Live News From Spain As It Happens

RISING interest rates increases the risk of mental illness and aggravates existing conditions, according to the University of Sterling in Scotland.

Those already struggling to make ends meet have to fight even harder to pay their bills, and those in debt find themselves sinking further, researchers in the northern UK region, assisted by Nottingham University (England) have found.

Their study was based upon uncertainty as to whether the Bank of England plans to increase interest rates in May or maintain them at the current 0.5%.

Luckily for those with mortgages and loans in Spain, interest rates will not create negative effects on mental health for the foreseeable future: the Euribor is set to close April on yet another historic low, of -0.19%.

Variable-rate mortgages in Spain are only reviewed once a year, which takes a lot of the insecurity out of them and gives homeowners plenty of time to plan if the Eurozone interest rate shows signs of rising – this, and the high fees associated with fixed-rate mortgages, being the main reason that an overwhelming majority of home loans are variable-rate versions, at the customer's request.

Now that interest rates in the countries using the common currency have been in negative figures for two years and two months, little margin exists for mortgage repayments to fall, but the difference between rates expected for the end of April 2018 and the same date a year ago – when the Euribor fell to -0.119% - is still a saving of €38.16 on the average home loan.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUPERMARKETS Carrefour and Día are planning overnight opening in a bid to attract customers away from Mercadona, one of Spain's largest grocery store chains.

Whilst Mercadona holds the largest market share at present, Carrefour and Día come second and third, but they want to compete more aggressively and are struggling to keep up.

Both have decided to offer longer opening hours to cater for customers who have more time to shop at night – such as shift workers.

Carrefour already has around a dozen 24-hour 'express'-type stores, very small in size and more limited in produce than its main branches, in Madrid, and intends to increase the number of these within the capital's wider region.

It opened a 24-hour hypermarket in Vallecas and has plans to launch another, whilst also widening its network of 'express' stores, known as Carrefour Market.

At present, the Greater Madrid region is the only one in Spain where retailers have complete freedom to choose their opening hours, a privilege granted to parts of the country considered 'key tourism' areas.

Whilst other regions have certain towns or neighbourhoods with the same opening-hours freedom, many local councils have actually appealed against this as they claim that only large chain stores would choose to operate outside of standard times, and that this would produce unfair competition for small family-run shops.

Día has now extended its opening times from the usual nine-to-nine, and is now trading from 08.00 to 23.00 inclusive.

Mercadona's founder Juan Roig recently said that when his stores were forced to open on Sundays, they lost money, and that the only way to break even, let alone make a profit, was to hike up prices on that day of the week.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FAMILY from Spain's north-western region of Galicia says a man identical to the photo-fit image of Madeleine McCann's suspected kidnapper attempted to abduct their little girl six years earlier.

A 'robot' image of a man seen in the aparthotel in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve on May 3, 2007 was released five years ago, but it is only now that the family from Miño in Galicia has revealed they 'nearly choked on their dinner' when they saw the picture on TV.

“I don't know if the man in the photo kidnapped Madeleine, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the man who tried to run off with my daughter,” said businessman Andrés.

He and his wife and two daughters, aged 13 and five at the time, were on a road trip from their Galicia home through Portugal heading south, and stopped for the night en route.

“We ended up in a place called Abrantes [central Portugal], entered a modest hotel, and there was nobody there when we arrived,” Andrés says.

“On our way back from dinner, we came across an English lounge [sic] and saw a man dressed like a typical 'gentleman' – you know, folded pocket handkerchief, perfectly-combed hair, woollen jumper with a shirt collar, about 45 years old, with a gin and tonic in his hand.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE young woman who was gang-raped by the self-styled 'Manada' or 'Herd' at Pamplona's Sanfermínes festival in 2016 has announced she will appeal against the lenient sentence awarded to the five men who lured her away and filmed themselves taking advantage of her.

All over the world, outraged support for the anonymous victim – who was just 18 at the time – has filled newspaper headlines, news programmes on TV and comments on the street after the organised street gang from Sevilla was sentenced to nine years for 'sexual abuse' but acquitted of rape, which carries jail terms of over 20 years.

The mostly-male judges at the court in Navarra said there was no evidence of 'violence or intimidation' – as the teen was very drunk and unable to consent – which they claim were necessary for a rape charge to apply.

They said 'strength in numbers' or being 'overpowered' five to one did not count as 'intimidation' and that the act of forcing themselves on her sexually without her consent did not amount to 'violence'.

One magistrate, Ricardo González, even voted for all charges to be dropped against 'The Herd' except for that of stealing her mobile phone, which applied to one gang member, a trained Guardia Civil officer, who took it from her pocket whilst one of his companions was in the act of rape.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DEMONSTRATIONS across Spain and Europe have taken place today (Thursday) in protest over a Navarra court's having convicted a group of men who gang-raped a woman at a fiesta for 'sexual abuse' rather than 'rape'.

The five youths, dubbed La Manada ('The Herd'), have been sentenced to nine years each in jail for the attack on a girl – who is now aged 20 - at Pamplona's Sanfermínes bull-running festival in 2016.

According to the judge, there is insufficient evidence of 'sexual assault', or 'the violence necessary for a rape charge to apply'.

State prosecutors had called for 22 years and 10 months in prison for each, and the private prosecution called for 24 years and nine months.

The trial has attracted widespread attention in the press and on social media, and those waiting outside the court for the verdict were the first to protest.

