Live News From Spain As It Happens

HOLY Communion season is well under way, with most children's ceremonies taking place in May and mid-June – although in at least one town in Spain, they will be a non-religious affair.

Confirmation ceremonies in Spain follow a year's worth of catechism, or Sunday school, and are better known as a huge party for family and friends where the child dresses up in a pricey gown resembling a wedding dress, for girls, or a sailor's uniform, for boys, and receive heaps of presents.

The pomp and circumstance legitimately calls the entire meaning of being confirmed into the Catholic Church into question – at around the age of eight to 10, children all over the country start looking forward to their party, presents and pretty dresses, normally taking place in a hired restaurant hall with up to 200 guests, most of whom will be bringing gifts.

For children brought up in an atheist household, especially if – given the choice – they would rather not go to Sunday school and pass tests to show they have understood the material, the whole First Communion experience is a rite of passage they miss out on.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PUPILS at a Madrid high school have broken the world record for the longest sheet of paper on earth.

Over 400 students made the paper from scratch using ancient Chinese methods from around the year 105 BC, and covered it with fragments from the epic 17th-century doorstopper Don Quijote de la Mancha, to mark the fourth centenary of author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's death.

The sheet of paper measures 0.5 metres wide (about 1'8”) and 20 metres in length (65 feet), and was made by first- and second-year pupils and the lower sixth at San Isidro high school using 10 kilos of flax fibre and two tonnes of water, or around 2,000 litres.

Next April, the paper will be taken to China by a team of teachers and some very lucky pupils.

The Chinese ambassador in Spain, Zhong Xiewi, was present when the sheet was unveiled.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BRITISH tourist has suffered head and face injuries after jumping from a balcony in Magaluf, Mallorca, whilst practising the foolhardy stunt known as 'balconing'.

The 25-year-old, whose name has not been revealed, was said to have been 'very drunk' when he leapt off the terrace, and this and the fact he only fell around five feet (1.5 metres) meant he survived the plunge.

But his head injury is said to be severe, and he was rushed by ambulance to Son Espases hospital, where he remains under observation.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FIRE in a bar in Ibiza port left 18 people with smoke inhalation, one of them very seriously.

They include a Local Police officer and two port police.

All of them were treated by paramedics in a mobile intensive care unit on site.

Emergency services have just revealed that the blaze broke out at around 23.10hrs on Friday when the underground electricity meter box beneath the outside seating area went up in flames.

Several explosions ensued and smoke billowed out of the entrance stairwell.

Firefighters had to remove all the chairs and tables, then break open the part of the terrace above the meter box to let the smoke out

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A STRIKE on Barcelona's underground rail system means only 20% of trains will be running this week off-peak.

During rush hour, four in 10 trains will operate as usual.

Rush-hour strikes will affect the entire metro network from Monday to Wednesday inclusive, between 07.00hrs and 09.00hrs, and from 16.00hrs to 18.00hrs, with 60% of trains grounded.

The later rush hour, from 20.30hrs to 22.00hrs, will see just two in 10 trains running.

A further strike on Thursday between 09.20hrs and 12.20hrs will bring 80% of trains to a halt, and services will be at just 40% between 17.00hrs and 20.00hrs that day.

The metropolitan transport board has strongly recommended commuters find alternative forms of travel until Friday, particularly during the 07.00hrs to 09.00hrs slot when as many as 190,000 people use the metro.

Underground rail services will be 'considerably affected', the transport board warns.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CHURCH in Madrid plans to install two large-screen TVs so the city's homeless can watch the Champions' League final.

Statuettes of Mary and Joseph will 'watch over' the screens, although the Spanish capital as a whole does not have to pray too hard for a win – both the finalists are Madrid teams.

Kick-off is at 20.45hrs on Saturday, when Real Madrid FC and Atlético de Madrid will battle it out for the coveted trophy in Milan, northern Italy.

Yet another initiative by the vicar of San Antón church, Father Ángel, chairman of the charity Messengers of Peace – which took the above photo - the televisions mean those who sleep on the street will be able to 'watch the football like gentlemen'.

Already, the temple – known locally as 'the homeless church' – bears the coats of arms of both teams in the Champions League final on its outside wall, both of which are 10 metres (32'6”) high.

Father Ángel has even managed to convince the chairmen of the two clubs, Florentino Pérez and Enrique Cerezo, to bring the cup with them after the local derby to show off in the church, so the street-dwellers can see it in person.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POLICE are on stand-by in central Barcelona in case of another night of riots after squatters occupied a disused bank branch near the main Passeig de Gràcia, the north-eastern city's booming shopping street.

Last night (Wednesday) brought a third night of violent uprising, and the ex-mayor of Barcelona is now being interrogated for having allegedly paid a year's rent on the bank - €65,000 - out of public funds to allow the squatters to stay put.

Xavier Trias, of the now-defunct pro-independence coalition Convergence and Union (CiU), says he paid this to 'buy more time to find a solution' to the squatting problem.

They were first evicted on Monday, which led to firebombing, fights and public fixtures such as benches and bins being smashed up and set alight.

Six people, including two police officers needed medical attention on Wednesday night, and two people were arrested.

One of these, a 30-year-old Spanish man was found to be carrying a rucksack filled with fire-lighters.

At least 500 protesters, many with their faces covered and wearing backpacks filled with stones and inflammable material, spread out in small groups around the C/ Gran in the Gràcia neighbourhood, setting fire to wheelie-bins and staging human barricades to stop police getting into the bank building.

