Live News From Spain As It Happens

AN EARTHQUAKE measuring 2.4 on the Richter scale has been reported to the north-east of Guardamar del Segura in the southern limits of the province of Alicante.

At this magnitude, damage is extremely rare and any registered would be very minor, limited to a cup falling over or lightweight items falling off shelves.

But it would normally be felt, and in fact, emergency services received calls from Dolores, Elche and Rojales.

It was said to be at 11 kilometres underground, deep enough not to cause an impact, and was registered at exactly 22.41 on Monday halfway between Guardamar and the beach town of Santa Pola.

The quake may have been felt further afield, but as yet this has not been reported.

No aftershocks were felt, meaning any that came would have been below 2 on the Richter scale.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH children can use their mothers' surnames before their fathers' from the end of this month, whether or not both parents agree.

In Spain, women do not change their surnames when they marry, and children automatically have two surnames – that of their father followed by that of their mother.

Since the millennium, Spanish law has allowed babies to be registered with their mothers' surnames first, followed by their fathers', although only if both parents agreed – in the event of dispute, preference was always given to the father's name being the child's first surname.

This has proven awkward for single mothers, especially where the father does not wish to have contact with the child, or with all-female couples where the father is a donor who has agreed not to interfere with the child's upbringing.

From June 30, however, the father's surname will not automatically become the child's first surname, and the parent or parents will be required to confirm the order of names in writing.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANOTHER young child is in intensive care after being pulled out of a swimming pool in cardiac arrest, this time in Ibiza.

In a near-identical situation to a case reported in Teguise (Lanzarote) which happened on Friday lunchtime, a seven-year-old boy was dragged out of the water by fellow bathers on Sunday and found to have no pulse.

The other swimmers took it in turns to give him CPR and called an ambulance.

Paramedics used a defibrillator to restart his heart and then rushed him to the paediatric intensive care unit at Ibiza's Can Misses hospital (pictured), where he was intubated and then flown to the larger Son Espases hospital in Palma de Mallorca.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EXPATS in Spain visiting their family and friends will not have to dread their mobile phone bill arriving when they return – roaming charges will be scrapped from June 15 between all 28 European Union member States and in the European Economic Area (EEA) nations of Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

The long-awaited 'Roam Like At Home' programme means whatever tariff a mobile user is on in their country of residence applies identically if they travel to another EU or EEA member State – so tourists from the UK and Ireland, for example, will incur the same costs using their phones on holiday in Spain as they would any other time of the year.

Whether this will continue after Brexit in April 2019 is open to conjecture, and is one of hundreds of unanswered questions about Britain's leaving the EU.

Some mobile operators have already dropped roaming charges ahead of the June 15 deadline, and all of them are required to tell customers once they have done so and explain how it works.

This said, according to Computer Hoy, some telecommunications companies plan to raise their year-round at-home tariffs to compensate for the loss of income they make through roaming fees.

Movístar has already announced a price hike, and Vodafone is expected to do likewise.

Orange admitted back in April that it would lose profits once roaming charges were axed, but refused to say whether or not it planned to up its fees.

All packages on contract phones will remain the same between EU member States, meaning if a customer has a tariff allowing unlimited calls and text messages in Spain, this will apply in 30 other countries.

Where the tariff places a cap on data, operators are obliged to tell customers how this will work after June 15.

Some companies may apply new cost plans for customers who regularly 'roam', but the maximum which can be charged outside the user's home country and within the EEA is 3.2 cents, and one cent for text messages.

The limit for data will drop from €50 per gigabyte (GB) to just €7.70 from June 15 and continue to reduce progressively in line with increasing data use and over time, falling to €2.50 by the year 2020.

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SPAIN'S president Mariano Rajoy has compared an independent Catalunya with 'Brexit' and warned the public to rise up against it.

“Catalunya will be out of the EU if it becomes an independent State, whatever they say to the contrary,” the PP leader argued during an Economic Circle conference in Sitges (Barcelona province).

“The whole world can be absolutely certain that I will not permit a referendum in Catalunya and will attempt to impose common sense – and let's not forget that everyone who believes in this country needs to get involved, it's not just an issue for politicians.”

Rajoy added: “There will never be a referendum in Catalunya for as long as I am president of Spain.”

He said the consequences of independence for the region would be 'terrible', and compared it to Britain's plans to leave the European Union.

“They said nothing would go wrong with Brexit, and yet now we're having to talk about the rights of European citizens and how much money the UK will have to pay,” Rajoy pointed out.

“There are those who said there would be no negative consequences for the UK, but who have since said the 'Leave' campaign's claims were highly exaggerated and that they had been lied to.

“Brexit will have dreadful consequences for the British people and for the rest of Europe, despite its being carried out via a set legal process.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HUNDREDS of passengers have been left stranded at Madrid's Barajas airport after a system failure suffered by British Airways which has ground planes.

Passengers worldwide have been affected, and all flights have been cancelled until 18.00 tonight (mainland Spain time) in every country.

