Many more Welsh may have battled Franco than was thought, MI5 says

THE clipped scrawl of Britain’s spies in files hidden in a corner of the National Archive records the movements of volunteers ready to fight for Spain’s democracy 75 years ago.

But behind the simple collection of names – many of them Welsh – and dates lie heroic tales of lives risked to save a fledgling democracy from the fascism sweeping through Europe.

And the newly-released secret documents suggest almost twice as many volunteers from all corners of Britain and Ireland were suspected of travelling to Spain to fight in the country’s civil war against General Francisco Franco than previously thought.

The MI5 documents, released by the National Archive, list the names of the 4,000 British and Irish volunteers who joined the conflict after it began in 1936.


Among the entries are well-known Welsh veterans of the civil war, including Thomas William Paynter, Harry Stratton and Alun Menai Williams.

The 4,000 is significantly more than the figure of around 2,500 British volunteers for the International Brigade generally cited by historians, although it may include some who did not arrive.

Yet Dr Hywel Francis, the MP for Aberavon and author of Miners Against Fascism – Wales And The Spanish Civil War, told the Western Mail even the 4,000 maybe an underestimate.

Under the Foreign Enlistment Act, volunteers were breaking the law by joining the International Brigade.

The legislation dated back to 1870 and was invoked because of a non-intervention agreement signed by 27 countries, including Britain.

As a result, those who volunteered often went to great lengths to conceal their involvement.

Labour MP Dr Francis said: “It was totally undercover. Many of them didn’t even tell their families.

“One volunteer was told to leave in the middle of the night and not tell his wife.”

Dr Francis estimates around 180 Welsh volunteers attempted to get to Spain, with 120 or so making it to the front.

The remaining 60 included volunteers who were turned down because they had families or were caught by police on their way to Spain.

Estimates have suggested up to two thirds of the Welsh volunteers came from the South Wales mining area and the coal ports of Llanelli, Swansea and Cardiff.

Greg Lewis, author of A Bullet Saved My Life, which tells the story of Welsh volunteer Bob Peters’ involvement in the civil war, also believes more may have joined up from Wales than was previously believed.

Mr Lewis, a producer for ITV Wales, said: “If the figure has been revised up by so many for the UK and Ireland, you’d imagine we’re looking at a few more people having gone from Wales. So there are stories there we don’t know about.”

Communist Party member Paynter joined the International Brigade in 1937 and decades later would go on to become general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

His typed entry in the MI5 list reads: “PAYNTER, Thos Wm. May 1937. In Spain.”

In black handwriting alongside this it is recorded that Paynter, from Cardiff, “returned on 3/11/37”.

Stratton, a Swansea taxi driver and Communist, travelled through Paris and Perpignan to the volunteers assembly point at Figureres, in the Costa Brava.

His entry records him as having “returned” from Spain on October 13, 1937.

The entry for Menai Williams, from Gilfach Goch, who was the last living Welsh veteran of the conflict at his death in 2006, records him as “Fighting with Gov’t forces in Spain” in December 1937.

Well-known names among those who fought include the socialist author George Orwell.

The writer, listed under his real name Eric Blair, chronicled his experiences defending the Spanish Second Republic against Franco’s military uprising in his classic book Homage To Catalonia.

MI5 recorded in April 1937 that he was “fighting in Spain” and in a fuller entry noted his address, date of birth – albeit with the wrong year – and evidence of his left-wing sympathies.

The newly-digitised MI5 list contains more than 200 pages of names and dates detailing the movements of the men and women who left British ports on their way to the frontline in Spain, as well as a “roll of honour” of some of those killed in action.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936.

The MI5 list can be downloaded free for a month at nationalarchives.gov.uk/ spanish-civil-war

 

POLICE are investigating 1,200 people who bought forged academic diplomas from a 60-year-old Malaga man.

Amongst those charged are members of the Local National Police, Guardia Civil, public administration and hospital staff. Most of the forged diplomas were detected during the entrance process and the holders were expelled from the forces. The fraud worked by word of mouth and the man sold the fake diplomas for more than six years before he was arrested in 2008.

So far, approximately 100 people have been charged and a further 80 arrested, but many more are believed to have provided their personal details to the detainee and paid between €500 for training course diplomas and €1,500 for university degrees.

Although some simply wanted them for show or to make their CV look better, others have used them to access state exams and positions to become civil servants or security guards.

THE former mayor of Benalmadena Enrique Moya has challenged new mayor, Javier Carnero, to itemize the €10m his team claims the PP left unused

THE former mayor of Benalmadena Enrique Moya has challenged new mayor, Javier Carnero, to itemize the €10m his team claims the PP left unused. Carnero, at the head of the PSOE, had claimed that the Partido Popular’s Enrique Moya and his team had left €10m of public grants unused.

Moya, however, claims that this is a lie to confuse local residents. He says all public grants have been assigned and used for work which has been carried out in the past two years. He challenged the mayor to break down where he claimed these €10m had come from and to “stop lying and start working for Benalmadena”.

Driver faces jail sentence for death of 9 tourists in Malaga

MALAGA Public Prosecutor is asking for four years in prison for the driver who caused an accident in which nine Finnish tourists died in 2008. He is also facing a six-year ban from driving.

More than twenty-five other people were seriously injured in the accident when they were travelling in a bus on the A-7 motorway between Benalmadena and Torremolinos on April 19, 2008. The passenger in the car was also injured. 

Expert reports carried out by the Guardia Civil concluded that the driver of the 4x4 which caused the accident was travelling at 155kph when the accident occurred, 35 kilometres over the speed limit, while the bus, heading to the airport was travelling at just under 100kph.

The weather conditions, strong winds and heavy rain, were also taken into consideration. The 27-year-old driver told Guardia Civil when he was being taken to hospital that when he tried to brake he lost control of the vehicle. However, he changed his statement the next day, saying he was travelling at 120kph, and that when he braked he swerved into the central lane and lost consciousness.

