Live News From Spain As It Happens

NOW Spain has a government at last, it will have to get cracking if it is to meet its target of re-settling 18,000 refugees by September 2017.

So far, only 687 of them – mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – have arrived in Spain from camps in Greece and Italy.

Spain made a commitment in 2015 to take its quota in a bid to relieve the massive humanitarian crisis affecting Europe as hundreds of thousands flee countries destroyed by armed conflict, risking their lives to reach the safety of the continent.

Initially, the EU set up a re-housing programme involving 160,000 asylum seekers being given shelter throughout the 28 member States, most of whom were already living in appalling conditions in camps in Italy and Greece, then this number was increased by 22,000 to help ease the burden for Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, where the bulk of the African and Middle Eastern refugees are based.

In fact, a recent study shows Jordan is home to more refugees than anywhere else in the world, with nearly 50% of its population being asylum seekers.

Although critical at first with the EU's requests, claiming the European Commission had not taken into account the circumstances of individual member States such as poverty or existing percentage of immigrants, Marian Rajoy (PP)'s cabinet agreed to house 18,000 refugees, of whom 1,400 would come from camps in the countries bordering their native lands and the rest from camps already on EU soil.

Up to the end of September this year, according to interior ministry figures, Spain had welcomed 398 refugees – 50 from Italy and 348 from Greece – and this month, its leader Jorge Fernández Díaz said another 400 from Greece and 100 from Italy would be on their way, meaning a total of 900 by the end of 2016.

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SPAIN'S new government re-forms today (Monday) after avoiding a third general election in the nick of time which could have seen the country creep closer to Belgium's record of 541 days without a leader – but polls showed Spanish people were far less bothered about it than their northern neighbour was, and that the country was far less affected in policy terms.

Now Mariano Rajoy (PP) is back in power, albeit in a minority and against the better judgment even of those outside his party who abstained to let him through, Spain's legal limbo is about to draw to a close and crucial aspects such as economic and foreign policy can once again be dealt with, including signing off the 2017 State budget.

These have been sitting on the shelf for 318 days, but a survey has shown that only 11.6% of Spaniards were concerned about not having a government.

Yet between Belgium's Parliament dissolving on June 13, 2010 and re-forming on December 6, 2011, the negative impact on the economy was palpable: its credit rating was slashed and the cost of obtaining credit went through the roof.

This led to mass protests in Belgium and even plans by the wives of male politicians to withhold sex from their husbands, a near-identical form of coercion to that written 2,500 years ago by Greek comedy playwright Aristophanes, in his famous work Lysistrata.

But the only protests seen in Spain were on the very day the president was invested, on Saturday evening when the PSOE's abstention allowed Rajoy back into government for another four-year term.

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MARIANO Rajoy (PP) has successfully got through his sixth round of voting this year to become president of Spain for another term, governing in a minority with 137 seats out of 350.

As before, the PP itself voted in favour – 134 members of the party plus three others from UPN-Navarra and the Asturian Forum, who stood in coalition with the right-wing party in the last general election – plus Ciudadanos, another 32, and the sole MP for the Canarian Coalition.

Voting against were 67 members of Unidos Podemos and 15 from the non-affiliated group who had been part of other parties before the elections such as the socialists and Unidos Podemos.

The non-affiliated group included Valencian party Compromís (four in total), two from the Basque party EH-Bildu, one from Nueva Canarias and eight from the Catalunya-based party PDECat.

Also voting against were nine members of the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), the five members of the Basque National Party, PNV – and 15 socialists.

The other 68 socialists duly abstained as instructed by their Federal Committee, although two of these – Murcia's María González Veracruz and Asturias' Adriana Lastra – did so under protest, using the formula 'abstain by imperative', so as not to suffer the consequences of 'disobeying' their party.

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SPAIN is number one in the world for its acceptance of and equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people and relationships, and that of transsexuals – it's official.

According to a world map created by InformationIsBeautiful.net, 'every country is number one in something', and Spain's world record confirms what has long been suspected: that it is the safest and least-stressful place to be homosexual, or to be transsexual.

Safer and less stressful for homosexuals than the former Soviet nation of Georgia, that is, which is number one in the world for the highest number of homophobes, according to the map.

Anyone who thought Spain might hold the record for coffee-consumers or alcohol-drinkers was incorrect: The Netherlands is most addicted to hot caffeine-filled beverages, whilst France drinks the most whisky and Belarus has the most consumers of alcohol.

Spain's global fame for its excellent health service, including high numbers of transplants, or its fabulous food does not quite reach number one in the world, surprisingly.

Israel is top for medical research, Cuba for the highest numbers of doctors and Croatia for the most kidney transplants, whilst Japan is top in haute cuisine, Iran for caviar production, and Greece for the most cheese-eaters.

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SPAIN'S oldest woman and the second-oldest in Europe turns 115 today (Saturday), but 'does not look it', according to staff at the Barcelona nursing home where she lives.

Ana Vela Rubio is not up to having a party, but will probably see her only surviving daughter, who is 89 and lives nearby, albeit her own health is somewhat precarious.

Normally, Ana's daughter would give a statement to the press every year on her mum's birthday, but this year she does not feel up to it.

Ana herself has never, not since she was born on October 29, 1901, been ill – not even the common cold, says David González, director of the La Verneda home for the elderly in Barcelona, which has around 80 permanent residents, 30 who attend daily and another 1,200 who have warden-assisted apartments on the complex.

A seamstress who left school at around the age of 11, Ana Vela was born in Puente Genil (Córdoba province) and moved to Catalunya in the 1940s.

Here, she started working as a seamstress in a tuberculosis hospital in Terrassa (Barcelona province).

Aged 104, she started going to the La Vereda home on a day-centre basis, but still lived in her own home.

She was 109 when she moved into the nursing home, which said it would celebrate today with a 'close-knit' and 'private' ceremony among staff, but says Ana Vela can no longer walk and has lost her cognitive faculties.

Despite this, she is not bed-ridden, but the carers get her up every day at 10.00 and put her in her wheelchair.

She eats liquidised food, as many of the other residents do, but 'eats very well', says González.

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MARIANO Rajoy (PP) has successfully got through his sixth round of voting this year to become president of Spain for another term, governing in a minority with 137 seats out of 350.

As before, the PP itself voted in favour – 134 members of the party plus three others from UPN-Navarra and the Asturian Forum, who stood in coalition with the right-wing party in the last general election – plus Ciudadanos, another 32, and the sole MP for the Canarian Coalition.

Voting against were 67 members of Unidos Podemos and 15 from the non-affiliated group who had been part of other parties before the elections such as the socialists and Unidos Podemos.

The non-affiliated group included Valencian party Compromís (four in total), two from the Basque party EH-Bildu, one from Nueva Canarias and eight from the Catalunya-based party PDECat.

Also voting against were nine members of the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), the five members of the Basque National Party, PNV – and 15 socialists.