British Airways (BA), which is part of the Anglo-Spanish company IAG – encompassing Irish carrier Aer Lingus and Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – says a 'major IT fault' has stopped all flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

For Spain, this means long-haul flights in particular are affected, since BA is a major carrier from Barcelona and Madrid airports to destinations in, among other countries, India and Australia.

Passengers have complained on social networks that they have not been able to make bookings or check in online via the BA mobile phone App, whilst others say the queues in Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas terminal are stretching back along the corridor.

Here, flights directly to, or via, London scheduled for 10.55 and 12.20 were delayed and will not take off until at least 18.20.

One passenger who was heading to Heathrow from Madrid on flight BA457 – the first of the morning, due to leave at 10.55 – for a connecting flight to the USA said passengers were still stuck on the plane at 13.30 since the company thought it would be able to solve the problem relatively quickly.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LORRIES will be banned from the vicinity of the Vicente Calderón stadium this weekend during the Copa del Rey final between Alavés FC and Barça.

Any HGV of 3.5 tonnes or more will be kept out of a perimeter over Saturday and Sunday (May 27 and 28) for security reasons, given the huge conglomeration of fans and other members of the public.

The restrictions will start from the C/ Segovia interchange with the Puerta de Toledo roundabout as far as the Embajadores roundabout, and from the Paseo de las Acacias to the Pirámides roundabout, and will apply from 14.00 tomorrow (Saturday).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONAL rail board RENFE's website crashed this morning due to a frenzied rush on its one-day-only cut-price tickets for the high-speed AVE network.

To celebrate 25 years of the AVE – which connects the 350-kilometre journey from Valencia to Madrid in 90 minutes, among other rapid routes – RENFE is selling 25,000 one-way trips for €25 a head on the 25^th day of every month this year.

But it had to up the quota to 32,000 today after its server seized up at around 02.00, having put the tickets on sale on the stroke of midnight.

At one point, the rail board reveals, it was shifting as many as 1,079 tickets a minute.

RENFE broke records for sales between 00.01 an 00.45 this morning, after which the system began to slow down due to high traffic.

By 01.20, or just an hour and 19 minutes after the cheaper seats went on sale, it had sold a total of 24,191.

By 01.35, the entire 25,000 were sold out, but many buyers were overlapping and buying the same tickets as each other, meaning RENFE had to honour all purchases and throw in a further 7,000.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARELY one in five residents in Spain drinks enough water – despite the extreme heat the country experiences in summer.

According to a research paper presented at Spain's Royal National Academy of Medicine, only 13% of men drink the recommended two-and-a-half litres of water a day, and only 22% of women drink their advised two litres.

The average man in Spain only drinks 1.7 litres of water, and a typical woman in the country consumes 1.6 litres.

This deficit may appear minor, but at just 20% - 400 millitres below the recommended amount for women, or half a litre for men – can cause tiredness and early-onset dehydration; in fact, it is said that even 'feeling thirsty' means the body is starting to dehydrate.

The human body is 65% water, meaning it needs constant rehydration to function.

Medics from the International Cathedra of Advanced Hydration Studies (CIEAH) recommend 70% to 80% of daily liquid consumption should be water, and in the 'drink pyramid', the next layer up would be fluids with no calories, such as green tea or fruit or herbal infusions, or water with a squeeze of lemon.

The third level should be drinks that provide some nutritional value, such as hot beverages with milk, and finally drinks with added sugar, although these are not necessary and occupy the same slot on the 'liquid pyramid' as refined sugar, sweets and desserts do on the 'nutritional pyramid'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH mountaineer has crowned Everest without oxygen or fixed ropes in just one hit – despite having to 'stop every two steps' because of an upset stomach.

Catalunya-born Kilian Jornet reached the summit just 26 hours after leaving Base Camp, a climb of 6,500 metres.

Kilian climbed the world's second-highest mountain from the north face, reaching the peak at 8,848 metres above sea-level around midnight local time on Sunday, and had to stay there until Monday morning because of pains in his stomach and starting to feel ill after around 7,700 metres.

He had originally planned to return to Base Camp, near the old Rombuk monastery at 5,100 metres above sea-level, on the same night, but what he believes to be 'a stomach virus' meant he abandoned the idea and stayed put near the top.

Everest was the final goal in Kilian's Summits of my Life project, which started with Mont Blanc in 2012 and led onto Cervino before he crossed the pond and scaled Denali and Aconcagua in North and South America respectively.

This is the second time he had planned to crown Everest, but the first trip in September had to be put off due to adverse weather conditions.

“Climbing to the summit of Everest without fixed ropes isn't something you can do every day,” Kilian remarked.

“I saw a spectacular sunset and, finally, at around midnight, reached the peak.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MANCHESTER City FC manager Pep Guardiola's wife and daughters were at last night's Ariana Grande concert during the terror attack which killed 22 people – including six children – and injured 59 others.