He was breathalysed after the accident and found to have twice the legal alcohol limit in his system. He was sent to prison, but in June 2008, Malaga Court set his bail at €18,000. All the people affected have already been compensated by the driver’s insurance company, including the bus driver, who was declared unable to work.

 

Woman dies after falling into San Juan bonfire in A Coruña

22 year old woman from Brazil died in the San Juan celebrations in A Coruña on Thursday night after falling into a bonfire which she had lit with some friends in the Labañou area of the city.

Protección Civil said she was jumping over the fire, which was described of being of a small size, when she fell into another fire which was more than three metres tall, and ‘there was no way to pull her out’. From Brazil, she had been living in A Coruña for some time.

Meanwhile the body of a 42 year old Algerian man was also recovered on the Orzán beach in A Coruña, after having drowned during the celebrations.

A Coruña is one of the areas of Spain where San Juan is most popular, particularly on the beaches of Riazor and Orzán.

 

The cabinet has decided not to extend the measure which had cut the speed limit to 110km/h last March

The cabinet has decided today, Friday, to return the maximum speed on Spanish motorways to 120km/h from July 1, despite reports in the press that it will cost 600,000 € to do so.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, said that cabinet had decided not to extend the limit on speed as ‘the measure no longer made sense’.

In the press conference after the cabinet meeting he underlined however that the ‘the measure has worked’ and resulted in savings of 450 million €.

The slower 110km/h speed was put into place on March 7 this year with the argument that it would save energy at a time when the crisis in the Maghreb had seen a hike in crude prices to 116 dollars a barrel. Today it has been trading at 107 dollars a barrel.

It has to be remembered that a drop in the consumption of petrol affects the Government’s own income, as about half the price of each litre on the forecourt is made up of taxes, including the special petrol tax and IVA.

 

Spanish authorities have rescued 54 migrants trying to reach the southern coast of the country in a crowded boat.

Spanish authorities have rescued 54 migrants trying to reach the southern coast of the country in a crowded boat.

The Maritime Rescue service said one of the travelers rescued Thursday off the southern city of Motril says up to seven others are missing, including a baby. But the official said this is not confirmed, because a phone call from Morocco alerting Spanish authorities of the boat said there were 54 people aboard.

Every year thousands of poor Africans try to reach Spain because they see Europe’s southern gateway as the ticket to a better life.

Spanish officials say the number of arrivals is down because of increased surveillance at departure points in Morocco and along the west African coast and due to Spain’s economic woes.

A British woman who fell into a coma while on holiday in Spain has died.

47-year-old Jill Tyson, from Colwyn Bay in Wales, arrived on the Spanish island of Majorca on Saturday for a short holiday with friends at the resort of Magaluf.
Within just a few hours of stepping off the plane, she began suffering convulsions, and was rushed to hospital, where she slipped into unconsciousness.
Because Ms Tyson had a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), she was eligible for emergency medical treatment, but her family's hopes to fly her back to Britain were dashed because of her lack of travel insurance.
EHICs entitle their carriers to free or cheap treatment in state-ran hospitals throughout Europe, but do not allow for repatriation, which can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Ms Tyson's sister, Deb Hope, told Wales's Daily Post yesterday: "Jill passed away this morning. We’re still making plans and speaking to the hospital [about getting her home].

 

A Spanish Bank’s Tax Problem

“I do not comment on legal issues,” stated Emilio Botin, chairman of Banco Santander SA during the annual shareholders meeting in the northern city of Santander, Spain, on June 17. Botin was clearly not interested in discussing the tax fraud and forgery investigation opened against him and 11 members of his family. Instead, he stuck to reporting that Santander’s profits are the third highest of all global banks.

 The origin of the investigation came from last year’s disclosure by HSBC employee Hervé Falciani of the existence of several undeclared Swiss bank accounts. The Botin account is one of the 3,000 accounts that Spanish citizens have in Switzerland. It was opened in late 1936 when the father of the current chairman of the bank had to flee Spain after the outbreak of the Civil War. During that time, he lived in both London and Basel. 

 When Botin’s father died in 1993, he bequeathed his Swiss fortune to his children and grandchildren, including Emilio’s daughter, Ana Patricia Botin, head of the bank’s U.K. operations. The bank also has a strong presence in Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and the U.S.

When Falciani’s information was made public, the Botins noted that they had already paid the Treasury department about 200 million euros (US$ 284 million) in back taxes. The Botins were certain that this would settle the matter, but that has not happened. Instead,  the Treasury department sent the information to the antifraud prosecutors the day after the May 22 municipal elections, during which the ruling socialist party suffered a serious setback. The Treasury department stated that it was not possible for it to establish whether the fiscal statements presented by the family were complete and truthful. 

According to Manuel Romera, director of financial studies at the IE Business School, the actions taken by the Spanish authorities do not have legal ground. The origin of the information is fraudulent, and the Spanish criminal code clears those who voluntarily regulate undeclared money to the Treasury, he says. The reason that the Botins made the 200 million euro payment, he adds, is because “they don’t want to give a public image of not complying with the law.” The Botin family is expected to face a long judicial process which, according to Romera, they would prefer to be brief in order to avoid any erosion of the bank’s reputation.

Some experts suggest that if the Botins can prove that their statements and actions were in fact truthful and complete, that they will most likely be acquitted. ”If ‘Mr. Smith’ [i.e., an anonymous citizen] were the one charged instead of Mr. Botin, then the process would be straightforward,” says Romero.

All this drama is taking place at a time when the Spanish economy is experiencing 20% unemployment. In addition, a group of “outraged citizens” have been taking their protest to the streets since May 15, railing against what they say is the ineptitude of the political class with regards to the economic crisis. The protestors place a great deal of blame upon the banks.

