Live News From Spain As It Happens

THE world's oldest man has died at his Extremadura home just a month and a half after his 113thbirthday.

Francisco Núñez Olivera, who was born on December 13, 1904 in the town of Bienvenida – which, curiously, translates as 'welcome' – south of the western border city of Badajoz was fond of reminding people that 'there was nobody else like him in the world'.

Spain's longest-surviving Civil War veteran, Francisco – who, other than his service abroad, had lived in Bienvenida all his life – became the oldest man in the world in summer 2017 after the death of the Israeli Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Yisrael Kristal, also when he was 113.

Francisco was nicknamed 'Marchena' most of his adult life, since he reminded villagers of the flamenco artist of the same name when he returned from military service in the Spanish-owned enclave of Ceuta on the northern coast of Morocco.

Known for his gentle nature, permanent smile and good humour, Francisco tended his allotment and mostly lived on the fruits of it until well the age of 105, and even a couple of years before his death, would go out for a stroll round the village, chatting to locals and popping into the bar to watch the football.

He has lived with his daughter Antonia, who is in her 80s, for several years, and she is said to be devastated by the loss of her much-loved father whom she and his friends, family and neighbours were beginning to suspect would literally live forever.

And mayor of Bienvenida Antonio Carmona said Francisco was 'very well-loved by everyone' for his character, 'way of speaking and smile'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HUNDREDS of demonstrators gathered outside Catalunya's regional Parliament building as the saga of its presidential seat continues.

Two were arrested and three injured, although not seriously, and 24 regional police officers, or Mossos d'Esquadra, suffered minor wounds.

Carles Puigdemont, the only candidate for president, remains in exile in Belgium and cannot enter Spain without being arrested, but the country's Constitutional Court will not allow him to be sworn in 'from a distance'.

Catalunya's Parliamentary chair Roger Torrent has had to put off the ceremony, whilst Puigdemont himself has appealed the Constitutional Court verdict, saying that as he has been democratically elected, he does not legally need permission from a judge or any other authority to be sworn in.

But a national arrest warrant remains over him and four of his ministers – three of whom have given up their seats to other members of their parties to lend strength to Puigdemont's being voted in – meaning that the five are only free from custody if they stay out of the country.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH twice-world champion MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo has just completed the fastest lap in the history of the sport during training sessions in Sepang, Malaysia.

The Ducati rider whipped round the circuit in less than two minutes – one minute, 58.83 seconds, in fact – the fastest anyone has ever gone around the Sepang track since it was built.

He has beaten the previous world record set by his compatriot, four-times champion Marc Márquez, 24, who belted round in one minute, 58.867 in 2015 – beating another Spaniard, Dani Pedrosa, who set an earlier record that same year of one minute, 59.053 seconds during a qualifier in Sepang which, naturally, netted him pole.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN APARTMENT block in the province of Zaragoza is the second in Spain to win the Passivhaus Certificate, a global energy-efficiency award given to residential properties which use little or no power.

Based across the borders of the towns of Valdespartera, Casablanca and Montecanal, the Residencial Scenia II is made up of 26 flats with as swimming pool, spread out over 13,576 square metres (33.5 acres) of land and is the brainchild of developers LOBE Group.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING Felipe VI of Spain has turned 50 this week, with a commemorative coin and stamp (pictured) and as-yet unseen photos of domestic life with his wife, Queen Letizia and daughters released.

In his half-century of life, all of which has been as a Royal, Felipe VI has made more than 220 international trips, taken part in the Olympics as a yachtsman, and was the first Crown Prince to earn a degree and to swear allegiance to the Spanish Constitution.

From flag-bearer at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 to reigning monarch giving speeches at the Davos Economic Forum and United Nations summits, Felipe VI has been the most modern King yet – partly thanks to the influence of Queen Letizia, a former TV reporter with a master's degree in media and a regular feature on fashion pages for her elegant, but edgy style.

Between them, they have opened up the Royal régime to communities which have always been on the margins of the monarchy, including the gay, lesbian and bisexual population, the disabled, victims of terrorism, and the transsexual community.

His buzzwords are 'transparency', 'dialogue' and 'unity', and he takes inspiration from his father, the retired King Juan Carlos I – a 'friend, leader and advisor' – and his mother, Queen Sofía, 'an example of humanity, intellect and spiritualism'.

Conscious that the Spain he was born in is very different to the Spain he is King of – until he was seven years old, the country was under a fascist dictatorship led by General Franco, with an iron-fisted censorship over the arts until he was nine and the Constitution not in place until he was 10 – Felipe VI has always maintained that 'a positive balance is totally necessary'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of Spain's most popular and world-famous attractions is practically queue-free thanks to a new system where visitors print their tickets at home.

Granada's spectacular Alhambra Palace has, historically, involved allowing a margin of several hours to queue for tickets – even since 2007, when they became available online, tourists still had to prepare for a certain amount of standing in line as they needed to pick up the paper copy from the entrance office.

But the system which has come into effect in the last few weeks, designed by Hiberus Technology, lets visitors book online and print their ticket off at home or use their mobiles to scan the QR code at the entrance.

The latter does not work so well with older phones, those which run fairly slowly or have damaged screens, meaning it is safer to print tickets either at home or in an internet café as a precaution.

Otherwise, printing can be carried out from any of the 10 terminals near the Generalife gardens or the Carlos V Palace in the Estafeta building on the complex.

Traditional ticket-buying at the gate is still available and, for the first time, entries can be bought using a credit or debit card if required, not just in cash.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE European Union has 'firmly' condemned the sacking of Spanish ambassador in Venezuela Jesús Silva Fernández and pledged its 'full support' for Spain in the ongoing diplomatic crisis between the South American country and its former colonial ruler.

President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro has not only declared Silva (first picture, by Spain's ministry of public works) a persona non grata, but has given him just 72 hours to leave the country as a result of what the Caribbean nation's leader calls 'the continual aggression and recurrent acts of slander by the Spanish government' against him and his cabinet.

“We urge [Venezuelan authorities] to reverse their decision, since it goes against the need to maintain diplomatic channels open,” said European Commissioner for foreign affairs, Catherine Ray.

Spain's own foreign affairs minister Alfonso Dastis assured, once Maduro fired the ambassador, that his government would 'respond reciprocally and in proportion'.

This has led to a 'tit-for-tat' sacking of Venezuelan ambassador in Spain, Mario Isea (second picture), whom Mariano Rajoy's PP-led government has also named a persona non grata.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BRITISH mother whose three-year-old son went missing on a southern Costa Blanca seafront went out drinking and then to bed before reporting his disappearance 14 hours later.