The former Barça FC player and trainer has been based in the north-western UK city since last summer with his wife, Cristina Serra and their three children María, 16; Màrius, 14 and Valentina, nine.

Cristina, María and Valentina had gone to see Ariana at Manchester Arena, but Pep and Màrius did not accompany them.

The coach's father Valentí Guardiola told the Catalunya daily newspaper, Regió7, that all three managed to escape the venue in time and none of them are hurt.

“Fortunately, none of this madness affected them and they just had a terrible scare,” Guardiola Senior explained.

Pep himself says he is 'in shock' and 'cannot believe' what has happened.

He sent his condolences on Twitter to the friends and family members of those who have died – of whom three have been named so far – along with the hashtag #Ilovemanchester.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ARIANA Grande's Dangerous Woman Tour has been called off until at least the end of June, although as yet no official communication about the Barcelona date has been released.

The US-born star's announcement of her European tour cancellation is assumed to affect the concert at the Palau Sant Jordi in the Catalunya capital on June 13 – Ariana's only show in Spain – but notification has not been published as yet.

Fans do not yet know whether they will receive a refund on their tickets, although this seems likely and those who had bought their entry are awaiting news from the star's manager, Scooter Braun.

A press release from Braun says: “We're all crying for the lives of the children and their loved ones which have been snatched away by this act of cowardice.”

Music magazine TMZ cited sources close to Ariana and say she is 'hysterical' and 'devastated' following the attack, and unable to bring herself to see anyone official at the moment.

Both Ariana and her team are concerned about her own safety as well as those of her fans.

Dates in the UK, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, France, Portugal and Italy have been axed, and it is thought Ariana's tour will resume in summer with her planned concerts in Latin America, Asia and Oceania.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EXPLOSIVES experts have detonated a phosphorus flare found by a man catching the rays on Estacio beach in La Manga del Mar Menor (Murcia).

He contacted the Guardia Civil when he saw what looked like a bomb on the sand, but which turned out to be an unfired signal flare.

In its unexploded state, however, it was still potentially dangerous, so divers from the EOD detonation squad were called in.

They removed it safely and took it to the Guardia Civil headquarters in Cartagena to neutralise it.

The Guardia Civil, who are military-trained police, have a bomb-detonation diving team in-house, which works with the Naval Anti-Mine Measures Diving Unit – the UBMCM – as well as the land-based explosives team, TEDAX.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MERSEYSIDE police traced an explosion in a Liverpool flat to a massive international drug-smuggling racket involving 21 Brits in four Spanish provinces and the north-west of England.

Working closely with police in Spain after finding an arsenal of home-made bombs and 150 kilos of speed and five kilos of cannabis in the Liverpool property in March, officers from Merseyside have helped capture the last few members of the gang this week.

Most of the accused parties who carried out the spade-work for the smuggling operation were young British men aged between 22 and 25, living in upmarket neighbourhoods in Barcelona and Marbella (Málaga) and driving top-of-the-range cars – despite apparently not having jobs or any legally-registered trade.

Tonnes of cannabis were transported to the UK from Spain in lorries carrying consignments of bricks, and when the two ringleaders and their brother-in-law – whom the younger men worked for – were arrested, a shoebox containing €120,000 in cash was unearthed.

Another 18 people, mostly British and believed to be all male, were arrested after 12 properties in the provinces of Alicante, Málaga, Tarragona and Barcelona were raided.

Police seized 1,646 marijuana plants and 58 hash buds ready for transport.

Several cargoes of up to 400 kilos at a time had been shipped to the UK already.

The lorries were supposed to be carrying marble slabs, but were packed into boxes which in fact contained bricks along with the drugs to obtain a similar weight and avoid their being inspected.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A REGIONAL government spokeswoman in Catalunya says the independence referendum will be held in the second half of September, but will 'wait for a clear response' from central government president Mariano Rajoy before confirming the exact date.

Rajoy has been called to a conference in Catalunya led by its president, Carles Puigdemont in an attempt to 'discuss' and 'if possible, reach an agreement' – but Rajoy has not yet confirmed whether he will attend, and it is likely he will refuse.

Spain's central government has long refused to even approach the subject of a referendum and simply said it is not allowed, 'end of conversation'.

This has merely served to incense the population of Catalunya, to increase support for secession and lead to even those who are not in favour of independence to push for a public vote.

And even if Rajoy does go to the conference, it seems very unlikely his categoric 'no' and refusal to discuss the matter will change.

But Catalunya's government spokeswoman Neus Munté says the referendum will go ahead in the second half of September whether Madrid agrees to it or not.

Puigdemont has said there is no sense in setting an exact date until the conference, and stresses he wants to 'make a formal offer to negotiate' Catalunya's position with the central government first.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HYPERMARKET chain Carrefour plans to take on 6,700 new members of staff for summer, of whom nine in 10 will be based in stores.

Customer service and check-out, shelf-stacking, staff on the deli counters and in technology sales are sought, with others needed for financial services, travel agencies and petrol stations.

