Live News From Spain As It Happens

AN UNDISCLOSED Chinese football club is said to have offered €300 million for Balon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Portuguese star player says he does not want to leave Real Madrid.

Speaking to Sky Italy during the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, CR7's manager said the Portuguese national team captain would have earned around €100m a year if he had taken up the offer.

“But money is not everything – Real Madrid is his life,” the spokesman for the player explained.

“Cristiano is happy at Real Madrid and it's impossible for him to go to China.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LORRIES will be banned from Madrid metropolitan area during the Three Kings parades on the night of January 5 as a precaution following the Berlin Christmas market attack, but the city council stresses this is not because of any security warnings.

HGVs of more than 3.5 tonnes will be kept out of the main hub of the capital over January 3, 4 and 5 – even though the Three Kings traditionally visit children to leave presents in shoes they put out on the night of January 5, Madrid celebrates the holiday to a much greater extent and processions will be held for three days.

Keeping lorries out of the city is aimed at giving police and emergency services less work to do so they can concentrate more on the main security measures that would normally be involved in large parades.

Drivers are asked to leave their lorries outside the neighbourhoods with parades being held, but will not be fined if they fail to do so, only warned.

Mayoress Manuela Carmena said there is 'no need to be afraid', but that she is taking advice from the National Police.

“If you think too much about the infinite amount of catastrophes that could happen, you'll never go anywhere,” she assures.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SCHOOLBOY has lost two of his fingers after playing with a firework which went off in his hand, according to Andalucía emergency services.

The 12-year-old from the Los Pajaritos neighbourhood in Sevilla has not been named, but is reported to have been rushed to A&E at around 17.00 on Boxing Day with 'serious injuries'.

His parents decided it was quicker to take him to the Virgen Macarena hospital by car rather than wait for an ambulance.

Despite every effort, surgeons were unable to save two of his fingers, which were totally destroyed.

Playing with fireworks is not as rare, nor seen as being as dangerous, in Spain as it is elsewhere in Europe – it is common to see small children throwing rockets and bangers during major festivals, such as the March Fallas in the Valencia region.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEARLY a third of homes in Spain no longer have a landline telephone and rely entirely on their mobiles, according to the EU study E-Communications and the Digital Single Market.

SmartPhone technology, greater use of email and social networks for keeping in contact, use of screen calling systems such as FaceTime and Skype, and better deals on calls via mobile phone networks mean landlines are gradually becoming redundant.

They are not even necessary for home broadband internet connections nowadays, just 12 years after the only way to get online was to have a fixed telephone number and a modem, and it was impossible to surf the net and talk on the phone at the same time.

Landlines still serve a purpose, however – free calls to any national fixed telephone number, and a set number of hours per month of free calls to foreign numbers means they are a cheap and convenient way of staying in contact with elderly relatives.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MEDICAL researchers have warned of 'excessive use' of antibiotics in Spanish children, who reportedly take 50% more than those in Germany and the USA.

According to the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research (FISABIO), part of the Valencia regional health authority, a study on children from babyhood to 18 years old between 2008 and 2012 – the most exhaustive investigation to date – at least half the antibiotic prescriptions dished out to kids are 'unnecessary'.

Already, children are starting to show presence of bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics, says scientific director of FISABIO, Dr Javier Díez-Domingo.

“We can still reverse this evolution by encouraging sensible antibiotic use,” the head researcher said, but adds: “There's still a belief that antibiotics are a panacea, despite our seeing that inappropriate use is bringing more problems than benefits.”

A greater 'social conscience' is needed, especially among paediatrics in local GP practices, Dr Díez-Domingo warns.

Great differences between the amount of antibiotic prescriptions issued have been found between countries, with those giving the most – South Korea being the main offender – handing out up to 7.5 times as many as those which dish out the least.

After South Korea, Italy and then Spain are top in the world – a long way from Norway and Germany, which issue the fewest prescriptions.

A COUPLE and their teenage daughter miraculously survived a plane crash onto Las Teresitas beach in Tenerife yesterday (Tuesday), suffering only minor injuries.

They had taken off from Tenerife North airport just before 13.00 and were heading for Morocco when their light aircraft began to suffer technical problems, according to the control tower in Los Rodeos.

Minutes after take-off, the man flying the craft realised he had no choice but to make an emergency landing.

The plane touched down in the sea and then fell with considerable impact onto the beach in Santa Cruz, breaking up upon landing.

When emergency services got to the scene, the aeroplane was shattered.

FORMER minister of industry José Manuel Soria has just reported that his main home in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been burgled.

Thieves entered in the early hours of Christmas Day and took the safe deposit box, containing jewellery and an undisclosed sum of money in cash.

This is not the first time burglars have struck in the Tafira Alta neighbourhood – Soria is just one of numerous victims of a recent crimewave in the district over the past few months.

Soria has not had a good year in general – he resigned on April 15, when he was then only acting minister for industry, energy and tourism as Spain had been without a government since the previous November.

He had been named in the infamous 'Panamá Papers', where high-ranking politicians and celebrities worldwide – including the now-ex prime minister for the UK, David Cameron – were 'outed' by a law firm in the central American country for using dormant front companies to launder money.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

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A FORGED art-dealing racket has been broken up and 40 counterfeit works seized, including numerous copies of those by famous 19th-century Valencian painters such as Joaquín Sorolla and Mariano and José Benlliure.