The tot was wearing pyjamas and socks, with no shoes on, when he vanished whilst out walking with his mother along the promenade in Torrevieja (Alicante province) on Wednesday, and had nothing on his person that would allow a stranger to identify him, nor work out how he had got there or where he had come from.

He was found and taken to the police station, where his mother turned up 14 hours later to collect him.

No calls to the police or the 112 emergency hotline were registered, and none of the police stations had received a visit.

According to the mother, whose identity has not been revealed, she 'assumed' the police 'would have found him and taken him in' and that he 'would be alright' until she got there.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH-BORN chairwoman of the Spanish Film Academy Yvonne Blake will be forced to miss this year's Goya Awards as she is still recovering from a stroke.

For Ms Blake, 77, it will have been exactly a month since she was rushed to Madrid's Ramón y Cajal Hospital, where she spent a week in intensive care.

Her convalescence and rehabilitation mean she will not be fit enough to attend Spain's answer to the Oscars, due to be held on Saturday, February 3 and now in its 32^nd year.

The Goyas, in a fortnight's time, will be presented by famous national stand-up comedians Joaquín Reyes and Ernesto Sevilla, and favourits to win Best Film Award are Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño's Handia and Isabel Coixet's La Librería ('The Bookshop').

Yvonne Blake, from Manchester but with Spanish citizenship since the 1970s when she met her future husband, director's assistant Gil Carretero, is a famed costume designer who has worked with huge names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Sean Connery, Robert de Niro and Marlon Brando.

She won a Best Costume Oscar for Franklin J Shaffner's Nicholas and Alexandra, a British epic about the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, set between 1904 and 1918 and filmed in Spain and what was then Yugoslavia.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CRACKDOWN in the ministry of employment has led to over 6,000 people being forced to register as self-employed after their 'invoicing cooperative' schemes were declared illegal.

These cooperatives take on people who work for themselves as employees and, instead of members sending out their own invoices as the self-employed are required to do, these would be issued in the name of the cooperative, who also handled all their accounting transactions.

This way, members would save money on accountants' fees, be partially protected from non-paying customers, and would be paying their 'stamp' as an employee of the cooperative rather than the fixed self-employed monthly fee, which starts at €275.01 and is not graded according to earnings.

This monthly Social Security fee is a headache for seven in 10 self-employed workers, according to a recent survey, and the number of sole traders who work cash-in-hand because they cannot afford the fixed amount is difficult to ascertain.

Cooperatives, which have been advertising widely in the last few years, appeared to be a solution as membership fees were a percentage of earnings.

But employment minister Fátima Báñez says they are not legal and calls them 'a company structure used to commit Social Security fraud'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WEATHER warnings have been issued for 11 of Spain's major trunk roads, mainly motorways, ahead of forecast snowfall over the weekend.

To prevent a situation like that of three weeks ago when over 3,000 cars were stuck on the AP-6 through Castilla y León for 18 hours overnight because of insufficient alert systems which would have led many to rethink their journeys, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) is taking no chances this time.

Its leader, Gregorio Serrano, says some restrictions may be in place for vehicles not equipped with snow chains or 'winter tyres'.

Starting today (Friday) and until at least Sunday, the AP-67 toll road and A-67 motorway through Cantabria and the province of Palencia, Castilla y León, is likely to be affected, along with the A-6 motorway from Castelo to Pedrafita do Cebreiro in the province of Lugo, Galicia, as well as in that of León, near Puerto del Manzanal.

The A-1, which links Madrid with the Castilla y León provinces of Segovia and Burgos and the Basque Country provinces of Guipúzcoa and Álava, plus the A-52 from A Gudiña (province of Ourense, Galicia) to Puebla de Sanabria (Zamora province, Castilla y León) and the A-2 motorway from the Castilla-La Mancha province of Guadalajara to the Castilla y León province of Soria could become blocked by snowdrifts, or at least suffer slow-moving traffic.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A REGIONAL watchdog has warned of a new scam involving missed calls which, when the recipient rings back, charges them €1.20 a minute.

Extremadura Consumers' Union (UCE) says the numbers are typically non-Spanish and are prefixed 225, 233, 234 or 355, and if the call is returned, transfers to a premium-rate line.

According to the UCE, these are country prefixes for Côte d'Ivoire (formerly Ivory Coast), Ghana, Nigeria and Albania respectively, meaning it is very improbable that anyone with a Spanish phone, unless they have family in these countries or are originally from them, would be contacted by an unknown number of these prefixes.

'Numerous' mobile and landline phone users have contacted the UCE in the last few days, saying that when they return the call, they hear an automated message from what claims to be a solicitors' firm handling a case concerning them.

At this point, either the message continues for 'an unnecessarily long time', or it cuts off and the caller rings back.

Many customers have been duped easily, since a missed utility bill or store card direct debit payment which crossed with their salary being received is a common occurrence and often placed straight into the hands of a legal bureau or credit-control firm.

But in this case, the bureau in question does not exist, neither does the case involved, the UCE says.

The phone number is not recognisable as either a landline – which would start with a 9 and be nine digits long – or a mobile, which starts with a 6 or, more recently with newer ones, with a 7 and is also of nine digits.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPRINGLIKE temperatures and sunshine along Spain's Mediterranean coast is not expected to last – in fact, the weekend is likely to see a return to the cold, wind and rain suffered earlier this month.

State meteorological agency AEMET has warned that an 'Isolated Depression at High Altitudes' is on its way – a Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos in Spanish, which weather experts in the country are referring to by its initials, DANA.

AEMET explains that a DANA is a pocket of cold air bringing isolated incidents of torrential rain along with gale-force winds and plummeting temperatures.

It is expected to affect all or part of four regions along the east coast of the mainland.

Catalunya's southernmost province, Tarragona, plus the Comunidad Valenciana – made up of the three provinces of Castellón, Valencia and Alicante – then the Region of Murcia, and possibly even the eastern Andalucía provinces of Almería and Granada are expected to be hit. Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PASSENGER Name Register (PNR) is expected to be in place in Spanish airports before the summer, if the interior ministry meets its self-imposed deadline.

The register will allow data from the 250 million or so travellers who enter the country every year to be checked against police records, as part of a new structure in place to fight terrorism.

Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido assures that all personnel and IT systems are 'ready and waiting' to start work on the PNR, but a new law allowing it to be used will have to be passed by the central government first.

