Live News From Spain As It Happens

PARENTS struggling to balance childcare and work are a rare phenomenon at a Barcelona insurance company – it has set up a playroom with computer desks so mums and dads can carry on working but supervise their kids at the same time.

Rather than a crèche, the so-called 'conciliation room' at ARAG legal expenses insurers means that now children are on holiday from school, their parents can take them to work and still, effectively, spend all day with them.

It is fitted with a TV, a blackboard, and toys suitable for all ages, as well as cribs and baby-changing mats for tiny tots.

Employees with children tend to rotate, sharing the desks in the room for a few hours at a time, then moving back into the main office so they can concentrate fully on their work whilst other staff keep an eye on their children as they look after their own kids.

On average, says Planning and HR manager Silvia Cruz, it has been used for just under four hours a day, or 19-and-a-quarter hours a week, in the past year.

And communications manager Neus Tuells says the children enjoy themselves, make new friends and learn through play, as well as being able to have lunch with their mums.

Clearly, she says, they could do so with their dads who work for the company, but as yet only two of the male employees have used it.

None of the fathers at the firm has taken advantage of paternity leave or reduced, flexible working hours, Neus reveals – all parents there who work part-time to allow them to care for their children are mums.

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THE Spanish Riding School in Vienna has gone back to its roots to celebrate its 450^th anniversary, with horses brought over from its counterpart in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz province) to join their distant relatives in a spectacular high-school dressage display.

King Felipe VI's elder sister, the Infanta Elena – an accomplished international showjumper – attended the event which took place in outside in the main square.

The Spanische Hofreitschule, or Spanish Riding School was created in the 16^th century when Archduke Fernando I of Hapsburg, brother of King Carlos I of Spain, took several Pura Raza Española horses – Spanish thoroughbreds – and a team of trainers back to his native Austria.

This was recreated for the anniversary show with four riders and 10 horses transported from Jerez to Vienna where they performed drill rides, advanced dressage and in-hand displays to 3,187 spectators.

Back in 1565, the original Pura Razas were bred with Arabs and the now-extinct Neapolitan horses to create a complete new 'Austrian' breed, known as the Lipizzaner, which are usually grey like the Pura Razas tend to be but are often slightly smaller, typically 14.2hh to 15.2hh.

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PRESIDENT Mariano Rajoy has called a meeting at first light today (Monday) to discuss possible strategies in the event of a 'Grexit' after negotiations broke down between Europe and Greek president Alexis Tsipras when he announced a referendum.

Rajoy has been closely following talks between Greece and the 'Troika' for the past two days, and has decided to convene a crisis session with the Commission for Economic Affairs in the Moncloa Palace, Spain's answer to 10 Downing Street or the Whitehouse.

Tsipras' referendum, to be held on July 5, is to find out whether or not the Greeks themselves are prepared to accept the Troika's loan conditions, which will mean certain austerity measures.

If they do not, it is possible Greece will have no choice but to leave the Eurozone.

As well as causing the EU to cease all negotiations, the referendum decision is likely to affect financial markets.

The Economic Affairs Commission in Spain comprises the ministries of the economy, employment, public works and infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and the treasury, and the secretaries of State for these departments.

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WEATHER warnings have been reinforced and health services are urging the public to take precautions as the temperature rises across Spain, particularly after a man from Toledo was admitted to intensive care with heatstroke yesterday (Sunday).

The 44-year-old collapsed in the street in Alameda de la Sagra in his home province and was unconscious when he was taken to hospital.

And it was not even the hottest part of the day at the time he passed out – the ambulance was called at 11.20hrs.

Because of Spain being an hour ahead of its geographically-correct time zone, and – like the rest of Europe and many other parts of the world – having put the clocks forward an hour for the spring, the midday or noon sun in fact comes at 14.00hrs.

But UV rays are not the only aspect health authorities are concerned with – the sheer heat as the mercury rockets to a typical 40ºC means dehydration is a risk, and prolonged exposure to high temperatures and bright sunshine without taking measures to cool down or drinking any water can put people in danger of suffering heatstroke.

This is a more serious condition than what is loosely referred to as 'sunstroke' or 'heat exhaustion' where the sufferer feels listless, headachey and nauseous – whilst these are also symptoms of heatstroke, the latter can also come with cold sweats, trembling, disorientation and confusion, and vomiting.

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A MASS of warm air will bring an intense heatwave starting tomorrow (Friday) and lasting until at least Tuesday across the mainland and Balearic Islands, says the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

A 'surface anti-cyclone' and a warm front at high altitudes mean cloudy skies, brief showers and thunder storms to clear the air are unlikely.

'Yellow warnings' have been issued for the weekend in parts of Andalucía – the Guadalquivir river valley, which covers Sevilla and inland parts – as well as the southern half of the Castilla-La Mancha plains, the region of Valencia, the Ebro valley in Catalunya and the Ampurdán area of Girona (Costa Brava area), with temperatures in the shade reaching between 36ºC and 38ºC.

By Saturday, this will increase to the rest of Andalucía and the northern part of Murcia, and southern and inland areas are likely to see the mercury rise to 40ºC.

The whole of mainland Spain and the Balearics will be on 'yellow alert' by Sunday as thermometers rise even further – the Tajo, Ebro and Guadiana valleys will go up to 'orange alert' and only the Cantabria coast in the far north will escape weather warnings.

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IBIZA'S Platja d'En Bossa is the most expensive beach holiday location in Spain, according to a recent report.

Quantity surveyors TecniTasa studied seafront holiday rental property fees per week, and found the difference between the cheapest and the priciest runs into four figures.

A 70-square-metre apartment – typically big enough for two bedrooms – on the popular Balearic beach costs an eye-watering €1,680 a week on average to rent for a summer break.

And the cheapest seaside holiday lets are found in the province of Lugo in Galicia, where a similar or very slightly smaller apartment costs less than €200 a week to rent.

The national average, which has grown 7% since last year, comes in at €595 per week if the property is right on the seafront esplanade or directly on the beach, but variations are vast according to region.

Barcelona and Almería have shot up in price, Castellón and Valencia are going down and the Balearics remain near the top.

Second- and third-most expensive holiday lets in Spain are also found in Ibiza – the Cala Martina bay in Santa Eulàlia des Riu, and Sant Antoni de Portmany, otherwise known as San Antonio.

They even outstrip typically upmarket areas such as Sotogrande (Cádiz province) which even has its own polo club, and Hondarribia – also known as Fuenterrabía – in the Basque Country province of Guipúzcoa, the capital of which is San Sebastián.

At €595 a week, the average Spanish family would spend 27% of their monthly household income on a beach 'staycation', but much cheaper lets can be found easily.

'Cheap' does not mean 'lacking in quality' – some of the areas with the lowest prices are either less touristy but still with proper facilities at hand and, because they are not as well-known, offer much more space on the beach, whilst in other areas, holiday home supply outstrips demand, bringing prices down.

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A PICASSO painting auctioned at Sotheby's in London has fetched a record 16.38 million pounds (€22.93m).

The cubist portrait inspired by the artist's muse Marie-Thérèse Walter features two women reading books and its title – Deux Personnages (La Lecture) is in French rather than the Málaga-born painter's native Spanish.

Another Picasso went for a substantial price, but nowhere near those of Deux Personnages – selling at 4.4 million pounds (€6.16m) was Nature Morte ('Still life').