The other 68 socialists duly abstained as instructed by their Federal Committee, although two of these – Murcia's María González Veracruz and Asturias' Adriana Lastra – did so under protest, using the formula 'abstain by imperative', so as not to suffer the consequences of 'disobeying' their party.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWENTY-FIVE cities in Spain have pledged to be 'tax haven-free' in line with an Intermón Oxfam campaign.

This means they will scrupulously monitor the source and destination of all money handled by the council and exchanged through companies working as suppliers for them or who are awarded one-off or ongoing public works contracts.

They will only work with firms which can show they do not 'hide' their funds in tax havens – such as banks in Bermuda, Uruguay, Belice, Switzerland and other countries famously used to launder cash – in order to avoid paying their duties in Spain.

Suppliers and contractors, among other non-employees, working for town, city and provincial councils and regional governments account for 25% of Spain's GDP, meaning the tax paid on these transactions runs into billions.

Estimates show that if all money-launderers and tax-avoiders in Spain accounted for every euro they earnt and paid the required duties on it in the country, the national debt could be wiped out within months.

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SPANISH surrealist artist Salvador Dalí's famous lobster telephone is up for auction with a starting bid price of €280,000, along with a number of other items includingthe artist's 'Mae West lips sofa' modelled on the American actress.

The Edward James Foundation, which continues the legacy of the British poet of the same name, is one of the trustees of Dalí's assets and works of art, which Edward James owned.

One of these is the marble sculpture titled the White Aphrodisiac Telephone, better known as the 'lobster telephone', which has gone under the hammer at Christie's in London for a quarter of a million pounds (currently around €280,000).

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A NATIVE English-speaking youth has woken from a coma fluent in Spanish, but struggling to express himself in his mother tongue.

Reuben Nsemoh, 16, suffered a brain trauma whilst playing soccer (football) in his home city of Atlanta, State of Georgia, USA, following a kick in the head.

This left him in a coma, although it has not been confirmed how long he was unconscious and fighting for his life.

And a report released on CNN yesterday (Tuesday) reveals Reuben awoke speaking fluent Spanish.

Although he had a very basic elementary knowledge of the language, his parents said he was barely able to string a sentence together in Spanish before he suffered a blow to the head.

This extremely rare condition is known as 'Foreign Accent Syndrome', and occurs after damage to the brain changes the way in which the patient speaks.

Sometimes this means they speak the same language but with a very different accent, but other times has even seen them wake up speaking another tongue altogether.

Anecdotal evidence cites at least one stroke patient in the UK who communicated in fluent French after the crisis was over, despite knowing nothing of the language beforehand.

Dr Karen Croot, one of the very few specialists in 'Foreign Accent Syndrome' in the world, says it is caused by 'damage to the motor control' in the brain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN ATTEMPT by the Balearic Islands to enjoy more daylight in winter has been dismissed by Spain's central government – turning the clocks back one hour on the last Sunday in October is a legal requirement in the European Union, and the cluster of four Mediterranean islands cannot exempt themselves with a regional Parliament motion.

The Balearic government filed a formal request with Madrid this week to stay on CEST (central European summertime) even after the rest of the continent puts its clocks back and resigns itself to the gloom of dark winter evenings.

According to regional politicians, it is 'logical' for the Balearics to be an hour ahead of the mainland, given that the sun rises first and sets last of everywhere in Spain.

In fact, during forest fires in the eastern half of the mainland, hydroplanes are often drafted in from the Balearics because they are able to fly earlier as daylight comes quicker – those nearer the site of the fire cannot take off until sunrise, by which time Balearic planes and helicopters are already there.

Also, the difference in sunrise and sunset times between the Balearics and the far north-western mainland region of Galicia is around an hour at any time of the year – Galician employees who leave for work at around 07.00 in September or October do so in the dark, whilst those in the Balearics setting off at the same time commute in daylight; and Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera are still enjoying the evening sunshine whilst Galicia has drawn its curtains and switched its lights on.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ACTING president Mariano Rajoy (PP) has been formally nominated by King Felipe VI to form a government for the second time since the second general elections of the last 12 months – and with the PSOE's administration committee having voted to abstain in the presidential investiture, it looks as though the current leader could start his second term of office this weekend.

For the first time in Spain's democratic history, the general elections on December 20 last year left the country with a totally fragmented result meaning no single party was anywhere close to the majority needed to govern.

The outcome of the second election on June 26 was very similar, although with a few extra seats for the PP and fewer for the left-wing PSOE and centre-right Ciudadanos.

PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez resigned as pressure mounted internally for him to agree to back Rajoy in the in-house presidential election, and the party's Federal Committee voted 139 in favour of a 'no' in round one and abstention in round two so as to give Spain a government.

Another 96 voted against the motion, and two others did not vote at all.

Rajoy says the PSOE's decision is 'reasonable and responsible' and that the hung electoral results of December and June meant 'pro-Constitutional parties' had the 'duty to compromise'.

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THREATS on WhatsApp and Facebook directed at missing sixth-former Diana Quer by her ex-boyfriend are under investigation two months after the 18-year-old disappeared walking back to the family holiday home in A Pobra do Caramiñal (A Coruña, Galicia).

The youth in question has deleted the messages, which included a picture of a meat-cleaver, but police are still able to trace them.

At the same time, investigators are attempting to find out why the young woman's Facebook page shows as having been accessed at least twice in the last few days.

It had not been logged into since Diana went missing in the early hours of August 22 whilst walking home from the village fiestas in A Pobra, but suddenly showed her as having been online on October 16 and then again earlier this week.

The explanation could be that one of her family members, either at her mother's or father's homes in the wealthy Madrid commuter town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, may have used a computer where Diana's log-in details came up automatically.

But police have not confirmed either way, as they did very quickly when it was reported Diana had logged in to WhatsApp in the weeks after her disappearance.

On that occasion, she was showing as having been online because police had commissioned a duplicate of her SIM card to try to trace her last-known movements.

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OWNERS of a scrapyard which has suffered seven burglaries have left a loose bull on the premises as a last resort – and say it seems to be working.

Those concerned about what would happen to bulls bred for fighting if animal protection campaigners succeed in the bloodthirsty spectacle being condemned to the history books will note that these powerful horned ruminants could have a ready-made new career waiting for them, as Emilio Cerveró from Monserrat, inland from Valencia, reveals.

Whilst a new roundabout was being built next to his scrapyard, his premises was broken into seven times, mainly because the new infrastructure meant part of his land was compulsorily purchased, a wall knocked down and replaced with a flimsy metal fence.

As well as losing large amounts of scrap metal and car parts he sells to live on, Cerveró says four of his animals, including guard dogs, have been killed as a result because the broken fence meant they escaped onto the main road and were run over.

Luckily, Cerveró has not lost a great deal of stock through the burglaries – he suspects the thieves are 'a handful of youths who need a new wing-mirror, headlamp or spare wheel', as nothing large or heavy has been taken – but his main concern is privacy, lack of security as 'anyone can enter at will' by just snapping the ineffective wire fence, and for his animals' safety as well as that of drivers who could end up having accidents by swerving to avoid these animals.