Applicants should have a 'clear sales orientation' and 'excellent customer service skills', as well as being able to work well in a team, digital or computer skills and 'great potential for development'.

First-jobbers, as well as students seeking to earn money for the summer are the most likely to be expected to apply, although workers of any age can send their CV via Carrefour's website.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONAL Police have broken up a human-trafficking racket which dressed illegal immigrants as football players to get them through the border into Spain.

Migrants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa wore strips for the third division X club AD Ceuta, based in the Spanish-owned city-province of the same name on the Moroccan coast, which plays alongside teams in Huelva, Sevilla, Córdoba and Cádiz.

Officers saw a man wearing the official tracksuit for AD Ceuta on board a ship heading from the city to mainland Spain, but found he was not one of the team, nor its staff.

And on checking his national ID card, they found he was not who he claimed to be, nor was he a Spanish citizen.

The man in question claimed a member of the club had sold him the ID card for €1,000.

Police traced the only member of the team who was not wearing the official strip and arrested him along with another woman who was said to be in charge of keeping the illegal migrant under wraps at her home before he was helped on board the ferry.

A third person who had been accompanying the migrant was also arrested.

The three taken into custody, a woman aged 32 and two men aged 23 and 34, were all born in Ceuta and had Spanish passports, and the immigrant was Moroccan and aged 19.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DRIVERS caught over the alcohol limit, on drugs or both more than once in two years will face an automatic ban and compulsory health checks to see whether they suffer addictions, says interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido.

Although this is already provided for by the General Drivers' Regulations, part of Spain's road traffic law, it is rarely applied.

But the ex-mayor of Sevilla and now head of Interior says something needs to be done in light of the high number of cyclist and pedestrian deaths and injuries and of drivers continuing to be found well in excess of the alcohol limit or under the influence of substances, typically cocaine and cannabis.

Less than a week after three cyclists from Jávea (Alicante province) lost their lives when a drunken and drug-fuelled driver ploughed through them on the N-332 highway in Oliva (Valencia province), a near-identical case was seen in the province of Tarragona – a woman aged 25 who had consumed large amounts of alcohol knocked down six cyclists.

Fortunately, in the second case, all of them survived, but several have been injured.

And in the four days following the Oliva crash, three drivers were caught in the same province between three and six times over the alcohol limit, one also on drugs and driving the wrong way down the AP-7 motorway.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has contacted the UK and ordered an investigation into 'racist attacks' on Spanish tourists and expats in Britain.

Following the Brexit referendum vote, an upsurge in xenophobic insults and assaults was reported in the UK, mostly targeting Polish expats, but a small number of Spaniards also suffered.

Tomás Gil, 27, who was speaking to his companion in Spanish in Poole, Dorset – both of whom were believed to be tourists – was beaten with a broken billboard and told to 'speak in English'.

And a Spanish-run restaurant serving typical dishes from different parts of the country was attacked, with the windows smashed and the façade covered in graffiti reading 'Spics go home!'

These are not thought to be isolated incidences, given that many Spaniards in the UK do not report general insults or threats, only contacting the police if they suffer physical violence.

And the embassy and consular offices say no xenophobic assaults or verbal attacks have been reported to them.

Now that they have been informed through a written communication by left-wing opposition party Podemos, consulates and the embassy have made contact with the victims and offered assistance.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A POLICEWOMAN has been arrested after her husband's body was found burnt out in the boot of a car.

The Guardia Urbana officer, aged 33, is said to have been having an affair with a policeman from the same force, aged 36, and they have both been taken into custody after the former's husband was discovered on May 4 near the swamp in Foix (Barcelona province).

The deceased had been suspended from his role for allegedly assaulting a motorcyclist.

His wife, the accused, is said to have been the victim of a 'porn revenge' case in 2008, perpetrated by another member of the force.

Read mroe at thinkSPAIN.com

DOG-LOVERS who don't mind the cold would be in seventh heaven in Greenland, an island where the pooch population outnumbers that of humans.

That's the conclusion reached by a Spanish father-and-son Arctic explorer team who carried out a census.

Manuel Calvo and his son Manuel Calvo Ariza – who, at 17, is one of the world's youngest Arctic adventurers – have been working on research about how climate change is affecting native Greenland dogs, and presented their report this week in Málaga, drawn up following a three-week stay in the Danish-owned region.

In the south of Greenland - which is in fact part of Denmark rather than a separate nation – the part where the capital city, Nuuk, is located is generally only slightly colder than a British winter, but the two Manuels have spent most of their time in the north, trekking across 400 kilometres of tundra in temperatures ranging from -20ºC to an unthinkable -32ºC.

They drew up a census of 1,420 dogs and 1,210 human inhabitants in the four towns in Arctic Greenland which have any residents at all.