But Picasso best-seller at Sotheby's this week was a long way off attracting the highest price.

Suprematism, 18^th Construction, an abstract by 20th-century Ukrainian artist Kazimir Malevich fetched 21.42 million pounds (€29.96m), although short of its estimated 30 million pounds, or €42m.

And Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt's Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsöványi) scooped up 24.78 million pounds (€34.69m), and French Impressionist Édouard Manet's Le bar aux Folies Bergère came in slightly above the Picasso painting at 16.94 million pounds (€23.71m) .

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PRISON workers in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Sevilla province) have complained their most famous inmate, flamenco legend Isabel Pantoja is getting the star treatment behind bars.

They have filed a formal grievance with the secretary-general for detention centres, Ángel Yuste, who has launched a formal inquiry into whether the singer is indeed enjoying privileges not in keeping with her status as a convicted criminal.

Staff say Pantoja's custodial term is 'more like a stay in a private hotel', and claim she was given the most spacious and comfortable cell which was fully cleaned and renovated, retiled and with a new bed and mattress installed before she entered.

Pantoja is the only inmate in her block who does not have to share a cell.

Wardens reveal they were given a ticking off after Pantoja had a 'diva' moment about her shoes being placed on top of her clothes and 'leaving a mark', refusing to clear up her belongings until the prison governor investigated the matter.

She even joins the manager and her deputy for breakfast in an area barred to inmates, and they kiss each other on both cheeks when she leaves, wardens report.

And after she enjoyed her first 'good behaviour' weekend leave, prison bosses carried her bags for her to and from the car - and she had three bags, rather than just one as prison rules state.

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SUMMER solstice celebrations took place across Spain last night in honour of San Juan, or Saint John - especially on the coast where bonfires were lit on almost every beach in the country.

Rituals vary from region to region, but the most common one in coastal areas involves writing a 'wish list' for the forthcoming year, throwing it on the flames, jumping over the bonfire and running into the sea, then jumping over the next three waves.

This is normally done on the stroke of midnight, or in the early hours, and many swear by the tradition saying their wishes thrown on the fire often come true later.

Elsewhere, families or groups of friends merely sit around their bonfires either on the beach or in their towns, conversing, dining and drinking until the early hours.

Spain's version of 'bonfire night' becomes a week-long celebration in the city of Alicante and several towns and villages in the province - Jávea, on the coast, being the second-most famous - and sees processions in traditional costume, fiesta queens and kings sworn in every year, huge public paellas, open-air theatre, late-night live concerts and discos, and giant monuments set up.

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AN INTELLIGENCE Service boss wanted by the Spanish courts for genocide has been arrested in London, according to the UK foreign office.

General Emmanuel Karenzi Karake, 54, head of State security in Rwanda, was jointly responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 civilians at the hands of Hutu political extremists - mostly members of the Tutsi minority, or more moderate Hutus - in just three months in 1994.

Over the next six years, hundreds of thousands more were murdered by the paramilitary radical Hutus, led by Karake and other high-ranking politicians and members of the Armed Forces.

They included nine Spaniards, which is why the Spanish justice system was able to get involved and issue an arrest warrant for 40 members of the military or top-flight government figureheads, who include Karake, in 2008.

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SPAIN'S largest fashion retail firms have a grand total of 8,800 shops worldwide between them, latest figures show.

In fact, with a total of just under 12,000 stores, the 'big four' in Spain's textile industry, Mango, Cortefiel, Desigual and Inditex have three-quarters of their premises outside their country of origin.

Foreign branches account for 80% of their total sales, or just under €17.6 billion out of nearly €22.3bn last year.

Naturally, Inditex leads the field – its founder Amancio Ortega, from Ourense in Galicia is the wealthiest man in Europe and the third-richest worldwide – with 6,683 shops, of which 4,861 are based overseas in 87 countries.

The most international of Inditex's brands is the budget-but-smart label Zara which, including its children's line Zara Kids, has 1,633 shops abroad, followed by its cheaper 'sister' Bershka with 761.

Other Inditex labels in descending order with stores abroad are low-cost sporty casualwear chain Pull & Bear, budget young fashions brand Stradivarius, classy mid-range high-street chain Massimo Dutti, underwear label Oysho, upmarket interiors range Zara Home with 295 foreign outlets, and the relatively-new upper-end high-street brand Uterqüe (pictured above left), which at present has just 35 branches abroad.

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ONLINE television service Netflix is coming to Spain in October and will be available for tariffs starting from €7.99 a month plus IVA.

Three different prices, the top one being €11.99 plus IVA, will apply depending upon the number of devices in the subscriber's home which are connected and the definition chosen, which goes up to 4K.

An à la carte internet-based TV platform, Netflix allows subscribers to choose programmes from a huge catalogue and watch them as many times as they want.

They are watched in real time and are compatible with any device that has an internet connection and a screen, including PCs, laptops, netbooks, Tablets, video game consoles, and Smart TVs.

Programmes can be watched 'on the go' from anywhere the user wishes as long as a broadband internet connection is available, as well as at home.

They are not downloaded, meaning they are instantly-accessible and do not take up memory space on devices, neither does the subscriber run the risk of malware or adware or any other type of virus or potentially unwanted programme slipping into their computer via the back door.

Additionally, Netflix's advanced technology means it can flag up TV shows which may be of interest to the subscriber based upon his or her viewing habits and tastes, which saves ploughing through a long catalogue and reading synopses of every unfamiliar programme.

For the moment, Netflix's home-produced series such as Sense8, Daredevil, Bloodline, Marco Polo, Unbreakable, Kimmy Schmidt, Grace and Frankie and Chef's Table will not yet be available in Spain, but mainstream series, films and documentaries can be watched.

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NEARLY a third of motor industry professionals believe sales of second-hand tyres should be banned, according to research by Continental.

Three-quarters of all road crashes caused by tyre problems occur in cars with used ones fitted – and, in fact, over 300,000 cars on Spain's roads have second-hand tyres, a figure that has been increasing every year as a result of the financial crisis.

Different cars wear down their tyres in different places, meaning if these are fitted to another make or model, they are likely to cause vibrations and reduce the vehicle's stability.

They can even endanger the lives of drivers and passengers, since the minimum braking distance needed for used tyres is much longer than for new ones, meaning motorists underestimate how much room they need to slow down or stop.

Continental says tyre traders admit that 80% of their sales come from supplying or fitting second-hand parts.

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NEARLY half of Spain's working-age population aged 25 and over has no qualifications beyond compulsory schooling – the equivalent of GCSEs or O-levels in the UK, known as the ESO in the Spanish system – and some do not even have this level, according to a recent survey.

Although those at the end of their working life, aged 65, would have been at school somewhere between the years 1955 and 1966 – during Franco's dictatorship and at a time when many left at a very young age to work – which would account for their lack of post-16 qualifications, the fact that even those who would have been at school between the 1980s and the first decade of the 2000s are unqualified has raised concerns about the country's education system.

The research by the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (FEDEA) effectively reveals that those who have been on the dole for many months or years have not been studying or training to improve their existing skills or learn a new trade or profession.

Back in 2007 when unemployment levels – although still high – were nowhere near those of today, only 14.6% of people on the dole with no qualifications beyond compulsory schooling took training or further education courses – but this number fell to 13.6% by 2013.

Whilst the average number of adults aged 25 to 65 inclusive in the European Union whose education does not go beyond the equivalent of GCSEs sits at 24%, in Spain this rises to 43.4% - almost double.

