Live News From Spain As It Happens

CULT Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar has been named chairman of the judges' panel at the forthcoming Cannes Festival, now in its 70^th year.

The prolific movie-maker, from Castilla-La Mancha, says he is 'grateful, honoured and a little overwhelmed' at being chosen, and that he is 'conscious of the responsibility involved'.

Almodóvar, whose often-controversial post-censorship films have helped launch the careers of some of Spain's most international performing artists, including Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, was a member of the Cannes jury in 1992, when its chairman was the ubiquitous French actor Gérard Dépardieu.

The Cannes Film Festival organisers, including its chairman Pierre Lescure and general manager Thierry Frémaux, call the prolific scriptwriter a 'glowing icon of Spanish cinema' and 'catalyst for international fame'.

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A FILM starring Sigourney Weaver and Liam Neeson has netted eight of the 11 Gaudí Awards it was nominated for.

A Monster Calls, based on the Patrick Ness novel and directed by Juan José Bayona (pìctured left receiving his award), swept the board the Catalunya and catalán language film awards – now in its ninth year – which took place last night (Sunday) in Barcelona.

In addition to Best Director and Best Non-Catalán Language Film, A Monster Calls won Best Production, Best Set, Best Photographic Direction, Best Special Effects, Best Artistic Direction and Best Soundtrack.

The film with the most nominations – 14 in total – La Propera Pell ('Your own skin') by Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campos, did not enjoy the same success as Bayona's mega-production, but walked away with the top award of the night: Best Film in Catalán.

It also took Best Actress for Emma Suárez's role, and Best Script, written by Lacuesta, Campos and Fran Araújo.

The drama 100 Metres, based upon the real-life experience of Ramón Arroyo – a patient diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – and his managing to overcome his difficulties was also nominated for 11 Gaudí Awards, but took home two in the end: Best Supporting Actress, for Alexandra Jiménez, and Best Supporting Actor, for Karra Elejalde.

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COACHES carrying 150 school children became trapped for several hours on the road to the ski resorts in Teruel due to thick snow on Saturday night, traffic authorities have just revealed.

The three buses were taking the group on a school trip to the ski station in Valdelinares (pictured) – even though weather warnings had been issued for the whole of the Gúdar district in the south of the province of Teruel.

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CHINESE expats in Madrid started a fortnight's worth of celebrations to mark the New Year this weekend, with a colourful three-day parade ending last night (Sunday).

The largest hub of the capital's Chinese community is in the Usera neighbourhood, where over 800 performing artists and four huge inflatable dragons carried on poles filled the streets with colour to mark the start of the Year of the Rooster.

Given the size of the Chinese population in Usera, the epicentre of the New Year celebrations, the festivities have become part of the district's annual fiesta calendar with support and organisation by the council's culture and sports department.

Members of Usera council presented the complete festival programme in a press conference, the way most towns do with local and national Aspanish fiestas.

Live shows, theatre recounting Chinese legends and more modern tales, craft stalls, workshops, food tents, parades and music went on round the clock from Friday to Sunday, although the partying will not officially stop until Sunday, February 12.

All shows and events – 45 in total - were free of charge to enter.

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SPANISH skater Javier Fernández has netted his fifth consecutive European Championship title – a feat only achieved by two others on ice in the last 125 years.

Fernández, who will be 26 in April and has been skating competitively for 20 years, is universally acknowledged to be the second-best in the world, after his Japanese friend Yuzuru Hanyu, who always proves a tough rival to beat.

But this has not stopped Fernández from taking the European Championship title every year since 2013 inclusive.

After beating his own record with a stunning flamenco-on-ice display on Friday and scooping up 104.25 points at the competition in Ostravar, Czech Republic, a fall yesterday (Saturday) in the freestyle event meant he lost ground, ending on 190.59 for the second day.

Having started his display with a perfect quadruple toe and a near-perfect second quad, Javier hit the ground during the third and final quadruple salchow, putting his potential victory in jeopardy.

But the excellent choreography and execution of the rest of his act, to the background music of three Elvis Presley songs, coupled with the absence of any rival of Hanyu's calibre meant he walked away with a 30-point lead over second-placed Maxim Kovtun, from Russia, who scooped up 266.80 points to Fernández's 294.84.

His next challenge will be to work hard on perfecting his leaps to keep up his glowing trajectory for the rest of the season – having won the Grand Prix in Paris and Moscow on top of yet another European Championship – particularly with the World Championships in Finland imminent.

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SCHOOLS across Spain will be on strike on Thursday, March 9 in a bid to pressure the government into scrapping the unpopular education reform, known as the LOMCE, and giving them a 'clear plan' for their recently-discussed 'Education Pact'.

Protests will be staged by Spain's major unions, the CCOO, UGT and CGT, and teaching union, the STES, together with the Student Front, Students in Movement, the Union of Students and FAEST, along with the State Confederation of PTAs and the platform Pedagogical Renewal.

The PTA Confederation, CEAPA, says it wants the government to withdraw what it calls an 'unacceptable' appeal to the Constitutional Court against the implanting of legislation aimed at halting the application of the LOMCE.

The LOMCE, introduced by former education minister José Ignacio Wert, has been slammed by schools across the country as a method of 'weeding out' weaker students at a very early age, effectively splitting Spain's young adults into 'top academic hopefuls' and 'factory fodder', thus condemning late bloomers, or highly-intelligent pupils who do not flourish under the mainstream school system, to a life of low-qualified menial jobs when they may, with the right help, have been capable of going to university.

It has also been slammed as rigid, right-wing, pro-Catholic, and strongly memory-based with no room for critical thinking skills, with exam grades taking priority over the quality of coursework and other aspects of the education system.

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SPAIN'S export sector is becoming worried about US president Donald Trump's protectionist policies, fearing it could cost them trade.

Franchises and concessions are less affected, since they are deeply-rooted into the business fabric in the United States, but other industries, such as that of renewable energy, foresee problems ahead – especially given the president's approach to environmental issues.

The USA is Spain's main non-European trading partner and sixth-largest export destination, behind France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Portugal, and the North American country accounts for over €10 billion of Spanish companies' overseas trade.

Most goods the USA imports from Spain are food and drink items, renewable energy, motor parts and vehicles, and other semi-manuifactured produce.

But the Spanish government remains optimistic about how future trade relations with the united States may pan out: economy minister Luis de Guindos is confident that the European Union could even benefit from an increase in protectionism across the pond, since the old continent would be able to attract investments from countries which cease or reduce trading with America.

As the international director of Spain's Chamber of Commerce, Alfredo Bonet, says, investors and importers seek stability in their trade partners and, if the USA puts up too many obstacles, the EU bloc could be seen as a viable alternative.