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ANOTHER fugitive has been arrested in Spain within the first week of British charity Crimestoppers' annual 'Operation Capture' poster being distributed on the Costas.

Following the earlier arrest of 45-year-old paedophile, Londoner Matthew Sammon, in Fuengirola (Málaga province), National Police in Tenerife have arrested a rapist sentenced to 14 years in jail.

Mohammed Alam, 33, was in the UK on a temporary visa from his native Bangladesh when he raped a woman in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 2010.

He had been in Britain for three years at the time, and immediately went on the run.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) said Alam had been on the 'wanted' list for six years and was believed to be either in Spain or back in Bangladesh.

He was eating in a restaurant in the Playa de las Américas beach area of Arona, Tenerife, when he was caught.

Police in Spain say he had used several fake IDs to avoid capture, as well as constantly moving house and job.

He is due to be extradited shortly from Madrid and could be back in the UK to begin his jail sentence by mid-November.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RESTAURANT in Spain has been named the best in the world according to a poll on TripAdvisor, the leading global platform for tourism reviews and information.

Martín Berasategui's eponymous eatery in Lasarte, near San Sebastián in the Basque Country, has been described as offering 'the best combination of flavours' tourists have ever tasted.

“The meal was culinary poetry,” the top-quoted TripAdvisor commenter said.

Another revealed he had made a special trip from Belgium with his wife purely to eat there, for her birthday, and described the chef as 'a culinary artist at work providing global-style exclusive food', which was 'the best they had ever experienced'.

'Amazing', 'perfection', 'extraordinary', 'awesome' and 'out of this world' are other adjectives diners from all over the world have used to describe Martín Berasategui's restaurant, where users all concurred that the service was excellent and that they were made to feel like celebrities.

One said he and his wife were given a 'special gift' as it was their 18^th wedding anniversary 'made so much more enjoyable' by their time at the restaurant.

Of course, as the top eatery in the world, it involves a little bit of saving up before diners can treat themselves, but you get what you pay for, as customers have made clear - “It's worth double the price,” said one reviewer of his 'unique and memorable dining experience' which was 'presented in the most artistic way possible' using 'the finest local ingredients', and which 'lightens the soul as well as the wallet'.

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KING Felipe started yet another round of meetings with electoral candidates today (Monday), the last before he has to dissolve Parliament and call a third general election.

The last to meet with the monarch will be PP leader and acting president Mariano Rajoy at around 15.30 tomorrow (Tuesday), after the head of the administration committee currently running the PSOE, Javier Fernández, explains to the King that the party will abstain in the second round of presidential votes.

This said, several party members have already said they will go against the majority and vote 'no' to Rajoy.

Head of Nueva Canarias Pedro Quevedo has told the King he will vote 'no', although the Canarian Coalition leader Ana Oromas has said she is so fed up with Spain's not having a government she will vote in favour of Rajoy, even though she does not agree with his policies.

Javier Esparza of UPN (pictured here with the King) and Isidro Manuel Martínez of the Asturias Forum say they will support Rajoy's investiture.

In a press release, head of the Catalunya socialists Miquel Iceta has said his team will vote 'no' to Rajoy 'whatever the consequences'.

Balearic socialist leader Francina Armengol says she will try to convince the PSOE administration team not to force the whole of the party to go along with the 139 out of 237 who voted to abstain in the second round of Rajoy's presidential ceremony.

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Barça captain Andrés Iniesta will be out of action for between six and eight weeks after injuring knee ligaments in his side's dramatic win over Valencia on Saturday.

The midfielder was injured by an Enzo Pérez tackle after 14 minutes of the 3-2 win and left on a stretcher.

He could miss the rest of the Champions League group games and is definitely out of the match at Manchester City on November 1st.

Barcelona snagged victory at the Mestalla thanks to a late Lionel Messi penalty, his second goal of the game.

Luis Enrique' side, who went top of La Liga with the win, will go to Manchester City without Iniesta's fellow Spain internationals Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba, who are also out through injury. Both  players went off during Wednesday night's 4-0 win over City at the Nou Camp.

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ONE of Britain's most-wanted escaped criminals has been found, barely 48 hours after the latest Crimestoppers list was released in Spain.

Suspected paedophile Matthew Sammon was caught in Fuengirola (Málaga province) and will be deported to the UK, where he is facing a 15-year jail sentence for possession, creation and distribution of child pornography footage.

The 45-year-old Londoner was living in a caravan in the Costa del Sol town.

He was remanded in custody two years ago after British police confiscated computers, hard drives and USB memory sticks containing photos he had taken between 2012 and 2014.

The maximum sentence for creating child pornography images in the UK is 10 years, and the maximum for possession is five years.

Other British fugitives on the list include rapists, murderers, drug-dealers, and other paedophiles.

The poster, complete with colour photographs of the suspects, is part of the annual Operation Capture campaign in which the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and the charity Crimestoppers seek to enlist the help of British expatriates in Spain to help them find escaped criminals.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN EXPRESS electoral reform to avoid Spaniards having to go to the polls on Christmas Day has been approved with votes in favour by three of the main political parties.

The left-wing PSOE, or socialists, plus its direct rivals and current acting government, the right-wing PP, and Spain's fourth-largest political force, the centre-right Ciudadanos, all voted to shorten the electoral campaign period by one week, moving voting day forward to Sunday, December 18.

The third-largest political force, Unidos Podemos, along with pro-secession outfits Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC) and the Basque National Party (PNV) abstained.

Once Parliament is dissolved and the King convenes a general election, a total of 54 days will then elapse before the country goes to the polls, during which parties campaign until two days before the actual election.

These are always held on a Sunday, and the Saturday of that weekend is known as 'Reflection Day', when politicians are no longer able to take part in any campaign activities and, effectively, get the day off.

During the 54-day pre-election period, strict limitations on acting government activities are imposed, including a ban on official openings of public services or facilities.

All this is assuming Spain will, in fact, have to go through a third general election – but the probability of this seems higher by the day.

In the two previous sessions, the PP has been the most-voted party but failed to obtain anywhere near a majority, and only a coalition of the other three would be able to oust them and form a government – and only a high number of them voting in favour in the in-house electoral round would allow PP leader Mariano Rajoy to be invested as president.

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THE wave of racism in Great Britain which arose post-Brexit vote has now seen Spaniards targeted as well as Poles and Commonwealth natives – even though back in summer Spanish residents in the UK admitted they had mostly managed to escape xenophobic attacks.

In the latest incident, a tourist was hit over the head with a wooden plaque ripped from a partition wall when his attacker heard him speaking Spanish to a young woman in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Tomás Gil was conversing with the woman on the street when Daniel Way shouted, “[Expletive] Spanish! Speak English!” and ripped the wooden panel off the wall of a building site, hitting Tomás repeatedly over the head with it until he fell to the groun.

The young woman who had been talking to Gil in Spanish, and other bystanders, rushed to his aid.

Way escaped a 12-month jail sentence and has got away with just 150 hours of community service and compensation payable to the victim of 800 pounds (around €890).