They included one by Amedeo Modigliani (shown in the above picture by the Valencian regional police force) which was due for sale for a six-figure sum.

Most of those already shifted had fetched around €170,000 apiece, but if they had been originals as the vendors claimed they were, their value would have been 'incalculable', investigating officers say.

A total of 32 people have been ordered to testify in the courts of Alcoy (Alicante province), Valencia, Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Barcelona, Málaga, Pamplona (Navarra) and Cuenca.

REPORTS released a few days ago saying Spain's winter will be 'the coldest in 100 years' have been countered already – according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET, temperatures will actually be much higher than average instead of lower.

Residents in Spain are now confused as to whether to dust off their woolly jumpers and thermals, or whether a T-shirt and jacket will do – but are generally hoping for the latter.

Winter 2016-2017 will, later reports have claimed, be the seventh-warmest since 1965 – and, just to confirm global temperatures are indeed rising, the fifth-warmest so far this century.

January, February and March are expected to be above-averagely warm after an uncharacteristically-mild autumn, says AEMET.

The average round-the-clock temperature from mid-September until now has been 16.8ºC – a total of 0.9ºC higher than the mean figure for the time of year – and, as this covers all regions from the sun-drenched Canaries to the mild Mediterranean and south coast through to the chilly north and centre, which vary considerably, this explains why some coastal areas have seen numbers in the high 20s even in November.

September and October were extremely warm, although November settled to more normal autumn temperatures, the Met office says.

In fact, some of the hottest days of the year have been in September over the last few years, with the mercury soaring in the first and second week even higher than it had in July and August.

The record was held by Córdoba, which hit 45.4ºC in the shade on September 6, just above Sevilla and Murcia the previous day at 44.8ºC and 44.6ºC – and even north-western Galicia, where blankets reappear on beds in late August, saw temperatures of over 40ºC in September.

Barely five or 10 years ago, September was a clear cut-off point for the summer and spelt the end of beach season, but more recently, thermometer readings have skewed the figures and given the impression of an uncharacteristically warm autumn.

SPAIN has finally shed its stereotype of being among Europe's least technologically-savvy countries – in the past year, it has topped the list for the highest number of people who use their mobile phones to access the internet.

According to Eurostat, which gathers and publishes statistics for European Union countries, a whopping 93% of internet surfers used their phones to do so rather than a computer – way ahead of the UK at 86%, and even beating Denmark's 85%.

Cyprus and The Netherlands, jointly, came in second at 88%, followed by Croatia at 87%, and the UK was fourth.

The EU web surfers who least used their mobiles for internet access were the Czechs – only 55% did so – followed by the Polish, at 60%.

Latvia (62%), Lithuania (63%) and Greece (66%) were also near the bottom of the list.

Also above the EU average were - after Denmark and in descending order – Sweden, Ireland, Malta, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Finland and Italy.

The EU average of net users who accesss the web on their phones is eight in 10, or 80%, the most popular tool for getting online.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS year's winning El Gordo lottery number is 66.513, which was sold entirely in Madrid with each full ticket being worth €4 million.

Spain's largest and most popular national lottery, El Gordo – which translates as 'the fat one' – is always drawn three days before Christmas and is sold either in full tickets, which cost €200 each, or indécimos – tenths of a ticket – costing €20 apiece.

Most people buy décimos, meaning those with the number 66.513 will have won €400,000 each.

For the last four years, lottery winnings have been subject to income tax, meaning after the State has taken its 21%, winning décimo-holders will have €316,000 in their hands.

The second-prize number is 4.536, worth €1,250,000 for a full ticket or €125,000 for a décimo, meaning €98,750 net for the winners.

WINTER officially started today (Wednesday, December 21) at 11.44 mainland Spain time, and will last for 88 days and 23 hours, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Considered to be the shortest day, or winter solstice, the start to the coldest season can actually fall on one of four days in the northern hemisphere outside the tropics – between December 20 and 23 – but in Spain it is only ever considered to vary from December 20 to 22, depending upon the actual position of the sun in relation to the earth at the time, explains the National Geographical Institute (IGN).

The latest start to winter seen so far in this lifetime was in 2003, and the earliest will almost certainly not be seen by anyone alive in Spain today, as it is not due until 2096.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FIFTH fatal victim of the flash floods battering Spain's east coast has just been reported, according to emergency services in the province of Valencia.

The 58-year-old was rescued alive from a cave in Xàtiva, about an hour inland towards the centre of the province.

According to firefighters and paramedics, who were called out at around 15.30 yesterday (Monday), the cave was on the way up to Xàtiva's iconic hilltop castle, one of the town's most popular tourism attractions.

After dragging the man out of the flood water, they gave him first aid for a severe head injury and hypothermia before rushing him to Xàtiva's Lluís Alcanyís hospital.

But he died later last night in A&E, medics reveal.

Between Friday night and Monday night, two men in Los Alcázares (Murcia) aged 40 and 47 lost their lives after being dragged into a swimming pool in the first case and pulled under by the current in his garage in the second – two separate incidences – whilst a 30-year-old man drowned in a gushing stream in Castellón after his car was swept away and flipped over, and a pensioner who tried to reach his car parked near the seafront in Finestrat (Alicante province) was washed away by four-metre-high waves.