Bonet, however, says Spain and Europe will have to wait to find out 'how Trump's words will translate into reality', since any threat to or reduction in cross-border trading may be a concern but 'not just anything is possible' due to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules which limit increases in customs duty to its members.

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Rafa Nadal held off Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 5-7, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in an exhilarating semi-final contest in Melbourne on Friday night to set up a dream final against Roger Federer on Sunday.

It was an emotional victory for the 30-year-old Spaniard, who is through to his first Grand Slam final since 2014 and the first against his old sparring partner, Federer, since the 2011 French Open. In total they have played each other 34 times, with Nadal leading their head-to-head 23-11, with a winning record of 6-2 in Grand Slam finals.

It is a final that few would have predicted a fortnight ago, with Federer ranked only 17th after missing six months due to injury and Nadal struggling to find form after a series of injury-plagued seasons.

But Nadal has shown that he's close to being back to his best, with impressive victories over Alexander Zverev, Gael Monfils and Milos Raonic, the No. 3 seed in Melbourne. The in-form Dimitrov proved to be his toughest test of the tournament so far, pushing Nadal all the way in an exhilarating five-hour contest.

After surviving a lengthy opening game, in which he faced two break points, Nadal raced to a 4-1 advantage and held on to take the first set. The Bulgarian upped his game and despite squandering four set points in the 10th game of the second set, he attacked again in the 12th to take the set at the fifth time of asking. The third set went to a tie-break after both players failed to capitalise on their breaks and Nadal's mini-break on the first point proved decisive. With more mental strength than he has shown previously, combined with some scintillating tennis, Dimitrov hit 19 winners to force a tie-break and subsequently level the match at two sets apiece. In a high-quality fifth set, Nadal fended off two break points in the eighth game and then proceeded to break the Bulgarian with a backhand winner down the line to serve for the match at 5-4. Dimitrov thwarted the Spaniard on the first two match points, but it was third time lucky for Nadal who dropped to his knees in celebration as Dimitrov's shot landed long.

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Rafael Nadal has reached his first Grand Slam semi-final in three years, despatching Canada's Milos Raonic in ruthless fashion.

12 months after being dumped unceremoniously out of the Australian Open in the first round by compatriot Fernando Verdasco, Nadal put in a sublime performance to dismiss World No. 3 in straight sets (6-4, 7-6, 6-4).

A dip in confidence prompted by a series of health and injury struggles over the past few years had thrown doubt on the Spaniard's future on the big stage. A wrist injury made him miss the last few months of the 2016 season, but hard work in the off season and the addition of Carlos Moyà to his coaching team appear to have paid off with the Mallorcan earning his place in the final four at Melbourne Park with victories over up-and-coming Alexander Zverev, the flamboyant Gael Monfils and a in-form Raonic.

“It’s good news, especially winning against difficult players: Monfils quarter-finals, Zverev round of 16, and now Raonic,” said Nadal. “I think all of them are top players. So that's very important for me because that means that I am competitive and playing well.

“I’m just excited about being back in the final rounds of the most important events,” the Spaniard went on. “I am here to try to make this. It’s always difficult, but I fought and I worked hard to try to make that happen.

“I’m very happy that after a lot of work I am in this round again. It’ a special thing for me, especially here in Australia. I have been playing and competing very well during the whole event. That's very important for me.”

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REAL Madrid has signed an exclusive clothing merchandise deal with a firm in the United Arab Emirates – but has removed the cross from its logo for the purpose as it is 'too Christian'.

Marka, based in the UAE, has acquired the sole rights to manufacture, distribute and sell Real Madrid FC products in its home country as well as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

Its deputy chairman Khaled al-Mheiri said the cross would be removed from the coat of arms 'due to cultural sensitivity'.

“We have to be careful with Gulf regions which are sensitive to products bearing a Christian-like cross,” says al-Mheiri, who owns a Real Madrid-themed café in Dubai.

Most of the countries Marka will be selling reproductions of the football club's shirts, swimwear and polo T-shirts to have a majority Muslim population, al-Mheiri explains.

Sales will start in March, although merchandise sold in the city of Dubai will bear the full logo, cross included.

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CATALUNYA'S regional president Carles Puigdemont says a referendum on independence will be held this year 'whether or not the Spanish government agrees'.

During a meeting in Brussels today (Tuesday), the pro-secessionist leader told European Union officials that he hopes Spain will give the nod to the poll, but that if this is not the case, Catalunya will cast its ballot 'by September at the latest' with or without the go-ahead from Madrid.

This could lead to Puigdemont's being found guilty of sedition, which can even carry a prison sentence, so is not a decision to be taken lightly.

“I wish to make it clear that we do want the referendum to be approved by the Spanish government; this would be the most acceptable option for everyone – but if they maintain their current position, Catalunya will call a binding independence referendum in any case,” Puigdemont stated, speaking in the European Parliamentary lhall.

The conference, attended by Puigdemont's deputy president Oriol Junqueras, and regional minister for foreign affairs Raúl Romeva, was an extraordinary meeting not included in the official Parliamentary agenda but nevertheless attracted a roomful of politicians from all over the continent.

In fact, it was practically standing-room only with more than 400 people present, all of whom applauded the speakers.

The three MEPs who organised the session – Catalunya Left Republicans Josep Maria Terricabras and Jordi Solé, and Convergència's Ramón Tremosa – were joined by their colleagues in Brussels, ICV's Ernest Urtasun, for the Basque Country; Josu Juaristi from the Basque separatist party EH-Bildu; Xabi Benito from left-wing Podemos; Francesc Gambús from Catalunya's pro-independence party Unió; Lidia Senra from the Galicia-based Alternativa Galega; and – given the northern European region's shared interest with Catalunya's planned move in light of the Brexit vote, Alyn Smith from the Scottish National Party (SNP), currently in power in the UK territory under its leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

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THE White House website's page, Twitter account and Facebook site in Spanish have disappeared within two days of Republican leader Donald Trump being sworn in as president, despite the USA having more Spanish speakers in residence than the entire population of Spain.

Those who tried to enter Whitehouse.gov/espanol on Sunday found an error message in English reading, 'Sorry the page you're looking for can't be found'.

Opened just a few months after outgoing president Barack Obama got into power, the Spanish-language site has been deleted along with the Twitter account for the White House, @LaCasaBlanca, and the government residence's Facebook site in the language.

And the head of the Hispanic Press and Media department, Gabriela Chojkier, who worked for Obama's government, has not been replaced, leading to suspicions that this unit has also been eliminated.

Over 55 million people in the USA speak Spanish as a native language and many more as a second language.