In an earlier case, a Spanish woman stood up to an attacker who punched her Bangladeshi husband in the face on the London underground at Upton Park station.

Kilian Ahmed's husband Jubair were on their way to Whitechapel from their home in Barking, east London, on the District line, when a man started to insult them and threaten them because of Jubair's foreign appearance.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Spanish sides scored four wins out of four in their respective Champions League clashes this week, with Barcelona thrashing Manchester City 4-0 and Real Madrid putting five past Legia Warsaw.

Lionel Messi put in a stellar performance, scoring a hat-trick to help his side beat Manchester City 4-0 on Pep Guardiola's return to the Camp Nou on Wednesday night.

City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was sent off in the 53rd minute for a deliberate handball and from then on Barça ruthlessly made their numerical advantage count as Messi struck twice in eight minutes to notch up his 37th club treble.

Jeremy Mathieu's dismissal for two bookable offences failed to derail the hosts as Neymar, having missed an 87th-minute penalty, atoned with Barça's fourth a minute from time.

Victory moves Barça five points clear of second-placed City in Group C.

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CATALUNYA'S bull-fighting ban has been declared null and void by Spain's Constitutional Court, potentially causing more friction between the north-eastern region and the country's central government.

Eight votes in favour of overturning the bull ban to three against have overruled Catalunya's regional Parliament, whose decision to prohibit what it considers to be animal torture for human entertainment was appealed against by the PP-led national government.

Although it is unlikely Catalunya will go back on its word now – given that the ban was originally in response to a public opinion poll – it does mean the regional government will have little power to stop bull-fighting happening within its territory if an association attempts to stage it.

The judges who voted to invalidate the ban said Catalunya, as a region, has the jurisdiction to regulate bull-related spectacles, but not to prohibit them altogether.

And Spain's national Parliament has declared bull-fighting to be 'cultural heritage', meaning its protection against attempts like Catalunya's to thwart it is armour-plated.

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GALICIA doctor Lina Álvarez left hospital last night with her new baby girl, and says she hopes her experience of pregnancy at age 62 will encourage other women to 'realise their dream' of motherhood without worrying they have left it too late.

Dr Álvarez, because of her profession, knew the risks involved in having a child 20 years after the menopause, and had to search hard to find a private IVF clinic willing to take them on.

But she says it was nature that made it work, since if she had not been healthy enough to carry a child, her body would not have allowed her to do it.

Baby Lina – who shares her mother's and late grandmother's name – was born by programmed Caesarian section at the hospital in the family's native city of Lugo after a 'completely normal' pregnancy during which Dr Álvarez said she had been in the peak of health and mental wellbeing.

In fact, she said the pregnancy hormones meant she was happier and healthier during the eight-and-a-half months she was expecting than she had been before.

Her second child, a boy, was born via IVF when she was 52, and her first child, also a son – who has cerebral palsy – came into the world when Lina was 35.

Now recovered and at home with her new daughter, Lina says she is the happiest she has ever been.

“Nature is very wise, and it's nature, not gynaecologists, which sets the limits,” she told reporters outside the hospital.

“I've shown you can have a baby at an advanced age as long as you take care of yourself and you're healthy enough.

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A SCHOOL in the province of Toledo has asked every parent to send in six toilet rolls per child due to 'lack of funds'.

Mums and dads of pupils at the Rafael García Valiño primary school in the town of Yepes were most annoyed when they received the annual list of school material they would need to buy for their children and saw it included toilet paper.

“They told us there's no budget for it, which seems surreal. What next? That we have to provide chalk for the blackboard? Every pupil to bring a bottle of heating fuel? Is this how things work now – seriously?” demanded one of the mums on Facebook, posting a photo of the list.

“The poor teacher has had to take all the flak – naturally, because he's the messsenger – but who is actually responsible for this? More than anything so they can give us an explanation and, of course, we'll have to write to complain to the education authorities. I'm furious!” concluded mother Carmen Contreras on her Facebook post.

Parents' collective outrage has reached the ears of the local council, where the PSOE (socialists), in opposition, has criticised the right-wing PP-led local government.

In a Facebook post, PSOE Yepes wrote: “It's pitiful how parents of primary school children in our town have to put up with a situation in which...their children have to bring six rolls of toilet paper with them since, it seems, the Rafael García Valiño centre does not have this hygiene product available .

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCHERS in Galicia have found a way of making obese rats lose weight and reduce their Type II diabetes risk, without eating any less, and believe the technique could be extrapolated to humans.

The team at Santiago de Compostela university, in the province of A Coruña, has discovered a molecular mechanism which shows how increasing a certain protein in the hypothalamus – located in the midbrain and which regulates eating, drinking and carnal urges as well as controlling the endocrine system to keep the body in working order – meant the rats' metabolism improved and their traces of obesity-related diabetes diminished, even though they were eating the same amount of food.

According to Dr Cristina Contreras Jiménez of the NeurObesity Group at the university, one of the main issues underlying the obesity epidemic the western world is currently suffering from is the 'poor functioning of the brown adipose tissue'.

“The body contains two types of fat – white and brown,” explains Dr Contreras.

“White fat accumulates adipose tissue as stored-up energy, whilst brown fat acts like a central heating system – it burns itself to keep the body warmed up and maintain a healthy temperature.

“What happens in the case of obesity? Well, basically, the body's ability to burn calories diminishes, increasing the body mass and leading to white fat predominating at the expense of brown fat.

“By increasing the presence of the 'chaperone' protein GRP78, also known as BiP^, the hypothalamus in obese rats manages to transform white fat into brown fat – a phenomenon known as 'browning', which leads to weight loss in these animals.

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A TOWN near Barcelona has fitted traffic lights to the tarmac on a heavily-used pedestrian crossing so walkers engrossed in their mobile phones do not get run over.

Sant Cugat del Vallès has spent €5,000 on cat's-eye type red and green lights on either side of the zebra in the Plaça dels Quatre Cantons, one of its most-frequented streets.

This way, if anyone is too busy checking their Facebook or WhatsApp messages to watch where they are going, they will know when the 'mainstream' traffic lights are red and not to cross the road.

The tarmac spotlights have been fitted right in the field of vision of a person walking with their eyes on their mobile screen.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LOW-COST airline easyJet will offer nearly 100,000 extra seats on its flights from Málaga and Sevilla this autumn and winter, with new routes set to open from Málaga to Amsterdam and Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

In total, the number of off-peak season seats will go up by 14.4%, from just over 630,000 to a little more than 721,200, of which 3,000 will be on flights to and from Sevilla.

The carrier runs flights from Sevilla to Basel and Geneva (Switzerland), London Gatwick, and Toulouse-Blagnac (south-western France).

From Málaga and back again, easyJet operates flights connecting with four London airports – Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Southend – and to Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, Belfast, Liverpool, Glasgow, Berlin (Germany), Milan (Italy), Geneva, Basel and Paris-CDG.

Amsterdam and Paris are new this winter, but are classed as 'year-over-year' routes, meaning they are provisional only and may not be continued next winter unless they prove profitable.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RAT on board grounded 250 passengers at Barcelona airport and delayed their Qatar Airways flight to Doha on Thursday, airport authorities confirmed today.

