Live News From Spain As It Happens

A HUGE explosion at a fireworks factory in Garrapinillos (Zaragoza province) has left five people dead and another six injured, three of whom are in a critical condition.

Firefighters were called out at about 14.15hrs today (Monday) when a massive blast at the plant belonging to Pirotecnia Zaragozana sent workers flying through the air.

Emergency services spent the next couple of hours looking for employees believed to be missing, but now say they have accounted for everyone who was on site at the time.

Six people were taken to Zaragoza city's Miguel Servet hospital and the Hospital Clínico Universitario, two of whom only suffered minor wounds, but another two of whom are in intensive care.

The number of injured parties may rise, since several men and women on the premises at the time travelled to health centres in their own cars or were given lifts by those who were unhurt.

Columns of smoke and flames are still visible from nearly half a mile away.

Mayor of Garrapinillos, Luis Miguel Roda, says the factory was moved away from the residential part of the town some years ago 'for safety reasons', meaning nobody outside the plant at the time of the blast has been hurt.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HUGE forest fire which broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning has finally been put out today (Sunday) after wiping out 15 hectares of land.

The blaze flared up at around 05.15hrs in the Las Tablas area of Tarifa (Cádiz province) and took emergency services until 18.35hrs on Saturday to bring it under control.

It was spreading perilously close to the main N-340 inter-provincial highway between kilometres 85 and 87, firefighters revealed.

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TENSIONS are hotting up again between Gibraltar and Spain after a customs officer from the latter allegedly fired gunshots at a fishing boat off the rock and three bricks at it.

The two Gibraltarians on board, who are not professional fishermen but were out for a ride on their own craft, said they had been 'very scared' and even described how Spanish crew on the customs' boat tried to board their craft.

According to Gibraltar's chief minister Fabián Picardo, the latest in a string of 'Spanish violations of the British-Gibraltar sovereignty' involved a crew on the Águila IV ordering the fishing boat to pull up, before circling it repeatedly.

The Gibraltarian men 'took evasive action' to stop the customs officers getting onto their craft, Picardo says.

He then claims the Spaniards opened fire, aiming at the water near the British boat, and threw 'objects which may have been bricks' at its two occupants.

Gibraltar's authorities appeared on the scene and forced the Spanish craft to move out of the Rock's waters – defined by international law as being three miles off its coast.

Rock police said the two men in the craft had been doing nothing against the law, but that the Spaniards' actions had 'put innocent locals' lives at risk'.

Picardo says: “That's a criminal offence in Gibraltar.”

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VALENCIA'S messiest festival attracted tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world yesterday (Wednesday) for the largest-known food-fight in Europe.

The Tomatina, held in Buñol – about 40 kilometres west of Valencia city – on the last Wednesday in August every year sees its population of 20,000 double or treble as tourists from as far afield as the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, China and Japan join in hurling ripe tomatoes at each other until the streets are literally inches deep in juice and pulp.

Following a week's worth of street parade, fireworks, concerts and food stalls which make up Buñol's annual summer fiesta, the Tomatina kicks off at 11.00hrs when trucks carrying up to 1,200 tonnes of tomatoes unload their cargo onto the street.

A flare goes off to mark the start of the fruit battle, before which nobody is allowed to touch the tomatoes.

The next hour is a frenzy of salad-fighting, but strict rules apply – even though it does not appear that way to the outsider.

Tomatoes must be squashed before they are thrown, no other items may be hurled about, glass and bottles are not allowed in the fruit-throwing area, and no pushing, shoving or ripping at T-shirts is allowed.

Also, once the second flare goes off at noon, everyone must stop tomato-throwing immediately.

Bystanders are unlikely to escape being pelted with the odd squashed tomato, so anyone wanting to take photos should put their phone or camera in a clear plastic bag to protect it....

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BRITISH holidaymakers will be targeted by the provincial council of Castellón in a bid to boost foreign tourism in this hitherto undiscovered stretch of the Comunidad Valenciana's coastline.

Whilst the provinces of Alicante and, to a lesser extent, Valencia are already well-known to UK visitors and expatriates, the third province in the region, Castellón, still has a long way to go to catch up.