Only Portugal, where more than half the adult population has no post-16 training or education – 56.7% - and Malta, with 57.8%, are behind Spain, and taking Europe as a continent, Spain's figures are only better than Portugal, Malta and Turkey, where 67.4% of adults have not studied or trained since school.

Lithuania and the Czech Republic have the lowest number of barely-qualified working-age residents – 6.7% and 6.8% respectively – and in Estonia, Slovakia and Poland, over 90% of adults have at least a sixth-form education or vocational training aimed at school leavers as a minimum.

In Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, Croatia, Norway, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, between 80% and 90% of the potential workforce has a minimum education level of sixth form or the equivalent.

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EIGHT in 10 children say they would be prepared to give their toys to their family pet, and 94% say they 'feel happier' when they are in the company of their animals.

A study by the Affinity Foundation on the emotional ties between children and pets in Spain has shown that six in 10 kids say they believe spending time with animals helps them to learn to love and respect people more, and nine in 10 would be happy to give up part of their time to look after their cat or dog.

Three-quarters say they would be prepared to get up earlier than usual to feed their cat or walk their dog, and 80%, when asked if they would be willing to give up one of their toys for a pet to play with said they would do so.

When asked if they thought animals were happy, 91% thought family dogs were and 78% thought cats were – possibly fewer because of the higher number of feral cat colonies as opposed to dogs forced to live in the wild – and they believe animals' happiness comes from being healthy, having human company and attention, and being able to play with their owners.

Nine in 10 say they would rather have a pet than new toys or other material belongings, and 94%, when asked if animals had feelings and emotions, said they believed they did.

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A RAGING inferno believed to be the work of arsonists has taken hold just outside Murcia and the entire city was filled with smoke last night.

Residents near the Camino de los Puros country lane managed to put out a fire started in a drainage ditch by the side of the main road linking El Garruchal, where the main blaze has been traced to, with the tied hamlets of San José and Los Ramos, just before lunchtime.

But more flames were spotted nearby and found to have started in three places, leading the locals to believe the fire by the roadside and the one which continues to burn were ignited deliberately.

The F-13 minor road has been blocked in both directions as the Armed Forces' emergency response unit and several fire brigades - some from as far away as Valencia - continue to work on bringing the inferno under control.

Four helicopters were deployed yesterday afternoon but had to stop when night fell, although they will be back on duty again shortly once there is sufficient daylight.

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THE world's first-ever 'bio-bank' containing DNA from ancient civilisations has just opened in Barcelona, and includes over 500 samples of genetic material dating back to the Roman and Visigoth eras.

Presented this week by the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Investigations Institute (IDIBAPS), which houses the bank, this pioneering project has become possible thanks to help from the Catalunya Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), the Tarragona National Archaeology Museum (MNAT) and the European research scheme, Genetic and Environmental Factors in Obesity and/or Diabetes in Specific Populations (MEDIGENE).

Of the 500 samples which have already been selected and processed, 76 are available to the international scientific community, and all of them come from various necropoles in the province of Tarragona, southern Catalunya, dating back to between the third and seventh centuries AD, meaning they cover the Romans and Visigoths.

The DNA material will allow scientists to investigate the genetic background of ancient civilisations, the impact of nutrition on health and illness on the human body over 13 to 17 centuries, and help them to find out more about the origins of modern-day men and women.

Experts will be able to learn about migratory movements within societies over the centuries and attempt to trace the source of chronic health conditions which are very prevalent today, such as obesity or Type II diabetes.

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SPANISH president Mariano Rajoy's long-awaited announcement of changes within his party line-up came late last night (Thursday) bringing very few surprises: instead of moving ministers around, he has given more prominent roles to four existing cabinet members.

María Dolores de Cospedal, who remains acting president of Castilla-La Mancha but looks set to lose her seat to a coalition, will continue as secretary-general and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría will carry on as deputy president, meaning Rajoy's main right-hand women keep their roles.

New deputy secretaries include Fernando Martínez Maíllo, Javier Maroto, Andrea Levy and Pablo Casado, and existing deputy secretary Javier Arenas will continue in his post.

Moragas replaces Carlos Floriano as head of campaign for the November general elections, having been, until now, Rajoy's office manager and his consultant for meetings with foreign heads of State, a role he has carried out for Rajoy since 2008 due to his good reputation within the European Union and among foreign ambassadors in Spain.

The 50-year-old from Barcelona has already been presidency coordinator, head of international relations, and secretary-general of the presidency for Rajoy's predecessor as party leader, former Spanish president José María Aznar.

Moragas is a law graduate and a diplomat who is credited with being more towards the 'centre' in his political outlook than the far-right PP party as a whole - in fact, he hit the headlines in October 2004 when he was thrown out of Cuba for attempting to meet with a dissident as part of his ongoing campaign for the island nation's freedom.

He has been responsible for getting Rajoy to embrace modern technology, including Facebook and Twitter.

Pablo Casado (pictured bottom left), 34, from Palencia in Castilla y León is now vice-secretary general for media and communications - a PR man whose job is to 'stand up for' the party in meetings, Twitter messages, press conferences and Twitter posts.

A lawyer and economist by profession and currently MP for the province of Ávila, he has also been MP in Madrid, studied in Harvard and Georgetown and is known for being a 'family man' and constantly smiling - largely because his baby son Pablo survived and grew into a healthy toddler after being born at 25 weeks weighing just 1lb 12oz (700 grams)

Casado is one of the 'youthful faces' Rajoy has decided to put at the forefront of the party to give it a fresh new look and bring it into closer contact with society.

Another youthful face is 31-year-old Andrea Levy (pictured top right), who has been vice-secretary for research and programmes on the PP in Catalunya for three years and will now exercise this role at national government level.

A law graduate from Barcelona University and with a post-graduate diploma in International Relations and Protocol, her main role has been in media and PR, including having to defend the PP's views during Catalunya's sovereignty debates, both on radio and TV.

She is known for not being afraid to voice her own views, even when they conflict with those of her party, such as when her colleagues refused to vote over Catalunya's regional anti-homophobia law - Andrea went against the grain and voted in favour of the legislation, in keeping with her reputation within the PP as a strong defender of civil and individual rights.

Andrea wants to see the party become more open to the people and more moderate, less extreme, more modern, closer to the person on the street, and better able to work as a team.

She replaces Esteban González-Pons in the role and her appointment is largely aimed at modernising the party.

Fernando Martínez-Maíllo (pictured top left), 45, from Zamora in Castilla y León, is now vice-secretary for organisation within the PP, having spent the last 12 years as MP for his native province.

Starting out his working life as a solicitor and becoming head of the Association of Young Entrepreneurs in Zamora, councillor in Zamora city hall for sports and spokesman for the party, Martínez-Maíllo won a majority in last month's elections allowing him to continue for a fourth term of office as provincial MP.

A close friend of Rajoy's, Martínez-Maíllo even had the president as guest of honour at his wedding in 2011.

But he is currently under investigation for a case of 'unlawful administration' from when he was on the board of directors at Caja España bank, has already been charged and is awaiting trial.

Javier Maroto (pictured bottom right), 43, won the most seats in last month's elections when running again for mayor at Vitoria-Gasteiz city council, in the Basque Country, but a coalition formed by the opposition meant he was not able to repeat his stint in the hotseat - despite this, he actually won more votes this time around than he did in the previous local elections in 2011, when the PP enjoyed a landslide victory in practically every province in Spain.