Some nearby residents sprayed burning bins and benches with hoses from their own balconies, fearing their homes would be affected by the fire.

After around 45 minutes, at about 23.15hrs, the groups moved to the C/ Asturias, and riot police used sound guns to disperse the protesters.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of Europe's largest money-laundering swoops has seen 30 people arrested in seven Spanish provinces accused of hiding cash from pirate TV signals using the virtual currency 'Bitcoin'.

National Police and the tax authorities have seized 48,800 decoders, €183,200 in cash, 10 top-of-the-range cars and 78.3 'Bitcoins', worth €31,320.

The racket was uncovered after a genuine decoder firm reported a different company was copying theirs and selling them.

These counterfeit cardsharing systems were shipped from China and the gang decrypted television signals so it could sell pay-per-view channels online.

IPTV, or Internet Protocol Television, was also used to provide in excess of 1,600 pirate channels from around the world via servers throughout Europe.

Raids on homes in the provinces of Málaga, Valencia, Madrid, Córdoba, Lugo in Galicia, and on the island of Mallorca led to 140 extra-strength computer processing units being seized.

These were run by siphoning off the public electricity system, since they require a high level of power to operate.

The pirate channels were sold through the 'Bitcoin' community, meaning the perpetrators earned large amounts of this virtual currency through illegal sales.

They were said to be earning up to a 'Bitcoin' a day – each of these coins is worth about €400.

The 'Bitcoin' mining centres were used as a method of laundering the sales from the pirate channels, since these were then cashed in for euros and spent on property, expensive cars, and even a private jet.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IRISH budget airline Ryanair has launched flights for €19.99 for British expats in Europe for June 22 and 23 – as long as they vote for the UK to stay in the EU.

An estimated two million Brits have moved permanently to European Union countries, of whom the overwhelming majority – at least a million – are said to be in Spain.

But the real figures are thought to be at least 50% higher, given that many have failed to register their presence in Europe or de-register in the UK, and does not count ‘part-time’ expats whose main country of residence is Britain but who spend up to five months of the year in Europe, particularly Spain.

Ryanair’s chief executive officer, Michael O’Leary, says that although his company is based in Ireland, it is the UK’s largest airline and is a huge source of employment for Britain.

Around 3,000 people based in 13 airports work for Ryanair in the UK, and 41 million of its passengers are transported to and from Britain every year.

O’Leary is against a ‘Brexit’ and says the European Union’s ‘open skies’ policies have seen the tourism industry take off.

Britain is one of Europe’s most competitive economies, thanks to goods, services and people being able to move around the 28 member States freely, O’Leary says.

He believes prime minister David Cameron has ensured, through his ‘wish list’ agreed earlier this year with the other 27 member countries, that the UK will never have to join the euro and will cut red tape in general.

But a Brexit could cause investment in the UK to be drawn towards Germany and the Republic of Ireland instead, O’Leary believes.

The ‘fly home to vote remain’ €19.99 tickets are valid for all UK airports, from all airports in the EU – including Spain – but are available for all nationalities in practice, not just Brits, even though non-Britons cannot vote unless they are Commonwealth or Irish citizens.

Brits in the EU are only allowed to vote if they have been outside the UK for less than 15 years, although an appeal brought by two expats, including 94-year-old war veteran Harry Schindler in Italy, is on its way to the British Supreme Court after being turned down by the High Court.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MAYORESS of Madrid Manuela Carmena has set up cigarette-butt bins on the street which allow users to ‘bet’ on which team will win the Champions’ League.

One slot has the emblem for Real Madrid FC, and the other for Atlético de Madrid FC.

The novel ‘fantasy football’ wager serves an underlying useful purpose, however – Sra Carmena wanted to find a way of keeping the streets clean, and admits she has ‘scolded’ residents and visitors ‘on more than one occasion’ for dropping their cigarette ends on the ground rather than in a bin.

Her latest scheme comes a few months after a campaign which saw portable ashtrays being handed out in the street.

The idea was taken from the British ‘Ballot Bin’, whereby litter bins have been set up in London and other major cities to find out residents’ opinions on public matters based upon which slot they drop their waste in.

It is likely ‘Ballot Bins’ will have been set up all over the UK to find out how the public intends to vote in the forthcoming in/out referendum on European Union membership.

The bins in Madrid are in the process of being set up in the Cibeles Palace area on the C/ Bustamante and C/ Montalbán, as well as outside a major hospital and a bus station.

As the bins have been designed by the existing rubbish and recycling waste collection firm, Plastic-Omnium, they have not cost taxpayers anything, Sra Carmena reveals.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SCHOOLS near the used tyre plant in Seseña (Toledo province) which was burning for four solid days will remain closed until at least June 1, according to Castilla-La Mancha’s regional education authorities.

Toxic smoke continues to billow out of the plant, where 90,000 tonnes, or around five million tyres went up in flames 11 days ago, and forecasts of strong winds mean it is still not considered safe for children to attend the eight schools in the area.

Classes were scrapped whilst the fire was burning, and the centres have only been open sporadically since then.

The last time pupils were at school in the Seseña area was on Thursday, May 19.

Although Thursday, May 26 and Tuesday, May 31 are bank holidays for the Corpus Christi and the regional festival respectively, by the time they reopen, kids will have missed eight days of scheduled class – assuming the shut-down does not continue beyond June 1.

Parts of the tyre plant, which was due to be shut down due to the risk of a fire causing poisonous smoke before this in fact happened, are still smouldering, but the few remaining flames are under control.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH prime minister David Cameron has warned that family holidays to Spain would dramatically increase in price if the UK pulled out of the European Union.

