have 'fallen in love' with Spain thanks to a TV comedy aired in the country featuring four elderly actors visiting various cities in the country.

Ggot Boda Halbe ('grandparents/the elderly are better than flowers', a parody of the soap opera titled Boys are better than flowers) has broken audience records in the east Asian country and travel agencies say requests for flights or package holidays to Spain have rocketed since it was first broadcast.

The eight episodes of the latest series, which started in March, shows actors and actresses Lee Soon-Jae, Shin Goo, Park Geun-Hyung and Baek Il-Seop, led by 43-year-old presenter Lee Seo-Jin taking tours of Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada, Segovia and Ronda – cities which thousands of South Koreans, over 10,000 kilometres away, have now begun to book tickets to visit.

A 24-year-old student, who is studying Spanish at a South Korean university, said he had 'always wanted' to go to Spain, but the sight of Madrid with its Neo-Classical architecture on the popular show pushed him to book a flight for August this year.

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The inclusion of Diego Costa and Juanfran Torres amongst the 23 players chosen to defend Spain's World Cup title in Brazil was biggest news when Vicente Del Bosque named his definitive squad yesterday, with the exclusion of Jesús Navas perhaps the most painful of all.

Seven players were dropped from the initial 'long list' of 30 players named by the Spain coach: Dani Carvajal, Alberto Moreno, Ander Iturraspe, Thiago Alcántara, Jesús Navas, Álvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente.

Del Bosque waited until the last minute to get the latest medical reports on Juanfran Torres, who suffered an ankle sprain in the Champions League final, and Diego Costa, who had suffered a small muscle tear in his right leg. The recovery of the two Atlético de Madrid players was ultimately considered positive and they made the short list.

Seven players who won the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 will not be defending the title in Brazil: Víctor Valdés and Jesús Navas because of injury, along with Álvaro Arbeloa, Carlos Marchena, Carles Puyol, Joan Capdevila and Fernando Llorente. For the second time in a row Álvaro Negredo failed to make Del Bosque's World Cup short list.

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SPAIN will invest 37.7 million euros over 12 years in the world's largest telescope, under construction in Chile.

Known as a European Extra-Large Telescope (E-ELT) and being built by the European Space Organisation (ESO), the contraption is 16 times the size of Hubble and is expected to cost just under 1.1 billion euros.

Spanish aeronautical engineering firms have placed bids for the telescope's construction, which could bring benefits of up to 130 million euros back into the country.

Only countries which are members of the ESO can apply, meaning Spain is almost certain to get part of the works.

Spain has been a member of the ESO since 2006, and contributes 11 million euros a year towards the organisation's annual budget of 140 million.

The E-ELT will be set on the Armazones hill in Chile, which stands at 3,060 metres above sea-level and will be created using the same technology as the second-largest telescope in the world, based in the Canary Islands.

With a lens of 39 metres in diameter capable of capturing images with 13 times as much light as the largest telescopes currently in existence, as well as being able to correct distortions produced in the atmosphere, the optic and infrared telescope will be able to produce pictures with 16 times the clarity of those generated by Hubble

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