The PNR will rely on the Passenger Information Unit, part of Spain's Intelligence Centre for Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO), made up of 250 National Police and Guardia Civil officers.

Both units will receive data from millions of airline passengers a day after they land in Spain, including their identities, booking date, travel itinerary and method of payment.

It is not known how far this will affect residents returning to Spain from holidays.

Data will be stored on the system for six months, after which it will be encrypted and, after five years, wiped altogether in compliance with the requirements of the national Data Protection Agency, which will monitor the system periodically.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOME test kits for HIV are now available over the counter from today in high-street pharmacies without prescription in a bid to help those who may be at risk get a definite answer.

Embarrassment and fear are among the reasons that an estimated 18% of HIV sufferers do not know they are infected, but early diagnosis is crucial to enable the condition to be medicated successfully.

Nowadays, HIV can be kept at bay with medicines which have few, if any, side-effects, meaning sufferers can lead a normal, healthy life and live as long as anyone who is not infected.

Drugs are even available to prevent HIV spreading to sexual partners.

The down side to the over-the-counter test is that it is expensive – costing around €30 – but it is said to be as near to 100% reliable as can ever be guaranteed, and whether or not the result is positive, it will still lead to peace of mind either through the person knowing they are not infected, or by having concrete evidence of the condition that can allow them to be treated immediately.

The test involves giving a saliva or blood sample – a finger-prick rather than a full blood test – and the results come through in 20 minutes.

According to the ministry of health, it takes between two and eight weeks for a person to test positive for HIV after the virus has entered the system.

The ministry warns that the test only shows whether the user is HIV-positive or negative, and does not give results for any other sexually-transmitted diseases.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BAR in A Coruña (Galicia) has a regular customer who has been coming in daily for a plate of tortilla – or Spanish omelette – for the last four years, and plants herself on the counter to ensure she is the first to get served.

According to Javier, who runs Bar Pontejos, he started off serving her 'bread and leftovers', but she refused to touch them and will only eat tortilla.

And she has the same name as his mother and sister, Lola, explains Javier.

“She comes regularly from about 09.00 every morning to around 14.30 to check we've got tortilla,” Javier says.

Lola has never paid a bill since late 2013, when she started making her daily pilgrimage to the bar.

But luckily for Lola, Bar Pontejos does not charge birds for food – or, at least, not grey wagtails like her.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NINE European Union member States – including Spain and the UK – have been summoned to Brussels over air-pollution levels and will be expected to explain the steps they have taken to combat the problem.

The summit will 'offer member States the chance to show they will be taking the right extra steps to deal with their current situation without delay and in compliance with European legislation', says commissioner for environmental affairs, Karmenu Vella.

Along with Spain and Britain, representatives from France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Czechia and Slovakia have been called in, since all nine countries show air-pollution levels that exceed the stipulated safe maximum.

In the case of Spain, affected areas are the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, and the Llobregat area just outside Barcelona.

This atypical summons responds, according to Vella, to a 'need to protect European citizens' and 'clarify whether any improvements in air quality have been made' before applying 'legal consequences' to offenders.

The European Commission has been 'warning cities for a very long time' about the problem and has offered them 'advice and assistance' in tackling it.

All nine countries have been told to confirm their presence by this coming Thursday, January 25, at the latest, and the summit will be held on Tuesday, January 30, says spokeswoman for the Commission, Mina Andreeva.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

COLOMBIAN pop-rocker Shakira may be expected to pay 'tens of millions' of euros to Spain's tax authorities as they consider she should have registered as a resident for fiscal purposes in the country between 2011 and 2014.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who form part of the 40-year-old megastar's legal and financial advisory team, said it had been informed by the Treasury that her worldwide earnings – not just the money she earned in Spain over the four-year period in question – should have been declared to national authorities.

Given the amount involved – over €120,000 – the Treasury considers this a 'criminal offence' rather than a civil breach.

Shakira, who was born in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla in Colombia, met her husband, FC Barcelona midfielder Gerard Piqué at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and they are said to have 'formalised their union' in 2011, although it has not been confirmed whether this means they became husband and wife or whether they simply decided to set up home together in Catalunya in that year.

Their first child, Milan, was born in January 2013 and his brother Sasha in 2015.

Shakira's advisors already said some months ago when her tax residence was questioned that during the period from 2011 to 2014 inclusive – before she took a career break to become a full-time mum – the singer, songwriter and musician spent the vast majority of her time outside Spain, performing, recording and working as coach on The Voice in Miami.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RUSSIAN billionnaire has become the largest shareholder in Día supermarkets after buying 25% of the nationa chain's capital.

Mikhail Fridman increased his investment in the store via the fund LetterOne to 15%, then reached an agreement with the company to buy a further 10% of its shares, according to the National Values Market Commission (CNMV).

As a result, this Friday saw Día's shares increase 1.05% in price, to €4.40 each.

Día's board of directors stresses there is no intention on Fridman's part to launch a takeover bid.

According to LetterOne, Fridman now holds 93.4 million ordinary shares through the fund, and the company has agreed to his buying a further 62.2 million.

The tycoon, who is Ukrainian but has Russian nationality, has a total wealth of US$16.2 billion (€13.2bn), according to Forbes magazine, making him one of the richest men in Russia.

His name has reportedly been linked to hacking operations said to have helped Donald Trump become US president, although as yet, neither Fridman's involvement nor Russia's backing have been confirmed.

Fridman is also said to be connected to the multi-national firm Zed+, which is under investigation by a court in Madrid for allegedly hiding funds, as he holds a percentage of its capital.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IF FORMER Catalunya regional president Carles Puigdemont attempts to travel to Denmark, Spain's State prosecution service will immediately issue an international arrest warrant, according to interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido.

Puigdemont, who has been in exile in Belgium since a few days after the disputed independence referendum on October 1, has announced his intentions to travel to Copenhagen University to take part in a debate tomorrow (Monday).

At present, the only arrest warrant hanging over Puigdemont is a national one, meaning if he sets foot on Spanish soil again, he will be taken straight into custody, but he is safe from the handcuffs anywhere else in the world.

This could change, however, if Puigdemont goes to tomorrow's debate in the Danish university's political sciences faculty at 14.00 titled, Catalunya and Europe: At a crossroads with democracy?

Puigdemont's lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on a Catalunya radio station that if the Spanish State had the European arrest warrant 'very prepared', the 'risk of arrest was high'.

The debate rages on in Catalunya after the pro-secession parties gained most of the votes in a regional election called by Spain on December 21.