Their outrage quickly spread to the rest of Spain, and demonstrations were held this evening in almost every region.

Scheduled protests took place in Alicante, Valencia, Castellón and Alcoi (Comunidad Valenciana), Zaragoza and Huesca (Aragón), Manacor (Mallorca, Balearic Islands), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands), Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Sevilla (Andalucia), Valladolid, Segovia, Salamanca, Palencia, León and Burgos (Castilla y León), Gijón and Oviedo (Asturias), As Pontes, Bertamiráns, A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, Vigo and Santiago de Compostela (Galicia), Santander (Cantabria), Bilbao (Basque Country), Barcelona (Catalunya) and Cartagena and Murcia (Region of Murcia).

DRIVING EXAMINERS have threatened to resume their strike unless they get the pay rise of €250 a month they have requested from the national government.

Industrial action last year saw examiners downing tools three days a week between June and December inclusive, leading to literally hundreds of thousands of driving tests being cancelled or shelved and driving schools forced out of business as pupils decided there was little point in carrying on with their lessons if they had no idea when they might have a chance at getting their licences.

The average first-time fail rate in Spain is around 73%, meaning demand for tests is high as the nearly three-quarters of candidates who do not pass their initial driving test are keen to book another as soon as possible.

An agreement by the opposition parties in government, who are in the majority, to back the examiners' pay-rise request if they managed to get it through to a Parliamentary vote.

Examiners have been asking for the extra €250 for the last decade, since they consider it unfair that they are paid the same as office-based staff when they face additional risks, and with long-running staff shortages due to cutbacks, often have to double up their shifts.

AT LEAST one beach on the Costa Blanca has been shut after a Portuguese Man O'War was found on the shores.

Altea (Alicante province) has banned bathers for the moment, and the poisonous species have been seen on the Levante and Mal Pas beaches in neighbouring Benidorm earlier this month.

Although it looks – and stings – like a jellyfish, the Portuguese Man O'War is in fact a different species altogether, a marine hydrozoan from the Physaliidae family normally found in the Pacific, Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, but not normally in the Mediterranean.

Given their very close similarity, the Portuguese Man O'War, or Physalia Physalis, is often referred to as a 'false jellyfish'.

Its stings are extremely painful and poisonous, and in some very rare cases, have proven fatal.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CONTESTANT on The Voice in Australia sang the regional anthem of Asturias, northern Spain, in the programme's 'blind audition'.

Oskar Proy, 18, is a descendent of Asturian migrants and sang Asturias, patria querida ('Asturias, beloved country') in Spanish, rather than in English or in the original regional language, bable or asturiano.

Judges Delta Goodrem, Boy George, Kelly Rowland and Joe Jonas were blown away by Oskar's performance – in fact, Joe Jonas pressed the buzzer just 20 seconds after he started singing.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH historian Mary Beard visited Barcelona during Sant Jordi for the first time yesterday (Monday), and said the massive patron saint fair was 'just fantastic'.

The Princess of Asturias Humanities Award winner was among the many authors signing copies of their books on stalls during the huge festival.

“It was extraordinary, fantastic, and much more exciting than I thought it would be,” Ms Beard admitted.

Sant Jordi – Catalunya's answer to Saint George – is celebrated with book and flower stands lining the streets in accordance with the legend that claims these were given as gifts to lovers or crushes on April 23 in the region.

Even though England marked the same saint's day yesterday, Mary said she could not imagine it ever being possible to celebrate it in the same way as in Catalunya.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE husband of one of Europe's most dangerous and hunted ISIS terrorists has been arrested in Málaga for financing her trip to Syria, National Police say.

Fadoua Hassad, 36, originally from Morocco is said to be 'extremely radical' and has made constant references to staging attacks in Spain.

She has been actively involved in recruiting women to the self-styled 'Islamic State', also known as DAESH, from the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

Her ex-husband, 35, also Moroccan and legally resident in the Costa del Sol capital, reportedly gave her money in instalments to help her get to Syria and join DAESH.

Police have been investigating the couple since February 2016 when it was found she had left Spain on a flight to Greece before catching a connection to Turkey.

The arrested man sent her money to Turkey and also Italy, and supported her plans to join DAESH in the company of another Jihad terrorist - a 25-year-old Palestinian man - said to be extremely dangerous and whom she had met online.

In total, in the last two years, Fadoua has received over €6,000 and had also sent large amounts of money to the Palestinian's family, as well as funding his movements across Europe from her ex-husband's contributions.

The husband is said to have been aware of Fadoua's new relationship and, despite only earning a relatively low wage, managed to send her at least €700 a month between February and June 2016.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUPERMARKET chain Mercadona has now launched in the UK with a trading office set up in Harrogate, North Yorkshire to handle purchases of fish from the North Sea.

Mercadona, founded by Valencia-based businessman Juan Roig, has not yet announced any plans to open stores in Britain, but the buying office in the north of England will save a considerable amount of travelling.

Staff from the North Sea fish-purchasing management centre in Spain have had to fly to the UK everytime they needed to sign paperwork or deal with any business issues that cropped up.

But now, with the office in Harrogate – led by Gavin Radcliffe - able to handle all this on site, it means Mercadona has a foot in the door in Britain and may later be able to take advantage of its presence there for future deals.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A YOUNG woman based in Madrid saved the life of her suicidal mother hundreds of kilometres away in the Region of Murcia – thanks to Facebook.