Northern Greenland dogs tend to be very homogenous in terms of species and characteristics, they say, compared with those on the east and south coasts, and in the harsh climate of the far north, the animals have a very close relationship with humans, working as a team to survive in the extreme conditions faced year-round.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MANEL Navarro says he would happily go through last night's Eurovision experience again, despite Spain's coming last and his facing a backlash on social networks over alleged vote-rigging.

During the finals to decide Spain's entry, the public voted overwhelmingly for a singer named Mireia, but the judges backed Manel enough that he got through instead, upsetting numerous fans.

And this morning, comments on Twitter to the effect of 'serves him right' about coming last, and a flood of memes about a cockerel having escaped on stage has emerged overnight.

Manel says he had just laughed at his 'bad luck', saying 'things do go wrong when it's live'.

He was criticised by Ukrainian reporters covering the show in Kiev, who told him laughing it off was 'not the way to react when you go wrong'.

Manel apparently shrugged and said: “It could be that people just didn't like the song.”

Organisers had already said the song Do it for your lover was 'not the ideal choice' if Spain wanted any chances of getting into the top 15, despite the exotic video footage in the background showing the summer hedonism of the country's beaches.

Even though it was only the public vote that saved Spain from ending on an embarrassing nul points, Manel said he left 'with his head held high' and that the experience 'makes you even more determined to carry on'.

This is the fifth time in Eurovision history Spain has come last, although it has only once ended on nul points – in 1999, with singer Lydia Rodríguez.

Next year's Eurovision will be held in Lisbon after 27-year-old Salvador Sobral from Portugal's clear win, with a huge margin over second-placed Cristian Kostov, 17, from Bulgaria, who knocked Macedonia into third.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BIKES are clearly in fashion in Spain and it's a trend that's here to stay – over 1.1 million bicycles were bought by ordinary residents in 2015 alone, outnumbering cars by 70,000.

Figures for 2016 are not yet available, but expected to be similar or higher as residents take advantage of mild winters in the south and Mediterranean to get about without needing to be inside a heated car, and those in the colder north enjoy cool enough summers that they do not need to hang up their two-wheeled transport because it is too hot.

Although mountain bikes continue to be market leaders, cycles designed for urban transport are becoming more and more popular by the year, says the Association of Bicycle Brands for Spain (AMBE).

A positive correlation has been seen between bicycle sales and 'cyclist-friendly' urban policies, AMBE reveals – which means Valencia and Sevilla, already reported at Easter to be Spain's best biking cities, lead the field.

As revealed in our report of Saturday, April 15 this year, Sevilla is credited with the best cycle-path network and in Valencia, 12% of residents use a bike as their main mode of transport, including mayor Joan Ribó (Compromís), but Madrid is the worst-rated due to traffic, accident risk and pollution.

But a complete State policy in favour of cyclists, covering infrastructure, accident prevention and air quality, is still at the draft phase, despite The Netherlands and the UK having had such programmes in place since 1990 and 1996 respectively, says Manuel Martín of the Bike Protection Coordinator (ConBici).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH president Mariano Rajoy met with European Commissioner for Brexit this week to give his 'full support' to EU officials throughout the process – and heard that if Britain does not pay up, it will get no deal.

Michel Barnier (pictured) was on a visit to the Moncloa Palace, Spain's answer to the White House and 10 Downing Street, when he issued this warning to the UK before reporters.

“The British have decided to abandon the single market and the customs union, and will have to bear the full consequences of this,” Barnier stressed.

“We need to work hard to build the framework of our future trade relations, with an ambitious and fair agreement between both parties and a new level of cooperation beyond that, covering universities, international and national security, terrorism, global operations and peace processes.

“But this divergence could become very difficult if such negotiations do not cover issues like environment, consumer protection and taxation.”

Concerning recent reports that the UK allegedly stated it 'would not pay' the 'divorce' settlement, estimated to be in region of €100 million but which will need to be thrashed out between both parties, Barnier said Britain had two choices.

“The British have got to pay what they owe,” he stipulated.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has acquired a new global heritage site – the rocky mountain nature reserve of Las Loras, which straddles two provinces, has been designated World Geo-Park.

Already one of the European countries with the most UNESCO (United Nations Education, Culture and Science Organisation) sites, the new entry approved in the international body's headquarters in Paris this week is an entire district, or mini-county, covering 16 towns and villages.

The Las Loras district is mostly in the province of Burgos, encompassing 11 towns, with the remainder being in the neighbouring province of Palencia, both in the centre-northern region of Castilla y León.

Burgos is already popular with tourists because of its picturesque provincial capital city of the same name, home to Spain's second-largest and arguably most spectacular cathedral, and also because of its being right in the heart of the Ribera del Duero wine district.

Now, it has another reason for visitors to flock to it.

Las Loras' unusual panorama is made up of chalky rock plains which appear to have been whipped about by the wind and resemble 'spectacular river canyons', according to the application to UNESCO.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN is set to host the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards – considered the 'Oscars' of the culinary and catering industry – for the first time ever.

Next year will see the Basque city of Bilbao welcoming representatives from top eateries all over the planet – and some of the best in Spain will be there, too.