Whilst the vast majority of native Spanish-speakers in the United States are Latin American – principally from Mexico, the island of Puerto Rico which is now officially a US State, and Cuba – a high number of expatriates from Spain also live there, a decision many took because their mother tongue was so prolific in the country.

Between 1912 and 1920, over 14,000 natives of the Valencia region alone emigrated to the USA for a better life, most of whom were from the northern part of the province of Alicante, and whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren now retain strong ties with both countries, whichever they now live in.

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THE largest-ever Lladró ornament has been unveiled in Paris, and measures 1.5 metres (4'11”) in length.

A total of 35 artists spent 22,000 hours working on the piece from the prestigious porcelain brand based in Tavernes Blanques (Valencia province), which is titled Carnival in Venice and is on display at the French capital's Maison & Objet fair.

Spanish sculptor José Santa Eulalia says viewers have been very impressed and called the statue 'amazing', and are keen for its creators to explain it to them.

The piece shows a Venetian palace decorated and with a red carpet rolled out to welcome a couple in love, with the hosts dressed in elegant costumes and their best carnival masks.

Five years of research and tests, plus over 450 parts have been involved in breathing life into the 14 characters of Carnival in Venice, most of these inspired by the Italian Commedia dell'Arte movement.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FREEZING temperatures in the east of Spain have lead to a dearth of vegetables on shelves in UK supermarkets – and prices rocketing for the few that are left.

Popular grocery chain Tesco said the violent storms, torrential rain and snow in the Comunidad Valenciana and Murcia had created 'a few availability issues' for staples such as courgettes, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, broccoli and peppers, but that the store was 'working with its suppliers' to 'resolve the problem as soon as possible'.

This appears to be rather an understatement, given that production falls on the Mediterranean and in Andalucía have plummeted – combined with thick snows and freezing climates in Italy, another salad-growing hotspot – meaning practically none of the vegetables from these areas are being restocked.

And UK supermarkets import over 50% of their vegetables and 90% of their fruit at any time of year.

The supply problem is not just a temporary issue caused by the current extreme winter weather in Spain – crops planted just before the cold snap are now unlikely to flourish, meaning even a national shortage, which will translated to an even greater scarcity for the UK.

And at the moment, with vegetables being in short supply in British shops, prices have soared on those few which remain on sale.

According to a Brussels-based fresh food forum which has studied supermarket prices in the UK in recent days, the average cost of vegetables imported from Spain has gone up by between 25% and 40%.

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AT LEAST 700 women demonstrated in Barcelona yesterday (Saturday) against the investiture of US president Donald Trump, who officially became the leader of the world's most powerful western nation the day before.

Carrying banners which read, 'Putin puppet: the world is watching'; 'Keep your tiny hands off my rights'; 'A woman's place is in the revolution'; 'We cannot succeed if half of us are held back'; 'Human rights are women's rights'; 'Protect our trans sisters', and 'Nope' accompanied by a photo of Trump with a Hitler moustache – and even one which read 'Tuck Frump' - the march condemned the new Republican president for his policies and values which undermine women, foreigners, transsexuals, climate change, Islam and the gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

They marched in support of feminist and human rights groups across the pond, who also protested throughout the USA – particularly in Washington DC, where numerous arrests were made in the process – and a high number of North American women living in or visiting Barcelona joined in the solidarity march in Spain.

Some US women even travelled from the Balearic Islands and other parts of Catalunya to take part in the march.

Women's and human rights' associations in Catalunya, who fight for cross-community equality at home, said they 'could not remain indifferent' at the sight of a 'new president in charge of the most powerful country in the world preparing to apply his ideology of sexist violence, racism, homophobia and xenophobia which he spouted during his electoral campaign'.

“We cannot sit in silence when [Trump] says he intends to nominate William Pryor as Supreme Court judge - a man who considers abortion to be 'the worst abomination in the history of the law'; whose right-hand man Mike Pence promotes anti-evolution, pro-creation ideas, and whose main advisor Steve Bannon publishes racist and hate-inciting messages on his misogynist website,” said a spokeswoman for the Barcelona demonstrators.

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SEVEN people have been arrested in Valencia 12 years on from the biggest diamond heist of the century, worth €67 million.

An armed robbery on February 25, 2005 at Amsterdam's Schipol airport on a blacked-out and armour-plated vehicle belonging to the Dutch national airline KLM took place on a maximum-security runway, and led to a haul of diamonds worth US$72m being seized by a masked gang.

The diamonds had been on their way to nearby Amberes for sale in jewellers' shops.

Part of the stash was later recovered in a getaway car, but the remainder, worth about US$43m (€40m) was never found.

It was described as the largest diamond robbery in history, and sparked widespread criticism about security levels at Schipol, given that an armed gang had managed to enter an area only accessible to employees with a special pass.

Initially, seven suspects were arrested, but released after a court was unable to find evidence to incriminate them, and the case was closed in 2006 due to an absence of clues leading to the culprits.

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CIVIL prosecutors at Spain's Supreme Court have opened an inquiry into the historic electricity price hike which came into effect yesterday (Friday), right in the middle of Spain's coldest 'freezewave' in five years which has seen snow on Mediterranean beaches for the first time since 1983.

The court prosecution service says it wants to investigate the reason for the 'successive increases' in household electricity bills 'in the interests of consumer protection', availing itself of its freedom to do so under the Law of Civil Judgment, reformed in 2014 to allow criminal court legal experts to take action under their own steam for the benefit of the wider public.

In the last few weeks, the end price of electricity to the consumer has shot up to levels not seen since December 2013, and those who pay a fixed monthly quota adjusted twice-yearly are now seeing from their 'information only' bills that their consumption is way above this set figure.

The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) is investigating the matter to see whether providers are operating an illegal monopoly, whilst the ministry of energy, tourism and digital agenda, led by Álvaro Nadal, is also looking into the matter, bowing to pressure from consumer groups and the government's opposition.

Electricity use has rocketed by 113% across the country as a result of the polar winds which hit the mainland and Balearic Islands on Tuesday, bringing temperatures ranging from -10ºC to -21.5ºC overnight and leaving four inches of snow on beaches in the provinces of Alicante and Valencia.

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THE INFLUENZA epidemic across Spain has reached new highs this week, with the average of 1.74% of the population affected rising to 2.2%.

Health services in most of the north and centre of the mainland are in deep strife with A&E departments full to bursting and reported waits of up to 30 hours for non-urgent cases to be seen.

In the Balearic Islands, Catalunya and Asturias, the epidemic has apparently reached its peak, although in the regions of Valencia and Murcia, the real crisis is not expected to hit until the end of the month.