Flights would be more expensive due to no longer being within the common market, a factor that would lead to trade barriers going up again since, at present, movement of goods, services and people is treated as though it were within the same country when crossing the 28 member States.

And with the pound sterling having already fallen from its recent €1.41 to around €1.26, this could automatically add on around 225 pounds, or €290 to the cost of the average family holiday in Spain.

Spain continues to be the number one destination for Brits seeking summer breaks – especially as the financial crisis has made their 'old favourite' less costly, and the instability in traditionally cheaper sunshine hotspots like Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt leading to an exodus from these countries.

Conservative leader Cameron, giving a press conference at the EasyJet base in Luton airport, said the pound could fall by as much as a further 12% against the euro in the event of a 'Brexit'.

Its devaluation would also make the US dollar more expensive, meaning that even though a Brexit would not affect holidays in the United States per se, with the currency being stronger against the sterling, a family fortnight there would cost up to 620 pounds (about €800) more.

And a 10-night stay in Portugal would cost 230 pounds (€296) extra, whilst an eight-day family trip to France would go up in price by around 210 pounds (€270).

Airlines operating between the UK and the EU would face 'all types of bureaucracy and restrictions' that they are currently free from as part of the common market, Cameron says.

And the abolition of roaming costs for mobile phone use would not benefit the UK after a 'Brexit'.

“One of the other things that's happening in Europe is that we're abolishing romaning costs within the EU,” Cameron explained.

“This is one of the most annoying aspects of going on holiday. You use your mobile phone and you get a gigantic bill. Getting rid of roaming could mean that in a 10-minute call to the United Kingdom, you're saving nearly four pounds [€5.16],” he stressed.

The cost of holidays, of food and of mobile phone use abroad are 'very solid arguments' for remaining in the EU, Cameron concluded.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH reporter has gone missing in Colombia, and is feared to have been kidnapped.

Salud Hernández Mora (pictured) is thought to have been abducted by the National Liberation Army (ELN) whilst covering the production of the coca plant – drunk as a herbal tea in the western countries of South America and the principal ingredient of cocaine – in the town of La Tarra, north of the Colombian city of Santander.

But authorities in La Tarra say they have no evidence to support the theory that she has been kidnapped.

Hernández Mora, a columnist with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and local correspondent for the Spanish daily broadsheet El Mundo, was last seen on Saturday after having travelled to the still-unsettled Catatumbo district for work.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has sent out a search party, and Spanish foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo is following the operation closely.

As Hernández Mora has joint Spanish and Colombian nationality, it is the South American country’s authorities which are mainly responsible for searching for and safeguarding her, but Spain will remain on standby to help out and keep tabs on the Colombian government to ensure they are making every effort.

The ELN is said to be more decentralised and has less of a strict hierarchy than the FARC, and has strong links with Ecuador along with commanders spread out in local areas.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN ANIMAL welfare society has found a legal loophole that outlaws the cruel ‘festival’ known as the Toro de la Vega, just days after the regional government announced killing the bull was banned.

The bloodthirsty event takes place in Tordesillas, Valladolid province in the centre-northern region of Castilla y León, and has sparked outrage and revulsion all over Spain.

A bull is released into a crowd, and participants hurl spears at it either on foot or from horseback.

Once the bull is down, the ‘game’ is over, and it is left to bleed to death – and no bull comes out alive, since it is surrounded by lance-throwers and has nowhere to run to avoid them.

This week, the regional government announced it was against the law for bulls to be killed as part of ‘popular festivals’ except in a bull-ring – although protesters felt this made little difference since, even if the bull was not dead by the end of the spectacle, its injuries were so severe it would not survive anyway.

But this weekend, the National Association for Animal Welfare and Protection (ANPBA) warned that the local bye-law covering the very same fiesta states that it is forbidden to spear the bull unless this was with the specific aim of killing it.

And if lances were only allowed to be used with the intention of killing the bull, the regional law banning bull-killing means that the festival effectively now ‘bans itself’ with its own rule-book.

The ANPBA says if the mayor of Tordesillas, who has always been determined the tournament would continue, still wanted to keep it going, he would have to substantially alter the rules so as to adapt it to regional law, as this takes precedence over local bye-laws.

This would effectively spell the end of the spectacle.

According to the animal welfare group, campaigns to stop the Toro de la Vega taking place have been ongoing since 1966, when spearing and lancing was banned by the Civil Governor of Valladolid.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EUROPEAN Commissioners have ordered Spain to implement new laws on cigarette sales, including making all packets generic and unbranded.

Spain is one of a handful of European Union member States which has not implemented the directive on tobacco by the deadline, which was on Friday.

The aims of the directive include reducing the number of people who smoke by encouraging them to give up or not to start in the first place, dissuading teenagers and very young adults from taking up the habit, and ensuring everyone is fully aware of the dangers involved.

It covers rules on the manufacturing, production and presentation of cigarettes, loose ‘roll-your-own’ tobacco, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, electronic or E-cigarettes, and herb-based products designed to be ‘smoked’.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH ambassador in Spain Simon Manley has ‘diplomatically’ implied the UK does not support Catalunya’s bid for independence on Twitter after a ‘courteous and productive’ meeting between Manley and the region’s vice-president, Oriol Junqueras.

Among other matters, Manley is busy with a Spain-wide campaign to get British expats who have lived outside the UK for less than 15 years to register to vote in the referendum on EU membership, and explaining how to do so.