Six Spanish restaurants will collect awards – El Celler de Can Roca, in the province of Girona; four from the Basque Country, Arzak (San Sebastian), the pictured Azurmendi (Larrabetzu, Vizcaya province), Asador Etxebarri (Atxondo, Vizcaya province), and Mugaritz (Rentería, Guipúzcoa province); plus Tickets, in Barcelona.

Past awards ceremonies have been held in London, New York and Melbourne (Australia), but this time, a region home to some of the best-rated restaurants in Spain will get the honour for 2018.

In fact, El Celler de Can Roca, along with El Bulli, have both taken the top prize in the World's 50 Best Restaurants in past years.

The news of Spain's playing host was first announced at Basque chef Eneko Atxa's London restaurant, Eneko at One Aldwych, and editor of the World's 50 Best Restaurants Group William Drew says he is 'delighted' that the northern Spanish region, with its 'unbelievably delicious cuisine' and in a country that has 'always been at the cutting edge' of the culinary industry will be the venue for the 2018 awards.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VALENCIA'S first-ever 'cat café' has just opened on the C/ Túria (number 28) with a huge collection of rescued moggies seeking homes.

'El Passatge dels Gats' is home to felines rescued from the street by the Valencia-based shelter Asociación Adaana, and have all been spayed or neutered, wormed, de-flead, vaccinated and given a thorough veterinary check – as is standard with most shelters whenever they welcome a new arrival.

But to get a second chance at life and enjoy being spoilt rotten in a loving home, the cats need to be 'humanised' – non-domestic pussycats tend to be very scared and shy at first, but quickly adapt and make friends with their fellow species if they are given lots of attention.

A few 'stroking sessions' is normally enough to break the ice, then the cats realise they cannot get enough of the comfort supplied by humans and swiftly become affectionate.

For customers, they can enjoy the added bonus of being able to relax in 'company' whilst they wind down with a drink – after all, numerous studies have proven that stroking a cat relieves tension, increases dopamine and oxytocin levels and lowers blood pressure.

Given that the café is full of animals, customers cannot just walk in off the street as the cats may escape, undoing all the hard work of Adaana and El Passatge dels Gats and their clients.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BORDER crossings between Spain and Portugal will be restricted between Wednesday and Saturday this week inclusive due to the Pope's visit to the Sanctuary of Fátima.

The frontier between the province of Pontevedra in the north-western region of Galicia will only be accessible via the international bridge and, for pedestrians, bicycles and motorbikes, the old Tui-Valença bridge, until midnight on Saturday.

Passport control – normally absent as Spain and Portugal are within the Schengen zone – will be reinstated temporarily in these areas.

The Goián-Vilanova de Cerveira, the Salvaterra do Miño-Monção and the Arbo-Melgaço routes will remain shut for four days.

Authorities in both countries have warned that anyone planning to cross over into Portugal from Spain or vice versa this week must remember to bring their passport or, in the case of Spanish nationals, their DNI or national ID card, and to allow plenty of extra time.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl who stabbed a teenage boy at her high school in Madrid has been suspended, but her age means she cannot face any form of trial or legal redress.

The youngster, who will be 13 later this month, is said to have been going out with her 14-year-old victim – identified as Markus – and they both belonged to an urban gang known as 'Emo'.

The accused, a pupil at the Valdebernardo high school in Madrid's Vicálvaro neighbourhood, goes by the nickname of 'Tóxica'.

She stabbed Markus five times with a 'sharp object', which has not been defined, leaving him in a serious condition and having to be rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

He has since been discharged and his life is not in danger.

Markus was helped by staff who witnessed the attack and called an ambulance.

It is believed the assault was due to jealousy or a similar relationship conflict between the teen lovers.

As the girl is only 12, she is considered legally immune and the youth prosecution has closed its file on her case, since authorities cannot take any action.

In Spain, minors – aged under 18 – are not considered criminally liable, but can still be sentenced to a limited period, of up to two years, in a youth detention centre where they are given hands-on psychiatric assistance and 're-educating'.

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THREE days of mourning have been declared in Jávea (Alicante province) after the ex-mayor's son and one of his triathlon team-mates were mowed down by a drunk driver who had taken drugs.

The group of six were training on the main N-332 in Oliva (Valencia province) at around 08.00 this morning (Sunday) when a 28-year-old woman, believed to be from Oliva itself, ploughed through them.

A British man, Scott Gordon, and two others were injured.

One of the deceased, Eduardo Monfort, is the son of Jávea's former mayor of the same name who was in power until May 2011 with Bloc-Centristes, and the other, Luis Alberto Contreras, was the father of one of the injured men, Andrés Contreras.

The fifth victim is José Antonio Albi, and he and Scott and Andrés have been taken to three different hospitals – those of Gandia, Alzira (both in the province of Valencia) and Dénia (Alicante province).

One of the three, although it has not been confirmed which, is said to be critical and the others seriously injured.