Yet its undeniable attractions are very similar to those of its southern neighbours, especially in terms of its idyllic beaches, numerous spa resorts and golf courses, plus vast, mountainous countryside, remote hideaways, Mediaeval castles and other historic monuments – and like the province of Valencia, Castellón still retains a very 'Spanish feel', in contrast to the southern half of Alicante where the northern European 'stamp' is far more obvious.

Also, like a large part of Valencia, being unknown to foreign holidaymakers means the province of Castellón remains relatively cheap in terms of hotels and other accommodation, and holiday home purchases.

To this end, the provincial council, or Diputación de Castellón, has decided to cash in on low-cost carrier Ryanair's decision to start running flights from Bristol and London Stansted to the as-yet barely-used airport of Castellón, by launching a major tourism campaign in the UK.

Tourism authorities are targeting London and Bristol first, because of the proposed air links, although in practice these flight routes will also open up Castellón's Costa del Azahar to East Anglia and the south-east, the West Country, south-west and south Wales as well as the two cities themselves.

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A DECOMPOSED body found in a Mallorca mountain range is confirmed as being the missing British walker Jacqueline Tennant, who vanished on October 9, 2007.

The 45-year-old had been out climbing in the Sierra de Tramuntana when she disappeared, and authorities have spent eight years searching for her.

But a mountaineer negotiating a rocky zone nearly impossible to reach by all bar the most experienced hikers with full equipment found human remains hidden in the undergrowth on Sunday, police have just revealed.

The missing woman's ID documents were said to be in a rucksack next to the body, discovered in an area which takes over an hour and a half to reach from the remote country lane linking Pollença and Lluc.

Guardia Civil mountain rescue specialists accompanied the climber who found the body so he could show them where she was.

She was taken to Palma de Mallorca's forensic anatomy institute for a post-mortem, but it was already a foregone conclusion that the remains were those of Jacqueline.

The Guardia Civil has been working closely alongside the British Consulate for the Balearic Islands.

Details of the tragic discovery have only just been released, since her family had to be contacted before it could be made public.

Jacqueline, of Jamaican origin but a British national, worked as a swimming instructor at Hotel Holiday Village Viva in Can Picafort.

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SPANISH troops will pull out of Afghanistan at the end of October after a constant 13-year presence in the conflict-ridden Asian country.

The 464 soldiers currently based at Herat, in the west of Afghanistan, will come home in two months' time, with only around 20 officials at the NATO base in Kabul remaining for the foreseeable future.

Spain is involved in the 'resolute support' mission in Afghanistan, aimed at strengthening the process of stabilising the country's political climate and providing back-up for Afghan security forces and emergency services.

Until the beginning of this year, Spanish soldiers were participating in the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission, but their role has mainly been that of re-establishing proper law and order and civil protection rather than front-line combat fighting in the last few years.

A day after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, the Atlantic Committee of NATO applied Article 5 of the Treaty of Washington for the first time in history: here, all signatory countries are required to respond where one of them has suffered an armed offensive.

At the same time, the United Nations called for the international community to provide urgent assistance to the Afghan population who were living under Taliban rule – an extremist régime in which women were not allowed to work or even show their faces at the window of their homes, and could be shot or stoned to death for showing an inch of flesh in public even by accident, or for going outside without being accompanied by a male relative.

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SPAIN'S cleanest hotels are found in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province), according to a recent online survey where guests were asked to rate their accommodation.

The north-eastern town gained a 90.4% score, according to a report by travel advice site Info Hotel, and accommodation in Córdoba, Andalucía were found to be the second-cleanest with a score of 88.9%.

Vigo, in the far north-western region of Galicia, was a close third with a score of 88.7% for the cleanliness of its hotels, followed by Málaga with 88%, A Coruña – also in Galicia – with 87.2%.

Outside the top five, hotels in Valladolid, in the centre-north region of Castilla y León and Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country were joint sixth with 86.6%, and in joint eighth, making up the rest of the top 10, were Murcia in the south-east, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz province) and Pamplona in the northern region of Navarra, with a score of 86.5%.

But those towns and cities where hotels were found to be the least clean did not in fact score badly at all.

Hotels in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria got the worst rating for cleanliness, followed by Palma de Mallorca and then Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but even then, only Las Palmas (78.8%) scored less than 80 – the other two were given 81% and 81.5% respectively.