Whilst the most-voted party was centre-right Ciudadanos, which is totally against allowing a referendum on independence and backs the State's police action to try to stop it going ahead in October, it does not have anywhere near a majority.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BALEARIC Island regional authorities want to ban coffee machine capsules and various other plastic items from the year 2020 as a total of 193 countries worldwide have signed up to the United Nations declaration against the material.

Spain is one of these 193 countries which has pledged to abolish non-recyclable plastic to cut pollution in the world's oceans in light of evidence which shows that from the year 2050, this substance could start to outnumber fish and other fauna in the seas.

But the Balearic Islands have gone a step further and announced a deadline for banning plastic.

Everyday objects that may have to be remade with other substances include dishwasher and washing machine capsules, drinking straws, cotton buds, bottles, carrier bags, cling film, cigarette lighters, disposable plates and cutlery, and wet-wipes, since the latter are not biodegradable and have led to massive fatbergs forming in pipes affecting entire cities.

As yet, the region has not confirmed how it will go about replacing these disposable goods, although it is likely that a fresh market for biodegradable household items could arise in the next few years with more and more manufacturers seeking different materials for their products.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MADRID is set to become the new venue for the Galileo satellite system after it leaves London following the UK's exit from the European Union.

The British capital was chosen to host the centre for the continent's advanced GPS sat-nav system nearly eight years ago and the headquarters was expected to be in full operation by late 2018.

It regulates access to the Galileo system and watches over it 24 hours a day when the primary security hub in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, goes offline, responding to security threats and guaranteeing protection of sensitive data as well as acting as an interface with international governments to facilitate encrypting.

All of this will be done from Madrid instead of London from April 1, 2019.

For the moment, only one person is employed full-time at the Galileo centre in London, but it was expected to require 10 permanent staff members once it was completely up and running, possibly rising to between 20 and 30, which is the number forecast for the Madrid hub when it moves across the Channel.

At present, Galileo – created to give more precise results than existing sat-nav systems – has 18 satellites in space and is expected to be fully functional by the year 2020.

Its creation was to prevent the EU's being forced to depend upon a sat-nav system under control of the United States' Armed Forces, and to enable the bloc to have its own under local control.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

GERMAN supermarket chain Lidl has become the first store in Spain to refuse to sell any produce from battery hens.

Grocery retailers in Spain have all agreed that by the year 2025, only free-range hen produce will be on their shelves, but Lidl has decided to start seven years early.

Mercadona and El Corte Inglés had agreed to progressively ensure no battery-hen goods were stocked between now and the 2025 deadline.

Director-general of Lidl in Spain, Miguel Paradela, says the chain is 'committed to animal welfare and sustainability' without compromising on its mission of 'offering the best quality at the lowest prices'.

All eggs retailed in Lidl stores in Spain come from four national producers, including the San Miguel and García Puente farms, and between them have invested over €40 million in adapting their methods and premises to Lidl's requirements that none of their hens are caged.

Paradela says even in times of high demand, the four farms' investments mean they are able to cope and Lidl will not have to resort to importing eggs to stock its shelves.

Lidl now guarantees all eggs are free-range, as it has stopped selling those marked as 'category 3', or produced by battery hens.

Only 'category 0', which are organic, 'category 1', from hens living in fields, and 'category 2', from hens in coops with outside space to move around in, will be retailed at Lidl.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO Spanish towns have made it into the TripAdvisor global list of 'top emerging holiday destinations' for 2018, voted among a total of 44 from four continents.

Nerja (Málaga province), a coastal town near the Granada border which has lost none of its traditional Spanish charm, is number four in Europe and ninth worldwide, according to votes on the travellers' review site.

The provincial capital of Cádiz on the south coast, to the west of Gibraltar, has been chosen as eighth in Europe in the Travellers' Choice Emerging Destinations list, now in its sixth year.

'Emerging destinations' are worked out using an algorithm which measures positive reviews on accommodation, restaurants and general attractions, overall interest in searches and bookings, and how far these aspects have increased since the previous year.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TRAFFIC police have started a week-long campaign checking cars have an up-to-date ITV – Spain's answer to an MOT – and that their lights, indicators, windscreen wipers and tyres are in the right condition.

The campaign, which runs until Sunday inclusive, is in response to the General Directorate of Traffic's (DGT's) concerns about the increasing number of older vehicles on Spain's roads and the higher risk of death by accident which apparently correlates with the age of the car, motorbike, lorry or van involved.

In fatal crashes in 2017, the average age of cars involved was 13.2 years; in the case of motorbikes, 8.8 years and in lorries up to 3.5 tonnes, 12.8 years.

Additionally, one in five vehicles of all three types, including vans, did not pass their ITV test in 2016 because of safety and maintenance problems or because their emissions were higher than those permitted by law.

Compared with cars of less than four years old, the risk of death in an accident is 1.6 times higher in cars of between 10 and 14 years old, and 2.2 times higher in those aged 15 to 19.

Irrespective of age, over a million vehicles on Spain's roads – about 5% - have serious defects with their wheels or tyres, with the most common problem being the tread falling short of the legal minimum of 1.6 millimetres, or unlevel wear and tear caused by poor suspension, incorrect pressure or the wheels not being properly aligned.

AN EARTHQUAKE in Portugal measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale was felt in the provinces of Badajoz (Extremadura) and Huelva, Sevilla and Córdoba (Andalucía) this lunchtime (Monday).

According to Portugal's Sea and Atmosphere Institute (IPMA), the quake shook the town of Arraiolos, in the Alentejo region – about 120 kilometres inland and north of Lisbon – at 11.51 local time (12.51 mainland Spain time) and lasted several seconds.

At a magnitude of 4.9, damage is very likely and, although it would not normally be associated with serious destruction or loss of life, would have been clearly felt and frightening for those near the epicentre.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH astrophysics expert says US president Donald Trump's idea of putting another man on the moon is 'very unlikely' and 'definitely impossible within the next seven years'.

“It's not viable, from many points of view, particularly economic and technological,” says Benjamín Montesinos Comino, 57.

“He would have to completely stop the space industry in the USA and all other projects in order to dedicate it solely to that, and I don't believe the circumstances are right at the moment.

“Although I wouldn't rule out that, long-term, we might be able to repeat the historic feat of 1969.”

Firstly, says Montesinos, NASA does not have its own vehicle for transporting astronauts to the moon – at present, those who travel to the International Space Station (ISS) reach it via Russian rockets.

And rockets, capsules and moon-landing vehicles would have to be developed 'from scratch', says the expert from Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real province, Castilla-La Mancha).