Uninjured survivor Jaime Escortell says he cheated death by flinging himself onto the hard shoulder.

Escortell is head of the triathlon section of Jávea's Llebeig Athletics Club, to which all six belong.

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A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl has died and two other children are in a critical condition after a bouncy castle blew away at a restaurant on the Costa Brava.

Although police say there was little wind at the time, the blow-up attraction was swept 40 metres (130 feet) across the grounds of the Ca l'Oller eatery in Caldes de Malavella (Girona province) at around 15.45 yesterday (Sunday).

The children were flung between 10 and 20 metres (33 to 65 feet) and hit the ground hard.

Four suffered minor injuries and three were rushed to hospital.

A nine-year-old boy was air-lifted to Parc Taulí hospital in Sabadell (Barcelona province) and a girl aged seven was taken by ambulance to Girona's Josep Trueta hospital.

Another girl, aged six, was flown to Barcelona's Vall d'Hebrón hospital, but died later last night due to the severity of her injuries.

A seven-year-old girl who was badly injured, but not critical, and three others with minor wounds were also taken to the Josep Trueta.

Witnesses say they heard a loud bang a split second before the bouncy castle uprooted with the seven children aged between three and 11 on it, and police are investigating whether an explosion caused the tragedy or whether the attraction was not anchored down properly.

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FC BARCELONA has joined a campaign in support of a referendum on Catalunya's independence which seeks to bring on board as many organisations and individuals as possible in the region and beyond its borders ahead of a demonstration on May 19.

The 'National Pact for a Referendum' is not necessarily a pro-independence drive, but is instead calling for the region's residents and natives to be allowed the right to decide their own political future.

The Pact, started by the regional government, is calling on public and private companies and associations as well as society in general to join in – and Barça FC is the latest to elect to do so.

As yet, it is not known whether the club, currently chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu, will send along representatives to the protest in two weeks' time.

But the move is gathering strength – not just among those who would like to see Catalunya become a separate country, but also among those who already know they would vote against it.

A large proportion of the community in Catalunya feels 'dictated to' and 'ignored' by the Spanish central government, which has persistently refused to even discuss the matter and has even taken regional political leaders to court, leading to their being banned from holding office, as a result of a non-binding opinion poll on secession in November last year.

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HELP is finally at hand to get young adults onto the housing ladder – grants of up to €10,800 will be available to anyone up to the age of 35 inclusive to use as a deposit and fees.

Where the property is particularly cheap, however, the grant will be capped at 20% of the sale price.

Banks have tightened up mortgage-lending criteria since the start of the financial crisis meaning that, despite housing being more affordable than ever outside the major cities, they remain out of reach to first-time buyers who, even if they are approved for a home loan, will typically only ever be offered a maximum loan-to-value of 80%.

For a small, but comfortable and modern apartment suitable for a couple or small family outside of a metropolitan area, which could be on the market for as little as €50,000 to €80,000, this could mean finding a 20% deposit of between €10,000 and €16,000, despite interest rates being at their lowest-ever in the Eurozone and not predicted to rise in the foreseeable future.

On top of the deposit, first-time buyers will, like all property purchasers, have to find 12.5% of the sale price to cover fees and legal expenses.

The end result is that a cheque for €10,800 to get them started will be a godsend.

And they will be able to claim it any time between 2018 and 2021 as part of the State Housing Plan, says minister of public works Íñigo de la Serna.

The cash is not only for first-time buyers and is not means-tested – the only prerequisites are for the applicant to be 35 or under and the property to be a main residence.

Many young adults at present still prefer to rent, since limited financial knowledge and media coverage of repossessions means they distrust the idea of 'getting into debt' and do not see a mortgage as a long-term investment.

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A YOUNG woman with no income has been denied financial support from her parents by a court because she is 'too lazy to earn a living'.

The regional court in Cantabria rejected the 23-year-old's appeal against the verdict by a judge in her home town of Castro Urdiales, stating that the plaintiff had been 'wasting her life'.

Parents in Spain are legally required to provide the basics, including food, for their children until they reach 18, and must continue to do so beyond this age until the adult child is earning enough to feed him- or herself.

But this includes a caveat: if the adult child's financial dependence is caused by his or her own behaviour, parents are no longer obliged by law to feed them.

In the case of the 23-year-old from Cantabria, she left school without passing her ESO - Spain's answer to GCSEs - and, although she repeatedly asked her parents for money to take office technology courses, she either did not bother to sign up for them, failed to attend classes or did not undertake any extra-curricular practice.

As a result, she did not complete or gain any qualifications from her office skills classes.

She had had various sporadic jobs in Castro Urdiales; in the south of the country in Cádiz and Huelva, and even in London, but in all cases left before her contract was over and did not even try to learn English when she was in the UK.

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NINE Cabify car-pooling vehicles were set on fire during the start of Sevilla's tourist-magnet April Fair, right at the height of tensions between travel-share operators and taxi drivers.