The victim, said to be aged between 45 and 50 and living in La Unión, had been suffering severe depression and cut her wrists open with a kitchen knife in the early hours of Friday morning.

She then wrote on Facebook that she had done so and said her goodbyes.

Her daughter, who is in Madrid, saw her mother's Facebook status and immediately rang the 112 emergency hotline.

Read moe at thinkSPAIN.com

DYING will be 'optional' within just 27 years and the ageing process will be 'reversible', according to two genetic engineers during the presentation of their new book in Barcelona.

José Luis Cordeiro, born in Venezuela to Spanish parents, and Cambridge (UK) mathematician David Wood, founders of the operating system 'Symbian', have just published The Death of Death and say immortality is a real and scientific possibility that could come much earlier than originally thought.

Humans will only die in accidents, never of natural causes or illness, by around the year 2045, say Cordeiro and Wood, who say it is 'crucial' that old age starts to be classified as an 'illness' so that publicly-funded research into its 'cure' can extend.

Nanotechnology is key, among other new genetic manipulation techniques, the engineers said during the presentation at Barcelona's Equestrian Circle.

The process will involve turning 'bad' genes into healthy ones, eliminating dead cells from the body, repairing damaged cells, treatments with stem cells and 'printing' vital organs in 3D.

Cordeiro, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, says he has 'chosen not to die' and that in 30 years' time, he will be 'younger than he is today'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPEECH by Basque terror organisation ETA 'apologising' for the thousands of deaths and serious injuries its attacks across Spain caused over more than 50 years is 'too little, too late', according to the national government.

ETA revealed earlier this week that it had scheduled a press conference for today (Friday) ahead of its planned announcement on May 5 in Bayonne, southern France, where members are expected to tell the public they have formally dissolved the organisation.

Masked spokespersons admitted their actions – over 2,472 terror attacks – had caused 'immeasurably suffering' and that the cell is 'truly sorry', calling for 'forgiveness' to living victims who 'had nothing to do with the conflict', which centred on Basque separatism and the reunification of the Spanish and French Basque regions.

They spoke of 'deaths, injuries, tortures, kidnaps and people forced to flee abroad', for which ETA was 'directly responsible'.

“None of this should ever have happened and should never have gone on over time,” it said.

“A democratic solution should have been found much earlier.”

But they still attempted to justify themselves by saying that 'suffering had always reigned, even before ETA was created' and that it has long since 'abandoned the armed conflict'.

Its last attack was in Mallorca in 2009, and the organisation formally disarmed and handed in its weapons a year ago.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PODEMOS members are among 15 MEPs who have signed a petition calling for Spain not to extradite HSBC whistleblower Hervè Falciani, saying that thanks to his actions, the European Union has recovered €3 billion in unpaid taxes.

Monaco-born Falciani leaked the database of HSBC's Swiss holding, where he had been working in the IT department from 2001, when he was 29, and which uncovered a long list of tax-avoiders.

He had copied the confidential customer database whilst in the Geneva office of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation – now British-owned – between 2006 and 2008 and was interrogated in December of the latter year by Swiss authorities for allegedly attempting to sell account details to the Lebanese bank, Audi, in Beirut.

Released on bail, Falciani fled to France to avoid extradition, as he holds French citizenship, but in January 2009 was arrested upon request by the Swiss prosecution for theft of personal data.

Seven months on, the French government admitted to having in its possession a list of 3,000 taxpayers with 'suspicious accounts' in Switzerland believed to be used for laundering money and, at the end of 2009, Falciani revealed his identity in a TV interview and confessed to being the HSBC employee who stole the data.

An international arrest warrant led to his being detained in Barcelona in 2012 and the National Court remanded him in custody, whilst Switzerland called for his extradition.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BASQUE terrorist organisation ETA says it will formally disband and will announce this in public in Bayonne, southern France, over the first weekend in May.

The separatists, who have not carried out any armed attacks since summer 2009 and whose last major bomb blast was on December 30, 2006 at Madrid airport T4 car park, says it will be calling a press conference on Friday with the para-political association Bake Bidea in Iparralde, south-western France, when it will 'announce an event of international importance' in Bayonne on May 5.

ETA says various institutions, including the Basque regional government, unions and political parties will be invited to the Bayonne announcement.

Friday's press conference will be presided by Bake Bidea, part of the Social Forum and the International Contact Group (GIC) with Raymond Kendall at the helm

Although the exact terminology used by ETA to explain the Bayonne conference is not clear, it strongly points towards the cell's having decided to dissolve.

The Basque Country regional government says it is not going to 'get carried away with speculation' but that once ETA reveals its decision, it will 'evaluate it accordingly'.

Regional television channel ETB announced last night (Wednesday) that ETA appeared to be planning to break up on May 5.

AIR France has grounded 10 flights arriving in and leaving from Barcelona and Madrid today (Wednesday) and more cancellations are on the way early next week.

Strikes by 31.1% of pilots, 22.4% of cabin crew and 13.8% of ground staff mean flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport leaving Barcelona at 06.15, 10.05 and 15.00 and due to take off from Madrid at 06.20, 10.00 and 15.25 have been cancelled.

Those due to leave Madrid at 17.45 and 19.35 this evening and Barcelona airport at 19.25 and 20.25 will not be taking off.

This will affect connecting flights to long-haul destinations via Paris as well as those for which Charles de Gaulle airport is the final stop.