It was an air hostess who alerted her colleagues of the creature's presence just as the travellers were about to board, and the gate closed immediately.

Passengers were given a voucher for bottles of water and sandwiches as they were not sure how long they would have to wait.

But a thorough search did not show any signs of the rat, which is thought to have sneaked onto the airbus during a connecting flight stop in the Philippines.

Traps were laid, but were empty when checked several hours later.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S acting president Mariano Rajoy will back British prime minister Theresa May if Scotland attempts to hold a second independence referendum, and UK foreign minister Boris Johnson has insisted nothing will change concerning Gibraltar's sovereignty once Brexit goes ahead.

May and Rajoy met on Thursday at the Moncloa Palace, Spain's answer to the White House and 10 Downing Street, and details of their talks are now starting to come to light.

It was Conservative leader Mrs May's first visit to Spain since she became prime minister after David Cameron, for whom she was Home Secretary, resigned in late June after his attempts to please everyone by calling a referendum on Britain's EU membership turned out to please nobody.

Whilst 51.9% of those who voted – 37% of adult British citizens, which included 'passing through' and resident Commonwealth nationals but barred Brits who had been living outside the UK more than 15 years – celebrated the triumph of the Brexit vote, both Brexiteers and 'Bremainers' are becoming increasingly annoyed about the lack of any concrete plan after triggering Article 50, and the absence of any information about the promised lucrative worldwide trade agreements to be put in place to replace the 27-strong open market in Europe.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LEGENDARY Spanish pop singer-songwriter Miguel Bosè says he wants to 'stimulate the Latin and immigrant vote' to thwart Republican candidate and property tycoon Donald Trump in the USA general elections.

Bosè, 60, who has released yet another compilation album, MTV Unplugged, to add to his vast collection over his 37-year music career, has been heavily involved in pro-peace work, which earned him honorary Colombian nationality in March 2011.

And the popular Spanish artist is determined to 'stuff Trump', in his own words – or, at least, the cleaned-up version.

“I don't even want to imagine Donald Trump winning the US elections. It's beyond my comprehension of science fiction,” Bosè told reporters this week.

“The whole world will be in serious danger if this happens, because he's demented. He's insane, egocentric and a Caligula,” Bosè announced, referring to the nickname of megalomaniac Roman emperor Julius Caesar.

Bosè is one of a number of artists planning a concert in San Diego, which straddles the Mexican-US border, in an attempt to rally latinos living in the USA to vote against Trump.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

UNCLAIMED lost property in Madrid is being auctioned off online and face to face, and include designer goods and Apple technology with iPads starting from €10.

In all cases, the legally-required two-year period the city hall has to allow for the owners to collect their goods or their finders to reclaim them, has long passed, and the proceeds from the items will go into public funds.

Jewellery by Tous and Tiffany's, sunglasses by Ray Ban, Emporio Armani, Calvin Klein and Prada, watches by Rolex, Gucci, Tag Heuer, and Baume & Mercier, designer pens such as Mont Blanc, rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces and chains in gold, silver and with precious stones, costume jewellery, vinyl records, musical instruments, tablets, laptops, mobile phones, CD and MP3 players and iPods, and even top-branded ties and bras are among the 1,303 items set to go under the hammer.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

UTILITY board Iberdrola has signed a deal agreeing not to cut off the electricity where hard-pressed pensioners cannot pay their bills.

An agreement with the Democratic Union of Pensioners and Retirees (UPD), which is run by pensioners as well as for them, says affected customers should obtain a report from them certifying they are not earning enough to cover their power costs.

Face-to-face consultations and advice on fuel-saving and bill restructure will also be offered to UPD pensioners, even if they are able to pay but finding it a struggle to make ends meet.

The UPD, a non-profit association, also offers financial help for retirees with severe money troubles.

Chairman of UPD, Luis Martín Pindado, says he has been pleasantly surprised at Iberdrola's generosity.

“There are so many people in Spain, pensioners included, who have to put up with being freezing cold in winter because they cannot afford heating,” Martín explains.

He recalls that many pensioners 'exist on less than €600 a month', and that even those who are higher earners have been forced to become a 'safety net' for their younger relatives.

Their children, often with their sons- and daughters-in-law in tow, and frequently grandchildren too, have had to move back home in many cases, meaning pensioners often have to support three generations out of their monthly income.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POP-ROCKER and Barcelona resident Shakira has donated US$15 million (about €13.5m) to Haïti to help victims of hurricane Matthew who have lost their homes.

The Colombian chart-topper, 39, who lives with Barça FC midfielder Gerard Piqué and their two little boys in the Catalunya capital, runs a global charity called the Fundación Pies Descalzos ('Bare Feet Foundation'), named after the bestselling album and single therefrom which she released when she was 20 and which has built schools and health centres and provided aid for needy communities in Colombia and beyond.

This is not the first time Shakira, via her charitable foundation, has helped Haïti after a natural disaster.

Back in 2010 when the Caribbean island nation was destroyed by an earthquake reaching 7 on the Richter scale leaving between 220,000 and 300,000 dead, the singer-songwriter and musician handed over US$400,000 to rebuild a school.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A TOWN hall in the province of Barcelona has defied the courts and opened today (Wednesday) for business even though it is a national bank holiday.

The council offices in Badalona are attending to the public and six civil servants are on the job, despite a judge having ordered them yesterday to shut for the October 12 Spain-wide day off.

Whilst the rest of Spain is either kicking itself for not having gone grocery shopping yesterday, or chilling out with a mid-week day off work – or gearing up to watch the military parades in Madrid presided by King Juan Carlos and Queen Letizia – it is business as usual in Badalona, where public authorities do not consider October 12 anything to celebrate.

“Yesterday [for Tuesday], we considered the verdict to be a coup d'état against municipal sovereignty, so we've decided to open,” says the mayor's third assistant José Téllez, who then tore up the copy of the judge's verdict.

October 12 is a national holiday to mark 'Hispanic Day', or the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' having discovered the Americas and his docking in what is now Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING Felipe VI has called yet another round of one-to-one talks with all Spain's party leaders to check whether there may be any way of forming a government before he is forced to call a third general election.

The session is likely to be little more than a formality, given that the PSOE (socialists), the left-wing side of the 'big two' or 'establishment' coin and Spain's second-largest party, does not have a leader now Pedro Sánchez (pictured with the King) has resigned.

One of the main reasons over half the executive committee quit to force Sánchez out was his insistence on a 'no' vote to Mariano Rajoy, acting president and head of the PSOE's direct rivals, the PP – a subject which has seen voters, subscribers and party members themselves divided since the spring.

But it appears the PSOE still does not wish to vote for Rajoy, and it will decide one way or another next week.

Felipe VI will delay meeting with the party's administrative committee until after then.

A full list of names will be passed to the monarch on Thursday, October 20, and meetings will take place over Monday, October 24 and Tuesday, October 25.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEXT year's bank holiday calendar has been issued already, giving Spanish workers plenty of time to plan their bonus days off and everyone else to work out when they will need to get extra groceries in before the shops shut.