EXPATS in Spain travelling to the UK to spend Christmas with family and friends should try to change their flights to earlier in the week if possible – workers at 18 airports, including the main London terminals, will be on strike on Friday, December 23 and on Christmas Eve, a Saturday.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton employees are among the 1,500 or so planning to down tools as a 'last resort', according to their union.

Their salaries have been frozen since 2014, despite the cost of living rocketing even since then and housing now out of reach of the budgets of most first-time buyers.

Unite, representing the workers, has rejected proposals to increase wages by 4.65% in three years.

Swissport luggage-handling staff have joined the strike, meaning flights are likely to be delayed or even cancelled.

Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Edinburgh are other airports affected.

Additionally, pilots on the British airline Virgin Atlantic are negotiating through their union, PPU, and say they will be working 'the bare minimum to comply with their job contracts' in protest over job conditions.

To cap it all, around 2,000 British Airways (BA) cabin crew members have voted to strike in protest over their own frozen salaries, although they have not yet given a date to do so.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WORKERS' minimum wage will go up by 8% next year as part of a gradual move towards its reaching 60% of the average salary in Spain, in line with European Union requirements.

The opposition, in majority, approved this in Parliament last month, with the aim of the lowest-possible pre-tax pay for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week job sitting at €950 by the year 2019.

But now, the increase has been made official after the Lower Chamber formally signed it off yesterday (Thursday).

At present, the minimum monthly salary for a full-time job is €655, albeit over 14 wage packets – a double one in August and at Christmas – meaning firms which pay 12 salaries a year must give their staff a minimum of €764.17 a month.

Self-employed workers earning less than the minimum wage are not required to pay their Social Security stamp, a fixed monthly fee of €267.03 irrespective of earnings.

For employees, they will not have to pay more than 3% of their gross salary in Social Security.

Companies bear the bulk of staff's Social Security contributions, which covers healthcare, retirement pension and provision for State benefits, paying 44% on top of employees' gross wages, but a small contribution is also made by the employee.

The minimum wage change was agreed during the same session as the Lower Chamber agreed its spending limit for 2017, which will be €118.34 billion, not taking into account the cost of repayment of loans and interest.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE drawn-out Spanish working day may be about to change now that employment minister Fátima Báñez has announced a real commitment to cutting it short.

She said in Parliament this week that MPs 'should clock off at 18.00 to set an example', and that she wants the rest of the workforce to be able to do so in order to 'bring it in line with Europe'.

For as long as most employees in Spain can remember, the day has always started anywhere between 08.00 and 09.30 depending upon the nature of the business, and finished between 20.00 and 21.30.

Typically, a 'breakfast break' of up to 45 minutes is taken at around 11.00, with all staff leaving en masse to go to a bar for coffee and croissants, then the long lunch hour can be anything from two hours (roughly 14.00 to 16.00) to four-and-a-half hours (13.00 to 17.30).

This means that although Spaniards are not actually working a 12-hour day, they are 'on the go' for this long and, with commuting where applicable, can mean 14 hours a day spent away from home five days a week.

And in most sectors, Saturday mornings – typically until 13.00 or 14.30 – are a normal part of the working week.

Despite this, numerous studies over decades has shown Spain is one of the least-productive countries in the western world, leading to an unfair stereotype of its workers being 'lazy' and 'needing to sleep all afternoon' – something which employees sorely resent as they practically never see the inside of their homes in waking hours except on Saturday afternoons and Sundays.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PARLIAMENTARY majority has agreed to scrap the PP's unpopular labour reform, taking advantage of their 'strength in numbers' now the right-wing government is in a minority.

Views of experts ranging from businesses, unions, associations, employment law specialists and workers who have fallen 'victim' to the reform concur that it effectively makes it easier and cheaper for companies to sack workers, giving them fewer rights, less bargaining power through their unions, cuts salaries, and has led to a low-pay temporary job culture rather than increasing employment in real terms.

Whilst some aspects of it have helped small businesses winding up or hitting financial troubles to avoid bureacracy when they are forced to make staff redundant to survive or avoid massive debt, the general view is that most firms use it to curtail working conditions, pay and job security.

The right-wing PP's direct opposite, the PSOE (socialists), along with the Catalunya Left Republicans, Valencia's regional left-wing Compromís, leftist independents Unidos Podemos, and the Basque National Party (PNV) all voted in favour of socialist employment spokesman Rafael Simancas' motion to scrap the reform and create a new Workers' Statute to replace it.

This was enough that the PP's vote against, and centre-right Ciudadanos' and Catalunya democrats PDCat's abstaining, could not stop the motion from going through.

Simancas stressed that Parliament did not want to 'wipe out all labour rules in one fell swoop', but to discuss and implement major changes where needed.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FORECASTS from the Bank of Spain show the country may continue to miss its EU deficit targets for the next three years at least – having already narrowly escaped a €2 billion fine from Brussels for failing to contain its debt in 2016.

Spain's target for 2016 was for its national debt not to go above 4.6% of the GDP, although by 'judgment day' this autumn, it remained at nearly 5%.

According to the country's central bank, the deficit will sit at 4.4% at the close of this year, below the EU target, but that it will still be above the figure agreed with Brussels at the end of 2017.