Air France flights to and from Bilbao and Palma de Mallorca have not been affected by today's industrial action.

The next round of strikes is planned for Monday, April 23 and Tuesday, April 24 over a 24-hour period, although as yet the flights likely to be cancelled have not been confirmed.

BRANCHES of French-based supermarket Carrefour in Spain have begun selling snacks made with insects – including energy bars, crisps and cereal.

Now that European Union legislation has approved insects and fungi as 'food' fit for sale within the 28 member States of the bloc, Carrefour is the first supermarket in Spain to jump on the bandwagon.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), over two billion people worldwide already eat insects as part of their normal diet and considers them 'the food of the future'.

The FAO says they are rich in protein, vitamins B1, B2 and B3, a source of Omega 3 and Omega 6, all essential aminoacids, and other vital minerals such as iron.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE OF Spain's most iconic Civil War protest paintings may not be about the Civil War at all, according to an art history expert: Pablo Picasso's Guernica may have been universally misunderstood for the last 81 years, says Professor José María Juarranz de la Fuente.

His recently-published book, Guernica. The unknown masterpiece, details his 14 years of research into the huge black-and-white cubist work which has its own room at Madrid's Reina Sofía art museum where visitors can view preliminary sketches, first drafts and a video of its creation in the context of the war of 1936 to 1939.

Always believed to have been a symbol of the barbaric actions of Franco's Fascist supporters and an abstract depiction of the devastating bombing of the Basque town of Gernika – spelt as 'Guernica' in Castilian Spanish – on April 26, 1937, the painting may actually just be all about the artist, Professor Juarranz de la Fuente explains.

“Believing that Picasso's most famous work is not all about Picasso himself means not being familiar with the artist and his personality,” the expert argues.

His book is divided into the sections 'Analysis', 'Synthesis' and 'Apotheosis', and in the 'Analysis' section, Professor Juarranz de la Fuente says Guernica depicts Picasso's 'obsessions' and not his political convictions.

“Picasso never showed any particular interest in political issues during that time of his life,” the author reveals.

He says the artist named the painting Guernica because it was topical at the time and would increase its visibility in Europe, bumping it up into a higher category in the art world and increasing the painter's own fame.

In fact, having studied the timeline of events in the 1930s, Professor Juarranz de la Fuente says Picasso started work on the piece and had its themes already in mind long before the attack on the Basque town became headline news.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ITALIAN authorities have ordered a Spanish charity boat to be released a month after it was seized off a Sicilian port and its crew accused of 'assisting illegal immigration'.

The humanitarian organisation Proactiva Open Arms has been stationed in the Mediterranean near southern Italy and Greece to rescue migrants who get into difficulties as they attempt to reach Europe by boat.

Without their work, most of these lives would have been lost.

The boat was captured trying to dock in the port of Pozzallo on March 17, but 10 days later, the prosecution service in Ragusa called for it not to be formally confiscated.

Meanwhile, the craft has been waiting in Pozzallo, unable to leave, pending trial.

Fortunately, none of the charity members were formally charged or taken into custody, as they would have had a long and bureaucratic ordeal ahead of them trying to secure their release.

Now, the court in Ragusa has ordered the boat to be freed, according to the charity's solicitor, Rosa Emanuela Lo Faro.

At the time of its capture on the coast of the Italian island, Proactiva Open Arms' boat had 216 migrants on board it had rescued from drowning, but these were allowed to disembark.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SEVILLA'S world-famous April Fair, or Feria de Abrilis now officially open and the southern city will be a giant round-the-clock festival ground for the next 10 days.

Everything stereotypical about Spain springs unapologetically to life as loudly and colourfully as it can – flamenco singers and dancers, swirling polka-dot skirts, gypsy guitars and dashing Don Juanes on beautiful grey Pura Raza Española (Spanish thoroughbred) horses – and, in fact, is probably the only time and place any tourist can catch these all at once.

Carriages bedecked with flowers and flamboyantly-dressed women dancing the fast-paced Sevillanas are on every street corner, and 1,052 brightly-coloured huts line the city-centre streets selling traditional southern-Spanish food and souvenirs.

Last night (Saturday) marked the start of the long fiesta with the great 'switch-on' – over 200,000 bulbs lit up the city to declare the fair open.

The act of turning on the lights for the Feria de Abril is a matter of great prestige, and this year, 10 pensioners were picked to do so – five men and five women.

For Josefa, 92, it was a dream come true and worth waiting a lifetime for.

“I've wanted to do something like this my whole life, because I've seen the lights many, many times, but I never really thought I'd ever be the one to switch them on,” she said enthusiastically minutes before her big moment.

SPAIN has provided logistic support to the USA for its attack on Syria, joined by France and the UK, although has not taken part actively in the air strikes in retaliation over Bashar Al-Assad's alleged chemical weapons massacre.

Defence minister María Dolores de Cospedal has been in close contact with her counterpart in France since Friday, and the US air base in Zaragoza (Aragón) has provided two planes equipped with supplies.

Also, the US air base in Rota (Cádiz province) has provided a Destroyer.

Spain's involvement was inevitable in some way because of the presence of its North American bases – an agreement two years ago for the centre in Rota to be used by the US military as a refuelling stop and to employ its equipment and aircraft means the country was always likely to be caught in the middle if the US chose to attack Syria.