Of the 12 annual national holidays, nine are considered 'non-substitutable' – given that most are global and deep-rooted traditionally – of which New Year's Day is not one, since it falls on a Sunday which is a non-working day in any case.

If January 6, or 'Three Kings Day' – when Spain normally hands out Christmas presents – falls on a Sunday, it is usually moved to Monday, January 7, but in 2017 it is on a Friday so workers and school children will get a long weekend.

Otherwise, the 'fixed' national holidays are Good Friday, which falls on April 14; 'Labour Day', always on May 1 – a Monday in 2017; Tuesday, August 15, 'Day of the Assumption'; Thursday, October 12, 'Hispanic Day', historically to mark the conquering of the Americas but now simply 'National Day for Spain' so as not to remind Latin American residents of the bloodthirsty colonisation; Wednesday, November 1, 'All Saint's Day', when Spain traditionally honours its departed loved ones and attends to graves; Wednesday, December 6, 'Constitution Day', and Friday, December 8, 'Day of the Immaculate Conception'; and finally, Christmas Day, which falls on a Monday in 2017.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MAN who caused an explosion that blew the balcony off his apartment by trying to create hash from cannabis resin has been arrested.

Another man who was in the fourth-floor flat at the same time was flung from the window due to the sheer force of the blast, and is in a critical condition in the burns unit at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron hospital.

Part of the rendering of the block on the C/ Amaya in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province) was blown off and landed in the street, but luckily, nobody was walking underneath it – nor beneath the balcony and its contents, which also fell off the wall – at the time.

The mother of one of the men was in the apartment, but is not hurt.

Police say the accused, a 32-year-old Spaniard, was tampering with the gas supply to turn cannabis plant resin into hash so it could be smoked.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FALCONS destined to be smuggled illegally from Spain to the United Arab Emirates are finally free from their 'traffickers' after five years.

A total of 101 live falcons and 11 dead ones were seized in 2011 and 16 people arrested in nine different provinces in Spain, all of whom belonged to a criminal gang which stole birds of prey and their nests in the wild.

The birds were placed in a breeding centre in Asturias to be cared for, but on the condition they could not be allowed to reproduce, and were not to be sold on – the latter being illegal anyway.

But Sheikhs in the UAE are prepared to pay up to €50,000 a bird, rising to as much as €200,000 for unique examples of their species – and the temptation was too great for the individuals who had the confiscated falcons in their custody.

They bred Peregrine Falcon and Gyrfalcon crosses, aiming to produce birds with the endurance and stamina of the former and the sharp instincts of the latter – but if they had escaped or been set free in the wild, they would have become predators of Spain's own native species of falcons.

The chicks were taken by the illegal breeders when they were 45 days old, meaning they were able to safely leave their nests, to Zamora (Castilla y León) where they were kept in conditions similar to their natural habitats until they had developed enough muscle through feeding and exercise to command the highest possible price among very wealthy buyers from the UAE who would use them for hunting, racing and exhibitions.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH authorities spend less than the European average on mental health diagnosis, assistance and care, leading to a lack of resources for everything from depression and anxiety through to more serious pathologies such as schizophrenia.

Today (Monday, October 10) is International Mental Health Day, which has thrown into the spotlight the fact that although the average spending in this area for the European Union is 7% of the health budget, or €7 in every €100, Spain's own investment comes to just 5.5%, or €5.50 per €100.

Considered one of the top causes of temporary and permanent disability in the western world, a typical one in four people in Spain will suffer mental health problems at some point in their lives – a figure which exactly mirrors the global average.

In the main, these tend to be the less serious but equally debilitating conditions such as panic attacks, phobias, depression and OCD, or personality disorders (narcissistic, histrionic, paranoic, avoidant, and so on) although in many cases these can equally be life-threatening.

And certain brands of personality disorders, such as sociopathy and psychopathy can potentially lead to others being placed in danger.

The one in four, however, also covers very life-limiting conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder – once known as 'manic depression' – attention deficit disorder and autism spectrum disorders, all of which need constant medication and monitoring.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CURIOUS study at the University of Navarra seems to show that regularly eating yoghurt can cut the risk of suffering depression for women – but it has to be the full-fat variety, because low-fat yoghurt has the reverse effect, researchers claim.

Led by Professor Miguel Ángel Martínez González, head of the Faculty of Medicine at the Pamplona college, the experiment took 14,359 men and women who had not been diagnosed with depression and studied them over a 10-year period.

The participants habitually consumed full-fat or low-fat yoghurt or prebiotic fibre sources.

A total of 727 cases of depression were diagnosed over the 10 years, but the risk was found to be 22% lower in women – although not in the case of any of the men – who ate at least one full-fat yoghurt a day, with the risk reducing in line with consumption level.

In contrast, a direction relationship was seen between the consumption, and amount eaten, of low-fat yoghurt, especially in the first few years of the study.

No relationship at all was found between the consumption of prebiotics and depression.

The experiment was based upon the growing belief that diet can influence brain chemistry, and thus the onset of depression, with risk factors relating to changes in intestinal bacteria – a theory supported by the results of testing on rats and mice in laboratories.

Yoghurt, specifically, was studied because of its probiotic content, meaning it contains live bacteria which 'eats' bad bacteria in the intestines.

Prebiotics relate to dietary fibre which feeds the naturally-present intestinal bacteria.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FAMOUS student festival on the Costa Daurada which attracts revellers from over 100 British universities every Easter will cease – ostensibly because of insufficient public service capacity, but thought to be more likely to be because 'drunken tourism' is becoming increasingly frowned upon in Spain.

The Saloufest, based in the seaside town of the same name – Salou, in the province of Tarragona – has been running for 16 years non-stop and has brought in around 100,000 visitors and €5 million in that time, says tour operator ILoveTour.

“Pressure from Salou town council and the regional government of Catalunya in the last few years has made it practically impossible to carry on offering packages for youth tourism in the area,” the travel company reveals.

A number of British students have already booked for next year, so up to 10,000 of them will be offered a place at the Sportsfest in Lloret de Mar (Girona province) through the firm Outgoing Ltd instead.

ILoveTour says it has been negotiating with Lloret to try to convince it to become the new venue for the Saloufest, but without success.

“The high number of students in the town all at once would be too much for public services in Lloret to cope with, and would lead to a great deal of media pressure,” the tour operator reveals.

It says as well as Salou's own media pressure, the companies – bars and hotels – which work with them to run the sports and leisure festival have been subject to 'a worrying number of inspections' by authorities purely because they are involved in the Saloufest.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Rafael Nadal and Pablo Carreño Busta came back from a one-set down on Sunday to capture the China Open doubles title, their first tournament victory together.

They defeated Jack Sock and Bernard Tomic 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-8 in 89 minutes. After losing the first set in the tie-break despite breaking to take the advantage early on, the Spaniards made no mistake in the second, breaking twice to force the decider. Sock and Tomic were quickly ahead in the match tie-breaker (3-0), but once the Spaniards levelled at 4-4 the advantage swung one way then the other in a series of tense exchanges until Nadal & Carreño finally sealed the victory 10-8.