Only Andalucía, the Canary Islands and the Spanish-owned city-province of Ceuta on the northern Moroccan coast appear to have escaped.

With a 26% rise in diagnoses in the past week, a total of 25 outbreaks have been reported in seven of Spain's regions, plus another 19 in elderly residents' homes and six in hospitals, compared with eight in total a week ago.

The majority of 'flu incidences reported correspond with the A-virus, or AH3N2.

Navarra, in the north, is the worst-hit with 4.12% of its population hit with the 'flu, followed by Castilla y León with nearly 4.1% and the Basque Country at 3.99%.

Cantabria is also at nearly double the average with 3.88% of its headcount currently suffering influenza; in La Rioja, 3.51% have been diagnosed and in Extremadura in the west, 3.36%.

Since the start of winter, a total of 103 people have died from the 'flu, largely because of existing health conditions causing complications, and the situation is expected to become continually worse.

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SNOW and high winds are expected across practically the whole of mainland Spain and the Balearics today (Thursday), and it is likely residents on the Mediterranean coast will still be building snowmen on the beach.

Weather warnings were issued for Alicante and Valencia yesterday and have continued into today as temperatures overnight ranged from -1ºC to -10.1ºC inland and 2ºC down to -2ºC on the coast.

The first cold snap of winter 2016-2017 led to forecasts of snow even at sea-level, but few residents took this as literally as it turned out to be – in Dénia (pictured above left and below right) and Jávea, in the north of the province of Alicante, four inches (10 centimetres) of snow coated the towns and the beaches.

Countless locals took photos of unprecedented scenes of a thick carpet of white covering the landscape, the sand, their swimming pool terraces and orange and lemon trees.

The last time snow fell – and laid – on the beach in Dénia or Jávea was in February 1983, or 34 years ago.

Likewise in the city of Murcia, further south, snow had not been seen lying thick on the streets since that same year.

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CHAOS continues in the east of Spain due to snow falling in places it is rarely seen – main highways in the province of Valencia are ground to a halt and rail traffic is disrupted in Alicante and Albacete.

Drivers were trapped all day and night on the A-3 Valencia-Madrid motorway and are believed to still be stuck, whilst the Armed Forces emergency response unit has been distributing blankets and food.

Pylons falling in the gale-force winds yesterday and last night, and overturned lorries, are hindering access to snow-ploughs to clear the A-3.

The worst part is near the Requena exit, close to the western limit of the Comunidad Valenciana, with gridlocks of up to six and 10 kilometres in two places.

Electricity board Iberdrola has sent out helicopters to oversee repairs on the fallen pylons in the Utiel-Requena area.

In the province of Alicante, directly south of that of Valencia, at least 13 roads have been shut, including the A-31 in Villena westbound.

Yesterday night, up to 1,200 cars were trapped on roads across the country, most of them in the province of Alicante, in particular inland areas such as Alcoy, Sax and Tibi.

A total of 730 were ground to a halt on the A-31 and another 50 on the CV-80 between Sax and Castalla.

Road closures were announced all day yesterday on the N-330 between Almansa (Albacete) and Requena (Valencia); on the A-31 in Almansa and between Elda and Petrer (Alicante), later extending to Novelda; and the A-7 motorway between Albaida (Valencia) and the Tibi and San Vicente del Raspeig area.

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SNOW and high winds are expected across practically the whole of mainland Spain and the Balearics today (Thursday), and it is likely residents on the Mediterranean coast will still be building snowmen on the beach.

Weather warnings were issued for Alicante and Valencia yesterday and have continued into today as temperatures overnight ranged from -1ºC to -10.1ºC inland and 2ºC down to -2ºC on the coast.

The first cold snap of winter 2016-2017 led to forecasts of snow even at sea-level, but few residents took this as literally as it turned out to be – in Dénia (pictured above left and below right) and Jávea, in the north of the province of Alicante, four inches (10 centimetres) of snow coated the towns and the beaches.

Countless locals took photos of unprecedented scenes of a thick carpet of white covering the landscape, the sand, their swimming pool terraces and orange and lemon trees.

The last time snow fell – and laid – on the beach in Dénia or Jávea was in February 1983, or 34 years ago.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN AMBITIOUS and futuristic rail project which has reached the semi-final of a global competition could involve being able to travel by train from Madrid to Tangiers in the north of Morocco in under an hour.

The first-ever transport plan linking continental Europe and Africa by land, according to organisers of the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, the high-speed bullet-train would travel at 1,200 kilometres per hour, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar through a Channel Tunnel type of structure, albeit a floating one.

The competition has so far seen 2,600 entries by 35 teams from all over the planet, meaning the Hyperloop to Morocco has hugely impressed the judges so far to have reached the semi-finals.

A Hyperloop is a type of 'capsule' train in which passengers are half-lying down, and which is capable to covering distances at the same speed as an aircraft.

The 25 members of the project team who designed the Madrid-Tangiers inter-continental rail link have a diverse collection of degrees and other qualifications between them, and have carried out work experience in some of Spain's largest firms including the Elizabeth II Canal, Airbus Group, Telefónica, Endesa and Repsol.

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FIVE former managers of the north-western bank Novacaixagalicia have been sent to prison for two years for giving themselves multi-million 'golden handshakes' before leaving the high-street entity.

Gregorio Gorriarán, Julio Fernández Gayoso, José Luis Pego, Óscar Rodríguez Estrada and Ricardo Pradas (pictured left to right) were given exactly two years behind bars, since just one day less than this would mean if they had not committed any previous offences, their sentence would have been suspended.

Gayoso was chairman of Caixanova, later absorbed by Novacaixagalicia Banco, and Pradas was the latter's legal advisor, with the other three being senior managers.

None of the five has refunded the money, as they were initially instructed to do by the National Court, and they all feature in other legal cases currently open.

It was the National Court which turned down an application by the bank managers' defence lawyers to suspend their sentences, handed down by a lower tribunal.

In fact, the Supreme Court, the highest in the land, ruled that the two-year jail terms were 'disproportionately lenient' given the 'seriousness' of the offenders' conduct.

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DIESEL-POWERED cars create more air pollution than buses and lorries running on the same fuel, according to a report by the independent International Council for Clean Transport (ICCT).

In fact, small private diesel-run vehicles give off more than double the about of Nitrous Oxide (NOx) as multi-person communal transport vehicles using the same type of fuel.

When the ICCT carried out research which showed discrepancies between emission data recorded in laboratories and 'real' emissions on the roads, the results sparked further investigations which unmasked the Volkswagen 'Dieselgate' scandal.