But Spain's national government has said it supports the air strikes – president Mariano Rajoy says 'crimes against humanity' have been committed in Syria, referring to the barbaric chemical weapons attack on civilians.

Rajoy says he 'evidently would have preferred concerted international action', in a non-violent format, but that 'attacks against defenceless civilians, against women and children, cannot go unanswered'.

THOUSANDS of Europeans living in the UK, including a high number of Spaniards, could lose their basic rights following Brexit – and children, the elderly and victims of domestic violence are the most at risk, says the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.

Even if they meet all the requirements for remaining permanently in Britain once the country leaves the European Union, problems in presenting the required paperwork to obtain 'settled status' could leave them in a situation similar to that of an 'illegal' immigrant and losing their right to stay.

The Observatory's report warns that thousands of Europeans in the UK may not understand that they need to go through this paper trail, meaning they would lose their residence rights without even realising and discover their situation when it is too late.

“The Interior Ministry is attempting to create a system whi9ch is easy and direct, and the majority of European citizens should be able to get through this simplified process with few problems,” the Migration Observatory's director Madeleine Sumption says.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FOG-CREATING machine could be a low-cost solution to traffic emissions and other air contamination – even chemical leaks and smoke from forest fires, according to its creators at the University of Alcalá de Henares (Greater Madrid region).

'Counterfog', developed over four years by the team led by Professor José Luis Pérez-Díaz with the help of European Union funding, was presented yesterday (Friday) at the region's air base in Torrejón de Ardoz.

Members of the Armed Forces emergency response unit, who are frequently called in to help tackle major forest fires and other disasters, test-drove the Counterfog machine on chemical and smoke particles.

It works using a pipe or column with a type of sprinkler system which generates fog made from clean water, and its microscopic droplets adhere to toxic particles in the air and force them to drop to the ground or other hard surfaces where they can be easily cleaned up.

Madrid is expected to use it to combat air pollution caused by traffic, one of the city's most pressing issues, and it could lead to a situation where cars no longer have to be restricted from entering the main urban hub.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HOMEOWNER in his 80s who shot a burglar to stop him attacking his wife has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, but the prosecution plans to appeal.

Jacinto Siverio (pictured right), who was 80 at the time – and is now 83 – was asleep when two masked individuals burst into his rural home in Arafo, Tenerife on March 1, 2015.

They smashed the window of the room where Siverio's wife, 69 and her sister, 64, had been in bed before the noise awoke them.

The sister managed to lock herself into a toilet, but Jacinto's wife was pinned to the wall with an iron bar as the burglars threatened her and demanded she hand over all her cash.

Jacinto, awoken by the shouts and bangs, took his Ruby .38-calibre revolver from his safe deposit box and fired a warning shot at the skirting board, then pulled the trigger a second time, striking one of the intruders on the left side of his face.

The bullet severed his jugular vein and flew out of the right side of his neck.

Although the victim was able to stagger out onto the back patio, he collapsed and died almost immediately.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CONFIRMED total of 39 holidaymakers went down with food poisoning after eating mussels at a hotel on the Arenal beach in Jávea (Alicante province), reports have just revealed.

The Spanish gency for Consumption, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECSAN), whom the hotel was required to notify of the incident in accordance with standard procedure, says only two of the guests needed hospital treatment.

One went to A&E with stomach pains and was discharged hours later after being treated, whilst another remained there for two days.

All those affected are said to be recovering well and no new cases are expected.

The 39 patients, all said to be pensioners, had been staying at the undisclosed hotel on Jávea's most-frequented beach over Easter weekend.

According to AECSAN, the mussels, designed for freezing, were labelled Mejillón media concha súper – effectively, 'super-sized' open-shelled mussels – and were from the brand Estrella Polar.

Read more at thinkSPAN.com

ALMERÍA schoolboy Gabriel Cruz's killer has written an open letter from prison saying the eight-year-old's death was 'an accident' and begging for forgiveness.

“I got scared, and fear blocks you and makes you act this way,” Ana Julia Quezada (pictured) said, apparently referring to her having attempted to hide the child's body before he was found in the boot of her car after more than two weeks of searching.

Quezada wrote to the Programa de Ana Rosa talk show on Spain's fifth channel, Telecinco, from El Acebuche prison in Almería where she has been remanded in custody without bail.

She says she is 'not doing well at all' and has apologised to 'all Gabriel's family' and to 'everyone else' she may have 'harmed'.

Quezada, 43, says she is not able to give too much detail since her case remains sub judice, but that she has been 'badly affected' by the 'lies' told about her.

“It was an accident, and I'll always say this because it's the truth,” she stated.

“I was not strong enough to tell my partner, or anyone, what had happened and, as time went on, I gradually found myself digging a bigger and bigger hole for myself.

“I know I have no excuse for the accident; I've robbed the person I love most in the world of the greatest thing anyone can have – a child.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PRISONER in Vigo has been told his sentence will be suspended – as long as he grows his hair.

Identified only by his initials of A. F. C., the accused was arrested for drug-dealing in the Galicia town and is said to be a repeat offender, but is in the process of rebuilding his life.

He faces three years in jail and a fine of €2,800, and his lawyer is fighting to avoid his having to serve his sentence.

Prosecutors have agreed to apply for it to be suspended as long as A. F. C. ensures his hair is never less than three centimetres (just under an inch and a half) long.

This curious condition has a very sound reason behind it: the accused cited as mitigating factors that he was a cocaine and heroin addict and that this has caused him irreparable psychological damage.