On his travels, the ambassador has met with expatriate-run charities, clubs and societies, and says he is overwhelmed by the tireless and generous work of foreigners who give up their time to raise money for human and animal welfare.

He has also met with officials of various ranks across the country – and the trip to Catalunya from his office in Madrid involved a meeting with its second-in-command.

Later, on Twitter, Oriol Junqueras wrote: “It has certainly been a pleasure, @SimonManleyFCO, us meeting to talk about the relationship the UK has with Catalunya.”

Manley replied, two days later: “We value the relationships we have with all Spain’s autonomous regions.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Barcelona have won the Copa del Rey, beating Sevilla 2-0 in extra time after 90 evenly-fought but goalless minutes.

It is Barcelona's second consecutive and 28th Copa Del Rey title overall, most by any club.

It was a fiery encounter with Sevilla's Javier Mascherone shown a red card for bringing down Kévin Gameiro on the edge of the box, denying him a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

Ever Banega was then given his marching orders right at the end of normal time after cliping Neymar on the edge of the box.

Despite outstanding performances by both Iniesta and Piqué, Sevilla created the better chances during the regular period, but it was Jordi Alba's strike seven minutes into extra time that gave Barcelona the advantage, before Neymar added a second in injury time of the added period.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOMEBUYERS who purchased their properties off-plan and were left empty-handed when the developers went out of business may get a refund thanks to a ground-breaking court case in Spain.

Among Brits alone, the pay-off could amount to up to €2.64 billion.

A solicitor’s firm, Spanish Legal Reclaims (SLR), has been fighting cases for tens of thousands of foreign property buyers who put down large deposits before the housing market crash and financial crisis, losing the entire sum when the works ceased indefinitely and never getting their new homes.

Some of these have remained as half-built breeze-block structures for up to eight or nine years, completely uninhabitable and not a saleable commodity.

But developers went bankrupt or decided to cut their losses and abscond, meaning claiming money back from them has been impossible.

Property developers, however, are obliged to lodge a deposit with the local council of the town they planned to build in, covering the cost of completion if they leave projects unfinished.

And many residential complexes left at half-mast have been repossessed by banks after developers defaulted on their loans, meaning as the legal owners, the lenders are liable for refunding off- plan buyers.

SLR’s chief executive Luis Cuervo said the bank guarantee fund was, in all cases, required by law to ensure buyers’ deposits were protected, and the town council deposits to complete unfinished housing estates and other works.

Cuervo reveals that a Supreme Court ruling found banks which repossessed incomplete developments are legally liable for refunding homeowners who lost out.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DAMAGE caused by a fiesta parade through the Doñana National Park has ended up in the hands of the prosecution.

The Virgen del Rocío pilgrimage crossed through the nature reserve this week for the first time ever, and on the way through, a bronze statue of a lynx was knocked off its pedestal.

Weighing nearly 100 kilos, the lynx was created by Swiss sculptor Robert Haynard in 1960 and takes pride of place outside the Biological Reserve science research centre.

First-time visitors to the National Park, which sits across the far south-western provinces of Cádiz and Huelva and covers the salt marshes along their coasts, have historically taken selfies with the lynx, which has become something of a mascot for the Doñana in the last 50 or so years.

And the Biological Reserve area is not accessible to the public, meaning it was almost certainly knocked over by the paraders, says 'green' activist group Ecologists in Action.

The procession, on foot, on horseback and by tractor, has also wiped out nearly two-thirds of eggs from nests laid by rare birds.

The brightly-coloured European bee-eater tends to nest along the country lane running from the Doñana Palace to Pinar de San Agustín, and over 65% of their eggs have been crushed.

Due to heavy rain, those patron saint fiesta brotherhoods which normally parade through the park from the Bajo de Guía entrance were unable to take their usual, well-trodden route, so authorities gave them permission to use the one crossing through the Biological Reserve.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE FIRST-EVER live-donor liver transplant via laparoscopy from an adult to a baby has been carried out in Córdoba's Reina Sofía University Hospital between a nine-month-old girl and her aunt.

Ana Rodríguez, 35, underwent a 'minimally-invasive' procedure to extract a small portion of her liver – one of the only organs, along with a kidney, which can be donated from a living person, given that the liver regrows inside the recipient and a person only needs 10% of the organ to be able to survive.

The donated organ part was immediately transferred to Emma, who is now 11 months old but who, at the time, was suffering from a rare congenital condition which shuts down her bile ducts.

She had undergone an operation to open them up as a temporary measure to keep her stable until the transplant could be performed.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CUBA and Spain have signed their first-ever, groundbreaking transport agreement which will allow the latter to work with its former colony in developing vital, and currently-lacking infrastructure.

Spanish minister for public works Ana Pastor returned yesterday (Monday) from La Habana, having signed the deal which covers management of road and rail transport, joint decision-making in designing shipping rules, and maintenance of trains, plus the use of airport management services.

It also extends to cooperation in financial structuring of road, rail, sea and air transport facilities, training and recruiting engineers and other professionals, and promoting technological development and innovation in the transport sector.

Spain's role in opening up Cuba to foreign investment has been key, Sra Pastor says, in aiding political talks and cooperation between Cuba and the European Union, and will continue to play a major part in ongoing international relations between the island and the old continent.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOUR children at a Granada province primary school had to be rushed to hospital after taking pills given to them by a classmate – although the last of them, who was in intensive care, has been discharged today (Monday).

Medical staff say it was touch and go for the last of the four initially, but after two days in observation, he was declared well enough to go home today .