Within the next year, Spain has pledged to bring its debt down to a maximum of 3.1% of the GDP, but the Bank of Spain predicts it will not get below 3.6%.

For 2018 and 2019, Brussels has instructed Spain to reduce its State deficit to 2.2% and 1.3% respectively.

Again, the Bank of Spain believes it will fail in its mission, with a forecast debt-GDP of 3.2% for 2018 and 2.8% for the following year.

To meet its target, the Spanish government needs to claw back over €7bn more in 2017 than in 2016, which it plans to do by clamping down on tax evasion among ultra-high net-worth individuals and companies, and increasing corporation tax.

Economy minister Luis de Guindos calculates these measures will bring in over €8bn, putting the debt cap comfortably within reach.

The Bank of Spain says next year's fiscal policy will be 'contracting' rather than 'neutral' as the European Central Bank (BCE) predicted, and warns that this could leave to 'less-dynamic activity', or a slight shrinkage in the economy, in the short-term future.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POLICE in Alicante are investigating the close circle and business activities of the former CAM bank director and his widow, the latter of whom was found shot dead in a 4x4 on a motor dealership forecourt this week.

They initially believed María del Carmen Martínez's murder to be a robbery, since the family is extremely wealth and is said to live a luxurious lifestyle.

But after further inquiry, officers are more inclined to think a hitman was behind her death.

A family feud centred on the business is said to be no secret – after CAM chairman Vicente Sala died, the reins of his empire were placed in the hands of his son, also called Vicente, along with the majority share capital giving him a veto on any decisions.

The three daughters were fighting this, police reveal, and a court in Alicante had upheld their appeal.

Vicente Junior was due to take over the businesses and the share capital upon the death of his father and mother, María del Carmen Martínez; if his mother survived Vicente Senior, it would all go to her first, according to the company statutes the daughters were battling against.

But the son had recently taken control of the empire with his mother's backing, before her death.

On the day she was found shot in the head on the new and used car dealership forecourt which the family owned, María del Carmen, 72, was due to meet with a notary in Alicante and, later this week, with a prestigious firm of solicitors in Madrid specialising in mercantile law.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THOUSANDS of internet routers in Spain could be wide-open to hackers, according to reports that say some mobile networks plan to withdraw and recall them.

Zyxel, D-Link and Netgear wi-fi boxes have been mentioned, as they apparently suffer weaknesses that allow cyber-criminals in through the back door to manipulate them to their own ends. .

Users in Spain are not the only ones affected – in some other countries, the hackers have left tens of thousands of customers without internet.

In other cases, the routers are tapped so that all internet pages show annoying adverts or automatically flick to advertising sites, rendering them unusable – a virus-type programme known as 'adware'.

Some users have reported their computers being turned into a link in a so-called 'botnet', a network of terminals interlinked to strengthen the chain and attack other laptops, desktop hard drives and mobile phones.

Jazztel, which operates in Spain, uses Zyxel routers – albeit in a very small proportion to the total number it supplies – and has reported up to 16,000 of these being affected.

Although Jazztel says the risk of hackers introducing a virus, adware or linking the system to a botnet is 'very small', the company is analysing the situation with a view to possibly recalling, withdrawing or updating the routers.

The problem is said to have left nearly a million wi-fi customers in Germany and some 100,000 in the UK, through different – but undisclosed – network providers, without internet.

Netgear routers have been found to be vulnerable to a malware programme named 'Acew0rm', whereby if a user clicks on a link whilst connected to the router, the malicious software takes control of the computer.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH president Mariano Rajoy and US president elect Donald Trump spoke to each other on the telephone for the first time this week, and the future 'Brexit' formed part of their conversation.

Both leaders pledged to maintain the 'close level of confidence' in the two countries' bilateral relations, and Rajoy recalled that the USA is 'a very important ally and partner' for Spain, since they 'share the same values and challenges'.

During their 20-minute chat on Monday evening, the two presidents analysed various issues of international politics, with special emphasis on security and defence – in particular the global fight against Jihad terrorism, since Spain and the USA are part of the international coalition involved in attempting to wipe out the fundamentalist threat.

Trump and Rajoy 'exchanged points of view' over 'the consequences of Brexit' – although little has been revealed about the finer details of their talk, so it is not known what they said about the UK's move to leave the European Union.

This said, Rajoy has already expressed his disappointment with the referendum result producing a majority – albeit a very slim one – in favour of leaving the EU, and told British prime minister Theresa May recently that he was concerned UK citizens living in Spain did not suffer as a result.

Rajoy and Trump are said to have discussed 'the global financial situation', and Spain's leader told the US president elect that he was 'convinced' of the need to push for 'intense and sustained economic growth' in Europe in order to allow jobs to be created and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor to be sewn up.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEARLY six in 10 Basque residents want to see a referendum on the region's independence – but four in 10 would vote to stay in Spain and more than one in 10 would abstain, says a recent survey.

A total of 59% of those interviewed in a stratified regional poll, the 'Eusko-Barometer', believe the people should at least be given a formal voice concerning whether or not the Basque Country should secede from Spain.

But only 39% would definitely vote for independence – another 31% would vote against it, 18% say they are 'not sure', and 12% would not vote at all.