His solicitor says A. F. C. has 'fought hard' to break his habit and is still in detox treatment at a Vigo centre.

The dealer said he was 'going through a bad moment' and had stopped his treatment and given up the methadone he was prescribed, but insisted he intended to go back to rehab and on the medication.

One of the magistrates said: “It's not me you need to convince, nor should you be trying to lie to yourself.

“For your own good, it's best you don't play that game any more, because if you take drugs again you'll go straight to prison,” she concluded.

In order for his sentence to be suspended, the accused has to prove he has been off the drugs for a certain length of time.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S oldest video rental store has launched a crowdfunding campaign to avoid having to close down.

Vídeo Instan, which opened on Barcelona's C/ Enric Granados in 1980, is seeking funds to enable it to turn into a meeting place for film buffs and silver-screen industry professionals.

The shop started its crowdfunding on the platform Ulule on Tuesday, and hopes to raise an initial €35,000 to renovate the premises, turning it into a café and cinema with seating for 32 – and maintaining the video rental side of the business.

So far, Vídeo Instan has been backed by big names in the industry – J. A. Bayona, Alain Hernández, Judith Colell, Leticia Dolera, and Spain's most famous off-the-wall cult director Pedro Almodóvar.

Anyone who supports the cause will be amply rewarded, Vídeo Instan says, with discounts on renting DVDs – and even VHS video tapes, where people still have the facilities to play them – as well as discounts on cinema tickets and prize draws where they could win entries to the Fotogramas de Plata ('Silver Photograms') Awards and the Gaudí Awards, Catalunya's answer to the Goyas or a regional version of the Oscars.

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DUKE and Duchess of Cambridge William and Kate are huge fans of the TV comedy series Benidorm, which is shot on location at a hotel in the Costa Blanca tourism capital.

Actors and actresses from the ITV show, which satirises the 'bargain-basement' end of British package holidaymakers, have been touring theatres in the UK and Ireland to promote the series and also Benidorm as a town.

Prince William and Princess Catherine, known prior to their wedding as Kate Middleton, even received a letter from Benidorm's mayor Augstín Navarro inviting them to spend their honeymoon in the town.

Despite being one of the odds at the bookies before the Royal couple's post-wedding destination was known, Benidorm was probably not a serious choice for the Duke and Duchess, who will turn 36 this year – in the end, they holidayed on a secluded island in the Seychelles.

But they love the show and were delighted to hear Benidorm town named a tapas dish after them to mark their nuptials.

They met up with the Benidorm cast at the Royal Variety Show and told them how they are glued to the series and enjoy its humour.

Benidorm has just released a new series and its prime-time slot means it attracts around four million viewers per episode.

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SPAIN'S ambassador in Germany says the Catalunya independence issue is 'not a conflict between Madrid and Barcelona', but 'a problem amongst the catalanes'.

Victoria Morera says the pro-independence campaigners do not actually want the 'dialogue' they have been asking for since long before the October 1 referendum, and slams their 'permanent allusions to Franco's régime', which she calls 'outmoded', 'part of the history of nationalism', and 'playing the victim'.

“Spain is a democratic State,” Sra Morera says in a letter to the Süddeutsche Zeitung (South German News), which she wrote in response to articles in various German media about former Catalunya president Carles Puigdemont's extradition process.

Puigdemont, who has been living in exile in Belgium, was arrested in the German region of Schleswig-Holstein just over the Danish border whilst driving back from a conference in Helsinki.

He was released on bail five days ago after the regional court decided there were no grounds to charge him for 'rebellion', as Spain wishes to do, but say he could still face action for 'misuse of public funds' for forging ahead with the disputed referendum using taxpayers' cash.

Puigdemont is now waiting for the court of Schleswig-Holstein to decide whether to extradite him in accordance with Spain's request.

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VIOLENT blaze in southern Tenerife close to Teide National Park has already wiped out 544 acres and is still raging.

As yet, nobody has been evacuated as the nearest towns, Vilaflor and Granadilla de Abona, are five kilometres away, but high winds sweeping the Canary Islands are fanning the flames and, if the inferno is not contained soon, this situation may change.

The fire started on Sunday night and hydroplanes and helicopters have been brought in due to the altitude and the fact that the flames are gradually gaining height.

Emergency services had to tackle the blaze from the ground at first, since airborne methods cannot be used in the dark.

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RETIRED monarch Juan Carlos I is recovering well from his 10th operation in eight years and has been visited in his Madrid clinic by three generations of his immediate family.

Ccording to the La Moraleja University Hospital, the Rex Emeritus had to have another knee replacement – the prothesis fitted to his right knee in 2011 has already worn out.

Surgery took just an hour and a half and was 'very successful', said a press release from the hospital.

Following the operation on Saturday morning, King Juan Carlos I – who abdicated in favour of his son in the summer of 2014 – was in intensive care until around Sunday lunchtime for post-op observation, mainly due to his age: he turned 80 on January 5 this year.

As soon as he was on a ward, his son King Felipe IV and daughter-in-law Queen Letizia visited him with their two daughters, Leonor, 12 and Sofía, who will be 11 next month.

They were accompanied by Juan Carlos I's wife Sofía, who retains her title of Queen even though her husband is no longer on the throne.

Reporters were eager to see how the family behaved as they arrived for their visit, since a spat between the two Queens outside Palma de Mallorca cathedral, which seemed to be linked to the children posing for photographs, was caught on video and has gone viral.