The Spanish duo started their tournament by defeating No.3-seeded Bopanna/Nestor before defeating the Chinese pairing of Gong/Ze to reach the semis where they dismissed the favourites, the USA's Bob & Mike Bryan, 7-5, 6-4.

It was 11th ATP doubles title for Rafa and his second of the season, adding to the gold medal he won at the Rio Olympics with Marc López in August.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CATALUNYA'S regional Parliament has voted to hold a referendum on independence by September 2017 'at the very latest', with or without the blessing of the Spanish government.

The debate is part of a plan for a unilateral declaration on independence, which the regional government expects to become reality by around 2019 if the majority of residents and natives of Catalunya agree.

A total of 62 votes in favour from Junts pel Sí ('Together for Yes', or JxSí) and 10 from the CUP, against 11 members of Sí Que Es Pot ('Yes it can be done', a faction of Podemos) abstaining pushed the move through.

The right-wing PP, left-wing socialists (PSC) and centre-right Ciudadanos actively refused to vote, saying the issue was outside the terms of the Spanish Constitution and not valid for debate.

They and their national government counterparts have refused to recognise the result of the vote for this reason.

Presumably, however, this means a referendum will be held in the next 11 months despite the opposition from the Constitutional Court and the current PP-led acting government.

This risky move could mean regional president Carles Puigdemont and his cabinet facing court action for 'disobedience' or even 'sedition', a situation which his predecessor Artur Mas and the latter's ministers are facing at present over a non-binding opinion poll held last November.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has argued that it was a 'Spanish grandmother' who gave him the idea of putting chorizo spicy sausage in his paella which has been slammed by Spaniards, especially those from Valencia where the dish originates from.

His PR representatives said the heavily-criticised dish was 'his version' of the original, for which there are literally hundreds of recipes, and that he was 'inspired' to cook it during a visit to Spain.

“A grandmother whispered in his ear that he should add a bit of chorizo and, as everyone knows, Jamie loves adding a personal touch to his dishes,” the spokeswoman revealed.

The elderly lady in fact told him to 'put a bit of Spanish sausage' in his paella, which does not necessarily mean chorizo – the Spanish language has words for 'sausage' running into double figures, and they all mean something different.

Among the comments in response to Jamie's so-called 'paella' were a photo of Cuban rice with hot dogs and the caption, “Hope you like my version.”

Another Twitter user said his version of fish and chips involved aubergine and duck, whilst a picture of a cod fillet with prawns on top was tweeted with the user calling it his recipe for roast chicken.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEWS that the Constitutional Court may overturn Catalunya's bullfight ban has been condemned by animal protection campaigners in the Balearic Islands, another region planning on scrapping all bull-related spectacles.

Spokesman for Mallorca Sense Sang ('Mallorca without blood') Guillermo Amengual, calls the PP party's appeal against the ruling to the Constitutional Court 'an attack on democracy'.

He calls for the public to 'rise up against' a decision 'closer to a dictatorship than to a democratic State', and branded the Constitutional Court 'a corrupt organism' closely linked to the right-wing PP.

The Balearic Islands should 'remain firm' in the face of a decision which has 'purely political ends' and 'goes against the will of the people', who have 'actively shown their rejection of bullfighting'.

“The People's Legislative Initiative presented to Catalunya regional Parliament was backed by over 180,000 signatures and voted on democratically within Parliament itself,” Amengual recalls.

“For this reason, the decision should be considered more valid than the Constitutional Court verdict, which only responds to an appeal presented by the PP to protect its own personal financial interests.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SCHOOLS in the Greater Madrid region will teach the subject 'history of terrorism' as part of its core curriculum from next year at the latest, according to spokesman and justice minister Ángel Garrido.

The subject will explain about financial and practical help available for terrorism victims, procedures for what to do in the event of an attack, and promote the public recognition of survivors and those left behind by the deceased.

The move comes in response to popular demand by several terrorism victims' associations, and guarantees the right to their being remembered and ensures their ordeal will not be forgotten by future generations, and will 'help develop democratic values' in young people whilst 'increasing their sensitivity to and awareness of' the damage and devastation terrorism causes, Garrido explains.

Why is this important?

With the increasing number of major terrorist attacks launched by DAESH recruits in Europe in recent years, teaching teenagers and pre-teens about the real effects of these actions on the population and individuals is seen as a way of preventing possible future Jihad influence, given that statistics show many youths who join the self-proclaimed 'Islamic State' tend to be vulnerable, directionless, isolated and feel they have no future and society is against them, meaning they are easily led by the promises of a bright future and a worthy cause fed to them by manipulative DAESH recruiters.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 12-YEAR-OLD 'vlogger' who racked up a €100,000 bill with Google for advertising will not be charged, the internet giant has confirmed.

“We have reviewed the case and we have not received any money from the user, so we shall proceed to cancel the pending AdWords balance,” said a communication from the company.

The Torrevieja (Alicante) youngster, along with another friend aged 15, had set up a website with music videos and wanted to earn money as a YouTube blogger with them.

He opened an account with Google AdWords in August, believing he would then make an income from the advertising inserted in his online content.

But he did not realise that what he had contracted was a service for publicising his own website, which he had to pay for rather than the reverse.

Read more at ThinKSPAIN.com

VARIOUS private prosecutors in the long-running Gürtel corruption trial involving the PP have called for Rajoy to stand in the dock.

The hearing started yesterday (Tuesday) against the ringleader, business tycoon Francisco Correa (pictured), former PP treasurer and Senator Luis Bárcenas, and several others.

Ex-health minister Ana Mato and the PP itself stand accused of benefiting financially from the bribery racket, and five former ministers of one-time PP president of Spain, José María Aznar, will stand trial for their involvement in the first few years of the racket, between 1999 and 2005.

A total of 37 people have been charged, and it took the prosecution an hour and a quarter just to read out the sentences it has recommended for all of them individually and for each and every one of the crimes they stood accused of.

The European Democratic Solicitors' Association, ADADE, has reiterated its request for acting Spanish president Mariano Rajoy to declare as a witness, based upon his being party leader and later president whilst the corruption racket was ongoing.

At present, Correa's solicitor has denied that he is trying to plea-bargain with the anti-corruption prosecution, despite his client having 'cooperated' with the court by depositing the requested €2.2 million bail bond in the last few days.

Bárcenas' defence has called for the Gürtel judge to order the prosecution to clarify whether there was 'any type of collusion' between four of the 37 accused parties, since they suspect the fact that the order in which the accused parties were due to testify, with Correa expected to go first, had been changed due to 'deals' struck with some of them to reduce their sentences.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN IRISHMAN who kidnapped an entire family to steal their van in his home country has been arrested near Alicante airport after going on the run with fake ID.

The van held 134,000 Irish pounds in cash at the time, and the kidnap and theft is just one of 11 crimes the accused faces trial for, among which are illegal possession of firearms and forming part of an organised criminal gang.