 

Spanish prosecutors are investigating 849 cases of newborn children stolen from their mothers and sold to other families for profit

Spanish prosecutors are investigating 849 cases of newborn children stolen from their mothers and sold to other families for profit, the country's attorney general said Friday.
Candido Conde-Pumpido said 162 cases had already been referred for trial and only 38 have been dropped for a lack of evidence.
It is well documented that babies were taken from women who had supported the defeated Republican side after Spain's 1936-39 civil war. However, some of the baby trafficking cases are as recent as the mid-1990s.
"A great many Spaniards" had been affected by the scandal, which took place "over a prolonged period of time," Conde-Pumpido said at a news conference.
His office was alerted to the cases by ANADIR, an association of people searching for lost children or parents.
Enrique Vila, a lawyer representing ANADIR, said what had begun as a politically motivated punishment for Republican sympathizers eventually became a purely moneymaking scheme that persisted illegally well past Spain's return to democracy in 1978.
Investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon has calculated there could have been 30,000 baby thefts in Spain in the wake of the civil war.
Vila has argued that there was more or less a nationwide network behind it, involving doctors, nurses, midwives, nuns and intermediaries that would find children for couples that wanted them. Mothers were told that their babies were stillborn.
"It is not possible to attribute this to a single organization," said Conde-Pumpido, speaking in the eastern city of Valencia following a meeting with prosecutors general from Spain's 17 autonomous regions.

Spain's Bad Loans Hit 16-Year High

Spain's central bank Friday said bad debt at the country's commercial banks soared in April to the worst level in 16 years, a sign that a three-year property bust that's hit developers and households is hurting the financial sector even as Spanish economic growth recovers modestly.

As a percentage of total credit, Spanish non-performing loans rose in April to 6.4%, the highest reading since June 1995, from 6.1% in March.

The increase came even as total loans dropped to €1.813 trillion ($2.58 trillion) the lowest level since mid-2008. This is because non-performing loans jumped 3.5% in April from March to €115.4 billion, the highest mark ever and 10 times as large than it was at the height of the property bubble in 2007.

Still, Emilio Botin, chairman of Banco Santander SA and one of Spain's most influential bankers, said Friday that non-performing loan ratios are close to peaking, and margins are improving across the industry after they dropped in recent quarters. Mr. Botin made the remark at the bank's annual general meeting in Santander in northern Spain.

The data come amid indications that sliding property prices in the euro zone's fourth-largest economy will remain a problem for some time.

Earlier this week, the country's National Statistics Institute said the decline in house prices accelerated again in the first quarter, after the government eliminated generalized tax incentives for home purchases.

First-quarter housing prices fell at a 3.5% quarterly rate and a 4.1% annual rate. That was the fastest rate of annual decline since the fourth quarter of 2009.

Falling property prices and a rise in foreclosures have already left some of the weakest savings banks, or "cajas," in need of cash. The Spanish government is now preparing to inject as much as over €7 billion in several cajas that have requested state aid due to their inability to raise fresh funds in the international market.

That number may increase if other cajas that plan to list shares over the summer are forced to delay such plans due to poor market conditions after weeks of stock-market losses.

 

Dozens saved in Torremolinos blaze drama

THREE young local ‘heroes’ are being praised by residents after their swift action may have saved their lives. A fire which broke out at a Torremolinos apartment injured its three occupants, but dozens escaped unhurt after the heroes risked their lives to help evacuate the building.

The three men,  Fouad, Mohammad and Antonio, were returning from a night out in the early hours of Wednesday morning when they spotted flames and smoke billowing out of a 5th floor apartment of the six storey building. One of the three men was Ceuta-born Fouad Mustafa Hamad, 27, who works as a pastry chef at a local cafeteria in Torremolinos.

“I live in the block of apartments across the road and my friends were dropping me off, we had been out for drinks. As I got out and said goodbye I heard someone shouting out ‘fire’ from above,” he told EWN. “Looking up I could see flames coming out of the building, and a lady in a neighbouring apartment was shouting down to me. “While Antonio parked the car, Mohammad and I ran to the entrance of the building and climbed over the gate and rushed up the stairs".



When they arrived at the fifth floor he says an elderly woman partially opened the door, “she had a towel on her head – and smoke poured out of the apartment, she cried out ‘my daughter my daughter!’” he said. “We tried to go into the apartment with our shirts covering our mouths but there was too much smoke so we banged on all the doors to wake everybody up and get them out of the building.”

Fouad’s girlfriend Susana Tellez, 23, saw Fuad sprinting down the road and jump over the wall, “I shouted down to him, but he just carried on. I could see across and there was a lady in one of the buildings half out of the window, she looked so scared and I thought she might jump out.”

One of the neighbours on the fifth floor was Manuel Ruiz, 47. He works as a civil servant at the town hall with his wife Maria de los Angeles, her parents and their son. “We were awakened at about 3.30am by banging on our door and two young men outside telling us there was a fire and we needed to get out of the building,” Manuel said. 

“If it had not been for those young men, we could have died from smoke affixation. They probably saved our lives. They are heroes.”

“I called 112 and stayed until the fire-fighters got there. They are my friends I wanted to make sure they were ok. I made sure my family got out of the building. It took the firefighters about four minutes to get the mother and her children out,” he said.

His wife, Maria de los Angeles said “The walls in my apartment, especially the hallway are blackened with smoke, so I will have to clean and paint it all, but at least we are alive and not seriously hurt.” Meanwhile, Manuel Melo, 52, who lives in the adjacent block hall says he was watching TV when he heard shouting from outside.




“I thought people were fighting, but then realized that the building next door was on fire,” he said. “I had to leave my apartment because the smoke reached as far down as my apartment. I went outside and the place was filled with fire-fighters and police and people being evacuated.”

The three occupants of the apartment where the blaze started - a 69-year-old woman, her daughter, 45, and son, 36 – were admitted to hospital. The cause of the fire is being investigated. Residents were allowed to return to their homes two hours later at around 5.30am.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Britons have lost money on illegal or unfinished homes in Spain. Will attempts by the British government to help them prove successful?