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THIS summer in Spain is set to be hotter than average after an unusually warm month of May, wetter-than-normal June and the driest spring on record.

According to the State meteorological agency, AEMET, temperatures across the country will be a typical 1.5ºC warmer than usual – although the figures cover a huge variety of micro-climates from the sweltering and humid south and east coasts and islands, scorched and dry heat of the central plains, and the cool and damp summers in the Cantabrian Sea strip which are normally closer to those of the UK.

No real changes in rainfall for the time of year are forecast for July, August or September, and the months of April and May have been the driest since records began with the Mediterranean area now in its fourth year of a major drought.

But the recent downpours, mainly affecting the north and centre of the country but edging south and south-east for two days in the past week, mean June has seen more rain in 72 hours than it normally would throughout the whole month.

Summer in Spain officially starts this coming Sunday, June 21 at 18.38hrs, and the first day of the new season will mostly be cloudy with thunder and lightning inland, in the north and along the Pyrénées, with higher than usual temperatures due to the absence of a north wind, but with the cloud covering tempering the rocketing mercury.

This spring has already been the fourth-hottest since 1961 with thermometers rising to an average of 1.5ºC above the standard level seen between 1981 and 2010, putting the typical temperature of the country as a whole at 15.1ºC – although this ranges from minus figures at night and single figures in the day in the north and centre-north, up to the high 20s and even low 30s on occasion in the south and east.

So far, only the springs of 1997, 2006 and 2011 have been warmer than the present one in the past 54 years.

The above-average heat rose throughout the spring creating a wider and wider margin as the weeks went on – March was 0.3ºC warmer than average, whilst April was 1.7ºC hotter and May 2.4ºC warmer.

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A BLAZE at a plastics recycling plant in Torre Pacheco (Murcia) is finally under control after emergency services worked the whole night, but has destroyed most of the complex.

Civil Protection squad members say they were called just before 17.00hrs after a local resident alerted the police, but that the response team managed to stop the inferno from spreading beyond the factory and its grounds.

Given that the contents of the plant were highly-flammable, as many as 10 fire engines and a helicopter were drafted in at one point as workers fought to beat back the flames.

They were particularly concerned that the blaze was only 200 metres from Torre Pacheco town centre, very close to the railway station and just a kilometre from the IFEPA trade fair centre.

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A BAR customer has died after drinking cleaning fluid served to him by mistake when he ordered a glass of wine.

Emergency services were called out to the undisclosed premises in Benicarló (Castellón province) at around 14.50hrs on Sunday after the owner discovered his error.

A toxic and highly-corrosive cleaning product had been decanted into an empty wine bottle and put in the fridge by mistake and, when the customer asked for a glass of wine, the acidic fluid was poured out without either the bar owner or the victim realising until it was too late.

The customer was rushed to the district hospital in Vinaròs in a serious condition, but died shortly afterwards from serious internal burns.

Guardia Civil officers arrested the owner of the premises in the Plaza Isabel de Villena and charged him with negligent homicide.

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A DRIVER has been fined €80 in Salamanca for 'biting his nails', according to a website which flags up speed cameras in the region of Castilla y León.

The man in question was caught by the Guardia Civil at 10.30hrs in Carbajosa de la Sagrada, part of the outer suburbs of the university city.

His fine notice states he was 'driving without maintaining proper freedom of movement' because he was 'biting his nails whilst at the wheel', the source claims.

A copy of the sanction form was uploaded on the site and said the driver had to pay €80, but this will reduce to €40 if he settles it in 20 days, and he will not lose any points from his licence.

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THE bodies of the Spanish passengers who lost their lives in the Germanwings crash in the Alps arrived back in Barcelona last night for collection by their next of kin.

Nearly three months after the tragedy, when the flight from Barcelona to Düsseldorf went down in the French mountains, families of the deceased are now able to give their loved ones a proper burial.

Their return comes just as investigations reveal that the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had visited 41 doctors in the five years before he plunged the craft into the massif killing himself and 149 others.

Lubitz, 27, whose dream of becoming captain on long-haul Lufthansa flights with Germanwings' parent company was turning into an obsession, had been diagnosed with eyesight problems, insomnia, depression and even psychosis.

He had seen 41 different GPs, psychiatrists, neurologists and ophthalmologists since 2010, a year after obtaining his pilot's licence, according to the French prosecutor Brice Robin who is heading up inquiries into the tragedy.

The co-pilot had had appointments with seven different doctors in the month before the crash and had been signed off sick for 10 days, but had torn up the GPs' notes.

His eyesight problems, initially said to be due to a detached retina, have transpired to have had 'no organic origin', meaning they may have been psychosomatic.

Lubitz told eye specialists that he saw objects 'between 30% and 35% darker' than the normal range.

Crucially, however, at least one doctor diagnosed him with 'threatening psychosis' after interviewing the young pilot 'for a long time'.

One of the specialists who examined Lubitz just days before the crash reported that he found the co-pilot 'burnt out, insecure, tense and centred obsessively on his illness' and finally concluded that his 'instability' meant he was 'unfit to fly'.

But this information never reached the airline, due to doctor-patient confidentiality rules.

Brice Robin admitted that it is 'difficult to balance' this confidentiality with any possible duty of disclosure based upon a patient's having a high-risk job, such as flying a plane.

But he added that Lubitz's parents, whom he lived with, 'ought to have noticed' that their son suffered mental health problems.

Remains of packets of anti-depressants and anti-insomnia drugs had been found in the house after Lubitz brought the aircraft down, although results of toxicology examinations on his body have not been released as yet.

He is said to have researched different types of medication, methods of suicide, and how to lock the cabin door from the inside, on the internet.

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A BRITISH motocross rider has lost his life in a crash during a rally at the fiestas in Algemesí (Valencia province).

Timothy Swinscoe, 54, is said to have lost control of his bike and hit a tree, the impact of which killed him almost outright.

The celebrated and veteran rider, who has lived for several years in the Comunidad Valenciana, was taking part in a Supermotard rally (pictured) at the fiestas in honour of San Onofre, Algemesí's patron saint.

Supermotard is a fusion of speedway and motocross, but with tyres made from asphalt, and over rough terrain.

The riders had only just left the paddock for the pre-race demonstration round at 10.15hrs on Sunday when the accident happened.

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Rafael Nadal has won his first title on grass since 2010 with a straight sets victory over Serbia's Viktor Troicki in the Mercedes Cup final.

Nadal, 29, who was knocked out of the French Open in the quarter-finals by another Serb, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, earlier this month, sealed the title in Stuttgart with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Troicki.

The Spaniard becomes the first player to win the Stuttgart title both on clay (2005 & 2007) and on grass, and the victory takes his total tally of career titles to 66.

The win will improve Nadal's world ranking (currently at a ten-year low of 10th) ahead of the season's next Grand Slam in Wimbledon which starts on June 29th.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FLASH floods affecting the north of Spain have caused chaos in the province of Tarragona, in southern Catalunya this time with over 270 calls to emergency services made in the early hours of the morning.

Nearly two inches of rain, or 43.4 litres per square metre – enough to cause damage to a properly built and maintained home in the eyes of household insurance claims departments – caused road-blocks on main highways throughout the province.

The T-721 was closed between La Pobla de Mafumet and Constantí, and the N-340a in Canona and Campclar were shut to traffic.