“And that's just to get there. The second step which Trump proposes is to build a base on the moon,” Montesinos explains.

“I'm not too sure where all this is coming from – what he said about 'we're going to build a base on the moon as a platform to travel to Mars and other faraway worlds' is rather absurd, and sounds like something out of a sci-fi film.”

But Montesinos – who graduated and later researched his PhD at Madrid's Complutense University before working in the Faculty of Physics at Oxford for six years – admits that building bases on the moon is 'one of the conceptual projects' that various international space agencies have in mind, including the European one, the ESA.

“There's a division of the ESA working exclusively on research into the possibility that, in the future, in the medium or long term, we may be able to set up a permanent base on the moon – but it's something that has to be done very gradually, step by step,” the astrophysics specialist reveals.

“It is indeed possible to put a man on the moon again. The engineering is already prepared, but the entire programme has to be developed and, right now, the technology is not there because neither the plans nor the money have been put on the table.

“But obviously, a moon landing is indeed possible, as long as there's enough time and planning; although you can't just 'go and do it' on a whim.”

Many would ask why 1969 was the first and last time a man walked on the moon, but Montesinos clarifies that it happened in the first place because of a 'political bet' between the USA and the then Soviet Union.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BODY has been found on a Marbella beach which may be the missing 35-year-old British expatriate Rebecca M., who has not been seen since January 2.

Rebecca had called the police to her house in the Costa del Sol town on New Year's Day when her husband was beating her up, and he was immediately arrested and his wife taken to hospital.

But she refused to give a statement to the police – although in Spain, the forces have the power to press charges for domestic violence even if the victim does not wish to.

She was due to attend his preliminary hearing on January 2, where it would be decided whether he would be remanded in custody, but did not turn up.

Meanwhile, a neighbour called the police because Rebecca's two children, aged eight and 11, were home alone. 

They were cared for by a couple who are friends of Rebecca for a few days before Rebecca's mother was able to travel from the UK and take over looking after them.

Police said they did not suspect Rebecca's husband – who is not her children's father – of her disappearance, since he was in custody at the time.

A local resident walking along the El Ancón shore in an area known as Víctor Beach at around 08.30 this morning (Sunday) found the body and called the police.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

JAPAN is keenly seeking to break into the Spanish tourist market and has launched a number of special flight deals to encourage visitors.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) says bookings made from Spanish airports to various destinations in Japan between now and February 14 will start at €519 return, and are valid for flights between this Wednesday (January 17) and December 13.

First-class or business-class seats come in at €1,099 return.

The offer is also being run by Star Alliance – part of ANA – plus Swiss Air, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines.

Deals include stopovers in Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya en route to up to 45 Japanese destinations, including Hokkaido Island in the north and Okinawa Island in the south.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOUSING market figures for the end of November showed an 18.1% rise in sales for that month based upon the same 30 days in 2016, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Year-end sales results are not yet compiled by the INE, but as at the beginning of November, property purchases had been rising consistently in number for seven months.

After a buoyant October, with an increase of 25.7% in home purchases, the following month saw housing market growth slowing down slightly, ending with a total of 40,579 residential properties changing hands.

According to the INE, home sales in Catalunya rose in November by 15.6%, showing that the political crisis caused by the disputed independence referendum the previous month had not affected buyers' decisions to invest in the region.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has beaten the USA as the world's second-most visited tourism destination, with a record of 82 million visitors – nearly double the resident population – in 2017.

President Mariano Rajoy announced this week that although 2016 saw the highest holidaymaker numbers in Spain in history, the year 2017 has clearly surpassed this with a 9% rise in foreign visitors.

Until now, Spain has been the third-most popular holiday destination on earth after France and the USA, but the USA has now dropped to third, leaving Spain only beaten by its northern neighbour, overtaking its rival across the pond for the first time ever.

Catalunya continues to be the most-visited region, welcoming 18.2 million tourists last year, but as an already mature destination, its growth has slowed.

Meanwhile, other internationally-famous regions such as Madrid, the Balearic Islands, the Canaries and Andalucía are growing faster than ever.

Behind Catalunya, the Balearics is the region which saw the most foreign holidaymakers last year – 13.7 million – just ahead of the Canary Islands with 13 million.

Andalucía welcomed 11 million tourists from abroad; the Valencia region, 8.5 million and Madrid, 6.2 million.

Other regions with more than one million foreign tourists were the Basque Country, Castilla y León and Galicia in that order, with Murcia just behind at 931,000.

Other than the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast, visited by just 8,400 in 2017, the region with the lowest numbers of international visitors was La Rioja, with 112,700, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (214,000) and Asturias (281,000).

In descending order, regions with between 300,000 and 520,000 tourists from abroad in 2017 were Aragón, Cantabria, Extremadura and Navarra.

The average tourist who visited Spain in 2017 spent €1,061, including accommodation – an increase of 3.1% on the previous year's figures, and the average daily spend was €137, a rise of 4.4%.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RYANAIR flight from Dublin had to make an urgent last-minute landing in Santander due to two passengers described as 'drunk and aggressive' who were said to be intimidating and disturbing other travellers.

Flight FR7063 was en route to Alicante when the pilot wired through to airport governing body AENA asking to make an emergency landing at the Cantabria terminal.

The culprits, thought to be a couple, were said to be inebriated and were becoming violent, causing widespread concern among other passengers and the cabin crew.

Due to the extent of their aggressiveness, the crew summoned the Guardia Civil, who were waiting on the tarmac at Santander-Seve Ballesteros airport when the craft landed at 16.00 yesterday (Wednesday).

Two police officers boarded the aircraft to order the troublemakers off, but the couple reportedly left the plane of their own free will.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BLOOD donors in Catalunya will receive a text message to tell them when their contribution has been used in a bid to encourage more to do so, according to the regional Blood and Tissue Bank.

A region-wide donor session is due to take place on January 19 and organisers are aiming for a new high of 8,000 participants on the day, each of whom typically give 660ml, or a pint.

Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau reveals that a thousand donations a day are needed just to treat the usual numbers of patients in Catalunya's hospitals, meaning even if the 8,000 is reached, stocks will only last for just over a week.

At certain times of the year, supplies reduce more drastically than others – summer, with the tourist influx, and other holiday seasons including Christmas and Easter, especially at peak traffic times when accident rates are higher.

This festive season has seen blood stocks fall by 25%.