Last month when the Spanish government organised a property road show in the UK, attempting to lure Britons to invest in its saturated housing market, it was greeted with derision and angry public demonstrations. What did it honestly expect?
There are no easy solutions to Spain’s property scandal, which has affected hundreds of thousands of Britons who have either been duped into buying illegally built homes, affected by land grabs and retrospective coastal planning laws or lost deposits on off-plan builds. To Spain’s shame, corrupt councils, estate agents, property developers, builders and lawyers have all been complicit in the chain of events that have led to many losing their life savings on worthless properties, and in extreme cases having their “illegal” Spanish properties demolished.
The British government has been hugely aware of the property issues affecting British expats in Spain but has found itself in an invidious position, being unable to intervene in local property disputes which are a matter of Spanish internal law. Instead, last year, the British Embassy in Madrid appointed a temporary special advisor to get to grips with the complex issues of property laws and regulations in the country with an aim to offering comprehensive advice through its website to future buyers, as well as those encountering problems with an existing Spanish property.
In order to better understand the situation, the special advisor has already met with a number of resident groups throughout Spain and with diplomatic missions whose nationals have encountered similar problems. The findings from her report are now being used to help the British Embassy and consulates in Spain to understand how best to offer support to British expats.
In tandem with this, the British Ambassador to Spain has been meeting with key officials in the central and regional governments to raise awareness of the problems and to express concern for the plight of those affected. The issue is also being addressed through the UK Representation to the EU (UKRep) and the British Embassy in Spain, which is in discussion with MEPs, and staff from the European Commission and European Parliament offices in Spain.

EU pilot scheme guarantees legal certainty when buying property cross-border 15 Jun 2011
Although the British government admits that there’s a long way to go before a solution is found for those caught up in the scandal, it insists that progress has been made. Already there have been reforms made to the criminal code, strengthening the penalties for crime linked to urban developments, and the Andalucian regional government is preparing a decree to regularise the majority of irregular properties. For future purchasers, a free step-by-step guide to buying property in Spain, translated into English, has been produced by the Registradores de España; hopefully opening the door to greater transparency in the process of purchasing property in the coming years.
For those distressed British expats caught up in their own personal property nightmare there is no immediate solution in sight, but at least their voices are finally being heard at a national and international level. Buying in Spain might not be as safe as houses yet, but with new legislation being enforced by the country’s regional governments, and with excellent property advice being offered online, the future certainly looks brighter.

 

Banco Santander SA's Chairman Emilio Botín Spanish Boss Faces Tax-Fraud Allegations

Spain's National Court on Thursday said it is investigating tax fraud allegations against Banco Santander SA's Chairman Emilio Botín and nine other members of the influential Botín family, including Ana Patricia Botín, head of Santander's U.K. operation.

In a press release, the Madrid-based court said anticorruption prosecutors claim French authorities alerted Spain's tax revenue service about several Spanish clients of HSBC Holding PLC's Swiss private bank who didn't properly report income related to such accounts between 2005 and 2009.

The family, however, rapidly responded that it has already paid €200 million ($283.6 million) in back taxes and expects the charges will be dropped. "The family has completely and voluntarily normalized its tax situation," said a family spokesman.

That probe was triggered by information obtained by French officials from Herve Falciani and Georgina Mikhael, two HSBC employees who copied thousands of files of wealthy clients of the bank and offered them to authorities in various countries. HSBC declined to comment.

The Botíns are among the most prominent individuals to be exposed as a result of the stolen data. They have been at the helm of Santander for generations and have wide-ranging business interests in Spain and abroad. Santander today is the euro zone's largest bank by market value and will hold its annual general meeting Friday.

National Court investigative judge Fernando Andreu said in a statement that Emilio Botín and his relatives had filed amended tax returns for the years in question. But he said authorities hadn't had time to review the "enormous" quantity of documentation the Botíns provided before the statute of limitations would kick in. If the new tax returns are found to be complete, the fraud charges will be dropped, he said.

According to court documents, the origin of the Botíns' Swiss investment was an account opened by Emilio Botin's father, who died in 1993 and passed the money on to his children and grandchildren.

The National Court is a tribunal with national jurisdiction that handles high-profile cases linked to terrorism and white-collar crime. Its judges, whose job is similar to that of a U.S. district attorney, act on their own investigations and are independent from Spain's executive branch.

It is not the first time the National Court examines the conduct of Spain's most prominent banker, though it has never convicted him of any wrongdoing nor forced him to step down from his job. In recent years the court has investigated Emilio Botín, for example, in relation to a tax-free investment product his bank offered clients and for multimillion severance packages paid to outgoing executives.

 

Spain protesters clash with police in Barcelona

2,000 demonstrators angry about planned budget cuts in education and health clashed with police outside a regional parliament in Spain on Wednesday. There were reports of 36 injuries.
Some politicians could only reach Catalonia's parliament using police helicopters. Scuffles broke out when police pushed back protesters so other lawmakers arriving on foot could get in.

The politicians were heckled and at least two were sprayed with paint, a police spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in keeping with rules.

Spain's state-run radio reported 36 injuries, including 12 police officers. Police declined to comment on whether there were any injuries.

Regional President Artur Mas was among some 25 politicians who arrived by helicopter. About 400 police packed the Ciutadella park in central Barcelona to ensure protesters could not enter by climbing over the railings. Outside, riot police vans stood guard at the main park entrance.

"I think it is important to be here protesting against the spending cuts, because to cut social spending with the excuse of the crisis is a big farce," protester Mariela Pita said.

After the politicians entered the parliament, hundreds of protesters left the area but many remained. Organizers said the protest would be peaceful.

Mas warned that police may have to resort to "a legitimate use of force" and called on the public to be understanding.

"Coercion and violence to stop the normal functioning of parliament that represents the Catalan people is not admissible," Mas said. "These red lines cannot be crossed."

The demonstration was part of nationwide protests over the past month by young and unemployed people angry at the country's handling of the economic crisis. The highlight of the movement was a near monthlong, round-the-clock makeshift protest camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol plaza.

The vast majority of the protests have been peaceful although 100 people were injured in Barcelona when riot police charged protesters in a main city square May 27.