Data from Germany and Finland were used to show that cars using the 'Euro 6' type of diesel – which complies with current air-pollution legislation – generated between 480 and 560 milligrams (mg) of NOx per kilometre, whilst buses and lorries using the exact same diesel type only let off 210mg per kilometre.

The ICCT report concludes by stressing the need for road tests to calculate emissions, in addition to the standard laboratory tests, as the only way of assessing true NOx levels generated in order to prevent or reduce them.

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THE national economy grew by 3.3% in 2016, according to government data released during the Spain Investors Day forum.

This means a slight improvement on 2015, when the economy increased by 3.2% - a figure which was also predicted for 2016 and has been beaten.

Forecasts for 2017 are for a 2.5% growth, but based upon the last two years' performance, the government believes the Spanish economy will probably beat its target for this year, too.

Manager of the economy office in the Moncloa Palace – Spain's answer to the White House and 10 Downing Street – says the 'foundations' for the country's economic structure are 'sound' and 'positive'.

In purely economic terms, this means the financial crisis is now history, although with more than one in five of the working-age population out of a job and 22.1% of households living in poverty, it will take considerably longer before this positive effect starts to filter down to ordinary people.

This growth has been partly helped by inflation remaining low in the last few years, helping to increase Spain's GDP and making the country more competitive in general, whilst reducing the State deficit from the 9% recorded in 2011 to a predicted 3.1% in 2017.

Exports are also up, and the tourism industry is booming with 70 million holidaymakers having travelled to Spain in 2016, the equivalent of 150% of the country's own population.

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A TAILBACK of over 17 kilometres built up from Barcelona airport to the city centre and beyond when over 5,000 taxi drivers staged a slow-crawl protest over the council's alleged failure to clamp down on 'pirate' cabbies and cars hired out with a driver.

They say 14,000 families in and around the city live off providing legitimate taxi services and are suffering financially because of professional 'intrusion'.

Cabs started their crocodile crawl at 11.00 yesterday (Monday) and continued throughout the day, leading to 11-kilometre queues along the Ronda de Dalt ringroad and 17-kilometre gridlocks between the junction know

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IRISH prime minister Enda Kenny met with his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy on Thursday and gave him a 'personalised' football shirt.

The T-shirt is designed as though it were for the 'national' team of Galicia, the far north-western region directly above Portugal, and 'Rajoy' is printed on it as though it was the player's name.

Galicia and Ireland share cultural connections through their Gaelic roots, and the former is Rajoy's home region.

He was born in the famous cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña province) – on March 27, 1955 – and studied law at the university there, and moved at age 15 to the city of Pontevedra, where he was councillor and then MP for the provincial government.

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SPAIN'S 17 regional governments will receive a total of nearly €4.6 billion towards covering their debts from 2015 and increasing their deficit margin for 2016, according to minister for the treasury Cristóbal Montoro.

This means the total payable by Madrid to the regions covering the 2016 financial year for this purpose will come to over €31.5bn.

The additional funds include the €1.64bn surplus from the central government's Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA), aimed at compensating for the 17 Parliamentary cabinets' failure to meet their deficit targets for the year 2015, and another €2.91bn to help them meet these in 2017.

For this year, debt targets for the regional governments have been relaxed slightly, from 0.3% of the GDP to 0.7%.

The sum of €1.64bn will be paid to those regions which have not had to call upon the FLA to stay afloat financially in 2016 – nine in total.

Andalucía will receive just under €170 million; Aragón €79m; the Balearic Islands €118m; Cantabria 43.4m; Castilla-La Mancha €57m; Catalunya €415.5m; Extremadura €105.4m; Murcia €126.4m, and Valencia €524.6m.

Town councils which have had to resort to central government loans to make ends meet – 44 in total – will receive just under €120m.

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BOTTLED butane gas is set to go up another 5% from tomorrow (Tuesday) – just as temperatures are about to plummet to unprecedented levels across the country.

Gas bottles have now risen by a total of 14.5% since July and the off-the-shelf price is €12.89 – although those who order theirs via a contract with fuel companies and have them delivered will typically pay a few euros more.

The price hike only applies to gas in orange bottles – the lighter-weight silver-coloured bottles are supplied by private firms and not subject to State control, meaning their costs can be set by the distributor.

Despite the imminent rise, however, bottled butane gas remains well below the price of €17.50 it retailed at until March 2015.

From tomorrow, it will be the price of a cup of coffee higher than its record low six months ago, when it cost just €11.25 due to raw material costs plummeting – levels not seen in over 10 years.

The cost hike this week is purely to cover the increase in value of raw materials, but will not be enough for the industry to break even and will mean its ongoing deficit increases.

If bottled gas firms passed on the full cost of the raw material price rise to the end consumer, each unit would cost €13.57, an increase of 10.5%.

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AIRPORTS in Spain had a record year in 2016 with 230 million passengers travelling to and from, and within, the country.

The tourism boom seen last year, partly caused by feelings of insecurity in other traditional sunshine destinations such as Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt, meant an 11% rise on passenger traffic seen in 2015 and even beat the last-recorded figures in the year before the financial crisis started.

Back in 2007, Spain's airports registered a total of 210.5 million travellers throughout the year, which until now has been the highest number in history.

And now, with an extra 19.5 million as Spain welcomed 70 million tourists – more than the entire population of the UK and more than one-and-a-half times that of Spain itself – air passenger numbers have never been so high.

If the trend continues, air terminal governing body AENA expects a further 5% increase in 2017, and to break the 240 million barrier in 2020.

The newly-appointed minister of public works, transport and infrastructure, Íñigo de la Serna, calls the figures 'extraordinary' and says in the next few days, the government will reveal its position concerning airport tax levels over the next five years.

New airline tariffs will be released on March 1 for 2017.

De la Serna says at present, his ministry is not considering privatising a further chunk of AENA, and that in any case, no decisions will be taken in the short-term, 'meaning the next few weeks or months'.

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TWO friends from the UK who decided to catch up over Christmas met in Málaga, because it was cheaper than catching the train to each other's home cities.

Lucy Walker, from Newcastle and Zara Quli, from Birmingham were great friends during their time as students at Nottingham University, but went back to their respective cities after graduation.

They decided to meet up again after Christmas, but the cost of a return raiil fare between Birmingham and Newcastle was £105 (€120).

Instead, English as a foreign language teacher Lucy, 27, booked a return flight to Málaga with Ryanair for £19.98 (about €23) from Newcastle airport and charity worker Zara, 26, bought a return with Catalunya airline Vueling from Birmingham airport for £55.59 (about €64).

The result was that it was cheaper to travel the more than 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometres) to the Costa del Sol than to cover the 213 miles (340 kilometres) between the centre and the north of England.