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A PILOT who fainted at the controls of a light aircraft has died and his wife, who bravely tried to land the plane despite not knowing how to fly, is in hospital with multiple burns.

The craft took off in Trebujena (Cádiz province) heading for Coria del Río (Sevilla province) when the deceased passed out, and his wife, who was in the co-pilot's seat, called one of his friends on her mobile.

It was the friend who rang the emergency services instantly, just before 13.00hrs yesterday (Sunday), and they took up stations on the ground whilst air-traffic control attempted to trace the plane.

They located it above Brenes (Sevilla) and sent out a helicopter and another plane to assist whilst the pilot's wife was given instructions over the radio to help her carry out an emergency landing.

She had never flown before, except as a passenger, and does not have a pilot's licence.

Sevilla airport was shut for two hours from 13.20hrs, an unprecedented situation created by the emergency which led to four commercial flights bound for the Andalucía capital being redirected to Jerez de la Frontera airport (Cádiz province).

One of these was carrying the Villarreal FC team, heading for Sevilla to play their first League match of the season against Betis FC.

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A WOMAN has been fined €800 under Spain's new 'Public Safety Law' for posting a photo of a police patrol car illegally parked on Facebook.

She had caught the vehicle on camera in a disabled bay and uploaded it onto her site, captioned with “You can park wherever you [expletive] like and you won't even get fined.”

It took just two days for the Local Police in her home town of Petrer (Alicante province) to find her from her Facebook site and slap a fine notice on her under what has been dubbed the 'gagging law' due to its severe restrictions on public behaviour.

Using photographs of police officers in the course of duty which 'could endanger their or their families' safety' or interfere with their work is subject to fines ranging from €600 to €30,000, which is why the woman – who has not been named – had to pay up.

According to a Local Police spokesman, Fernando Portillo, the officer in question had left his patrol car in a disabled parking space because he and his colleague had been called out because of a 'vandalism incident' in a park close by.

They needed to leave their car as near as possible to the crime scene to enable them to catch the culprits in the act, said Portillo, and adds that police have the legal right to park wherever they need to in an emergency, even if this is not a legal space.

Despite the law only applying a fine if the photo taken, and its subsequent use 'puts the officer in danger', Portillo said this could rightly be inferred because the Facebook user in question had 'attacked the good name of' the force and the two policemen.

He said he 'would have liked to have seen a different outcome' to the situation, but that the officers in question 'are legally entitled to' issue a fine.

Insulting an authority figure on one's own Facebook or Twitter site can also carry financial penalties – a woman recently called the mayor of her town a 'brazen scoundrel' on Facebook and was fined for doing so.

Throwaway comments of varying severity wishing violence or death on unpopular politicians on Twitter and Facebook have also landed users in trouble with the police – including a 21-year-old man from the province of Valencia who praised the women who murdered the MP for the PP in León, Isabel Carrasco.

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BRITISH police on the beat in Spain's busiest resort towns is a scheme that is beginning to spread out across the country following its success in Magaluf (Mallorca) and Sant Antoni de Portmany (Ibiza) – UK officers' next stop is likely to be Benidorm (Alicante province).

And police from Spain will undergo a stint in Britain to widen their experience.

MP Juan Carlos Moragues says the aim in the Costa Blanca capital, on Spain's east coast, is for tourists to 'feel at home' and be able to relate better to officers, allowing them a greater sense of comfort and security by dealing with 'their own kind' and, naturally, with police who speak their language.

Britons make up the majority of foreign tourists in Benidorm, which is why police will be drafted in from the UK.

This is also true of Magaluf and Sant Antoni, but in addition to the 'comfort zone factor', in these Balearic Island resort areas, British police are also more likely to be taken seriously by youngsters enjoying their first taste of freedom and 'happy hours' abroad.

Whilst anti-social behaviour is far less rife in Magaluf and Sant Antoni this year thanks to a tightening of local bye-laws and stringent warnings by travel companies, incidences of drug-taking, sexual acts in public, and general riotous drunken displays are not history just yet, given how very cheap package deals and a proliferation of bars and nightclubs continue to attract holidaymakers in their late teens and early 20s in large groups of friends.