The pills were at first feared to be illegal street drugs, but an analysis has revealed they are likely to have been heart medication taken by the grandfather of the boy who distributed them in the playground.

The case came to light when a child at the Nuestra Señora del Carmen primary school in the pictured village of Dúrcal (Granada province) began vomiting after breaktime.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ELECTRONIC or 'E-cigarettes' have failed to take off in Spain, with exactly 50% believing they are every bit as harmful to health as the real thing.

And the number of E-cigarette smokers – or 'vapers' – has plummeted since their initial boom two years ago, falling by 72% and now sitting at just 220,000 people in Spain.

Only 17.4% believe E-cigarettes are not a health risk either to the 'vaper' or the 'passive vaper', and a mere 21.2% say they help smokers give up – but 52% say they do not.

Around a third and a quarter respectively say they have no idea of any possible risk, or of any possible benefits.

Those in the Basque Country – 28.8% - and in Catalunya, the Canary Islands and Andalucía (24%) are most convinced E-cigarettes help with giving up smoking, whilst respondents of the study based in Aragón, Navarra, Cantabria and La Rioja had the least faith in them as a solution, with between 10% and 13% on average believing they could be a useful tool in kicking the habit.

Asturias' residents are the least likely to fear health problems from E-cigarettes, at just 29%, but those in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, the southern region of Andalucía, and north-eastern Catalunya said, ino 53%, 54% and 55% of cases, that they felt vaping was dangerous.

Younger people seemed more likely to have faith in E-cigarettes as a tool in the fight against tobacco-smoking addiction, with 28.9% of the 18-24 age group saying they believed 'vaping' would help, compared with just 12.8% of the over-65s.

The surge in popularity of E-cigarettes around two years ago led to a proliferation of shops selling the gadgets themselves and refill cartridges opening, and to the national government's regulating when and where they could be used.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A hat-trick from Luis Suárez helped Barcelona seal the Liga title for the second successive season. The 3-0 win over Granada gave the Catalan giants their 24th Liga title, pipping rivals Real Madrid to the post.

Suárez found the back of the net from close range after 22 minutes and then sent Barça in the break 2-0 up after connecting with a stunning cross from Dani Alvés. Neymar set him up for his third late on in the match, taking the Uruguayan's final Liga goal tally to 40 (59 in all competitions), securing him the 'Pichichi' top scorer crown ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.

A brace from Ronaldo sealed a 2-0 victory for rivals Real Madrid at Deportivo, but without a slip-up from Barcelona it wasn't enough or Zinedine Zidane's side to clinch the title.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THREE new air connections have opened from Palma de Mallorca to The Netherlands and Germany.

Flights will run four times a week with EasyJet between Amsterdam and Palma, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The airline Small Planet will link the largest of the Balearic Islands with the city Paderborn in Germany five days a week until the end of summer, from Tuesdays to Saturdays inclusive.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH artist Barei has secured her passport to the Eurovision with her performance in the first semi-final in Stockholm, where she will be up against other favourites to win including Russia, Armenia and The Netherlands.

Even if she had not done so well, Spain is one of the 'Big Five' countries guaranteed a place in the contest – along with the UK, France, Italy and Germany, plus the host nation.

TV viewers and the live audience at the Globen Arena in the Swedish capital watched a 55-second pre-recorded performance, in which Madrid-born Barei featured in a short dress covered in copper-coloured sequins and black trainers, showing off her now-popular street dance, complete with split-screen effects.

Co-presenter Petra Mede introduced her in Spanish as La guapa Barei ('the beautiful Barei'), and the artist herself watched her show alongside fellow contestants, France's Amir and Sweden's Frans.

The first semi-final confirmed the public popularity of Russia's Sergei Lazarev, who is currently leading in the polls and whose act includes spectacular special effects, as well as others such as Malta and Armenia whose female artists displayed tonnes of exuberance.

The Netherlands was equally well-received with its unusual choice of a country-and-western track – and Austria also broke with tradition by singing entirely in French, not even its national language, and one of the few nations, along with Bosnia, which did not produce a song in English.

Hungary and Croatia are also through so far, as is Azerbaijan – and for the first time ever, the Czech Republic.

Estonia and Iceland, both rated high in the polls, did not get through – nor did, for the first time in history, Greece.

The 'Leonard Cohen'-style act from San Marino, a principality to the east of Italy, and Moldavia with its extravagant act featuring a singer dressed as an astronaut, have also failed to get through to the second semi-final.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE three reporters kidnapped in Syria who were released this weekend after 10 months say they were 'treated well', although they have lost a lot of weight – one of them over two stone.

Intelligence services have now confirmed photographer José Manuel López and journalists Antonio Pampliega and Ángel Sastre, all freelance and working as part of a team, were being held by the Al-Nusra Front – part of Al-Qaeda – but that the CNI knew exactly where they were at all times.

They were all extremely grateful to acting government vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, direct leader of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), who coordinated their release and negotiated with the terrorists.

King Felipe VI telephoned them all as soon as they were back at the military air base in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) after being flown to Spain via Turkey, to find out how they were.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONAL Police in Valencia found a bomb in the port district of Valencia and had to cordon off the area.

The explosive device, which measured 30 centimetres (about a foot) in length and 7.5 centimetres (three inches) in width, was an obus-type bomb dating back to Spain's Civil War between 1936 and 1939.

Officers from the police's detonation squad, the TEDAX team, were called in to carry out a controlled explosion.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WEEK-LONG safe-driving campaign will see traffic police patrolling all secondary roads in Spain starting from today (Monday) through to Sunday, May 15.