He is expected to be handed two life sentences if found guilty, and has been under a European arrest warrant since he fled the Republic of Ireland several years ago.

The accused, who has not been named, had been hiding out on the Costa Blanca and was caught near El Altet (Alicante-Elche) airport whilst he was waiting in his car for someone.

The latest crime was in Dublin in 2010, after he and an accomplice had been keeping watch over a man who had access to vans with blacked-out windows for carrying large sums in cash to banks and safe deposits.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PARAGLIDER has been killed in a 50-metre fall onto the La Ermita beach in Mazarrón (Murcia).

The 61-year-old man, from nearby Fuente Álamo and identified only by his initials of P.Z.G., was seen on Sunday morning plummeting down to the beach due to a failed motor in his paragliding apparatus.

Dozens of calls were received by the emergency 112 hotline, and firefighters and police rushed to the scene ahead of the ambulance, which was only a few minutes behind.

Those at the scene attempted to revive the man, but his injuries were so severe that he was thought to be past saving at the moment of impact.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOTEL industry workers in Mallorca have filed legal action against the Balearic regional government over its unpopular 'tourist tax', where a fee of between 50 cents and €2 a night is added to holidaymakers' hotel bills.

Deputy regional president and minister for research, innovation and tourism, Biel Barceló, has slammed the move, saying the Balearic authorities 'do not understand it'.

“We're talking about a tax that we consider irreversible; which means extra resources for the region and for the environment, and which benefits all residents of the Balearics,” says an annoyed and baffled Barceló.

The complaint was lodged with the court of first instance in Palma which deals with contentious civil issues by the Mallorca Federation of Hotel Traders (FEHM), since tourism industry bosses believe it will put visitors off as it makes their holidays more expensive.

And as the largest national group which visits the islands is British – outstripping even the Germans, who habitually flock to Palma in huge numbers – the fall in the sterling as a result of the Brexit vote has already pushed up the price of holidays in the Eurozone, meaning the 'tourist tax' merely aggravates the situation.

It has been labelled an 'eco-tax' so it appears 'less unfriendly' to visitors, and to make it more palatable as it gives the impression it is aimed at protecting the environment.

The money clawed back through holidaymakers is destined entirely for new facilities and infrastructure and on protecting the environment from the impact of mass tourism, stresses Barceló.

Major hydraulics projects will be funded through the more than €30 million earned this summer alone, to guarantee a quality on-tap water supply to all visitors and residents at a time when the Balearics bears the brunt of Spain's population doubling, if not trebling, in high season.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BITCOIN cashpoint machine has been set up in Alcúdia (Mallorca), the first in the Balearics and only the 20^th in Spain.

Installed by the company ATMs Bitcoin Exchange in Girona, Catalunya, which was founded in 2015, the cashpoint was designed by BTC Fácil and allows users to buy and sell bitcoins, a 'virtual' currency which has been in circulation for seven years.

Known as a crypto-currency, bitcoins are a digital value exchange method using software based upon cryptography, and does not depend upon any government or State, nor central bank.

Bitcoins can be exchanged almost instantly for 'traditional' money, and a growing number of businesses are now accepting them as a method of payment.

This 'alternative money' carries a number of advantages over 'physical' coins and notes or 'mainstream' currency, since it is anonymous, cannot be embargoed, is transferred instantly – at the same speed as an email takes to send and receive – does not need a third party involved for receiving and sending it either nationally or internationally, it can be fractioned as the payer or receiver wishes, and is extremely difficult to forge given its lack of a tangible location and the complex nature of the cryptography used to create it. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASSIVE hike in IVA on veterinary drugs and products is due for debate in Parliament tomorrow (Tuesday, October 4) thanks to ongoing pressure from animal charities, activists and vets themselves, who claim more pets are abandoned or left to suffer as a result.

IVA on veterinary treatment and products used to be in the middle bracket, which was 8% - compared with 4% for the lowest and 18% standard – until September 2012, when the standard level went up to 21% and the middle bracket to 10%.

The cost of veterinary treatment for livestock remained in the middle level, although went up from 8% to 10%, but for all other animals including pets, it shifted to the higher band, meaning an overnight hike from 8% to 21%.

Vet bills have since soared, since these were historically cheaper in Spain than in, for example, the UK and surgeries were unable to absorb the tax hike without running at a loss.

And as a result, they are struggling to make ends meet anyway, since animal owners are less likely to take their pets for treatment or check-ups due to the inflated cost.

Animal charities say the collateral effect has been four years of fewer dogs and cats spayed or neutered, more animals abandoned, fewer being given necessary vaccinations, and fewer illnesses treated.

With an estimated 48% of Spanish households being home to at least one animal, the number of people and pets who are affected by the IVA hike is significant.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AT LEAST 77 people are in hospital after a café exploded in Vélez-Málaga due to a possible gas leak.

Emergency services say they started getting calls from around 19.00 last night (Saturday) about the conflagration in a coffee shop on the C/ Montera in the town centre, which is currently celebrating its local festival.

Around 73 members of the public suffered cuts and bruises, of whom some 20 were treated at the Vélez Sur health centre and discharged on the same day.

But at least four people have been seriously injured and some of them are thought to be in a critical condition.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PEDRO Sánchez has resigned as leader of the PSOE and the party will now be run by an administrator until a new secretary-general is appointed.

In a show of hands at the Federal Committee meeting called tonight (Saturday), Sánchez's proposal of calling an extraordinary general meeting was shot down with 132 votes against and just 107 in favour.

His proposed meeting was to allow the paid-up subscribers to decide upon who should be their leader, and whether the PSOE should attempt to form an alternative government to the right-wing PP which remains, de facto, in power following two failed general elections in which it lost its majority.

“The emergency congress was to decide both of these issues, and I continue to believe that it should be the paid-up members who decide them – but there's still time,” Sánchez said in his leaving speech.

It was the subscribers who elected Sánchez as leader, and a significant proportion of them are not happy with what they consider to be an in-house coup based upon Sánchez's adamant refusal to support PP leader Mariano Rajoy in his bid to become president – a stance they also largely supported.

Sánchez said being PSOE leader has been 'an honour' and 'a source of pride' and that he 'wishes all the success in the world' to whoever succeeds him, stressing that he and other leavers would 'serve the new secretary-general loyally'.

He had warned on Friday that if the bulk of the party wanted to back its direct rivals, the PP, he would stand down as he 'could not lead up a decision he did not agree with'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MINOR earthquake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale was felt close to Granada city yesterday (Friday) morning, reports the National Geographical Institute (IGN), but no damage or injury has been registered.

Small tremors are common in the south-east of the mainland, but with the exception of the May 2011 quake in Lorca (Murcia) – the worst in well over a century – they tend to be limited to a couple of seconds of ground-shaking and, at worst, items falling off a shelf.

No reports have ever been received of these regular small quakes causing long-term damage to foundations of properties, and they generally end up being little more than an anecdote and social media fodder.

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