Wednesday's protest was criticized by politicians across the country.

"Aggressions and insults against politicians are aggressions and insults against the people's representatives," said Ramon Jauregui, spokesman for the Spanish central government.

"I can accept the protest by 2,000 people but I would remind those 2,000 people that 3.2 million people voted those deputies that were hassled," he said.

But Gaspar Llamazares of the United Left coalition said the protests represented a "social fracture" in Spain, where the economic crisis has left close to 5 million people unemployed.

Last week, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the national parliament in Madrid to demonstrate against labor reforms.

 

José Ortega Cano's blood to be tested for drugs and alcohol

Instruction Court No. 9 in Seville has ordered an analysis of blood samples which was taken from the retired bullfighter, José Ortega Cano, after the fatal traffic accident on May 28 which killed another driver, Carlos Parra.

The blood was taken for medical reasons by doctors at the Virgen Macarena Hospital in Seville, where Ortega Cano was admitted after the accident. The judge then ordered that the samples be kept there for future analysis and it’s now been confirmed that tests for any traces of alcohol and drugs are to be carried out at the National Toxicology Institute.

The ex bullfighter underwent a six hour operation to reconstruct his left ankle on Tuesday, which had been postponed until now because of his serious condition. He remains in Intensive Care on assisted ventilation, but El Mundo reports that he was taken off dialysis on Monday after his kidneys returned to normal function.

 

Vélez Málaga tram company threatens to end the service next month

The company which runs the local tram service in Vélez Málaga has said it will stop the service if, by Thursday July 7, it has not been paid the 2 million € it is owed by the Town Hall.

El Mundo reports that Travelsa has also announced that it will present a layoff plan next week if the money is not urgently paid.
La Opinión de Málaga meanwhile reports that the new Partido Popular Mayor of Vélez, Francisco Delgado Bonilla, has said he will demand that the Junta de Andalucía keep their promise for the loan which was agreed to pay off the Town Hall’s debt to Travelsa.

The CCOO union has asked for an urgent meeting with the Junta’s public works department and the Town Hall to try and save a service which is used by more than 900,000 passengers a year.

 

October trial for four accused in Marta del Castillo case

The trial for the rape and murder of Marta del Castillo, the 17 year old girl who disappeared in Sevilla in January 2009, will commence on October 17 at Section 7 of the provincial court in Sevilla.

The proceedings are expected to last through until November 30, with a total of 20 court sessions over that period.

Four adults are charged in the case, and will be tried by a panel of professional judges: Miguel Carcaño, Marta’s self-confessed murderer faces the longest sentence of 52 years. The prosecutor has requested eight years for his elder brother, Javier Delgado, and five years each for Delgado’s girlfriend, María García, and for Samuel Benítez.

The juvenile known as El Cuco, Javier G.M.,has already been found guilty of covering up Marta’s death and was sentenced to three years in internment. El Cuco will be amongst the dozens of witnesses who will be called to give evidence in the case, along with 19 police officers and Marta’s parents.

Europa Press notes that the state prosecution has also applied for more than 600,000 compensation to be paid to the Interior Ministry by the four accused, to cover the costs of the extensive, but unsuccessful, search for Marta’s body.

 

Two immigrant boats intercepted off Spain's southern coast

A patera boat with 39 adult passengers from Sub-Saharan Africa on board, including two women, was intercepted off the Granada coast on Tuesday afternoon, some 35 miles to the south of Motril.

They were rescued by the Coastguard boat, the ‘Salvamar Hamal’, and reached port in Motril at around 8.30 on Tuesday evening, where they were attended by volunteers from the Cruz Roja organisation.
It’s understood that none of the group required hospital treatment.

Another seven passengers were rescued of the coast of Almería on Tuesday after their boat was spotted from the air by a Civil Guard aircraft. The six male passengers on the 5-metre boat were rescued some 50 miles south of Garrucha and reached port in Almería shortly before 7pm.

 

New suspects called to declare in court in Estepona's Astapa case

The judge at Instruction Court No. 1 in Estepona has, this Wednesday, called another 21 people to declare as suspects in the Astapa corruption investigation centred around Estepona Town Hall.

No names have yet been released, but it’s understood from Europa Press that the crimes under investigation are misappropriation, perversion of the course of justice, bribery and falsifying documents.

It brings the number of suspects in the case up to 94.
The case broke in June 2009 with a police swoop on the Town Hall and the arrest of 25 suspects, including the town’s then-Socialist Mayor, Antonio Barrientos. The complaint which led to their arrests was presented by the Socialist councillors Cristina Rodríguez and David Valadez.

Valadez then took over the Mayor’s office and remained in power until recently, after the May 22 local election this year brought a change of government and the Partido Popular was voted in at the Town Hall.

 

Spanish police have arrested three suspected computer hackers who allegedly belonged to a loose-knit international activist group that attacked corporate and government websites around the world

Spanish police have arrested three suspected computer hackers who allegedly belonged to a loose-knit international activist group that attacked corporate and government websites around the world, authorities said Friday.

National Police identified the three as leaders of the Spanish section of a group that calls itself "Anonymous." All three are Spaniards aged 30 to 32, said Manuel Vazquez, chief of the police's high-tech crime unit.

A computer server in one of their homes was used to take part in cyber attacks on targets including two major Spanish banks, the Italian energy company Enel and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, Vazquez said.

The server had also been used to hack into an online Playstation store, but Vazquez said the three detainees had not been involved in an April cyber intrusion which affected millions of PlayStation Network users.

The three detainees have been released without bail but face a charge that is new in the Spanish penal code — disrupting a computer system, Vazquez said. He gave no details on what effect these attacks had.

In Spain, acting on their own, the three detainees staged cyber attacks on the website of Spain's central electoral commission a few days before local and regional elections on May 22, that of the regional police force in the northeast Catalonia region and a major Spanish labor union.

The night before the election, the three men tried to shut down the web pages of Spain's two main political parties and that of the Spanish parliament but were thwarted by police, Vazquez said.