Speeding, overtaking in dangerous places, alcohol and drug consumption, using a mobile phone or headphones at the wheel, tampering with sat-navs or other elements that may cause driver distration, seatbelt and child booster seat use, and helmets in the case of motorcyclists and moped riders will be under scrutiny.

Vehicle documents including ITV (MOT) stickers and insurance policies, driving licences and required safety equipment – spare bulbs, at least two reflective jackets, a red triangle and spare glasses for those who need them to drive – will be checked.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA'S left-wing mayoress has congratulated her counterpart in London, Sadiq Khan – the first-ever Muslim mayor of a European capital – who was elected to office at the end of last week.

Ada Colau of the Podemos faction known as Barcelona En Comú – part of the wider Catalunya regional branch of Podemos, En Comú Podem – said it was 'great news' that a 'capital city the size of London' had chosen a Muslim from a working-class background and who is 'dedicated to protecting human rights and equality in Europe'.

In a separate announcement in English, Colau said Barcelona was 'ready to work alongside London' on human rights and social justice in cities.

Sadiq Khan (pictured), 45, is one of eight children born to Pakistani immigrants in the working-class borough of Tooting.

Khan was born within a few months of his parents' arrival in the UK, where his mother was a seamstress and his dad a bus driver.

The new Lord Mayor of London, who replaces the outgoing Boris Johnson, started work at a very young age and continued doing so all the way through university.

His law degree led to a job at Louise Christian Solicitors, which specialised in human rights, and changed its name to Christian Khan Solicitors when Sadiq was made a partner.

Khan's passion for defending the underdog eventually led him to the House of Commons at the age of 33, with the backing of former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASSIVE animal rescue operation saw National Police seize 22 horses and four dogs in an extremely poor and neglected state, just days away from death, from a farm in Vélez-Málaga.

The owners, aged 44 and 75, have been arrested.

All the horses were literally starving and dangerously thin, with open, infected and still-bleeding wounds and ulcers, many suffering lice and worms, with overgrown hooves.

One of the ponies had such a serious leg injury that he could not walk on it without sweating and screaming in pain, and had to be put to sleep when vets realised nothing could be done to prevent his suffering.

Two mares are said to be critically ill and have lost a lot of blood through their untreated wounds.

None of the horses had ever been vaccinated or wormed, so vets are keeping a close eye on the remaining 21 in case they develop tetanus or their digestive systems have been damaged by parasites.

The dogs had been kept tightly penned in, tied on short leads so they could not turn or lie down, enclosed by piles of rubble and standing in their own urine and excrement.

They had been without food and water for so long that they were skeletal.

One of them, a female hunting hound, had no front teeth and was barely able to walk, and none of them had been chipped or vaccinated.

Electronic chips are required to be fitted within three months of birth.

The horses' field and the dogs' pen were littered with barbed wire and chunks of rusted metal.

National Police had been alerted about the state of the animals at the El Trapiche farm by a local shelter.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THREE Spanish reporters kidnapped in Syria 10 months ago have been released unharmed.

Photographer José Manuel López, and journalists Angel Sastre and Antonio Pampliega were captured in July in Aleppo, and are due to arrive this morning (Sunday) at Torrejón de Ardoz military airport in Madrid from Turkey.

The last that was heard of them before the three freelancers went missing was on Facebook on July 11, when they posted a photo of them all together saying they were 'working well as a team' in the war zone.

They were taken hostage the next day.

Details of their plight was kept very much under wraps at first, to avoid ruining the highly-delicate Intelligence service operation.

And all three say their release would not have been possible without the 'work of many people in service of the public' linking up with countries which are allies of Spain, particularly in the final leg of their ordeal between Turkey and Qatar.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEARLY four in 10 Spanish adults are clinically overweight, with the highest numbers of obese people living in the far south and far north, according to research by the Spanish Cardiology Society (SEC).

Andalucía, Galicia and Asturias have more overweight residents than anywhere else in Spain, and the slimmest inhabitants are found in the Balearic Islands, Catalunya and the Basque Country.

The over-25s, up to State pension age are, in 39.3% of cases, considered medically overweight, with 21.6% of this age group – more than one in five – being clinically obese.

This rises to a quarter of the adult population in the three worst-affected regions.

Asturias has the most obese inhabitants: 41.1% are above the normal weight range for their age, sex and height, and 25.7% are dangerously fat.

But overweight residents in general are more likely to be seen in Galicia: a total of 43.5% of adults are too heavy, and 24.9% clinically obese.

In Andalucía, the totals are 38.9% and 24.4% respectively.

Balearic Islanders are overweight in 32.2% of cases, and just over one in 10 are obese – the lowest figures in the country.

Catalunya has more overweight inhabitants even than Andalucía and nearly as many as Asturias, at 39.8%, but fewer people who suffer from obesity, at 15.5%.

The Basque Country has the second-fewest number of overweight residents at 33.9%, and the third-fewest who are clinically obese, at 16.8%

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BANKNOTES of €500 – the highest euro denomination – will no longer be minted because of their extensive use in money-laundering, fraud and forgery.

The Central European Bank (BCE) will gradually phase out the notes, but they will remain legal tender for a while yet and can be exchanged in any bank in any member State.

Notes of €500 are the third-highest denomination in the world – only the 1,000 CHF (Swiss Franc) note, worth €909, and the 10,000 Singaporean dollar note, worth €66,357, are higher.

Spain was the country where the highest number of €500 notes was circulating during the time of the property boom – a time when so-called ‘black money’, or paying part of a home purchase in undeclared cash to reduce tax and fees, was not only tolerated but even commonplace.