Around 800 interviews were carried out on a microcosm of the region's population, and also concerned questions such as a possible referendum on whether or not Spain's Constitution should be amended, 38 years after it was first signed.

Two thirds, or 67%, say they are happy with the Magna Carta as it stands, whilst 37% would vote to change it, considering that it needs to be updated to reflect values of the 21st century rather than of the late 1970s.

Of those who did not categorically support a Basque independence referendum, 30% gave an outright 'no', 3% were not sure, and 8% were not bothered either way.

Three in five, or 60%, say they feel Basque and Spanish, rather than one or the other – 36% in equal measures, although 22% felt 'entirely Basque' and only 5% 'entirely Spanish'.

This is the second survey in as many years which shows Basque nationalism is falling out of fashion.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WEEK-LONG pre-Christmas crackdown on drink- and drug-driving started today with checkpoints set up on Spain's roads until this coming Sunday, December 18.

Although motorways will be targeted, traffic police will concentrate on secondary roads, where 80% of fatal accidents take place.

Figures in past years have shown alcohol levels above the limit, or drugs, and sometimes both, are found in over a third of drivers killed in crashes.

Despite this high figure, Spain has one of the most restrictive legal limits for alcohol in Europe – so low, in fact, that a standard glass of wine is enough to put drivers on the wrong side of it.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SCIENTISTS in Barcelona have discovered cancerous tumours need fat, or lipids, to metastasise and that by isolating the fat-receptor protein in malignant cells, the risk of the disease spreading can be reduced.

Salvador Aznar Benitah, heading up the investigation team – photographed left with the main author of the resulting paper, Gloria Pascual – says experiments on rats with cancer have shown that a high-fat diet can accelerate metastasis by up to 15%.

The aim of the experiments which Aznar Benitah's team at Barcelona's Biomedical Research Institute (IRB) was to try to find the cells which cause metastasis and examine their properties.

Through this, they discovered the protein CD36 – a fatty-acid receptor which is present in very high quantities in malignant cells.

The report, published in the science magazine Nature, says the team tested a form of therapy on rats – although it has not yet gone through to the clinical trials on humans stage – which involved applying antibodies to the CD36 protein to block its reception of fatty acids.

They found that by doing this, in 10% to 15% of cases, the metastasis stopped altogether and, in those cases where it did not disappear, it reduced by nearly 90%.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PRIEST has designed a mobile phone App for parishioners with a guilty complex to help them find their nearest confessional at any time of the day or night – and says he even has members of his congregation asking about their moral dilemmas via WhatsApp.

Ricardo Latorre says the Confesor Go App is not designed for Catholics to make their confessions by text message - “that would be sacrilege,” he insists – but its built-in GPS locator informs users in real time where their nearest vicar is, his name (since Roman Catholic priests cannot, as yet, be women), age, year he was ordained, and languages he is able to take confessions in.

It even gives a photograph so that he can be easily recognised if he is currently in a public place.

Vicars can then change their status to 'available' or 'busy' according to what they are doing at the time.

Said to be simple to use, Confesor Go has a separate tab titled En el mapa ('on the map') showing geo-locator tags for the various available priests, although parishioners can search Por cercanía ('sort by nearest'), with a Google Map function indicating how to get there and how many kilometres away the vicar is, or Por provincias ('sort by provinces') if the worshipper is prepared to travel. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 30-SOMETHING man has died after jumping out of a moving ambulance on the A-316 bypass known as the 'Olivar motorway' in the province of Jaén.

Speaking in the early hours of this morning (Sunday), emergency services say they were called out on Friday night at around 20.20 to attend to 'a man lying on the tarmac', but that the paramedics who attended the scene confirmed he had been killed instantly.

The deceased is said to have jumped voluntarily – rather than fallen – from the ambulance as it passed through the village of Torrelodones, near Baeza, in the land-locked Andalucía province.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOUR men dressed up as Santa Claus held up the Apple shop in Valencia, making off with a large number of iPads, says head of public safety Juan Carlos Moragues.

Speaking last night (Saturday), Moragues said the thieves escaped at high speed – despite the city centre's now having a 30-kilometre-per-hour limit – in a car which had been stolen on Wednesday night from Manises, where Valencia airport is based.

They used it at around 14.00 on the day after pinching it as a getaway car, and it was found burnt out on the main road towards Riba-roja de Túria, close to Manises and Valencia.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRUSSELS has filed disciplinary action against Spain and seven other European Union member States for failing to hold Volkswagen accountable for the 'dieselgate' scandal.

Spain has legislation in place allowing for fines or other forms of legal redress in the event of manufacturers breaking national and international laws – a requirement for all EU member States in the form of a European Directive which must be incorporated into each country's national legal system.

But the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Greece have not done so, meaning they are facing disciplinary action from the European Commission.

Other countries which do have such legislation in place but failed to apply it after Volkswagen was found to have been doctoring emissions readings are Germany, Luxembourg – and the UK, which will not escape a formal reprimand by having voted to 'Brexit', and will still be liable even if the situation is unresolved once the 'divorce' from the EU is complete.

Spain, likewise, did not apply the penalties despite its laws providing for this action and its having known about the diesel emissions scam since September 2015.