"Anonymous is a network with a common idea, but it has loads of cells around the world. Using chats they agree to stage denial-of-service attacks on any page of any company or organization anywhere in the world," Vazquez said, referring to a cyber-bombardment-like technique used to shut down an Internet page.

Vazquez said police were still analyzing computer files and other material but have no record of the three Spaniards having obtained sensitive data.

Vazquez said members of Anonymous use a lot methods for hiding their identity.

The statement said the only other countries to act against "Anonymous" so far are the United States and Britain. It attributed this what it called complex security measures that members use to protect their identity.

The suspects in Spain were arrested in Barcelona, the Valencia region and the southern city of Almeria.

Since October 2010, Spanish police specializing in cyber crime have analyzed more than two million lines of online chat and Internet pages until they finally zeroed in on the three suspects. Their names were not given.

In January, British police arrested five young males on suspicion of involvement in cyber attacks by Anonymous, which has backed WikiLeaks.

"Anonymous" has claimed responsibility for attacking the websites of companies such as Visa, Mastercard and Paypal, all of whom severed their links with WikiLeaks after it began publishing its massive trove of secret U.S. diplomatic memos.

"Anonymous" accused the companies of trying to stifle WikiLeaks and rallied an army of online supporters to flood their servers with traffic, periodically blocking access to their sites for hours at a time.

And in February, an Internet forum run by "Anonymous" directed participants to attack the websites of the Egyptian Ministry of Information and the ruling National Democratic Party.

In a Twitter post, the group claimed credit for taking down the ministry's website and said the group was motivated by a desire to support Egyptian pro-democracy protesters.

Small village in Spain turns blue in preparation for world movie premiere

Out of the blue, the tiny, traditional village of Juzcar, a pueblo blanco in the Genel Valley in Andalucía has found sudden fame as Sony’s chosen venue for hosting the world premiere of The Smurfs 3D. But becoming the blue-eyed boy of the valley has come at a price. To satisfy the forthcoming invasion of tiny smurfs, known as pitufos in Spanish, the dazzling white village of Juzcar, including its historic church has had to turn-literally- blue.


In preparation for the big launch on 16, June, twelve local painters using 4000 litres of blue paint have been needed to transform Juzcar’s quaint houses and historic buildings so that they resemble those in the film’s smurf village. There have been no objections to the idea with both the local bishopric and regional government of Andalucía, giving their joint blessing. Such is the excitement at the prospect of the pitufos hitting the valley that swarms of enthusiastic tourists have already begun visiting the sleepy village in advance of the big event.

Although Sony has vowed to restore Juzcar to its former white glory after the launch, canny residents are toying with the idea of keeping their village blue. With the huge following that smurfs, or pitufos, command, locals believe that Juzcar could become a tourist hot spot left in its new blue livery. It has been mooted that they create “La Ruta del Pitufo” creating a lively tourist industry in the heart of the village.
Should the villagers dream of future prosperity come true, there’ll no doubt be a lot of nearby villages turning blue with envy.

 

Spain Chooses This Year’s Best Olive Oils

In its latest effort to encourage Spanish olive oil producers to strive for the highest quality, the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs presented three companies the “Best Olive Oil in Spain” award for the 2010-2011 campaign Wednesday in Córdoba.



The ceremony, attended by government officials, olive oil industry professionals and the press, coincided with the Beyond Extra Virgin conference. The judges for the awards consisted of the ministry’s own panel of experts.

In the category for “fruity bitter green oils” the jury decided to award the prize to Montes Manuel Marin, Priego de Córdoba (Córdoba) calling it “a very intense fruity oil of green olives, balanced, harmonious and complex. Between its constituent notes, mainly green, shows apple, grass, almonds and cinnamon. The palate is very aromatic, bitter almond of alloza and spicy medium to high intensity, all very balanced and persistent.”



Among “sweet green fruity oils” the prize went to Labrador, SAT, Fuente de Piedra (Málaga). Its oil was defined as “intense fruity, complex, green olive, herb, and tomato alloza. The palate is very aromatic, persistent and full bodied. Sweet entry, has a medium bitterness, somewhat spicy and nutty, all very balanced.” Labrador also won the Mario Solinas award a few weeks ago in the robust category.

For the “ripe fruity oils” the prize went to LA Canalejo, SL, Mérida (Badajoz). The jury found Canalejo “an intense fruity olive oil, mixed with green notes and ripe. Highlights of apple and tomato, herb and green almond with light intensity and with greater intensity in the notes of other ripe fruit and almonds, also mature. The palate entry is sweet, slightly bitter, somewhat spicy, very nutty and very well balanced.”

Finally, the ministry added a new category for extra virgin olive oils of organic production which went to Moli Dels Torms, SL, Els Torms (Lleida), whose oil was defined as “fruity green olive, complex with notes of apple, grass and green almond, somewhat ripe apple and very balanced. The palate entry is sweet, slightly bitter, somewhat spicy with almond.”

 

number of radar fines issued for speeding on Spanish motorways went up by 8%

number of radar fines issued for speeding on Spanish motorways went up by 8% in the last week of May, compared with figures for that week of 2010, after the decrease of 50% which was seen after the first month of the new 110 kph speed limit.

The news was given at a press conference on Thursday by Pepe Navarro, General Director of the DGT Traffic Authority, and Justo Zambrana, Sub-Secretary at the Interior Ministry. Both felt that the figures may show that drivers are now more relaxed about the lower limit.

Zambrana said that, while it is difficult to make a correlation between a slower average speed and the number of accidents, EFE reports that he noted that fatalities dropped by 9% between January and May. The new speed limit came into effect in March.
‘What seems clear,’ he said, ‘is that it is safer and there is less possibility of having an accident at a slower speed’.

He said the government will probably decide on whether to extend the measure or not at the last Cabinet meeting of the legislature on June 24. It was brought in as a temporary measure to save fuel and is initially in place until June 30.

He was unable to give an estimate of how much fuel has been saved, but joked, ‘It’s elementary, my dear Watson’, that driving more slowly saves fuel.