Even after paying for two nights in a budget hotel in Málaga – which cost just £10 (about €11.50) a night, they had still not exceeded the cost of a return rail fare between Birmingham and Newcastle.

But whilst in southern Spain, the girls decided to book a third night in Granada to see the Alhambra Palace.

The girls found a hostel in Granada for £11 for the night (just under €13).

This meant that excluding the rail fare from Málaga to Granada, which would have been around the price of their flights or even less, the whole trip including airport transfer in Málaga had cost just £2.25 more than a return ticket on the train between their two home cities in the UK.

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ACCIDENT and Emergency units are full to bursting as this winter's 'flu epidemic continues to spread at an alarming rate, with an average of 138 patients per 100,000 inhabitants.

So far, the outbreak has spread to seven of Spain's 17 self-governing regions – Asturias, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Catalunya, Madrid and the Balearics – all bar the latter being in the north.

Health authorities in some areas have taken on extra staff and opened up additional beds – Madrid, for example, has brought in 267 doctors and nurses – but planned non-urgent operations have been postponed by up to three weeks.

The region says its El Tajo hospital in Aranjuez, Getafe hospital and Alcalá hospital are all struggling to cope.

Regional health minister Jesús Sánchez Martos says surgery has had to be put back to keep beds free for possible urgent 'flu cases.

Elsewhere, personnel and their unions have strongly criticised national authorities for failing to prepare sufficiently for the epidemic, which has worsened over the Christmas holidays.

The Moisès Broggi hospital in Sant Joan Despí (Barcelona province) says the situation in A&E is 'critical', overflowing with patients, no space left and not enough resources.

Two beds are having to be squashed into cubicles designed for one patient and some people are lying on beds in the corridors.

In Asturias, 95% of hospital beds are now taken up, meaning any further rise in patient numbers could be disastrous.

A healthcare union in Aragón says patients were being forced to wait up to 18 hours in A&E, whilst staff at a Bilbao hospital staged a swift protest today (Wednesday) to denounce the 'lack of solutions' to the 'continuous overcrowding' in Casualty.

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SCIENTISTS have warned that putting Spain back onto GMT as it was before World War II would be 'disastrous' and do little or nothing to improve the work-life balance.

Head of Applied Physics at Santiago de Compostela University in Galicia, Dr Jorge Mira, says turning the clocks back 'would solve nothing' and 'would even bring more problems'.

He says he and fellow scientists are 'observing with a great deal of panic' how those in favour of placing Spain on Greenwich Mean Time are 'looking at a flat map of the world, when the Earth is actually round', leading to 'arguments which are little more than fallacy'.

Dr Mira says mainland Spain is on the correct time lag if the map is globe-shaped, and that the country's way of life would carry on as normal 'whatever the hands on the clock say'.

“The sun is going to keep on rising and setting just as before,” he stresses.

“For example, if someone leaves work at 18.00 and, with the clock change, this means going home in the dark, all that's happened is that life now involves an extra hour of darkness – and if, in compensation, you start work an hour earlier, then you're in exactly the same position as we're in now.”

He says Spain is erroneously trying to compare itself with northern Europe, which has fewer hours of daylight in winter and more in summer than the south.

And he debunks the long-running tale of how dictator General Franco put the clocks forward an hour to align with his Nazi and Fascist allies in Germany and Italy during the War.

“During World War II and the Spanish Civil War, there were numerous time-zone changes throughout Europe – it was actually French president Charles de Gaulle who, at the end of the second World War, wanted to keep Central European Time, and Spain chose to remain in line with France.

“So the current CET time zone in Spain is European, French, and driven by De Gaulle, not by the Nazis, and France and Spain are on the same latitude.”

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SIX in 10 Spaniards do not speak or understand enough English to be able to hold a basic conversation and cannot read or write it, according to the Social Research Centre (CIS).

And 70% of companies believe their staff 's levels of English are not enough to be able to deal with foreign clients, the national Chamber of Commerce reveals.

Professor Ainderias Fitzgerald, an Irish teacher who trains tutors at the Vaughan Centre in Spain, says much of the problem is that many of those who try to learn English are afraid of 'looking stupid'.

“Teachers need to understand that the battle is not just that of learning the language in itself, but being daring enough to speak it in public,” Fitzgerald explains.

“Practical and oral classes should take precedence – in Spanish schools, too much theory and grammar is taught, whereas if you go to school in Sweden, there are hardly any books; it's nearly all spoken.”

Many parents do not want their children to learn their English in the same way as they did, Fitzgerald reveals.

Madrid-born Paula Grau, 38, says: “I studied lots of grammar – we didn't do any speaking – and there wasn't much emphasis on language-learning. It was just another school subject.

“Nowadays, speaking another language is not just an advantage when you're looking for a job, but a necessity.” 

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CONSUMER confidence has been rising consistently over the months leading up to Christmas and the New Year, with shoppers feeling more relaxed about spending.

At its highest since December last year – but still a long way off the average for 2015 – the customer confidence index (ICC) is currently just over halfway up the scale.

From 0 to 200, with 200 being maximum confidence and 0 being none at all, Spaniards interviewed averaged at 107.4 at the end of 2016, or 53.7% confidence – the highest annual closing figure since before the financial crisis, and 1.3 points above November's 99.4 and 6.7 higher than the ICC figure at the beginning of December.

This marks a rapid recovery after a fall in September and October, when Spain still did not have a government, but is still 0.9 points below the predicted figure of 108.3.

Based upon figures throughout 2015, the ICC has fallen by 6.6% overall – 3.3% in consumers' evaluation of the current economic situation, and 9.4% below expectations.

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NATIONAL health authorities want pensioners earning over €18,000 a year before tax to make a higher contribution to their prescription charges – which were free until just over four years ago.

At present, those earning less than €18,000 pay 10% of their prescriptions up to a maximum of €8.26 a month, whilst anyone whose income ranges from €18,001 to €100,000 a year contributes a maximum of 13% per month.

For the working-age population, prescriptions come in at 10% for those on a gross income of €18,000 or less, and an eye-watering 50% for those earning between €18,001 and €100,000, with no cap on costs – up from 10% prior to autumn 2012.

'Pensioners' does not just mean retirees whose earnings come from their State pot, but also covers those earning a permanent disability, widow's or widower's, family support, or orphan's pension, and the average figure across all of these is around €900.50 a month.

For State retirement pensions only, the average monthly figure is €1,038.93, paid over 14 months – a double packet in summer and at Christmas – and those whose annual pension is €18,000 a year will be taking home a monthly figure of €1,286.