And even though it is stored in optimum conditions, donated blood does not last long – and at the moment, donations are lower than ever, since the annual influenza epidemic and other seasonal health problems, such as the common cold, mean those affected cannot give blood.

Also, stocks were depleted in August in Catalunya following the near-simultaneous terrorist attacks on Las Ramblas in Barcelona and in Cambrils (Tarragona province), as they were needed to treat the swathes of injured tourists and residents.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SALES assistant at El Corte Inglés department store in Santa Cruz de Tenerife has lost her case against her dismissal for telling a seven-year-old child that presents came from her parents rather than Father Christmas.

The undisclosed employee was fired in December 2015 and took the company to court, but El Corte Inglés said the incident was 'the last straw' in a series of major disciplinary issues of which the young woman was aware – and which had even led to her being suspended from her job for a week.

According to County Court Number 6 in the Canary Island city, the staff member – who worked on the jewellery counter – told a little girl who was with her parents to take her dad to the perfume section so her mother could 'buy dad a watch from Father Christmas'.

The rest of the conversation has not been revealed, but it appeared to be enough that the employee had made it clear to the little girl that the mythical red-coated festive figure did not exist, leaving her 'desolate' and the worker's supervisor 'extremely embarrassed' by the parents' complaints.

El Corte Inglés said that in September of the same year, the young woman had been suspended without pay for 16 days for 'maintaining a negative, passive, uncooperative and unprofessional attitude' when serving customers, which had led them to transfer her from the perfume department to the jewellery section in February in an attempt to give her greater job satisfaction.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARS and cafés in Andalucía are now required by law to give customers free drinking water if they request it as part of the regional government's drive to improve the population's health.

They must provide a jug and glasses without charge, although the contents may be tap water instead of bottled if the former is drinkable.

Free water must also be available in vending machines set up in public places, or via fountains or other installations not more than two metres away, and also in schools or anywhere children may be gathered, such as parks.

Restaurants are now required to ensure they provide healthy meals on menus and be willing to offer different portion sizes if requested, and grocery shops and supermarkets must retail fresh and perishable produce in different sized packaging to reflect 'all family sizes' – a move aimed mainly at those living alone who do not want to buy goods in large containers that they know they will never be able to eat before they go off.

School canteens are required to use fresh, seasonal and local produce where possible and to base their lunches on the Mediterranean diet, whilst children will spend time working on school allotments as part of their curriculum and must undertake at least five hours of physical activity a week within school hours.

After-school activities should be based upon sports and exercise as much as possible.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA city centre has once again been doctored on Google Maps – and this time, the Catalunya Parliament building is showing as 'closed' and has been renamed 'The Comedy Club'.

A search in the catalán language shows this and adds a 'Monument to Spanish Unity' in the Plaza de Joan Fiveller in front, on the site of which is in fact a museum.

When searching in Castilian Spanish, instead of 'closed', the 'Comedy Club' shows as being 'open at weekends'.

The Club de la Comedia is a long-running series on Spanish TV featuring well-known stand-up comedians, some of the best monologues from which have been compiled into a series of books.

This anonymous 'amendment' to Google Maps is in response to the current unsettled regional government situation – following the elections in Catalunya called by the Spanish State, which seized control of the region in October, the pro-independence parties gained a majority and deposed president Carles Puigdemont, who is presently in exile in Brussels, and his former deputy Oriol Junqueras, who is in prison for his role in the disputed referendum, both intend to be sworn in as MPs and to run for the job of ruling Catalunya, despite not being in situ.

Puigdemont is 'safe' in Belgium, but if he sets foot on Spanish soil, will be immediately taken into custody due to a national arrest warrant.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CAMERAS at red traffic lights designed to catch and fine drivers who cross them are 'illegal' and any penalties imposed as a result are null and void, according to the Supreme Court.

The highest contentious audience in Spain rejected an appeal by the town council of Catarroja (Valencia province) against a verdict from November 2014 which annulled the €200 fine and loss of four licence points suffered by a driver who jumped a red light and was caught on camera.

With the appeal being unsuccessful, Catarroja town council has been ordered to pay legal costs totalling €2,000.

According to the local authority, the original court decision was 'erroneous' and 'seriously damaging for the general interest'.

But traffic light cameras are not under State control as no Spanish law covers them, makes them obligatory or regulates their presence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PRISONER believed to have died in his cell regained consciousness inside a body bag just as a post-mortem was about to begin, according to sources from the jail in Villabona, Asturias (pictured).

Staff found the inmate, who had reported feeling unwell the night before, lying in his cell with no vital signs – no pulse, not breathing and no reflexes or responses.

Doctors at the prison certified his death, as did the judicial commission, and he was transferred to the Legal Medicine Institute in a body bag for the autopsy.

Funeral workers who transported the prisoner said they did not notice any signs of life, but as the pathologists unzipped the bag to start work, they noticed the man was still alive.

He is thought to have regained consciousness whilst on the table.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RAIL board RENFE has joined in the post-Christmas sales – tickets are on offer with up to 70% off.

Valid for journeys between now and Monday, February 26, some of the deals include one-way trips between Barcelona and Valencia for €12.20 and between Madrid and Valencia for €21.90.

Some tickets are valid only on certain days of the week or specific types of train, whilst others are universal while stocks last.

High-speed AVE trips, and the long-distance or Larga Distancia 'snail rail' – much slower and less luxurious than the AVE, but considerably more economical and ideal for those who care more about saving money to get from A to B than those in a hurry who will pay for comfort – are both included.

They are marked as a 'Promo' tariff and discounts range from 50% and 60% up to 70%.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THOUSANDS of drivers were stuck on the AP-6 motorway for over 18 hours in Madrid, Segovia and Ávila in a snowdrift until the Armed Forces emergency response unit finally cleared the carriageway at around 14.00 today (Sunday).

Complaints and photographs flooded social media as the occupants of at least 3,000 cars said they had been given no details of what action was being taken, and had not seen snow ploughs or gritter lorries since they became stranded at about 20.00 on Saturday evening.

Just hours after reopening the AP-6, the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) shut it again, along with the AP-61 and AP-51, due to 'increasingly-intense snowfall', but all three motorways are now said to have opened again.

Several opposition parties in government, including the main political forces – the PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos – have criticised the reigning right-wing PP for its 'poor management' in light of the extreme winter weather hitting Spain and have called for the minister of public works Íñigo de la Serna, who is responsible for transport infrastructure, to explain himself in Parliament.