Tarragona city's C/ Pere Martell was flooded in the Serrallo bridge area, rendering it impassible, as was the tunnel leading to a shopping centre between the A-7 motorway and the T-11 in the north-west of the metropolitan area.

Lightning caused a fire in an area of bamboo canes next to the Constantí natural gas pump station, leading to a huge conflagration.

Luckily, the blaze was some distance from the nearest homes and the only damage was to scrubland and the pump station itself.

Emergency services have contacted the gas company and other firms in the same chemical factory industrial estate to ask them to check their installations for possible explosion risk.

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TOWN councils re-formed today across Spain with a marked shift left of the centre, especially in major cities.

Manuela Carmena of independents Ahora Madrid - mainly made up of Podemos candidates, since the latter decided not to run for local elections under its own name - is now mayoress of Madrid, replacing the PP's Ana Botella, wife of former Spanish president José María Aznar, who had already announced she would not be running again for elections this May.

Left-wing humanitarian judge Carmena got all 20 votes from her own party, plus nine supporting votes from the socialists, whilst ex-regional president Esperanza Aguirre (PP), candidate for mayoress, obtained 21.

Carmena says the people of Madrid have been 'suffering' and 'living in anguish' as a result of austerity and mass unemployment, and that she now intends to govern according to what residents want.

"It's a new kind of politics we're in now - and you're all just going to have to get used to it," she said.

Valencia's Rita Barberá left the city council a day ahead of its re-forming, already knowing she had been defeated after 24 years in power - but far from retiring, the 67-year-old will continue on the PP at regional government level.

Her fate looked set to be sealed weeks before the elections due to the unfortunate timing of the 'Ritaleaks', where details including hard copies of invoices showed she had spent hundreds of thousands on top hotels for her bodyguards during her own summer holidays at her sister's villa in Jávea (Alicante), as well as thousands on taxis and between €1,000 and €2,000 at a time on one-way short-haul flights within Europe, including to London airports.

Corruption allegations have affected the PP at regional level in Valencia city, and the council and regional government have been heavily criticised over the years for massive spending on ambitious projects such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the City of Arts and Sciences, the America's Cup world sailing tournament, and Castellón airport - all of which would have brought huge benefits to the region in terms of leisure and tourism expenditure, but which have been poorly exploited and mostly abandoned.

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SPAIN'S and Portugal's 30^th anniversary of joining the European Union saw a flood of congratulations from MEPs and heads of State yesterday – although as yet it appears UK prime minister David Cameron was not among them.

Whilst the 'talk of the town' for British expats in Spain centres on a referendum for or against a possible 'Brexit', Spain basked in praise from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, France's president François Hollande and foreign affairs minister for Italy, Sandro Gozi.

Spain and Portugal signed the treaty that would make them part of the burgeoning common market, the EEC – a precursor to today's EU – on June 12, 1985, and the two countries' connections with the rest of the continent and its vast cultural, financial and ideological differences have shaped societies in both, turning them into modern, hi-tech nations overflowing with highly-qualified and cosmopolitan residents, of whom between 10% and 13% are foreign, including other Europeans.

“Congratulations to Spain and all other Europeans,” said Germany's foreign ministry message.

“Spain has a reliable partner in Germany – we will work together for growth, employment and innovation in Europe.”

France described Spain as 'an essential partner', as it showed during the recent visit to the country by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia where they were given the full stately treatment hitherto only accorded to Queen Elizabeth II of the UK.

“Spain has contributed greatly to building Europe via an unbreakable European commitment – today, we work together in all areas, whether it is the fight against terrorism, foreign security policies or common defence, including in Africa, but also in favour of a stronger Europe and greater solidarity in serving growth and employment,” France concluded.

Italy's European affairs minister Sandro Gozi said Spain has shown that 'Europe means democracy', since its own democratic 'career' – which started with the death of Franco and the swearing-in of the late president Adolfo Suárez a decade earlier – has been 'accompanied at every step' by Europe.

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ONE of the Jihad recruits from Catalunya caught en route to Syria in a recent swoop sent a 'goodbye' letter to his girlfriend telling her he 'hoped Allah would bring her a better man than him'.

A search on the home of Taufiq Mouchouch after he was captured at the Bulgarian border revealed the draft – and final copy – of the note he sent to Laila, his partner.

Written in Spanish but full of spelling mistakes, it read: “By the time you get this letter, Laila, I might not be here, I'll have left in hijra fisabelilah [on a journey in Allah's name], because the police are on our trail and I'd rather they arrested me for Allah than for nothing.”

He said several times how much he loved her, and, “don't think badly of me, but Allah comes first.”

“I hope, insh'Allah [God willing] that Allah brings you a better man than me.”

Although the draft of the letter said he was going to Syria, Taufiq Mouchouch did not mention his actual destination in the end copy.

Mouchouch went to Laila's house to say goodbye a few days before he and two other men left for Syria in May to join the Islamic State, having already attempted the journey twice and fearing police capture.

Laila, who is also under investigation, started a campaign in local mosques in the Barcelona area to raise funds to get the three men out of jail, where they were being held temporarily pending further inquiries.

She said she needed to raise €8,000, but according to conversations recorded by the police, a large number of worshippers did not want to donate as they thought Laila was heading off to join the Islamic State herself and was surreptitiously seeking funds to do so.

Another woman apparently said to Laila that she hoped when Mouchouch and the other two were brought back to Spain that they would be 'extradited to Madrid rather than Barcelona', because the Guardia Civil were 'not the same' as their Catalunya counterparts, the Mossos d'Esquadra, who were 'not nice people'.

Investigations into the Jihad cell Mouchouch had joined – which saw a police officer disguise as a recruit to attend meetings and become involved in communications between members - revealed one of the suspects, Antonio S. C., alias Ali, was a Spaniard who had converted to Islam before turning 'radical', and that another, Yacoub, tried to convince his father that the attacks in Paris which led to the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo magazine editorial staff was a montage.

He said the streets shown on the TV 'did not exist in Paris' and that actions of this nature are 'forbidden in Islam'.

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HEALTH authorities in Spain are crying out for blood donors and has run up a deficit of 300,000 litres per year.

This has to be imported from the USA, since blood donor numbers have fallen by 9.24% in the past year.

According to the Spanish Blood Donor Federation (FEDSANG), the shortfall imported makes up 50% of the amount of blood used in Spanish hospitals annually.

To make up the balance, the number of donors needed in Spain would have to go up to four per 1,000 inhabitants, from its current 3.6 – but numbers have been declining constantly, dropping 7% between 2010 and the end of 2014.

Blood transfusions are carried out daily in Spanish hospitals – around 6,200 patients are given them, of whom nearly a quarter (24%) are fighting cancer and a similar number (23%) receive them during or after surgery.

Not all of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions have the same needs for donor blood, meaning smaller or less-populated ones manage to cover their hospitals' needs and have a higher number of donors than the average of four per 1,000 needed.

These include Extremadura, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Galicia and Cantabria.

But in the Canary Islands, Murcia, Andalucía, Catalunya, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón and La Rioja, donor numbers are below the national average, with fewer than 3.5 per 1,000 residents.

Regions that fall somewhere between 3.5 and the necessary four per 1,000 are Valencia, Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Navarra and Asturias.

Spain has around two million donors in total, but needs closer to four million.