Without a mortgage, this is enough for a lone pensioner to live comfortably and a couple, both earning the same, to live very well, but old age means prescriptions go up in quantity and frequency, eating away into the household budget – plus, with the unemployment crisis, numerous retirees are now supporting their children and even grandchildren out of their pension, often having them living in their homes.

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SPANISH-BASED homeowners with mortgages saved a significant amount of money in 2016 thanks to the Eurozone interest rate being negative for 11 consecutive months.

The highest savings were seen in Madrid and the Basque Country – those whose mortgages come up for their annual review in December will see their payments in 2017 go down by an average of €110 over the year, or just under €10 a month.

The Euribor, which is used to calculate interest on mortgages in Spain and all other countries which use the euro as currency, closed 2016 on -0.082%, meaning an average saving of €80 a year for mortgage payers nationally.

Despite popular misconception among consumers, however, this does not mean a refund on mortgage payments, particularly as most lenders set their rates by a fixed percentage on top of the Euribor – at best, if the Eurozone interest rate drops, interest on mortgages may reduce to zero, but in most cases a small percentage still applies.

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), a typical mortgage for buying a property in Spain as at December 2015 was €107,880, meaning that a 25-year term and a 'Euribor +1%' deal would mean the average monthly payment came out at €409.46.

At that point, the Euribor was still above zero – but only just – at 0.059%, and now, a year later, the same mortgage payment would come in at around €402 a month.

The highest average mortgages taken out to buy a property in the last year were in Madrid, with a typical figure of just under €143,000, whilst the lowest were in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, at €67,700.

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HOSPITALS in Madrid and Barcelona have been named the best in Spain for certain specialist areas of healthcare for the second year running.

The Hospital Excellency Index 2016 (IEH 2016), drawn up by the Coordinated Institute of Government Policy and Applied Economics, names Madrid's La Paz University Hospital as one of the top three in the country in six of its 10 specialist consultation and treatment areas.

Valencia's La Fe Hospital (pictured) and Sevilla's Virgen del Rocío Hospital also got into the top three for specific branches of healthcare, and Barcelona's Vall d'Hebrón Hospital was number one for oncology and cardiology.

“Although Madrid and Barcelona get the best ratings, the general perception of healthcare is very positive throughout the country, says Jesús Sánchez Lambás, deputy chairman of the Institute and IEH 2016 project manager.

After the Vall d'Hebrón, the best hospitals for cancer treatment and diagnosis are the Jiménez Díaz Foundation and the Quirón Hospital in Madrid, whilst for cardiology, second to the Vall d'Hebrón came La Fe in Valencia and the Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid.

The Jiménez Díaz Foundation was top in gynaecology, followed by La Paz in Madrid and the Deux University Hospital in Barcelona, whilst the Teknon Medical Centre in Barcelona got the best rating for neurology, followed by the Vall d'Hebrón and, once again, the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid.

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SPAIN has spent more on the festive season than almost any other country in Europe – partly because, with the Twelfth Night and Epiphany celebrations, Spaniards effectively have two Christmases.

More and more families are choosing to give gifts on Christmas Eve night as well as the evening of January 5, although some prefer to stick to Spanish tradition and keep present-giving to the latter, brought by the Three Wise Men instead of Santa Claus.

The Magi are known as the Three Kings in Spain, and the parades with Melchior, Balthazar and Casper followed by the mass ripping of wrapping paper is the most exciting moment of the holidays for most children.

But all this takes its toll on Spanish families' bank accounts – the average household spent €682 on gifts alone, the highest figure seen since 2009.

This may be due to rising prices, or to residents generally feeling more financially secure than they ever have during the financial crisis which started eight years ago.

Only Danish families blew more on festive presents, but not by a wide margin, with a typical household shelling out €689.

This means Spain spends 29% more than the Germans, 11% more than the Italians, 15% more than the Belgians and a whopping 60% more than the Portuguese – and 4% more than they did for the Christmas and New Year festivities over 2015-2016.

By contrast, spending dropped elsewhere in Europe by 1%, but Spanish consumers interviewed by accountants Deloitte said, in 74% of cases, that they felt more confident in the stability of the national economy than they had a year previously, when 63% believed the country was becoming more financially secure.

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A 25-YEAR-OLD man from Jaén is facing 12 years in jail for bathing his baby in boiling water, causing him permanent scarring.

The court heard that in August 2012, the baby's parents went to visit the accused's sister for the afternoon and, later on, the two women went out to buy food for the evening meal.

Once alone in the house, the father – identified only by his initials of M.C.M. - decided to bath his five-and-a-half-month-old son.

But he used extremely hot, near-boiling water, pouring it over the infant's body.

Even though the baby started crying immediately, his father 'held him by the head' to keep him still.

The infant continued crying after the accused took him out of the water and while he was being dried roughly with a towel, which pulled his skin off.

It was at that moment when the women returned to the house, and they took the baby straight to hospital.

He was admitted to intensive care and then transferred to the burns unit at Sevilla's Virgen del Rocío Hospital.

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USED tissues surreptitiously collected in a café means a Sevilla woman could win her fight to be recognised as an ex-bullfighter's biological daughter.

María, 60, is the result of an extra-marital affair between her mother and the undisclosed bullfighter.

She said her mother, who died aged 80, and the torero were in love after they met in the late 1950s, but María's mother was forced to marry another man 'due to family pressure'.

Despite this, the bullfighter and María's mother carried on their affair in secret whilst she was married.

But after María was born, the bullfighter left her mother and had no more contact with either of them, refusing to pay anything towards the baby's upkeep.

Years later, however, the matador and María's mother rekindled their affair – something María herself knew about from the age of around nine.

Her biological father finally agreed to meet María when she turned 18, in a bar in Sevilla.

Since then, father and daughter have met up regularly and María has mixed with her father's family on numerous occasions – including the bullfighter's eventual wife and the daughter he had with her.

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A BANK has been ordered to refund a client the sum of €3,371 which was erroneously charged in full to set up a mortgage.

The customer was told to make the payment in 2010 when signing a mortgage contract with Catalunya Banc-Catalunya Caixa in order to cover notary costs, entry on the land registry and taxes for documented legal procedures, but a court in Granollers (Barcelona province) said these expenses should have been shared 50-50 with the client and the lender.

Now, four months after buying out the Catalunya Banc-Catalunya Caixa, it is the BBVA which is required to refund the customer.

The court verdict also ordered the BBVA to remove the so-called 'floor clause' in the mortgage contract, whereby interest rates on the loan cannot go below a given minimum no matter how far the Euribor, or Eurozone interest rate, drops.

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A TOWN near Barcelona is sitting on an underground Artesian bore well over 200 metres (650 feet) deep with a water temperature of 60ºC and a flow capacity of 30,000 litres per hour, say scientists.