Moragues says he and the National Police in Spain are in talks with the British forces to get the scheme off the ground in Benidorm 'as soon as possible', and hopefully before next summer.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE milk price crisis is going global with livestock farmers in the northern region of Cantabria planning a march to Madrid on September 4 in protest over poor returns on their wares.

They want to see fair prices paid for milk by major supermarket chains – their main customers – and for all milk produced to be bought from them.

In the past 14 years, well over half of Cantabria's livestock farmers have shut up shop – back in 2001, a total of 3,800 were trading, but now, only 1,500 are left.

Only the very largest firms are likely to survive in the long term, dairy farm unions warn.

Their campaign will start tomorrow (Monday, August 24) with a demonstration outside the regional government's agricultural ministry and an open letter handed in to its leader, Jesús Oria, then on Wednesday (August 26) they will set up an information stand at the cattle market in Torrelavega.

Friday, August 28 will see thousands of farmers and farm workers start the first leg of their march, with coach-loads travelling to Valladolid – about 200 kilometres north-west of Madrid in the neighbouring region of Castilla y León.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

REGIONAL authorities in Extremadura say they do not intend to apply the so-called 'Mountains Law' which allows fire-damaged land to be reclassified for building on immediately, lifting the 30-year ban which has been in place since 2006.

Santos Jorna, head of environmental and agricultural affairs in the land-locked western region, is one of many Spaniards who believe the law change will open the door to unscrupulous developers causing forest fires deliberately, and will not permit building in any areas reduced to ashes for 30 years after the blaze broke out.

Residents in Extremadura are particularly wary of the new legislation after a massive inferno destroyed the Sierra de Gata mountain range just north of the city of Cáceres, leading to over 7,500 hectares of countryside being wiped out and thousands of local dwellers evacuated from their homes.

One of these residents has started a petition on Change.org, which has netted around 200,000 signatures.

Jorna has met with environmental groups such as Ecologists in Action and stressed that he intends to defy the national government and refuse to allow reclassification applications from potential builders.

“Not one square metre of land anywhere in the region of Extremadura will be built upon if it has suffered a forest fire in the last 30 years,” Jorna stipulated.

Greenpeace has differed from Ecologists in Action in its views on the 'Mountains Law', saying most forest fires are caused by negligence or mindless arsonists with nothing to gain from their actions besides the thrill of pointless destruction, and that it does not envisage an increase in forest fires caused by would-be developers.

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PRESIDENT of Valencia's regional Parliament Enric Morera's daughter has been arrested for possession of MDMA (amphetamines) at the Rototom Sunsplash Festival in Benicàssim (Castellón province), allegedly with the intention of dealing.

She is reported to have been carrying seven grams of ecstasy, each in separate bags, and a nugget of cannabis when she was caught driving her car with four passengers.

Police pulled her up during a routine check at the entrance to the festival and she handed over the substances, which she had hidden in her bra.

Her age is not known, but she is said to be an adult and is thought to be aged between 18 and 21.

The young woman was reportedly going to hand the drugs to a friend who would be selling them for €50 a dose.

Morera (pictured) told reporters he was 'very concerned' by the incident, and stressed he was 'totally against' drug use.

“My daughter and her friends have made a big mistake,” he stressed.

“Consuming these substances is not a positive practice of youth, and my daughter and her companions will have to face up to their responsibilities personally in this matter.”

But he insisted that his 'private and public life' should be 'kept separate' in the media, not wishing to be judged on his Parliamentary leadership skills based upon an offence committed by an immediate family member outside of his work.

“Private family life should be respected,” Morera concluded.

His Twitter entry for the day read: “Our children give us much happiness and, at times, upset us, too. This is a moment of family crisis, and I appreciate the support and respect we have received.”

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Spain has seen unprecedented tourism figures again in July, consolidating a record year for the industry.

37.9 million foreign tourists had come to Spanish shores by the end of last month, a 4.7% increase on the same period last year.

According to the latest figures released by Frontur via the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the first seven months of the year have beaten all previous records, and the forecast for the rest of 2015 suggests that a new annual tourism record will be set.

2014 was also a record year with 36.2 million tourists from January to July, way above the 2013 record of 33.9 million.