They had been parked outside a rural hotel in Castilblanco de los Arroyos, some 40 kilometres from Sevilla city, as their drivers had stopped there overnight.

Another 11 cars would have gone up in flames, but they were being used as transport for the Feria de Abril after reinforcements were brought in to cope with additional demand.

Emergency services were called out in the early hours of this morning (Tuesday), and say the blaze was definitely the work of arsonists.

Cabify, a chauffeur-driven transport system, is permitted under its licence to run 80% of its vehicles outside of its region of origin to meet extra trade requirements – a clause which allowed the firm to branch out into Sevilla in September.

Drivers working for Cabify have reported continuous and repeated cases of violence, insults and threats against them since they set up in the city, and taxi drivers – particularly those serving Sevilla's San Pablo airport – have staged protests and filed complaints about 'unfair competition'.

Similar incidences affecting Über, BlaBlaCar and Cabify vehicles have been reported in recent months in Madrid and Barcelona, where mainstream taxi drivers have wholeheartedly condemned the attacks, despite their protests against the companies.

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CATALUNYA has applied a blanket tax on soft drinks and is considering doing so on cakes and pastries in a bid to try to change eating habits.

Fizzy drinks, squash, energy drinks – including replenishment refreshments typically drunk in summer to balance glucose and electrolytes lost through sweating – sweetened milky drinks, fruit juices with added sugar, flavoured water, and even tea and coffee have been hit by the new levy which came into effect this week.

Tax ranges from eight to 12 céntimos per litre, depending upon sugar content, with the most sugar-laden attracting the top rate.

Depending upon sugar content, volume and the original cost of the product, this means price hikes of between 8% and 50%.

The move was initially planned for November but put off because of Catalunya's 'Parliamentary agenda'.

Doing so meant just 48 hours between the tax being agreed in the 2017 budget and actually being applied, which drinks manufacturers appealed against as this did not give them time to adapt.

The new tax is expected to earn the regional government nearly €31 million this year and, in a full calendar year, around €41.3m.

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A SPANISH couple on holiday in Portugal have died after being swept away by a tidal wave in the popular seaside town of Nazaré.

The pensioners were from the province of Burgos, in the land-locked centre-northern region of Castilla y León, and had gone away for the May bank holiday weekend to the beach location of 10,000 inhabitants, which is about halfway between Oporto and Lisbon but slightly closer to the latter.

They had been out for a walk along the seafront around lunchtime when they were hit by an unexpectedly-high wave.

The Portuguese Navy were called at around 15.00 by coastguard officials who had already sent out a helicopter, speedboat and lifeboat but had been unable to find the holidaymakers.

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CATERING and logistics staff on high-speed and long-distance trains will continue their strike until Friday morning in protest over low pay.

Employees of Ferrovial Services, part of the Spanish transport infrastructure corporation Ferrovial which works for rail board RENFE, downed tools at 01.00 on Monday and will not be back to full schedule until 01.00 on Friday, May 5.

They sought to coincide their strike with the homeward-bound exodus following the May Day bank holiday in order to create maximum disruption – in the same vein as their previous industrial action over the run-up to Easter, between April 11 and 15.

Ground staff have also staged various strikes at Madrid's Atocha station since March 16.

Bar, café and general catering services, on-board newspaper distribution, chaperoning of unaccompanied minors, audio and video facilities, and customer service in general will be affected.

Union CGT considers that concessions made by Ferrovial Services to collective bargaining attempts remain sub-standard and do not respond to employees' requests.

Pay rises proposed are 'extremely low' and do not meet living costs, let alone allow for consumer spending beyond the basics, says the CGT.

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On the very court recently named after him, Rafa Nadal made history again on Sunday, winning his tenth crown at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

The Spaniard completed the straight-sets victory (6-4, 6-1) with a repertoire of shots that simply overpowered his opponent, the world No. 9 Dominic Thiem. The Austrian knocked Britain's Andy Murray out of the tournament in a closely fought semi-final yesterday, but was unable to dominate the King of Clay in today's final.

To date, no other player has beaten Nadal in a final on this court at the Real Club Tennis Barcelona. Nadal was won every single final he has played in Barcelona, beating the likes of Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer (four times), Nicolás Almagro and Kei Nishikori in the process.

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A TEACHER at a convent-run primary school who was 'made redundant' after having IVF has won her job back after taking the centre to court.

The tutor, who had been at the Salvador-Maristas school in Bilbao since 2005, started fertility treatment in 2009, the last of which was in May 2014, which the centre was aware of.

A month after her final course of IVF successfully got her pregnant, she was told in writing that she had been made redundant 'for financial reasons'.

Although the reception and kindergarten classes had suffered losses in 2012 and 2013, the overall year-end results showed the school was in profit at the time.

The Basque regional High Court of Justice found the school had not 'offered a reasonable and objective justification' for the teacher's being 'let go' and that it had not been sufficiently proven that her job being ended was due to motives other than her IVF treatment.

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