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A 22-YEAR-OLD woman swept away by the waves off a Galicia beach during the storms has been found dead after a local resident spotted her and called emergency services.

She has been named as Andrea Domínguez, and disappeared 11 days ago off the rocky promenade between Orzán and Riazor beaches in the province of A Coruña.

Coastguard officials and the fire brigade went out to where the body had been spotted and found Andrea about 200 metres from where she vanished.

A post-mortem will be carried out as standard procedure.

Andrea's sister and father were given support by counsellors on site when she was washed away by the tidal surge during the latest freak storms, which brought torrential rain and high winds to most of the country and snow in the north.

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AIRLINE and train strikes in France and Germany are causing long delays and cancellations to connections with Spain, the national government has confirmed.

France's national rail board, SNCF, started on Sunday evening at 19.00 and will continue until tomorrow (Tuesday) at 08.00, and is the first in a series of 36 days planned by staff in protest over their government's plans to amend workers' statutes within the State-owned transport company.

On average, a quarter of international rail routes to and from France have been affected and will be so on future strike days – Italy's cross-border trains have ground to a complete halt, and those linking up Girona, Barcelona and Valencia with Paris via Montpellier have suffered disruption, as has the Eurostar between Paris and London.

Air France workers are also on strike – 35% of pilots, 20.2% of cabin crew and 13% of ground staff – to put pressure on the firm to give them a 6% pay rise to cover increased living costs due to inflation over the past few years.

The first Air France strike day is tomorrow, and others are planned for April 17 and 18, a Tuesday and Wednesday, and for April 23 and 24, a Monday and a Tuesday.

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MOTORBIKES, scooters and mopeds which cause the most air pollution will be banned from Barcelona city centre by the end of this year between 07.00 and 20.00 on working days, the council has announced.

The move, which will take place from December, comes hot on the heels of the General Directorate of Traffic's (DGT's) new 'sticker scheme' which codes motorcycles according to their CO2 and NOx emissions levels.

These stickers, costing €5 each and available from post offices, come in categories of 'B', 'C', 'Eco' and 'Zero Emissions' and, although they are voluntary, they are highly advisable for the least-polluting motorcycles as they will show clearly that these vehicles are allowed into the central part of Barcelona which has been labelled a 'Low Emissions Zone'.

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A WOMAN who was placed on a national debtors' register over a disputed Vodafone bill has been awarded €10,000 in compensation following a Supreme Court appeal.

The customer, who has not been named, had been blacklisted for credit by the debt recovery firm Sierra Capital Management 2012, S.L., after Vodafone placed the case in their hands.

Vodafone was attempting to recover €297.80 from the customer, most of which was a penalty clause for breaking her contract in August 2012.

She had signed up with Vodafone in April 2011 and, almost from the beginning, noticed constant 'irregularities' in her bills.

The customer ended up querying practically every monthly bill, and almost every complaint ended with a corrected one – with charges wrongly applied removed – being sent to her.

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BARCELONA is set to launch its own currency next month – the REC, which residents can spend in 10 neighbourhoods at first and which may spread to more areas of the metropolitan zone.

The aim is to promote local trade by urban dwellers being able to spend their 'resident coins' in shops, bars and other businesses in the city.

REC stands for Recurso Económico Ciudadano, or 'Citizens' Economic Resource', translated literally, and will be launched in May as a pilot within the Besòs 'orbital' area.

The exchange rate for the REC will always maintain parity with the euro and is entirely digital, with customers being able to spend using a REC App or via a QR code using blockchain technology.

Payments go straight to the retailer's mobile phone, instantly and without costs.

Managed by Novact, the social innovation association in Barcelona, the city currency falls within the European 'B-Mincome' social initiative and the Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) programme, which is behind the idea of a minimum level of income being guaranteed to all residents – something which has only caught on in a very few areas in Spain but which the EU wants to see in place in all member States.

Barcelona city council says that from May, 25% of 'B-Mincome' benefits will be in RECs.

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A PRICE cap of €1.60 on bottled water in Spanish airports has been reviewed, and vending machines and bars will charge no more than €1 from now on, says aviation infrastructure body AENA.

It announced two-and-a-half weeks ago that in accordance with recommendations from the national ombudsman and in response to one of the main sources of passenger complaints that water would cost no more than €1.60 a bottle in any terminal in Spain, but has now opted to follow 2015 guidelines by the International Airports Council (ACI), which says bottles should be a maximum of €1 – or that, at least, plenty of available sources of water no more expensive than this should be on site both airside and in arrivals and departures.

With no sign of controversial liquids rules being reviewed any time soon, airports worldwide have often taken advantage of the fact that passengers cannot bring their own water bottles onto the plane and need to buy them airside, enabling retailers to charge excessively high prices.

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AVERAGE house prices increased by 4.3% in 2017 to a typical €1,532 per square metre, or around €153,200 for a large three-bedroomed apartment, according to the Quantity Surveyors' Society (Sociedad de Tasación, or ST).

Figures have just been released for the end of last year, showing that the highest increase in prices was in Barcelona – by 10.2% - and confirming that the Catalunya political crisis has had no negative effect on home values in the region's largest and Spain's second-largest city.

Now having been on the up for two-and-a-half years non-stop, rising by 2.3% in the second half of 2017, the ST's statistics show the recovery which started in 2015 is gradually consolidating itself.