But many population groups who are healthy, not on any medication, of the required weight – over 50 kilos, or 7st 12lb – and who have no reason not to give blood are excluded from doing so due to rules which those affected consider 'ridiculous'.

Homosexual men are banned from giving blood if they have been in a relationship in the past 10 years due to a perceived HIV risk – although in practice, figures show that in the western world, new HIV patients are more likely to be young, heterosexual women.

And British citizens living in Spain are not allowed to give blood – even though thousands of them did so regularly all their lives in the UK.

Anyone who lived in the UK at any time between 1980 and 1996 is automatically barred because of the 'risk' of transmitting 'mad cow disease' – a bone of contention with many expats who are keen to carry on their twice-annual blood donating that they were used to doing in their home country.

But FEDSANG has launched an appeal to the European Parliament against both these decisions, given that every dose of blood which has to be bought costs US$200 .

The USA has a high number of willing blood donors, because they are paid to do so – in 80 out of the 200 countries in the world where blood is given, however, donations are voluntary.

Read more at tthinkSPAIN.com

A SOCIALIST councillor who 'got Zapatero thinking' on equal marriage and led to Spain being only the third country in the world to legalise it has passed away at the age of 54.

Pedro Zerolo, who was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1960 but grew up in the Canary Islands and graduated in law from La Laguna University in Tenerife, was number three on the candidate list for the PSOE in Madrid during the regional elections and would have become a minister, given that the party won 37 seats.

Until then, he had been a councillor in Madrid, ever since Trinidad Jiménez - who would become health minister under president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero - offered him seat number six on the party in January 2003.

Zerolo had until then been an active campaigner with the State Lesbian and Gay Federation (FELG) and, in that year, he and his partner Jesús Santos pointedly applied for a marriage licence from the Civil Registrar in the capital, only for it to be denied.

Last year, Zapatero admitted it had been Zerolo who had 'convinced' him to put in place the law reform which would allow same-sex couples to marry on exactly the same legal footing as mixed-sex couples - a reform which came into force in 2005, allowing Zerolo and Santos to wed at last.

Although he described himself as 'feminist and atheist', Zerolo had worked closely with the priest, Father Enrique de Castro, in helping residents in extreme need and poverty in the Madrid district of Entrevías.

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THE second air-traffic control strike of the week takes place today, potentially affecting around 5,200 flights to and from airports in Spain.

Monday's strike was said to have created barely a ripple in Spanish terminals, with no cancellations and only negligible delays of less than half an hour, despite hotels in the Canary Islands setting aside 1,300 beds for package tourists who might find their trips called off.

Palma de Mallorca airport was expecting chaos, but it was mostly business as usual.

And only a handful of delays, of around 20 to 30 minutes, were reported from Alicante airport.

Conflicting information has come from UK tabloids, which claimed passengers travelling to and from Girona (Costa Brava) airport to London-Stansted were left stranded up to 14 hours, with some arriving at the latter at 08.00hrs for a 09.30hrs flight and being told they would not be taking off until 23.30hrs.

But these long waits related to one low-cost airline only, which said it had suffered 'technical problems' and did not mention the Spanish air-traffic control strike.

Other budget airlines have told customers to keep a close eye on their websites and pledged to avoid cancellations where possible, but warn of possible delays today.

Spain's government has obliged air-traffic controllers to run 'minimum services', which would mean seven in 10 flights leaving and arriving at the normal times, but four hours each day from every airport in the country will see the majority of control tower staff downing tools, which could effectively close the country's air-space during those times.

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BRITISH ornithologists seeking a birdwatching holiday should look no further than Cullera on the Valencia province coast in eastern Spain, say UK travel agents who have just come back from a fact-finding mission in the town.

According to tour operators including Gourmet Birds, Naturetrek and Wildlife Worldwide, the mountain above Cullera which houses its iconic lighthouse is one of the best places in Spain for checking out feathered wildlife.

Representatives from all three – David Tomlinson, Simon Dicks and Isabel Ashworth – were joined by Barrie Cooper of The Natural Travel Collection and Garry Wilkinson from Northern Ireland Ornithologists' Club at the Hotel Cullera Holiday last week on a trip to explore birdwatching haunts and enjoy the local cuisine.

Species that can be seen from the lighthouse mountain include the Brown Skua, the Balearic Shearwater, the Northern Gannet, the Common Tern – many of which are extremely rare and difficult to spot – as well as more frequently-seen types like Auks and seagulls.

Experts in ornithology visiting Cullera from the UK say the Estany lake, the river Xúquer – also known as the river Júcar – the Bassa de Sant Llorenç rural stretch and the Albufera wetlands stretching from Valencia city to the coastal town of Xeraco some 55 kilometres south of the metropolis are also excellent places for birdwatching, given that over 350 species either live there or fly across these places en route south when migrating for winter.

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EIGHT classmates of the boy hospitalised in Barcelona with diphtheria are carriers of the disease, tests have recently confirmed.

All of them are safe and will not develop the potentially-fatal respiratory condition, because they have been vaccinated, but they are at risk of passing it on to anyone who has not been inoculated.

It is thought one of them could have passed the disease to the little boy in the Vall d'Hebron hospital - they would not have caught it from him, because of having been immunised, but the fact they are carriers means anyone who has not had the injection could easily catch it from them.

They are currently being treated with penicillin.

Regional health authorities have tested 57 children who have been in contact with the young patient, whose condition is described as 'serious but stable', and 49 of them were free of the virus.

The six-year-old who is in intensive care lives in Olot (Girona province) in the administrative district or county of Garrotxa, where an estimated 3% of the population has not been vaccinated against diphtheria.

He is being treated with drugs imported from France and Russia, since Spain has not seen a single case of diphtheria for 28 years, and nobody in Catalunya has been diagnosed for 32 years, meaning the medication is not held in stock in Spain.

Staff say the little boy did not respond to treatment until he had been in hospital for three days, but the drugs are now beginning to take effect - although his condition remains serious.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE newly-released Apple Watch - a SmartPhone for your wrist - is due to hit the shelves on Spanish high streets on Friday, June 26 with prices starting at €350.

So far, the iconic invention has been such a sell-out that the company founded by the late Steve Jobs has been unable to keep up with demand.

Senior vice-chairman of operations at Apple, Jeff Williams says the IT giant is 'making great progress' with its production in order to cover pending orders, and has thanked customers for their patience.

All orders placed in May - with the exception of the Apple Watch 42mm in 'space black' stainless steel with a chain strap will be sent to customers 'within two weeks', Williams assures.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WEEK of air-traffic control strikes starts today (Monday) in Spain and will continue every other day until Sunday, potentially affecting up to 5,300 flights daily to and from the country.

Staff will down tools for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening today, Wednesday (June 10), Friday (June 12) and Sunday (June 14), but in keeping with industry rules is obliged to ensure at least minimum services, meaning 70% of flights will be running normally.

Affected times are between 10.00hrs and noon, and from 18.00hrs to 20.00hrs.

Flights not due to take off or land between these hours may still be affected because of the knock-on effect of delays and cancellations.

The pickets have been called by the air-traffic controllers' union, USCA, over the State's decision to sanction 61 of these workers for having ignored the government's implementing a state of emergency in December 2010 and going ahead with a strike they had planned.

All those who joined in the 2010 strike will be suspended from their jobs for a month without pay.