They have declined somewhat since successive governments in Spain tightened up on ‘black money’ property transactions – even tracing new homeowners and taxing them for the difference.

This said, any tax debt not notified to the payee within four years expires under the Spanish statute of limitations, and the amount avoided has to be at least €120,000 to be considered a criminal offence.

But at the start of the housing market crash, many owners found out how ‘black money’ can come back to bite the cash-dealer, meaning in recent years the practice has all but died out.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE first-ever case of a pregnant Zika virus victim in Spain whose foetus has an underdeveloped brain has been reported.

At present, 15 men and 24 women – four of whom are expecting babies – have contracted Zika in Catalunya, whilst in total 13 virus-sufferers in Spain are pregnant.

The woman in question caught the virus, along with dengue – also transmitted by certain tropical mosquitoes – on a recent trip to Latin America, and her unborn baby is said to be affected by microencephalea, meaning the brain is too small and has not developed properly.

The child may well suffer severe mental and physical disability for life and need constant care, possibly 24 hours a day, from birth until death.

But the mother wants to continue with her pregnancy and has refused an abortion.

Health authorities in Catalunya have called for 'calm', pointing out that a woman infected with Zika recently gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby and that neither the mother nor the child have suffered any complications.

And no cases of Zika transmission on national soil have been registered – all cases have been imported after their sufferers travelled to at-risk South or Central American countries, including the Caribbean, and Africa.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONCE again, Spain has become world leader in the number of blue-flag beaches now that the awards have been officially handed out – the prestigious emblem will fly from 586 beaches and 100 yacht marinas in the country this year.

Turkey, Greece, France and Portugal follow Spain, in that order.

This year, nine extra beaches were awarded the kitemark which denotes superior quality, cleanliness, safety, accessibility for the disabled, and facilities, and which explains why millions of visitors from colder countries return to Spain again for their summer breaks.

The Comunidad Valenciana came out top for blue-flag beaches, with 125 gaining the coveted award, followed by Galicia with 123, Catalunya with 98 and Andalucía with 76.

Murcia got 40 and the Balearics and Canaries 45 each.

Catalunya saw the greatest improvement on last year, with nine new flags, followed by Valencia with five, and Murcia, Asturias, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands and the Spanish-owned city-province of Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast gaining one new flag apiece.

The Balearic Islands is the region which lost the most kitemarks this year – the towns of Son Sant Josep de Sa Talaia and Sant Joan de la Labritja lost all their blue flags, a total of 11 between them – whilst Galicia lost eight and Andalucía, two.

Barcelona has doubled its flag number – whilst the Llevant beach has lost its kitemark, but Nova Icària, Barceloneta, Somorrostro and San Sebastià i Sant Miquel have gained new ones whilst Nova Mar Bella and Bogatell have kept theirs from the previous year.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TOP-FLIGHT officials are said to be among the Russian mafia suspects sought by the Spanish justice system – part of a long investigation which may have contributed to the death of Alexander Litvinenko from Polonium-210 poisoning.

Arrest warrants are now out for 12 suspected organised crime gang members, though to be connected to a Russian mafia boss who absconded to his home country after being detained in Spain eight years ago.

'Godfather' Gennady Petrov was thought to be head of the Tambovskaya mafia, which was behind weapons and drug dealing, blackmail, forgery, money-laundering and hitmen.

Some of the 12 suspects are reputed to be linked to Russian president Vladimir Putin's circle.

Among them is deputy leader of the Russian Federal Anti-Narcotics Service (FSKN), Nikolái Aulov, who said the arrest warrants were just 'another' attempt to discredit the country and were 'purely political'.

Another accused party is the former deputy leader of Russia's answer to the FBI, the Investigative Committee (SK), Igor Sobolevsky, and MP Vladislav Reznik who was once head of the financial markets committee in Russian Congress, plus his wife Diana Gindin.

The latest arrest orders are linked to last year's swoop on 20 Russian mafiosos out of a list of 27 published by the prosecution service in Spain, and which included a number of those currently sought by the Spanish justice system.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH tennis legend Rafael Nadal will be the official flag-carrier for Spain at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, due to take place in the Brazilian city between August 5 and 21.

The Mallorca-born star missed his chance to carry the flag at London 2012 because of a knee injury that forced him to scratch at the last minute, and basketball ace Pau Gasol did so in his place.

A petition on Change.org was started, calling for swimmer Mireia Belmonte to be flag-carrier since, as yet, this has never been a woman, but many Spaniards felt the honour should go to Nadal to make up for his bitter disappointment four years earlier – and pointed out that although Mireia is young and probably has several Olympics ahead of her, this could be Rafa's last chance to compete in the games.

He looked set to be a certainty for a gold in 2012, given his track record, but the knee injury meant he crashed out in the first round at Wimbledon shortly before and he was then off for seven months recover ing.

This and further injuries meant he lost form and is now only just starting to recover his former level of play, with wins at the Conde de Godó Barcelona Open on April 24 after beating defending title-holder Kei Nishikori in the final, and at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters a week earlier after emerging the victor against France's Gaël Monfils.

His earlier successes have included two Wimbledon titles, in 2008 and 2010; two US Opens, in 2010 and 2013; nine Roland Garros titles, nine Conde de Godó trophies, and an Australian Open in 2009, among numerous others.

The current ATP world number five had a medal-free Olympics in Athens 2004, but won the gold at Peking 2008, his second games.

Rio 2016 will be the third time he has competed, but the fourth time he has qualified.