The month of July itself was also a record breaker, with 8.8 million foreign tourists heading to Spain - the best July figures on record and a 6.3% increase on the 8.2 million that came to the country in July 2014.

These figures reinforce the recent forecast made by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Borrego, that Spain would welcome 65 million foreign tourists this year.

The British are once again top of the tourist list, with 8.7 million coming to Spain between January and July, 3.5% more than in 2014; they are followed by the French with 6 million (7.8% more), and Germany with 5.8 million (1.3% up). These three countries continue to account for 54.5% of all the foreign visitors to Spain, followed by the nordic countries with 2.9 million visitors (down 4.6% on last year); Italy with 2 million (+7.3 %); and the Netherlands with 1.6 million (+4.1 %).

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Treasure hunters off the coast of Florida have found a trove of Spanish gold coins dating back to the 18th century and worth some 4.5 million dollars (over 4 million euros).

"More than 350 gold coins, including nine Reales, were recovered from the seabed between July 30th and 31st. This incredible discovery coincides exactly with the 300th anniversary" of when the Spanish fleet went down in July 1715, said 1715 Fleet - Queens Jewels LLC on their Facebook page.

The discovery is particularly valuable because of nine Reales, a very rare coin minted on the orders of King Philip V of Spain, each of them worth in the region of 300,000 dollars, said the president of 1715 Fleet - Queens Jewels LLC, Brent Brisben.

"These Reales are perfect examples of the minting of the era and were produced by royal order of the King of Spain", said Brisben.

The coins are part of haul of treasure being carried in a fleet of eleven ships which went down in a hurricane off Florida when sailing from Cuba to Spain and were found buried in the sand in just a metre of water.

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SINGER and TV presenter Cilla Black, who died at her Estepona villa last month, was mourned today by thousands of fans, friends and family as her funeral was held at the Liverpool church where she and late husband Bobby Willis had their wedding blessing in 1969.

Sir Cliff Richard was due to sing a tribute to her, whilst Sir Tom Jones is reputed to have flown from Bratislava (Slovakia) in a hired private jet to get there.

Paul O’Grady, alias Lily Savage, performed and dedications and prayers were read by Cilla’s close friends, including comic Jimmy Tarbuck who admitted to reporters that he has been ‘choked up’ by the Blind Date presenter’s sudden demise.

Tarbuck said his close friend had ‘gone a bit too early’ and that he had ‘had a bad couple of weeks’ since he found out.

“Seventy-two is no age,” he stated.

Surviving Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney are said to have been due to attend, and the Fab Four’s hit, The long and winding road was played at the end of the service.

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A CAMPAIGN to help Spanish chef José Andrés fight the €9 million compensation demanded by US Republican candidate Donald Trump has been launched.

Andrés, originally from Asturias but recently converted into a United States national after living and working there for 20 years, broke off a deal to run the élite restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC in light of the property tycoon's racist comments against Latin American migrants in the US, in particular Mexicans.

Trump claimed immigrants heading north over the border were 'bringing drugs, crime and rapists' – even though his bespoke clothing line bears labels saying 'made in México'.

He said the government should 'build a huge wall' between México and the USA, and wants to immediately deport all 11 million non-documented migrants in the States – many of whom have lived there for over a decade.

José Andrés, a celebrated chef who owns upmarket restaurant chains in his adopted country, said he was 'proud to be a Spanish immigrant' and pointed out that the 'vast majority' of his staff and customers were of Latin American origin.

As a result of his pulling out of the contract, Donald Trump is suing Andrés for damages to the tune of US$10m (about €9m).

An online campaign set up by a Mexican ambassador titled, 'help chef José Andrés with Trump's claim', has gone live on a corporate donation site, Indiegogo.com.

Diplomat Jorge Guajardo, currently based in China, has so far raised €6,268 in just two weeks.