Spanish police and anti-corruption protesters clashed in the Spanish city of Valencia Thursday, injuring 12 people and leading to five arrests,

Spanish police and anti-corruption protesters clashed in the Spanish city of Valencia Thursday, injuring 12 people and leading to five arrests, officials said.
Hundreds of demonstrators decrying political corruption, the economic crisis and soaring unemployment had gathered Wednesday night outside the regional parliament, which was to elect its president on Thursday after regional elections on May 22.
"Throw the corrupt out of our institutions," read one banner waved by protesters.
The re-elected president of the Valencia region, Francisco Camps, is under investigation for corruption in a scandal involving members of Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party.
Police said they moved in on Thursday morning to break up the protest after objects were thrown at the officers.
A spokeswoman for the regional government said eight police officers were injured and five demonstrators arrested.
Those detained were held for "public disorder, assaults on police and injuries" resulting from "throwing full bottles and even scissors" at officers, a police spokeswoman in Valencia said.
Police were also "kicked and punched," she said.
An emergency services spokeswoman said four demonstrators were also injured: a 55-year-old woman who was hospitalised for heads wounds and three others who were treated at the scene for bruises.
Protests over the economic crisis began in Madrid May 15 and fanned out to city squares nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators known variously as "the indignant", "M-15", "Spanish Revolution" and "Real Democracy Now."
Hundreds also rallied in front of the Spanish parliament in Madrid Wednesday night to condemn plans by the government to reform the collective bargaining system.
Unions and employers have been negotiating for months over reform of the collective bargaining system, considered a crucial plank of labour, banking and pension reforms aimed at reviving Spain's battered economy.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said last week that his government will approve the reform by June 10 even if there is no deal with unions by then.
The Spanish economy slumped into recession during the second half of 2008 as the global financial meltdown compounded the collapse of the once-booming property market. It emerged with meagre growth in early 2010.
The crisis sent the unemployment rate soaring to 21.29 percent in the first quarter of 2011, the highest in the industrialised world.

Spanish farmers hand out tons of produce to draw attention to their plight, restore confidence

They handed out tiny cherry tomatoes and heavy watermelons, sweet apricots and crisp peppers, purple eggplants and white potatoes — the entire rainbow of Spain’s farm bounty.

Spanish farmers whose revenue has been devastated by the deadly E. coli outbreak gave away an estimated 40 tons of produce Wednesday to draw attention to their plight.

Hundreds of people lined up under a hot sun to edge past tables brimming with produce from all over Spain. They walked away with plastic bags or cardboard crates bulging with ripe peppers, tomatoes, apricots, eggplant, lettuce, potatoes and just about everything else that Spain grows this time of year.

Farm leaders at a press conference joined the Spanish government in rejecting as insufficient an EU aid offer of €150 million ($220 million) for farmers across Europe.

They called on the European Union to help Germany — which initially blamed Spanish cucumbers for the outbreak, then German sprouts, only to backtrack both times — and take on a much bigger role in investigating the still-unknown source of the bacteria that has killed 26 people and sickened over 2,700.

They also urged a massive public relations campaign to restore European consumer confidence in fresh produce — something that will be hard to do when Germany still has not found the source of the deadly outbreak.

“The EU must be responsible. It should not try to buy us off with €150 million,” said Miguel Lopez, secretary general of the COAG farm association, which has calculated Spanish farmers’ losses alone at €350 million ($511 million) so far.

“It is disgraceful. It is humiliating. It is pathetic,” Lopez said of the EU aid offer.

Francisco Gil, a 52-year-old farm leader from the southeast Murcia region, said money for lost sales will not solve the problem, officials must find the source of the bacteria to restore consumer confidence.

 

The socioeconomic effect of asbestos cancer in Southern Spain

An epidemiological study conducted at the Puerta del Mar Hospital in Cadiz, Spain has concluded that aside from tobacco, asbestos is a primary factor in the area’s high cancer death rate. Asbestos is a highly toxic mineral fiber that was used regularly throughout the 20th century in the manufacture of automobile parts and construction materials. Its use has since been banned in Spain and in most first world nations, but asbestos-containing materials can still be found.

Any disturbance of materials containing asbestos can cause people to become exposed to microscopic asbestos fibers, which lodge in the lungs and fester for decades, eventually causing the onset of such fatal diseases as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the protective lining of the body’s major organs and cavities.

The two year scientific investigation at Puerta del Mar found that the effect of asbestos on lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs, is enormous. It also determined that socioeconomic aspects had a more direct impact on the cancer death rate, than the contaminating effects of the heavy industries because the lower classes had to make a living as best they could by working in jobs where they were regularly exposed to the carcinogen.

"The action and interaction of tobacco and asbestos heightened the health risks. This was the global context that explains what was happening in terms of risk factors to health," said Dr Escolar, Director of Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

Escolar also concluded that "Much has been said about the environmental effects from the point of view of chemical or physical contamination, but nothing has been said about the social medium as a determining factor in the incidence of cancer."

 

Peterborough United's chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, is the subject of a €600,000 (£535,000) fraud claim in a Madrid court.

 The case relates to allegations that MacAnthony withheld funds paid to his firm, MacAnthony Realty International, for buying furniture without delivering the goods.

"I have never broken the law, committed fraud or any crime, nor have I ever been spoken to by the SFO [Serious Fraud Office] or arrested," MacAnthony wrote on his blog in response to the claim. MacAnthony said Antonio Flores, the English-trained Spanish lawyer who is representing the class action of 51 claimants against the Posh owner, is an "ambulance chaser".

Flores said: "He'll try and discredit anyone who stands against him. MacAnthony is a master manipulator. It's quite simple: if he pays the outstanding sum we'll settle."

MacAnthony said that in the event of a successful claim against him, Flores has raised the prospect of "go[ing] after assets I have such as Peterborough United".

Perhaps a more important outcome of a conviction against MacAnthony would be his disqualification from holding a boardroom position or from owning Peterborough under the Football League's owners and directors test.