The country will not immediately be fined or otherwise punished by the EU – the first step is for the European Commission to send the national government a letter asking for explanations as to why it had not taken action against Volkswagen, despite knowing that 10.5 million cars and vans worldwide were affected by nitrous oxide (NOx) emission levels being masked by 'cheat' software.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANIARDS' pension planning is typically too little and too late, warns recent research – a total of 46% of the working-age population has no other provisions such as private pensions or other investments, meaning they will be relying entirely on the State pot.

And the average Spaniard does not start thinking about saving for retirement until the age of 43.

The majority say they do not have any money left after paying the bills to save up for a pension, whilst others admit they are not that interested or do not think they need to.

Private pensions have, historically, been given little thought, because the State pension has always been sufficient – the average monthly pension, which includes a double payment in summer and at Christmas, varies by region but comes in at between €800 and €1,100 a month – enough to live modestly at the bottom end, and comfortably at the top end, where the retiree does not have a mortgage.

Also, early retirement has always been rare in Spain, and even frowned upon in mainstream society – the option exists for some workers in their 60s to switch to part-time hours and claim part of their pension, but full retirement has always been at 65, now gradually rising to 67.

Private pension annual investment limits have also always been minimal – at the start of the financial crisis, when younger workers were first beginning to consider private pots, the maximum they were permitted to pay in was €8,000 a year.

Despite this lack of planning, well over half – 56% - of Spaniards of working age are conscious that they will be unable to live on their income once they reach State retirement age.

Only 41.5% have a private pension, and just 6.5% have a small company pension – again, a concept which has not caught on in Spain due to the very high Social Security payments employers are required to make on behalf of their staff, inflating the wage bill by up to 50%.

Doubts about whether the State system will survive, with far fewer contributors due to high unemployment and the government's having nearly emptied its reserve fund in less than four years, are beginning to plague working-age Spaniards.

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THREE silver-screen productions have been filmed in the Canary Islands in quick succession, helping to put the archipelago on the world map.

Brad Pitt and Marianne Cotillard were in Madrid last month for the première of Allied, a World War II spy film in which a Canadian pilot and French Résistance worker fall in love during a mission – and a significant chunk of the Robert Zemeckis historical epic was shot in Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.

At present, the regional capital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is the location for several scenes from Down a dark hall, starring Uma Thurman (pictured above at Cannes in 2014).

Based upon the Lois Duncan novel and directed by Rodrigo Cortés, the film centres on a new student – Kit Gordy – who starts at the élite Blackwood Boarding School, where she encounters weird supernatural experiences and discovers the headmistress has dark powers.

Finally, another historical production – this time home-grown – has been partly filmed in the Canary Islands: Salvador Calvo's 1898, Los últimos de Filipinas ('1898: The Last of the Philippines'), set during the end of Spain's colonial rule over the Asian nation.

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ECONOMY minister Luis de Guindos has announced IVA will drop from 21% to 4% for online newspapers, magazines and e-books, in line with the paper versions of all three.

Value-added tax on press, media and literature had always been in the lowest band of 4% until the drastic IVA reform of September 2012, when the middle level went up from 8% to 10% and the top rate from 18% to 21% - having been only 16% two years previously – and a number of goods and services which used to attract bottom-band or 'super-reduced' 4% IVA moved into the maximum category.

This hike from 4% to 21% has meant tougher times for parents at the start of the new school year when buying their children's textbooks, has seen a dramatic decline in cinema and theatre audiences, CD and music download sales, and left the digital media struggling financially.

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A TEENAGE girl has been arrested for calling a classmate names on a social network and insulting the victim's father – showing how authorities in Spain are taking a zero-tolerance approach to verbal bullying.

The accused, 16, from the town of Alsasua in the land-locked northern region of Navarra, was taken into custody and charged with defamation and psychological abuse for her behaviour on the network Ask.fm, which is based in the Republic of Ireland.

It was the victim's father who reported the matter to the police, and who revealed that his daughter had needed counselling as a result of the online bullying.

Police heard that the suspect had set up a fake Ask.fm profile using the victim's photo and a username similar to her real name, and apparently made derogatory and humiliating comments when answering threads anonymously, as well as giving fake and very damaging information about the victim's father, pretending it was this girl who had done so.

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The storm that lambasted Málaga and Cadiz last week has abated, but volunteer services continue to help the locals recover from the water and mud that in many cases has flooded everything they own.

Jorge Gallardo, the mayor of Cártama in Málaga, one of the worst affected towns in Andalusia, explained how water is still being pumped out of homes and business premises and that the full extent of the damage is still being assessed.

"Despair and anger have given way to resignation," explained Gallardo, who expressed his regret at the number of locals who have lost everything.

All the affected towns and villages in Málaga and Cadiz have been hard at work for days now trying to evaluate the damage caused by the storm. "We have been asked to give an estimate in 24 hours," said Gallardo, so that on Friday the Council of Ministers can approve some aid measures.

A first estimate by the Insurance Compensation Consortium estimates damages at between 22 and 25 million euros in the province, although this figure is preliminary, and the value of damage caused on the local road network alone amounts to four million euros.

In Campo de Gibraltar some degree of normality has been restored, although in several places work still continues in order to mitigate the effects of the floods.

The towns and villages affected have a month to assess the damage and request aid, for public entities, individuals and companies that have suffered damages and losses due to the torrential rain.

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A GANG posing as police officers to rob foreign tourists has been broken up in Madrid, with eight individuals arrested and six vehicles seized.