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BRITISH police officers Martina Anderson and Brett Williams from the West Midlands have completed a two-week stint on the beat in Magaluf (Mallorca) and are now based in San Antonio (Ibiza). They have just dealt with their first major incident involving a British man and woman aged 26 and 30 who were on holiday in the area and seen apparently fighting on the Paseo S’Arenal last night (Wednesday). Bystanders had called the Guardia Civil when they saw the woman being attacked by her partner. Williams and Anderson attended to the woman and the Guardia Civil arrested the man, but the victim did not wish to press charges. The British officers are mainly patrolling the West End area of San Antonio and the nightclub and bar area of the popular beach, the Platja d’En Bossa, in Sant Josep. These are the parts of Ibiza where the highest concentration of British tourists are found. Anderson and Williams have been brought to the Balearic Islands for the summer as part of a pilot scheme involving police of the same nationality as the majority of holidaymakers being deployed as back-up. 

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A SET of 'bionic legs' allowing paralysed children to walk again has been invented in Spain and given youngsters a new lease of life.
Daniela, 12, from Madrid, was left tetraplegic in a car accident when she was a baby, but has now just walked for the first time thanks to the pioneering Atlas 2020.
The 'robot legs' are referred to as an 'exo-skeleton', and are effectively frames that encase the child's own legs.
They are powered by several small engines which 'walk' on the child's behalf.
Dr Elena García, an industrial engineer at Spain's national science institute – the CSIC – had been working on prototypes to prevent injuries to industrial workers whose jobs involved lifting heavy weights.
Her research involved developing machines which helped control workers' balance in movement over obstacles and uneven ground.
But when Dr García met Daniela and her parents Carmen and Pablo, she changed the course of her research and came up with a bionic exo-skeleton which allowed the youngster to stand.
Elena was contacted by a flood of medics wanting to find out how they could get their hands on one of her inventions, saying it would not only improve quality of life for the approximately 120,000 children in Spain with serious mobility difficulties, but would also extend their life expectancy as they would be less at risk of health problems which come with not moving, such as thrombosis and poor circulation.

She set up the company Marsi Bionics, and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to amass the €150,000 she needs to get started.
A further €1 million from investors will allow her to mass-produce the Atlas 2020 and get paralysed children walking again.

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A CONSUMER association has warned mobile phone users to check with their operators about costs of calls, texts and internet if they plan to go abroad, especially outside the European Union.

IRACHE, based in the northern region of Navarra, says customers should obtain information about prices in writing on headed paper or via email from the company before going away.

This summer alone, the consumer group has already received 'dozens' of complaints from mobile phone users after the shock of seeing their post-holiday bills.

On one occasion, a customer got a bill for €20,000 for the month.

IRACHE stresses that in all EU member States, a 'default' tariff is set, which may not exceed 19 cents a minute for making or five cents for receiving calls, six cents for sending text messages and 20 cents for each megabyte of internet data downloaded.

This is the maximum that can be charged when a customer of an EU country travels to another one of the 28, but does not preclude local operators charging a fortune when consumers travel outside the Union.

And 'not all phone companies' respect the maximum tariff, IRACHE reveals.

Although the European Parliament agreed to scrap roaming tariffs for mobiles by the end of this year, mass pressure from phone operators means they will not now be axed until June 2017, according to the consumer group.

Elsewhere in the world, mobile bills can reach as much as €50 or €100 a day just for having the phone in internet mode, even if the customer does not use it.

And the Navarra association says one of its members took out a mobile phone package which allowed her to make affordable calls from abroad via her existing operator, and two weeks after her four-day visit to Andorra, she began to receive text messages from her provider warning that she had exceeded her data limit.

This was followed by a bill for €20,000.

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A PETITION to scrap a law reform which allows forest fire-damaged land to be reclassified for development has netted 155,000 signatures.

It was set up on the campaign site Change.org after an inferno devastated the Sierra de Gata mountain range in Acebo, north of Cáceres in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, having been burning for over four days after it started on August 5 and led to 3,000 residents being evacuated.*

Last month, Spain's government amended legislation which has been in place for nine years and which established a ban on reclassifying fire-damaged land enabling it to be built upon for 30 years after the blaze.

It can now be legally developed immediately, as long as the promoter of any building work can justify the plans being 'in the public interest', which in practice, is not difficult whatever type of construction is in the pipeline.

Extremadura resident Francisco Ortiz, who set up the petition – found on Change.org by searching Stop ley piromanos ('stop arsonist law'), is among hundreds of thousands of members of the public in Spain who fear the legislation change will encourage unscrupulous development firms to set fire to 'green belt' or 'rustic' land, buy it at a rock-bottom price, apply for it to be reclassified and then construct a residential complex, hotel or golf course on it.