Once known as the 'King of Clay', Rafa hopes to earn his nickname once again this year – in fact, his Barcelona Open title means he is now on level pegging with Argentina's legendary Guillermo Vilas with 49 clay-court victories.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CERVANTES' fourth centenary celebrations did not stop on April 23, but are still happening throughout the country and even on popular TV – the ratings-grabber MasterChef dedicated an entire episode to the legendary author of Don Quijote de la Mancha.

Filmed in Almagro (Albacete province) in Miguel de Cervantes' native region of Castilla-La Mancha, dishes mentioned in the early 17th-century knight's adventure novel were whipped up more than 400 years after they were first described on paper by the author.

Alboronía de camarones – a casserole made with finely-chopped and fried pepper, aubergine, tomato and pumpkin with camarones, or shrimps – cazuela moxí, a tart made with cheese, breadcrumbs, apple, honey, eggs and pulses; and gachas, or dumplings.

The regional ministry for the economy said the dishes shown on MasterChef were 'a magnificent opportunity for millions of viewers worldwide' to get a taste for traditional Castilla-La Mancha cuisine – very traditional indeed, since it has survived more than four centuries.

Spain's version of MasterChef has been a source of amusing headlines for several months, starting with the famous León come gamba ('lion eating a prawn') – a potato in the shape of a lion's head with a prawn in its mouth which got 18-year-old Alberto from Valencia kicked out of the programme.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING Felipe will sign the decree today to officially dissolve Spanish Parliament after more than four months of failed negotiations between the parties.

The next two months will bring more electoral campaigning before the country goes back to the polls on June 26.

Only Spanish nationals aged 18 and over are allowed to vote in general – or regional – elections, since expatriates, even those born in Spain if they have a foreign passport, are unable to do so as is the case worldwide at present.

In December, fewer than three-quarters of eligible voters cast their ballot, and most politicians fear the turn-out will be even lower next month.

They are concerned that the public is becoming 'fed up' with political wrangling and no positive action or change.

This is especially likely, given that the polls predict a near-identical result to the fragmented December elections, where no single party held a majority nor had enough support to either form a coalition or for their leaders to be invested as president in order to govern in minority.

Until now, democracy in Spain has always seen a direct split between the 'big two', or 'the Caste' as left-wing independents Podemos calls them – the socialists, or PSOE and the right-wing PP have taken it in turns to govern.

But Spain has had enough of the bipartite system, as shown by the meteoric rise through the ranks of Podemos, the third-largest political power with 69 seats compared with the PSOE's 90 and the PP's 123, and of centre-right Ciudadanos – originally a Catalunya regional party formed a decade ago, it ran for local and regional elections in May across the country for the first time ever and, in December, became the fourth-largest party with 40 seats.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANOTHER runner has died during a marathon – the fourth in less than a month.

The latest victim is a 43-year-old man from Castro Urdiales (Cantabria) taking part in the TrailRAE race in Otañes, a half-marathon along mountain tracks.

Other competitors called for help, warning that the runner appeared to be in a serious condition, and a 4x4 ambulance was sent out as the area where he had passed out was off-road and difficult to reach.

Paramedics spent 50 minutes trying to restart his heart and breathing, to no avail.

Emergency doctors from the nearest health centre were not far behind, and continued performing CPR after taking over from the paramedics, but were unable to revive him.

His death comes just one day after that of a 37-year-old man from Valladolid (Castilla y León) who had completed over 18 of the 21 kilometres comprising the half-marathon in Gijón (Asturias) when he collapsed with a cardiac arrest, which he never came round from.

Another runner suffered a heart attack during the same race and was rushed to hospital.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OVER half a tonne of bronze coins dating back to the Roman era has been found by workmen fitting mains water and drainage pipes in a park.

The contractors dug up 19 amphorae – stone bottles used to transport wine and olive oil – when they dug up the park in Tomares (Sevilla province) and found them full to the brim with coins bearing pictures of emperors Maximilian and Constantine.

Nine of the amphorae, which are smaller than the typical wine-and-oil containers, are broken, but 10 are undamaged.

Historians say the coins would have been used for civil service or military wages or taxes paid to the emperors towards the end of the fourth century AD, and that they were freshly minted and then hidden in a safe vault made from bricks and ceramics buried near where the pipes in the Zaudín Park are due to be laid.

They say the extremely rare discovery is of 'unmeasurable value' in historical terms, and could be worth millions in monetary terms.

As the coins were never in circulation as currency, they are completely intact and not at all worn out.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MAN from Lleida, Catalunya is attempting to prove through the courts that he is the great-grandson of Tsar Nikolái II of Russia.

David Duaigües, from Torres de Segre in the land-locked northern province of Lleida says his grandmother María Martí is actually Maria Románov, the Emperor's daughter.

She became a refugee and made it to Europe with the help of the Red Cross, giving up her daughter – David's mother – to a children's home.

The daughter eventually met and married Sr Duaigües and the couple moved to Torres de Segre, where they had a son, David.

David's solicitor Sergio Hedo says DNA tests and photographs show María Martí is likely to be Maria Románov.

Photos supplied show David's mother is almost identical to the woman with whom Tsar Nikolái had Maria Románov, and that David's mother's side of the family suffers from hereditary haemophilia, where blood does not clot and continues to flow uncontrollably from cuts – a condition Tsar Nikolái's son has.

Sr Hedo says his client does not wish to be the Tsar's successor, nor lay claim to any Russian palace, but he just wants to be able to register his second surname legally as 'Románov'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com