The thieves targeted holidaymakers in the vicinity of hotels and motorways in the Greater Madrid region and at the airport, dressed as police officers with fake ID badges, and are said to be the largest and most prolific in recent history.

They would target tourists who appeared to have money or valuables in their luggage or about their person, and who appeared not to know the area very well.

The victims were mainly stopped in hired cars, frequently on the A-1 and A-4 motorways.

On the pretext of searching their vehicles for drugs or stolen goods, the bogus policemen pulled the holidaymakers over, showing them their ID badges and requesting their passports and wallets.

They took cash from the tourists' purses, claiming it was counterfeit, and watches and mobile phones, saying they bore resemblance to stolen items.

The offenders would also wrench jewellery and personal effects from the victims before making a run for it.

Investigating officers said the eight men wore caps with sewn-on badges bearing the Spanish flag and the word España, alongside plaques or badges which turned out to have been bought from toy stores.

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For the first time, Spain has managed to equal the average result of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states in the annual PISA global education survey.

The latest report to be published, based on 2015 data, shows that on a scale where 500 points is an average mark, Spain achieved a score of 493 for sciences (down 3 points on the 2012 result) and 486 for mathematics (up 2 points). For reading comprehension, the country scored 496 points (up 8 points).

A total of 37,000 15-year-old students at 980 Spanish educational centers took part in the study and results show a significant north-south divide, with Castilla y León scoring 519 points for sciences while Andalusia scored 473 points.

At the national level, the latest PISA exam, which this time had a strong science focus, showed that Spain is in the same bracket as countries such as the US, France, Russia, Norway and Sweden. However, it is long way behind nations like Singapore, which topped the table with 556 points.

Estonia and Finland were the highest-ranked European nations, in third and fifth place respectively.

Spain’s Education Minister Íñigo Méndez de Vigo welcomed the results, calling them “very satisfactory.” He said Spain had “bucked the educational trend and now ranked, for the first time in its history, alongside the most advanced countries in the world.”

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El Corte Inglés has thrown down the gauntlet to Amazon by extending its 'delivery in under two hours' service in the run up to Christmas and the Three Kings' festivities.

The national department store chain has extended its Click&Express online shopping service to almost all its centres so that customers can enjoy almost immediate delivery of goods, within a two-hour timeline, to suit the customer.

From Friday onwards this service will be available in 53 towns and cities across Spain, covering over 830 postcodes and a total of 18 million people.

El Corte Inglés becomes the first company to offer this online service in all the main Spanish cities, a direct challenge to multinational Amazon, which recently introduced its Prime Now service in Madrid and Barcelona.

El Corte Inglés clients have the choice of over 150,000 products in the company's virtual catalogue, including fashion, accessories, perfumes, cosmetics, housewares, technology, IT, electrical appliances, and Gourmet Experience products, and can have their chosen goods delivered to their home within two hours of placing their order, or in a pre-determined time slot of their choice.

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Officers from the Guardia Civil have arrested 31 people for buying and selling firearms illegally over the Internet. Operation Vulpes III, covering a number of Spanish provinces has dismantled two separate clandestine outfits and confisacted 124 firearms and more than 14,100 bullets, amongst other items.

The undercover operation, coordinated by Europol, was carried out by the Guardia Civil's Intelligence Section, with support in Seville, Barcelona, Vizcaya, Madrid, Murcia, Granada, Córdoba, Huelva, Jaén, Alicante, Tarragona, Badajoz, A Coruña and Almería and concludes the phase that began in April this year when police arrested a man in Albacete in possession of 23 handguns and 450 rounds of ammunition. He was found to be acquiring large quantities of detonating guns from countries in Eastern Europe and then modifying them in order to make them fire actual bullets, which he himself was manufacturing in a secret workshop in his garage, and then selling online.

Documents confiscated during the first phase of the operation allowed officers to identify a large group of people buying illegal firearms and ammunition over the Internet. This resulted in 31 separate properties being searched, guns, ammunition and gunpowder being confiscated and 31 arrests.

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MADRID'S mayoress Manuela Carmena has denied reports that the city will ban diesel-engine vehicles from its roads from the year 2025 in line with plans announced by Paris and México DF.

The Spanish capital was named during the C40 Mayors' Summit, involving the leaders of 40 major cities worldwide, in México DF, this week as one of three which intended to stop diesel cars using urban roads within nine years, although Oslo, Norway said it would do so by the year 2019.

But Manuela (pictured right, alongside council spokeswoman Rita Maestre, left) did not attend the meeting in the northern American country – she sent a representative, her party said.

A press release from the local authority said: “Madrid city council wishes to stress that it has not signed any agreement in México DF committing itself to remove diesel-engine vehicles from its roads by 2025, despite reports to this effect issued by the C40.”

Another Spanish mayoress – Anne Hidalgo, who was born in Cádiz but is now head of Paris city council – had already announced plans to forbid diesel cars from entering the metropolitan area and was backed by Miguel Ángel Mancera, mayor of México DF which is, statistically, the most-polluted and traffic-filled city on earth.

An unprecedented move to reduce air pollution, which kills an estimated three million people worldwide directly, diesel vehicles are also expected to be banned from the Greek capital, Athens, by the same date.