This is said to have happened on a number of occasions pre-2006 when the 30-year ban came into force.

Ecologists in Action, a 'green' pressure group, fears the risk of this recurring is high.

And Francisco, who lives just 60 kilometres from the Sierra de Gata, says he has many friends and acquaintances who were directly affected by the fire, including farmers who lost livestock and crops when the blaze wiped out 7,800 hectares.

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A VILLAGE in La Rioja woke up one morning this week to find its 18 rubbish and recycling banks painted in abstract colours, shapes and pictures by an anonymous overnight artist.

Photos of the bins have gone viral since then and, although the regional refuse collection board wants to replace them and fine whoever did it, residents want them left as they are.

The mayor of Badarán, a hamlet of just 600 inhabitants some 35 kilometres from the region's capital city Logroño, is on their side.

Francisco Javier Ibáñez says residents gathered on the streets to physically prevent regional authorities from removing the bins, and have started printing and hanging banners to ensure they stay put.

The refuse collection consortium is adhering rigidly to the legal principle of 'wilful damage to public property' and says the author should be fined and forced to pay the cost of putting said property back into its original state, but Badarán's people say this is a 'jobsworth' attitude and that the painted rubbish banks have put their town on the map.

Until Tuesday, few people had heard of Badarán, but now the whole of Spain knows where it is and people from far and wide are beginning to pay it a visit.

Although the artist has not given his or her name, speculation is rife, because 'something like this requires planning', says Ibáñez.

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THE five Spanish beaches where single tourists are most likely to find love have been named following a survey by online dating site Meetic.

Despite its cooler temperature than those in traditional tourism resort areas of Spain, the Orzán beach in Galician city of A Coruña comes out top, with three in 10 sunseekers surfing matchmaking sites for contacts in the area.

La Carihuela beach in Málaga city shows 23% of singletons search for their future other halves on the Costa del Sol.

Back up north, the Costa Brava is popular with 16% of 'sole traders', who voted for the beach in Aro as their favourite in the hunt for romance.

Joint fourth and fifth is Spain's most expensive beach, the Platja d'En Bossa in Ibiza, and the foreign tourist magnet of the Playa del Inglés in Gran Canaria, top picks for 11% of date-seekers.

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THE BODIES of two young women who went missing in the province of Cuenca a week ago have been found near a river, and the ex-boyfriend of one of them remains untraceable.

Marina Okarynska, 24, originally from Ukraine, had gone to her former partner Sergio Morante Garcés' house in the hamlet of Chillarón on Wednesday to collect her personal belongings, accompanied by her friend Laura del Hoyo Chamón, 26.

The car belonging to one of the women – it has not been confirmed which – was found near the remote country home hours later, but there was no sign of the girls themselves, or Marina's ex-boyfriend.

Police from several provinces brought in sniffer-dogs and combed the family estate yesterday (Wednesday), including searching several wells.

A number of Sergio's immediate family members were taken in for questioning at abount 16.30hrs.

Hours later, a local resident found the women's bodies lying face-down on the banks of the river Huécar, three kilometres from the village of Palomera.

They were half-buried and coated with limestone dust, as well as showing signs of burns, hinting that their murderer had intended to destroy the evidence by setting fire to the bodies.

A post-mortem will be carried out today to find out how they died.

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ANIMALS at Benidorm's Terra Natura safari park are being given ice lollies every day to combat the heat.

Over 50 kilos of in-season fruit are used every month and ices are tailored to different species of animal.

Watermelon, honeydew melon and plums are the most likely to be found at present, although they are blended with others easy to find fresh, together with a mix of juice and seeds, and then turned into ice poles, 'kebabs' or, in the case of very large animals such as rhinos and elephants, huge blocks.

For carnivorous animals like lions and tigers, ice is mixed with chicken and fish.

Practically every species gets to try them at least every other day.

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ANOTHER tourist has died in a bungee-jumping accident – this time in Cantabria.

The Dutch woman, 17, reportedly misunderstood her instructor when he ordered her not to jump, and leapt 32 metres off the Cedeja viaduct - part of the A-8 motorway - in Virgen de la Peña, hitting the dry riverbed below.