When they threatened to down tools four-and-a-half years ago, the then socialist president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, called a state of emergency, a situation rarely seen except in times of armed conflict and in which all members of the public and authorities are required to follow the government's instructions.

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KING Felipe VI presided his first Armed Forces Day as reigning Monarch on Saturday, leading up a sombre half-hour march and demonstration in the centre of Madrid.

Troops in uniform converged on the Plaza de la Lealtad, where King Felipe and Queen Letizia placed a wreath in memory of all those who lost their lives serving their country in the forces.

The air force plane, the Patrulla Águila, flew above the crowds leaving a vapour trail in the colours of the Spanish flag.

Ministers for defence and the interior, Pedro Morenés and Jorge Fernández Díaz respectively, acting mayoress of Madrid Ana Botella, and the King and Queen stood at the front of the crowd for the national anthem.

King Felipe wore his General Captain uniform since, as reigning Monarch, he is automatically the highest-ranking member of Spain's Armed Forces.

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ELCHE Football Club has been relegated from La Liga's top flight, despite finishing a comfortable 13th, over 'unpaid taxes', and Basque club Eibar FC will be promoted in their place.

The Social Discipline Judge at Spain's Professional Football League (LFP) says the Alicante province-based team is a 'repeat offender' and will be fined €180,304 as well as losing its place in the prestigious national premier division.

"Given that this is a second offence, Elche CF having been fined last season as well as this season for very serious tax non-payment, the club will be relegated in accordance with the Law of Sports and the Liga Social Statutes," reads the verdict report.

According to the LFP, Elche CF has not negotiated deferring the payment or provided guarantees for the outstanding debt with the State tax collection body, the Agencia Estatal de la Administración Tributaria (AEAT).

Ending the season 13th in the standings would have been enough to keep Elche in the primera división for next year, whilst Eibar, who only made it into the top division in the 2014-2015 season for the first time, finished 18th and had been relegated to the second division.

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SIXTH-FORM students who pass their exams will get up to €600 off a new Seat car, and whoever gets the best marks in the whole of Spain will be given a Seat Ibiza to use for a whole year.

University entrance exams, or Selectividad have already started, and although the pass mark is 50%, students will need at least 55% to avoid having to pay their own college tuition fees and a minimum of 65% to get a grant towards living costs.

But Spanish motor manufacturer Seat is more generous than the ministry of education, and any student who gets 50% or more will be given a discount on a car.

Those who obtain up to and including 59% will be given €200 off, which rises to €300 for scholars who obtain 60% to 69%, to €400 for grades of 70% to 79%, €500 for a mark of 80% to 89%, and 90% or above will earn them €600 off.

The Selectividad student with the best marks in the country will be given the full use of a Seat Ibiza for a whole year, including €1,000 towards petrol.

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INDITEX founder Amancio Ortega's wealth continues to grow - he is now officially the second-richest man on earth after Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates, having leapfrogged US business mogul Warren Buffet.

Ortega's net assets have increased in value by 17%, reaching €63.5 billion (US$71.5bn), according to Bloomberg magazine.

The textile chain owner bought a 4,400-square-metre building in New York's SoHo district in January and plans to open another 480 shops this year, including three in the Big Apple.

Buffet's fortune, which has fallen slightly to €62.4bn (US$70.2bn), comes almost exclusively from his shares in the multi-national Berkshire Hathaway which was founded 50 years ago.

The company has lost about 5% of its value due to losses made in operations with American Express and Coca-Cola.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates remains untouchable, even by Ortega, with a fortune valued at €75.9bn (US$85.5bn).

Inditex, which started as a humble tailor's shop in Ourense, Galicia, set up by Ortega and his late wife Rosalía Mera, is the umbrella corporation of cut-price high-street clothing brand Zara, probably its best-known label.

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FIREFIGHTERS are working round the clock on huge infernos in every province of Catalunya and are fighting hard to keep the flames away from residential areas.

A wildfire in Esparreguera (Barcelona province) is sweeping towards an industrial estate, and a nearby school was evacuated yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

Also in the Barcelona province, this time in Sant Boi de Llobregat, four hydroplanes and nine fire engines are on site beating back flames spreading rapidly towards the Can Carreras urbanisation after being called out at around lunchtime yesterday.

Residential complexes are not said to be under threat by the blaze in Caldes de Malavella (Girona province) to the north of the province of Barcelona and inland from the Costa Brava - it started in the D'En Gimferrer forest close to the N-II highway at kilometre 698.5 at just after 14.00hrs, but by 18.15hrs emergency services reported that it was under control, albeit not out.

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THE month of May this year was the driest in 68 years with just 1.7cm (less than three-quarters of an inch) of rain, according to weather records.

Typically a rainy month - although mild and sunny on dry days in most parts of the country - May this year not only saw the hottest day for the time of year since 1869 but also the least amount of wet weather since 1947.

Normally, May would see an average of 61 litres of rain per square metre across Spain, which translates to 6.1 centimetres or two-and-a-half inches.

But an ongoing drought in the south, centre and coastal areas is gradually worsening with rainfall at its lowest since just after World War II.

The heaviest incident of rain was in the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela, in the far north-western region of Galicia on May 4 when downpours reached 40.1 litres per square metre - four centimetres or just under two inches, considered enough to cause damage to a well-maintained and correctly-constructed building.

Otherwise, rainfall in May was at less than 25% of its usual quantity.

Temperatures on May 13 to 15 rocketed, with May 15 being the hottest day in the east-coast region of the Comunidad Valenciana in 146 years - some inland towns saw the mercury rocket to 44.4ºC, whilst beachgoers basked in 37ºC in the shade.

Valencia city was sweltering in 42ºC on these three days, whilst temperatures in the Murcia region, near the inland town of Alcantarilla shot to 42.5ºC and in Lanzarote, to 42.6ºC

Córdoba and Sevilla, frequently among the hottest cities in the mainland, felt the thermometers rising to 41.2ºC and 40.8ºC respectively.

For the country as a whole, with its vastly-varying microclimates and weather ranging from 'typically British' to Saharan, the average temperature for May was 19.1ºC - overall, 2.4ºC higher than is normal for the fifth month of the year; 3.5ºC more in the daytime and 1.4ºC higher at night.

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A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy is in intensive care with diphtheria in Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron hospital - the first known case of the highly-contagious disease in Spain since 1987.

Medics say the child's parents, who live in Olot (Girona province) refused to give him his vaccinations as a baby for various serious and preventable diseases and distressing childhood illnesses.

This means authorities now have the difficult task of tracing everyone who may have been in contact with the young patient in the days leading up to his being admitted to hospital.

The little boy, who is Spanish, is on life support with assisted breathing and is said to be in a very serious condition.

Drugs have been brought over from France and Russia to treat him, since the absence of the respiratory disease in Spain since the 1980s means no medication has been held in stock.

The youngster's symptoms started on Monday, May 25, with headaches, fever and difficulty swallowing, but it was not until Friday, May 29 that tests were carried out, the results of which were not known until Saturday, May 30.

He is said to have been at a children's adventure camp with other boys and girls of his age the week before his symptoms appeared, and would also have been in contact during that time with older and younger pupils, from his own and different schools.

About 100 to 150 people, including family members, teachers, medical staff and children are thought to have been within close enough proximity to the boy to be at risk of contagion.

Epidemiologist Dr Antoni Trilla of Barcelona's Hospital Clínic says about one in 10 children and adults in Catalunya alone have not been properly vaccinated.