The press release from the Summit claimed Manuela Carmena commented on the need to cut air pollution for the sake of the health of 'ourselves, our children and our elderly', and recalled that 60% of greenhouse gas emissions were man-made.

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THE Costa del Sol has suffered its worst floods in a quarter of a century, with buses and cars under water, residents on rooftops, one woman dead and a family with nine children rescued by swimmers.

‎A 26-year-old woman drowned after becoming trapped by flood waters in a brothel in Estepona (Málaga province) as emergency services in helicopters failed to save her.

Cádiz, Huelva and Sevilla are on high alert, but the province of Málaga is the worst-hit - in the last 24 hours, 200 litres of rain per square metre (20 centimetres, or ‎eight inches) has been recorded, and police, fire and ambulance workers have responded to over 700 emergencies since last night (Saturday).

As well as Estepona and Málaga city, the disaster zone takes in Marbella, Alhaurín de la Torre, Álora, Benahavis, Cártama Casarabonela, Coín, Mijas, Ojén, Pizarra, Tolox, Fuengirola, Manilva, Casares, San Pedro de Alcántara, and Guaro‎.

Flooded garages and ground floors of homes and trade premises have been behind most of the call-outs, but in Cártama and Mijas, dozens of residents have been rescued from the roofs - and even one couple from the bonnet of their car.

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DIESEL-ENGINE cars and other vehicles will be banned from Madrid city from the year 2025, following the example of Paris and México DF.

An unprecedented agreement has been reached by all parties in the city council in a bid to improve air quality and health.

Some three million people die every year as a direct result of air pollution, which causes respiratory and circulatory problems and cancer.

All three cities have pledged to offer incentives for the use of 'alternative' vehicles, such as electric cars, and to encourage walking and cycling, and set up infrastructure for pushbikes.

And Paris' mayoress Anne Hidalgo – who is in fact Spanish and was born in Cádiz – says climate change and pollution are among 'the greatest challenges of our time'.

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LONG-DISTANCE rail manufacturer Talgo has won the 'contract of the century', to build 30 high-speed trains for national transport board RENFE.

Talgo offered the best price, reducing the initial estimate by 28.3% to a maximum of just under €1.1 billion for the first 15 trains to be built and their maintenance for 30 years.

The deal includes the option of building a further 15 trains in batches of five, and a possible contract renewal of 10 years.

If RENFE goes for this, the amount paid to Talgo will be just under €1.5bn – a reduction of 44% on the maximum quoted price of €2.64bn for 30 trains with a 40-year maintenance contract.

This is the biggest public works contract in RENFE's history, and bids came from the Spanish firm CAF, the French company Alstom, the Germany corporation Siemens, as well as Talgo, although the fifth bidder, Canadian firm Bombardier, fell at the first hurdle when the technical proposals were evaluated.

Talgo's offer for supply and maintenance came to €337.1 million and €448.9m respectively for the first 15 trains over 30 years, which translates to €22.5m per train and €2.49 per kilometre travelled in keeping them on the track.

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VALENCIA'S noisy, fun and colourful Fallas festival has been given UNESCO heritage status, putting it on the world map, ensuring its lifelong protection and potentially bringing in even more tourists.

Every year in mid-March, papier mâché monuments the height of a small block of flats are set up at practically every junction in the city, featuring a number of scenes with caricatures of politicians and famous people, poking fun at current affairs.

The late Rita Barberá, mayoress for 24 years until May 2015 and who died from a heart attack in Madrid on November 23, has featured in falla monuments so often that she would have thought something had gone drastically wrong if she ever walked past one which didn't house a spoof statue of her – such as the one in the above picture, in her characteristic red suit jacket.

Fireworks go off, marquées or 'casales' are set up next to every monument – known individually as a falla – in which girls and boys in traditional Valencian costume, called falleras and falleros respectively spend the best part of a week partying, eating and drinking around the clock.

A wooden frame with the head of the Virgin Mary is set up and falleras place bunches of flowers in it until a giant floral Mother of Christ is formed.

Then, on the last night – March 19, which is Father's Day and Saint Joseph's Day in Spain – the fallas are burnt to the ground, starting with the lowest-placed in the prizegiving and ending with the winner.

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SPANISH fast food chain Telepizza plans to open 200 branches in Iran in the next 10 years, with the first due to be ready to trade by March next year in Teheran.

Present in nearly every middle-sized town in Spain and frequently on speed-dial among residents who hate cooking, Telepizza plans to go international with the help of its trading partner Momenin Investment Group (MIG) and a cash injection of €93.8 million (US$100m) between now and the end of 2026.

“Iran is an excellent opportunity, because there's no competition,” says the company's global chairman Giorgio Minardi.

The largest pizza chain outside of the USA in terms of number of branches, Telepizza will set up a factory in Teheran as well as its flagship outlet, which will be followed by seven more shops in the country by the end of 2017.

It will be the only western-run fast food chain to launch in the Muslim country, and is expected to seize a 25% to 30% of the Iranian market quota.

Iran has said it is 'open' to European corporate investment on its territory, and Telepizza will be the first.

And the chain is set to be yet another Spanish firm to break into the UK, along with the existing staples such as Banco Santander and Inditex – its first shop in Britain will open in the first quarter of next year through the company Karali Ventures Ltd.

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