This could open the door to free, natural hot tap water, and also be converted into electricity to fuel the whole of the town, Santa Coloma de Gramenet.

The thermal water pocket was in fact discovered in 2004 when workmen were building the metro Line 9 from Barcelona city, but it is only now, after more recent studies, that experts have realised just how unique it is.

It could have the same heating and hot water potential as the underground artesian aquifers in nearby Caldes de Malavella and Caldes de Montbui.

Geologist Enric Vázquez, leading the excavation team, says the subterranean well is the only one of its kind within the Barcelona metropolitan area, and is 'unusual' because the water circulates around non-porous granite rock, meaning it is fresh water and not salty.

Most thermal aquifers contain salt water and are not suitable for human consumption, although they have great potential as renewable energy providers.

Mayoress of Santa Coloma, Núria Parlon, says both the temperature and the sheer quantity of water means the underground well could be used to set up thermal spas as well as hot tap water and electricity.

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SPAIN has set another record for foreign holidaymaker visits – throughout 2016, the country welcomed a total of 71.5 million tourists, more than one-and-a-half times the resident population.

In November alone, 4.1 million foreign visitors arrived in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) based upon data gathered by the Tourist Movement Across Borders Survey (FRONTUR).

Already exceeding the expected 70 million by the end of the year, the final figure is likely to be even higher since the numbers counted to date only go up to the end of November.

Over these 11 months, the UK remained the most faithful to Spain with nearly 17 million holidaymakers – well over a quarter of the population of the British isles – travelled to the country, representing 23.7% of the total and a year-on-year increase of 12.3%.

French visitors were the second-largest national group, with 10.8 million travelling to Spain – up by 7.1% on the same period in 2015 – followed by Germans, who totalled 10.7 million, up by 6.1%.

The Irish represented the greatest growth, rising bby 22.7% to 1.74 million, followed by the Portuguese, up by 15.8% to 1.87 million.

And the Russian market is showing signs of recovery, growing by 1.8% to 920,000.

Catalunya continues to be the number one destination in Spain, accounting for 23.8% of the total number of holidaymakers, or 17 million, rising by 3.8% year-on-year.

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SPAIN'S government has agreed to increase retirement pensions by 0.25% - the legal minimum – and the minimum wage by 8% from its current €655.20 a month for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week job to €707.70 a month.

President Mariano Rajoy, of the right-wing PP party, says the minimum wage hike is 'the greatest in 30 years' and is 'thanks to the country's improved economy'.

Pensions are required to go up by a minimum of 0.25% a year and a maximum of the rate of inflation, or IPC index, plus 0.5%.

Current figures show the highest contributory State pensions now sit at €2,573.70 a month and the average is €1,500, or 93% of the average gross salary in Spain.

But the figures are skewed by very high earners in both cases – mostly, the average monthly State pension in Spain ranges from about €620 to €1,200, depending upon region.

The 0.25% rise – which is all that has been applied for the past three years – also applies to non-contributory State pensions, which is a varying monthly sum of around €250.

Pensioners' associations and unions call both increases 'insufficient' and has accused the government of 'ignoring social dialogue'.

Spain's largest unions, the labourers' commission (CCOO) and general workers' union (UGT), had both called for pensions to go up by 1.2% in 2017 and the minimum wage for a full-time job to rise to €800.

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POSTMEN and postwomen are being sought this year with between 2,430 and 2,450 job openings as part of a plan to increase the workforce by 10,000 by 2020.

The State post office, or Correos, already advertised 1,606 jobs at the beginning of 2016 – which 125,000 people applied for.

Correos has been praised by unions as being one of the few public sector firms to ensure 100% of vacancies caused by retirement or resignations have been filled.

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TREASURY minister Cristóbal Montoro has announced a payment of nearly €3.1 billion to regional governments by today (Tuesday) at the latest to cover bills from their education, healthcare and social services suppliers.

A further €1.4bn will be freed up some time at the beginning of this month for other expenses to cover miscellaneous debts, including paying pharmacies for presciption medication.

“Much of the bills we are due to pay are for healthcare, which is the fundamental core of the supply chain financed through the Autonomous Region Liquidity Fund [FLA],” Montoro explains.

“By sending the money now, it means these suppliers will be paid within the legal deadline of 30 days – crucial for ensuring their financial security and enabling investment, exports and employment.”

This also means no delays should occur in providing vital services to the public, the minister adds.

“We in the central government are working hard to ensure all 17 regions in Spain are part of this agreement, and have invited the four currently outside it – the Basque Country, Navarra, Asturias and Galicia – to join up.”

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SALES have started on most of the high street with up to 50% off end-of-line stock – earlier than the traditional January 7, ever since a new law in 2012 allowed retailers to choose when they wanted to start the campaign.

Spain's equivalent of the Boxing Day sales always started the day after the bank holiday for the Three Kings, which falls on January 6, as children get their presents from the Magi the night before.

Now, with Santa Claus taking more of a central role and retailers needing the extra business boost, sales are tending to start on the first working day back after New Year, meaning families and friends buy more as Three Kings gifts due to lower prices – as well as picking up a few bargains for themselves.

Larger chains, especially Inditex – which owns Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Bershka, Uterqüe, Zara Home and Oysho – continue to stick to old habit and start their sales on January 7, but other major chains such as Sfera, H&M, Cortefiel and Adolfo Domínguez have started already.

Discounts will eventually rise to up to 80% off in some cases, although they usually start the sales at 30% off.

Typically, stores will continue the sales until the end of January and some will continue into February, although others go on until all sale stock is sold – including lingerie firm Women's Secret, which continues until February 28 to take in Valentine's Day.

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HUMAN health over the course of a lifetime is conditioned in the womb, according to Spanish scientists.

Psychoneuroimmunologist Dr Xavi Cañellas and nutritionist Dr Jesús Sanchís, in their book Niños sanos, adultos sanos ('Healthy children, healthy adults'), say everything from expecting mothers' diet through to their mental health and even the type of birth, along with breast- or bottle-feeding, has a bearing on the future child's health throughout their entire lives.

But those who take care to avoid or reduce stress, keep to a healthy diet and maintain their intestinal flora in good conditions can reverse some problems people were born with, according to the book.

Abuse of antibiotics by pregnant women can lead to allergies, auto-immune conditions, asthma and food intolerances, among other problems, says Dr Cañellas, who works at the Biomedical Research Institute at Girona's Josep Trueta Hospital.

“It's not normal for young children to have allergies, to have been on antibiotics several times before the age of five, or for teenagers to get acne,” Dr Cañellas insists.

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