DGT boss Gregorio Serrano insists that his department had been 'issuing warnings since Friday morning' via overhead signs on the roads and on social media about the risks of driving when snow was forecast, but that 'some drivers either did not find out or took inappropriate decisions' leading to them becoming trapped.

De la Serna has announced an inquiry will be opened into the AP-6 toll firm Iberpistas, part of the national firm Abertis' holding Autopistas, and its handling of the situation.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WOMAN has died in Asturias after being swept out to sea by high waves, and tornadoes have been spotted off the coast of Almería as turbulent weather continues to batter Spain.

Rail traffic has been disrupted between Sevilla and all stations in the provinces of Málaga, Granada and Almería due to flooded tracks, whilst snow has shut roads in Madrid, Andalucía and across the northern and centre-northern strip, including in Madrid.

The woman who was killed, said to be 'middle-aged', had been running close to the shores of the Avilés river delta in the parish of San Juan de Nieva, part of the town of Castrillón.

She and a male companion were training for the Sevilla marathon later this year.

Both of them were dragged out to sea by a tidal surge, although the man managed to swim ashore and call the emergency services.

A fireman, a Local Police officer and the man who had called them were all swept away again as they tried to find the missing woman.

The firefighter was able to get out eventually, but the other two had to be rescued by an emergency services helicopter.

Minutes later, the helicopter pilot spotted the woman and she was brought to shore unconscious, with no pulse.

Paramedics spent over an hour giving her CPR, but she did not respond.

The police officer and the woman's companion were taken to Avilés hospital with minor injuries.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HIS year's El Niño lottery winning number is 05685, but unless you live in Bilbao, you will not have won the jackpot – every single ticket which netted the €2 million top prize was sold at a shop at number 19 of the Avenida del Lehendakari Aguirre.

Most players buy their El Niño and the Christmas El Gordo lottery tickets in tenths, or décimos, which cost €20 each, since a full ticket is €200 – but even first-prize winners who bought a décimo will probably be able to pay off their mortgages with cash to spare, as they will now pick up a cheque for €200,000.

Second prize went to ticket number 18442 and third prize to 23282.

Those who picked up the second-placed ticket are spread far and wide across the country, in Andalucía, Madrid, Valencia, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, Aragón, Navarra, the Basque Country, Extremadura, Asturias, Castilla y León, Catalunya, and the Canary Islands, and a full ticket is worth €750,000, or a décimo wins €75,000.

The third-prize tickets were, again, sold from just one shop – this time at number 1 of the C/ Alfarería in Yecla (Murcia).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING Juan Carlos I – father of thent reigning monarch King Felipe IV – celebrates his 80^th birthday today (Friday), but this age milestone has not stopped him continuing with his royal engagements or closely following politics.

Since abdicating in favour of his son, the then Prince Felipe of Asturias, in June 2014, the Rex Emeritus has joined the current King in 15 engagements, has presided over more than 60 of his own – in 20 of which, he was accompanied by his wife, Queen Sofía - and has made 19 overseas trips in the course of duty, around half of which were to Latin America.

In the last year, among tributes to him from Heads of State for his long career and his eight decades of life, King Juan Carlos was hailed in Latin America as 'the best ambassador' for Spain and the 'saviour of democracy', given his role in helping restore the vote and political peace to the Spanish people after the death of dictator General Franco.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A POSTMAN who stashed the mail for 11 years as he could not be bothered to deliver it has been sentenced to two years in jail.

Juan José P. T., who covered rounds in Ibi (Alicante province) and Ontinyent (Valencia province) between 2002 and 2015, had hidden 3,272 letters in his garage in Alcoi (Alicante) since 2004 to avoid having to work his shift.

The State post office took him to court, and the process has just finished after nearly three years following an appeal and an out-of-court settlement between the State Law Service and Juan José's defence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A THREE Kings parade in a Madrid neighbourhood had to be stalled midway through after the Magi ran out of sweets, according to the local fiesta committee.

Most Three Kings processions take place on the night of January 5, and children open presents delivered to them by Balthasar, Melchior and Casper, but the district of Ciudad Lineal in the Spanish capital brought its own parade forward to Thursday evening.

They had to stop at 19.30 when they realised every last sweet in the floats had been snapped up, and that hundreds of children were still waiting for theirs.

Crowds had to hang around until gone 20.00 while the fiesta committee rushed around trying to load up the sugar content in the floats again.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

STORM Bruno has already claimed two lives in the Basque Country after a man and woman, believed to be a couple, were swept out to sea off the coast of Deba (Guipúzcoa province).

The victims, aged 67 and 65 and both from the city of Vitoria, were walking along the pier at around 16.45 when a massive wave hit them.

A witness threw himself into the water to try to save them, but was beaten back by the current and forced to swim ashore.

Emergency services were unable to reach the pair in time.

Their bodies were found and pulled ashore.

Mayor of Mutriku - which Deba is part of – José Ángel Lizardi said the two victims had walked to the edge of the pier to watch the spectacular tidal surges, which involve waves of up to eight metres (26 feet) in height.

The man 'lost consciousness almost immediately', Lizardi says, and was found floating face-down, showing 'no signs of life', whilst the woman was attempting to help him.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TOURISTS visiting Spain shelled out far more cash in 2017 than the previous year, even though Catalunya's disputed independence referendum saw spending fall in the autumn.

Year-on-year growth, as at the end of November, was around 12.9%, and for that month, holidaymakers spent 10.3% more in Spain than they did in November 2016.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2017 – excluding December, for which figures are not yet available – visitors parted with a total of €82.3 billion whilst on holiday in Spain.

In November alone, they spent €4.64bn.

After 10 months of continuing growth, November saw a drop in cash stumped up by tourists visiting Catalunya – of 4.2% compared with the same month in 2016.

But even then, holidaymakers in the north-eastern region left behind €18.3bn in 11 months, or 10.6% more than in the same period in 2016.

Including accommodation, the average holidaymaker spent a total of €1,054 – around 2.7% more than the previous year – with daily spending rising 0.4% to €139, relating to food, excursions, shopping and entertainment.

A typical stay in Spain in 2017 lasted 7.6 days, up from 7.4 days as at November 2016.

Predictably, the highest spending was seen in July (€11.9bn) and August (€11.34bn), steadily rising over the year from January's €4.25bn, then going down after the main summer months.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORTGAGES in Spain have gone down again as the Eurozone interest rate, the Euribor, has ended its second consecutive year in negative figures.

And analysts predict it will continue to fall in 2018, or remain the same.