Home value increases have gathered strength, too, given that the second quarter of 2016 showed a year-on-year rise of just 0.3% - considerably lower than that for the end of 2017.

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FORMER Catalunya regional president Carles Puigdemont has been granted bail by a German judge and has now been freed.

The Territorial Court of Schleswig-Holstein, close to the Danish border where Puigdemont was arrested driving home to Belgium from Finland, says it would be 'unacceptable' to charge him with 'rebellion', but that the details of the European arrest warrant may be valid for charges of corruption and misuse of public funds under German law.

For this reason, the extradition order remains in place and the court will review it and make a decision whilst Puigdemont is free.

The court does not believe Puigdemont runs a risk of 'political persecution', which is his main argument for not returning to Spain, as he does not believe he would get a fair trial and could be facing up to 30 years in jail for organising the disputed independence referendum.

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A DRAMATIC blaze at a hotel near Barcelona's Sants station forced emergency services to evacuate the entire building at midday today (Wednesday), but nobody was hurt.

The inferno broke out at around 12.50 on the top floor of the Hotel Expo, and was thought to have started in an air-conditioning unit.

Within 10 minutes, a total of 10 fire engines were on the scene and all guests and staff had left the building.

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TECHNICIANS from Spain's tax office have advised members of the public not to use the new mobile phone App designed for filing annual declarations, since it does not allow the user to amend the details on their draft return.

This means they could miss out on deductions they are eligible for if the details are not included on the draft, says the independent in-house technical service, GESTHA.

The App 'encourages the taxpayer to validate the draft declaration without reviewing it in depth', GESTHA says, meaning many users 'may forget to include relevant fiscal information that is to their advantage'.

Mortgages, personal pension contributions, personal loan repayments, charity donations and a host of other elements can reduce individuals' and sole traders' income tax bills.

The self-employed can offset their accountants' fees, membership of professional organisations, tools required to carry out their jobs, travelling costs, union membership and relevant training or studying courses.

Individuals can offset their main residence in some circumstances, and reductions may be available for those who have dependent children or other relatives.

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INFAMOUS Spanish 'photo-bomber' Jimmy Jump has appeared on a popular talk show to defend Catalunya's deposed regional president Carles Puigdemont, who is currently held in custody in Germany awaiting an extradition hearing.

Jimmy Jump is notorious for 'gatecrashing' live sporting events, such as major football matches, and even burst onto the stage during Spain's performance at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.

And he repeated what he does best this week when the channel Telecinco chat show, the 'Ana Rosa Programme', filmed live outside Neumünster prison in Germany's Schleswig-Holstein region.

The 'celebrity' anti-hero interrupted filming to speak of his support for Puigdemont's plight and said he intended to sleep outside Neumünster jail 'every night' until the exiled politician was released.

Jimmy – whose real name is Jaume Marquet i Cot – travelled to Germany on Good Friday by road from his home in Girona in his van.

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COASTGUARD officials have rescued 75 migrants in the Strait of Gibraltar and are still searching for another seven missing after five rafts were spotted off Spain's southern coast on Easter Monday.

As at 19.30 last night, four bodies had been recovered from the sea from a sixth craft which capsized on Sunday, and another seven Africans remained unaccounted for.

A Gambian man aged around 20, described as 'very distressed', explained that rough seas and high winds had upset the plastic dinghy he was travelling on – which was designed for children to play with at the beach and not for sailing – soon after it left the Moroccan coast at around 02.00 mainland Spain time.

He said all his fellow passengers fell overboard and that he was the only one of the 12 who had made it safely ashore.

One of the five rafts which arrived yesterday, and which was not much bigger than the boat that tipped over, was carrying 38 people – including a baby and five women – but all occupants were rescued and said to be in good health.

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A LORRYLOAD of elephants has overturned on the A-30 motorway in the province of Albacete (Castilla-La Mancha) and the animals are now wandering loose on the highway, traffic authorities confirmed at 16.30 this afternoon (Easter Monday).

The accident – at kilometre 22 in the Murcia direction level with the town of Pozo Cañada - forced police to shut the carriageway, and it took about another two hours before the elephants were rounded up.

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SPAIN'S international military centre in Torrejón de Ardoz (Greater Madrid region) has successfully coordinated the 'repatriation' of disused Chinese space station Tiangong 1, and all catastrophe theories went unproven – after disintegrating as it hit the Earth's atmosphere, the structure broke up and landed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far from any inhabited land.

The 10-metre-long, 8.5-tonne space station, put into orbit in September 2011, was visited by six astronauts during two Chinese space missions in 2012 and 2013 and carried out investigation work before being abandoned in 2016.

Since then, it has been floating in orbit out of control, and the European Space Agency (ESA) was one of several expert bodies who feared it would hit the Earth.

Calculations showed that although it would mostly break up into microscopic pieces due to the heat produced by the friction of its re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, about 40% of the Tiangong 1 would land on the planet.

It was expected to come down in southern Europe, with Spain, Italy and Greece being the main targets.

But previous abandoned space stations had been brought back to Earth without incident – the Skylab, launched by the USA and weighing 80 tonnes, was repatriated in 1979 and, more recently, the Russian Mir, weighing 140 tonnes disintegrated when it passed through the sky-space boundary in 2001.

China launched a new space laboratory, the Tiangong 2, in September 2016 and, over the next two months, it played host to its first manned mission with two astronauts.

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