She was part of a group of 13 Dutch and Belgian teens on a surfing and adventure camping holiday in the northern region, which backs onto the Atlantic coast of Spain, and was looking forward to bungee-jumping for the first time.

The young victim was the last but one to jump, and as she waited her turn, one of the five instructors shouted to her in broken English, “No jump! Is important! No jump!”

But the teenager thought she heard him say, “Now jump,” and did so.

At the time, she only had one of the cords attached to her harness, and was not yet tied to the anchors on the bridge.

The tragedy happened at around 20.30hrs on Monday evening, just as daylight was running out.

Despite several camps in the area including bungee-jumping off the viaduct in question in their programme, Local Police officers and the council in the village of Cabezón de la Sal – which the bridge belongs to – say they have never been aware this activity was taking place, saying it was a 'very risky' location.

The camps use a platform some eight metres below the bridge itself, which is of 'very poor visibility', according to local authorities.

Given that the A-8 is officially the property of the central government's public works, transport and infrastructure ministry, any adventure holiday leaders who want to carry out bungee-jumping off the bridge are expected to seek a licence from Madrid, as well as a permit from Cabezón de la Sal town council.

Mayoress Isabel Fernández said the camp had neither, and did not have a permit for any other of its adventure sports activities.

The Belgian company FlowTrack has been sending Dutch and Belgian teens to the camp and subcontracting the excursion programme out to the same firm for over five years.

Organisers say the deceased was one of 150 youngsters from the two countries who had travelled over with FlowTrack and were staying at a holiday park alongside the Oyambre beach, and that the site was closed off to the public to prevent strangers getting near the kids.

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An extra-time goal from Barcelona susbtitute Pedro once again handed the UEFA Super Cup to the Catalan side last night, giving them a record-equalling fifth title.

They came back from a goal down to beat Europa League winners Sevilla in a thrilling nine-goal contest in Tbilisi.

Ever Banega gave Sevilla an early lead, finding the back of the Barça net after just three minutes, but Lionel Messi was quick to respond, scoring from two majestic free kicks to put Barça into the lead with just 15 minutes gone. Rafinha and Luis Suárez both scored to put Barça firmly in control.

But having coasted into a 4-1 lead Barça's normally solid defence suddenly sprung leaks and they conceded three times in 24 minutes. Goals from José Antonio Reyes, Kevin Gameiro (penalty) and Yevhen Konoplyanka forced extra time for the two Spanish sides.

Once again it was Pedro, who is rumoured to be moving to Manchester United, who came to the rescue, scoring the winner in the 115th minute, just as he did in the 2009 Super Cup final in Monaco.

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OFFICERS Anderson and Williams from the West Midlands police force are on the beat in Magaluf as part of a scheme to stop tourists behaving badly.

British and German police have been deployed in the resort area of Calvià, Mallorca to keep their 'own' holidaymakers in order, on the assumption that young and out-of-control revellers will respond more readily to officers of their own nationality and feel less 'above the law' if they think they will have to face trouble once they get back home from their trip.

A male and female officer in British police uniform have been patrolling Magaluf beach and the Punta de Ballena strip, popular with nightclubbers.

Police from Germany, France and Italy – nine officers in total – will be stationed in the main resort areas of the Balearic Islands all summer, including Palma beach, a regular haunt for young German partygoers, and the club districts of Ibiza.

Anderson and Williams will spend next week in Sant Antoni de Portmany, one of Ibiza's most heavily-frequented nightlife areas.

The German Polizei, the French Gendarmerie and Italy's answer to the Guardia Civil, the Carabinieri have been in the Balearics since July 1 and will stay until August 30, although the two British officers have only just joined the team.

Magaluf hit the front pages of British tabloids last summer with graphic pictures of young travellers engaging in public sex acts, falling down drunk, taking drugs and other anti-social actions, causing an outcry from residents and authorities who are sick of seeing their beautiful island portrayed as a den of alcohol-fuelled iniquity.

Most of the guilty parties in Magaluf tend to be British youngsters aged between 16 and approximately 23, usually in groups of friends and sometimes on their first-ever foreign holiday without their parents.

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