Having reached levels of over 4.7% in September 2007 and soaring to its highest-ever rate of 5.5% in October 2008, the Euribor has been falling consistently since 2009 and ended 2017 at -0.19%, dropping from -0.189% the previous month.

The difference between monthly mortgage payments in Spain during the Euribor's peak nearly a decade ago, and its ongoing minus figures in the last two years, means a saving of around 40% between the two extremes.

And variable-rate mortgages which are due for review in the early part of this year are expected to be a few euros cheaper.

Based upon the typical mortgage in Spain – a loan of €120,000 over 20 years on a Euribor+1% scheme – homeowners will save €5.84 a month, or €70.08 a year.

Over 80% of mortgages in Spain are on a variable rate since, with the exception of the housing market 'boom' years of 2007 and 2008, these generally work out cheaper and, as they are only reviewed once a year, homeowners have plenty of time to act and convert to a fixed rate if it looks likely that interest will rise sharply.

But December 2017 was the 23^rd consecutive month that the Euribor has been in negative figures.

The rate has been below 1% for even longer – since April 2009, with the exception of the period from May to November 2011 inclusive – and below 2% since February 2009.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE NEW Year has started off with increases in fuel, property tax and motorway tolls – and of the minimum wage.

Mains gas will go up by 6.2% on average - 4.9% for those who use it for hot water and cooking only and 6.6% for those who use it for heating – due to price rises in raw material in international markets, although the portion of the bill that the government controls will be frozen for the fourth consecutive year.

As for electricity bills, the amount set by the government in fees and taxes – around 60%, with the rest covering the actual power consumed – will also be frozen, meaning any increases will be due to the price of the energy itself and influenced by crude oil costs, which appear to be continuing their upward trend.

Bottled gas will remain at €14.45, having risen by 30 cents in November, with the next price review due on the third Tuesday of January.

It has already been reported that motorway tolls will rise by 1.91%, but it was announced today (New Year's Day) that rail fees had not been reviewed, and that airport tax had been reduced by 2.22%.

National telecommunications giant Telefónica, which owns all the lines in Spain and 'sells' them to other operators, has frozen its monthly standing charge at €14.33, which it has been since January 2013.

Postal costs will go up, with stamps for ordinary letters and cards to national destinations going up to 55 cents and parcels rising by 1.32%, whilst stamps for international letters and packages have gone up by 10 cents.

State pensions have, once again, gone up by the minimum required by law – 0.25% - as has been the case since January 2012, but which will still cost the State €332.37 million.

Once again, the government has reviewed catastral, or basic land values on 1,830 towns, cities and villages – values which are used to calculate annual IBI or property tax.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANDALUCÍA will add another National Park to its list midway through 2018 – the Sierra de las Nieves, literally the 'snow mountains', will be named the 16^th of these official areas of outstanding natural beauty in Spain.

Overwhelming support by members of the public near the mountain range in 13 towns and villages in the province of Málaga – the closest of which is Ronda – mean society has been right behind the regional government's application.

Exactly the opposite has happened in the Canary Islands, where residents were completely against the idea of the island of El Hierro becoming a National Park, despite attempts by their government to convince them that such a title would mean a huge economic boost for the area and ensure its natural beauty would be protected forever.

The 163,000-hectare (402,782-acre) parkland, with its dense forests and caves, will become the third National Park in Andalucía, after the famous skiing destination of the Sierra Nevada and the coastal wetlands in Cádiz and Huelva, the Doñana, home to the unique Retuerta horse – the only known breed of horse or pony never to have been domesticated and one that is not found anywhere else in the world.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEW-BUILD residential property rose in value in 2017 by more than any time in the last decade, according to the Surveyors' Society, with major cities such as Madrid and Barcelona seeing prices reach pre-financial crisis levels.

A typical 90-square-metre property in a provincial capital city, which is likely to be a three-bedroom apartment, would now cost an average of €200,400, having increased in value by around 5% this year – or €2,227 per square metre.

The Property Industry Trends 2017 report by the Surveyors' Society says Catalunya is the region with the highest prices, at €3,452 per square metre, followed by Madrid at €3,167 and the Basque Country at €2,596.

And the lowest prices in the country for new builds are in Extremadura, at €1,148 per square metre; Murcia, at €1,206 per square metre, and La Rioja, at €1,355.

Barcelona is the most expensive city now to buy a newly-constructed home, costing €3,865 per square metre, followed by San Sebastián in the Basque Country at €3,441 and Madrid at €3,167, whilst the cheapest cities to buy a new build in are Badajoz (€1,155), Cáceres (€1,138) and Ciudad Real in the dead centre of the mainland (€1,160).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HIGH-SPEED fibreoptic internet will soon be available to 85% of Spain's population as part of the government's five-year broadband roll-out which started in 2013.

President Mariano Rajoy says he intends to 'give a definitive push' to plans to extend fast connections to 'all towns, cities and villages in Spain, if possible', or at least, leaving no more than 15% of country's inhabitants without access.

The New Generation Broadband Extension Programme (PEBA-NGA) 2013-2017 comprises a public funding scheme for internet and mobile phone operators, as well as European Union FEDER local development grants.

So far in 2017, State funding has been given to 138 projects presented by 33 network operators, costing a total of €169.4 million, of which the government has stumped up around 60%, or €105m.

More built-up and densely-populated areas are likely to already have some fibreoptic connection available, although even some large towns off the tourist trail and nowhere near Spain's largest cities have been unable to acquire the service.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TICKETS for Granada's Alhambra Palace can now be bought using Bitcoins thanks to a firm in Murcia, a pioneer in using the cryptocurrency in Spain.

CEO of 13tickets.com, Juan Antonio García, says that until now, very few Spanish companies have been accepting the 'virtual' global money, but that it can be used on this website with 'all the same guarantees' as buyers are used to when using tangible currency.

On 13tickets.com, customers can book a number of excursions and entry tickets to popular tourist sites, although the Alhambra Palace is expected to be the bestseller – many visitors opt to buy their entries online in advance to avoid the queues on the day, and the Mediaeval Arab complex remains Spain's most-visited tourist attraction.

As well as Bitcoin, 13tickets.com accepts the burgeoning cryptocurrency known as Touriscoin, which is very slowly catching on and carries numerous advantages, including not having to pay what García calls 'abusive commissions and exchange rates'.

Sites which allow payment in Touriscoin often provide discounts and allow customers to buy at much more economical prices than they would with a credit or debit card or via a tradition tour operator.

With Spain being the third most-visited country in the world, literally millions of tourists will be able to use their cryptocurrency via 13tickets.com.