In some cases, this is because of health scares associated with inoculations at the time - such as the whooping cough jab in the late 1970s and early 1980s - and in others because the infant was allergic to the ingredients of the vaccination.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEW parents will soon no longer have to queue up at the Civil Registrar's office to obtain a birth certificate thanks to a forthcoming law which will allow them to do so in the hospital before the mother is discharged.

Until now, mums coping with a new baby and recovering from labour had to spend many hours queueing on the street to be able to register the birth - whilst in some towns they were able to get into the Registrar's office almost immediately, this still involved having to travel.

And in some towns, they had to start queueing at around 23.00hrs to be sure they would obtain one of just 30 or 40 tickets given out at 08.30hrs the next morning enabling them to be seen - an ordeal which had to be repeated several times in some cases.

But anyone due to give birth on or after October 15 can heave a sigh of relief, since they will be able to register their baby's birth before leaving hospital.

Births and deaths will be able to be registered online from hospitals or clinics, which have 72 hours to send the information through to the Registrar.

The healthcare staff will be legally responsible for identifying the baby and certifying his or her parentage.

This said, the new law text still does not provide for children born via a surrogate mother to be registered, even if the surrogacy took place in a country where this is legal, such as in the USA.

Where all-male couples want to have children of their own, the only way to do so is via a surrogate mother or 'rent-a-womb' scheme, which is legal in the United States but not in Spain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRICE wars have kicked off between petrol stations in Spain ahead of the summer, when the cost of fuel normally rises in light of increased traffic on the country's roads.

Service stations throughout Spain have begun to cut their prices in a bid to keep customers, given that they have lost 6% of their market since the start of the financial crisis.

With drivers keeping their eyes open for petrol stations offering the lowest costs, even a few cents will count and suppliers have started a crusade to reduce theirs as much as possible to attract the most trade.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Spain's Rafael Nadal will face Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals on Wednesday after both men made it through their fourth round matches today.

Nine-time champion Nadal beat in-form American Jack Sock 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to notch up his 70th win at Roland Garros, a tournament record. Nadal started in impressive form, but wobbled in the third set when serving for the match at 5-4. After successive breaks of serve which gave the third set to his opponent, he came back strongly in the fourth to take the match at the second time of asking.

In a much-awaited quarter-final match-up he will face top seed and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who defeated local favourite Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Nadal, who will celebrate his 29th birthday on Wednesday, has beaten Djokovic six times at the French Open, including in each of the last three years, but has only won one tournament since Paris last year, while Djokovic has won 26 successive matches since losing to Roger Federer in the final in Dubai in February.

The Spaniard is trying to become the first player to win 10 titles at any Grand Slam event in the Open Era, whilst the Serb is hoping to complete the career Grand Slam by winning the one major title that has so far eluded him.

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HOME sale prices fell by 0.11% in the first quarter of 2015 - but this is the lowest drop in value since the start of the financial crisis, when the bursting housing bubble led to property prices plummeting by an average of 30.4%.

This remains great news for anyone planning to invest in a home in Spain, since a reduction in the ongoing fall in values - calculated at 0.7% year-on-year - means long-term, all signs are pointing to bricks and mortar going up in price and providing a healthy return in years to come.

But as home values are still dropping slightly, it means now remains a good time to strike while the iron is hot and snap up one of the many bargains to be found in Spain.

Whilst the UK suffers from a housing shortage nearing crisis point, Spain is in the opposite situation with a glut of homes for sale, making it a buyer's market and meaning purchasers have considerable bargaining power.

And what was once an expensive luxury in 2007 has now become an excellent alternative to a pension fund - but unlike a traditional retirement plan, it is one that the investor can use for some memorable holidays in the meantime.

The average price of a property stands at €1,457.90 per square metre, but the variations are vast, with flats of two or even three bedrooms needing a bit of cosmetic renovation starting at as little as €20,000 in some parts of the country, and the most expensive areas in Spain involving prices of several million for a top-quality villa with 'smart' features to make life easier, central heating and air-conditioning, cinemas, gyms and indoor and outdoor heated pools.

In order to find out the average price per square metre, just under 92,600 valuations were carried out across the country, both mainland and islands.

And compared with the final three months of 2014, when property values fell by 0.36%, figures show that once inflation has been taken into account, prices have actually grown in the last year by 0.9%.

When inflation is borne in mind, properties have fallen in price on average by 36.3% since 2008, when the housing bubble had undeniably burst, although inflated values back then were partly due to banks and sellers over-pricing properties - future home values are likely to be more in line with reality and, in the long term, may rise to those of 2007 again or even more, but this will be a better gauge of what is affordable and what buyers are willing to pay.

Homes of less than five years old continue to hold their value better, with average prices of €1,723.80 per square metre, compared to older properties of €1,448.50 - but this is no indication of what will happen in the long term, since once the current excess of supply begins to dwindle, it is likely homes over five years old will also rise in value.

Seven of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions saw an increase in home prices year-on-year between the end of March 2014 and the end of March 2015.

These were, in many cases, the most popular holiday destination regions - the Canary Islands saw a value increase of 3.56%, way ahead of its nearest rival Aragón, one of Spain's most heavily-frequented skiing destinations, with a rise of 1.9%.

Properties in Madrid went up by 1.67% and the Comunidad Valenciana, which includes the attractive and dynamic city of Valencia, the tourist belts of the Costa Blanca and the relatively undiscovered coastal resort areas in the province of Castellón saw an overall increase of 0.69%.

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FRIENDS and family members of a British tourist missing in Benidorm have launched an urgent appeal to find him over 24 hours after he was last seen.

Chris Holland, from the Washington area of Tyne and Wear (UK) was out with a group of pals in the main square when they became separated, says his friend David back home in Britain.

They have not seen him since 22.00hrs on Friday (May 29) and he did not return to his hotel in the Costa Blanca tourist resort town at the end of the night.

Chris was not carrying his mobile phone, and may have been under the influence of alcohol or unable to remember the name or location of his hotel, friends believe.

Hospitals within a 30-kilometre radius and police stations have been checked.

The name of the hotel he was staying at has not been revealed, but a photo of Chris and details of when he was last spotted have been posted on Facebook groups including Benidorm Sin City, Sinatra's Sports Bar and Benidorm Seriously.

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A SWARM of over 30,000 bees which entered a parked car in the northern city of León forced Local Police to close an entire street for three hours yesterday (Saturday).

Pedestrians were diverted until gone 20.00hrs, and drivers were flagged down upon entering the central C/ Padre Adintero and warned to keep their windows closed.

The queen bee escaped from her hive and flew into a vehicle by the roadside at around 15.30, and the rest of the worker bees followed her, squeezing in through the bonnet.

They were not discovered until around 17.00hrs, when a 'green patrol' of the Local Police was sent out to deal with the swarm.

Officers called the bee-keeper, but he did not reach the scene for another two hours, during which the street was closed to walkers and car drivers advised to proceed with caution.

The bee-keeper, in full protective uniform and gloves, 'smoked' the creatures out of the car into a cardboard box with a honeycomb inside it.

It took at least an hour for him to remove them all and take them back to their hive.

This is the second incident in as many weeks in the northern region of Castilla y León involving escaped bees.

An 85-year-old man out for a walk near the village of Serradilla del Arroyo (Salamanca province) was attacked by over 700 bees on Sunday, May 17.

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