The club that Darren Ferguson steered back into the Championship through the play-offs last season would suffer serious financial difficulties upon the departure of its benefactor. According to its most recent accounts, Peterborough's net debts stand at almost £9m.

Campo de Gibraltar sex gang rounded up

Police have broken up a huge prostitution ring in the Campo de Gibraltar.
A total of 15 men – all Romanians – were arrested for allegedly forcing young women to work in brothels.
In a series of raids – dubbed ‘Operation Damas’ – officers interviewed dozens of women apparently abused in this way.
Most of the young women had been enticed to Spain from Romania with the promise of well paid jobs.
However when they arrived in Spain they were quickly coerced into selling sex in a series of brothels and even on the streets.
Police in La Linea had been trailing the gang since December 2010 piecing together their modus operandi and trying to identify their victims.
The arrests come after one female victim filed a formal complaint before entering into a witness protection program.
The gang mainly operated in the Campo area – mainly San Roque and Sabanillas – as well as in Malaga province and Asturias in the north of Spain.

Over the past days Germany first pointed a finger at Spanish cucumbers, then at local sprouts, before backtracking on both.

European Union health chief on Tuesday warned Germany against premature - and inaccurate - conclusions on the source of contaminated food that have spread fear all over Europe and cost farmers in exports.

EU Health Commissioner John Dalli told the EU parliament in Strasbourg that such public information must be scientifically sound and foolproof before it becomes public.




EU farm ministers are convening in an emergency meeting in Luxembourg later Tuesday amid demands from farmers that they be paid back for the losses caused by the E. coli outbreak in Europe that has killed 22 and sickened more than 2,330.

Meanwhile Russia's chief sanitary official told the Interfax news agency Tuesday there was progress toward the easing of his country's ban on imports of fresh vegetables from EU nations.

Gennady Onishchenko said that European officials had promised to pass on samples of the strain of E. coli, which would help Russia gather information for lifting the ban that was imposed on Thursday.

Deadly E. Coli Outbreak Linked to German Sprouts

Local German officials said Sunday that they had evidence that tainted domestic sprouts had caused the deadly E. coli outbreak that has afflicted Germany and unnerved fresh-produce markets throughout Europe, and they shut down the farm in the northern part of the country where the sprouts were grown.
Enlarge This Image

Philipp Schulze/European Pressphoto Agency
Members of the news media and the police arrived Sunday at a northern German farm that has been linked to the E. coli outbreak that has killed 22 people.
Gert Lindemann, the agriculture minister in the northern state of Lower Saxony, said in Hanover that Germans should not eat sprouts until further notice, with definitive test results available Monday. Mr. Lindemann said that the authorities could not yet rule out other possible sources for the outbreak and urged Germans to continue avoiding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.

The suggestion that sprouts may be the cause of the outbreak, one of the most catastrophic food-borne illnesses in years, was met with caution by public health experts.

“We would want either epidemiological evidence or confirmed laboratory evidence,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of food-borne diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The German authorities had acted prematurely once before in their investigation, blaming cucumbers grown in Spain for the outbreak after preliminary tests showed that they might have contained toxic E. coli bacteria. Further tests showed that the Spanish cucumbers did not contain the strain making people sick, and investigators then backtracked.

That episode infuriated Spanish farmers who lost tens of millions of dollars in sales and were forced to abandon ripe vegetables to rot in the fields, as demand collapsed.

The outbreak in Germany, which the health authorities first reported in late May, is caused by a rare strain of toxic E. coli that can cause bloody diarrhea. In extreme cases it can cause acute kidney failure and death. In previous outbreaks involving other strains of E. coli, kidney failure appeared most often among children. In this outbreak, most victims with kidney failure have been adults and more than two-thirds have been women.

The outbreak showed no signs of abating on Sunday, with Germany’s national disease control center reporting that the death toll had risen to 22 and that 2,153 people were ill, more than 600 of them in intensive care.

Mr. Lindemann said that locally grown bean sprouts were the “most convincing” cause, and that the farm that grew them in the Uelzen area had been shut down. But he said 18 sprout mixtures were under suspicion, including sprouts of beans, broccoli, peas, chickpeas, garlic, lentils, mung beans and radishes. The sprouts are often used in mixed salads.

The suspect farm’s produce — including herbs, fruits, flowers and potatoes — was impounded. At least one of the farm’s employees was also infected with the E. coli bacteria, Mr. Lindemann said.

Some experts in food-borne illnesses expressed surprise at Mr. Lindemann’s announcement, not because sprouts were an unlikely source of the deadly bacteria but for the opposite reason: sprouts have long been associated with food-borne illness and are a food most commonly suspected in this sort of outbreak. As such, the experts said, sprouts should have been among the first foods scrutinized by investigators.

Dr. Tauxe, who has talked to European officials during the investigation, though not on Sunday, said sprouts were included in a questionnaire that German investigators had used to interview victims of the outbreak to determine what they had eaten. He said that the officials in charge of the investigation had been aware of the common link between sprouts and food-borne illness.

“It’s not something they’re likely to have missed,” Dr. Tauxe said.

American experts said that investigators of any such outbreak in the United States would have been sure to have examined the possibility that sprouts might have been the cause.

“This is one of the things that everybody in our local health departments knows, that if you hear about one person eating sprouts you’re supposed to ring the alarm bell,” said William E. Keene, a senior epidemiologist of the Oregon Public Health Division, who has investigated many outbreaks involving sprouts. “A single case in a salmonella or E. coli O157 outbreak is a red flag,” he said, referring to the most common E. coli bacteria.

Since 1996, sprouts have been linked to at least 30 illness outbreaks, according to a United States federal food safety Web site that warns that children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems should not eat uncooked sprouts.

Sprouts were found to be the cause of one of the most severe series of outbreaks of E. coli ever identified, in Japan in 1996. In those outbreaks about 10,000 people, many of them children, fell ill after eating food containing uncooked radish sprouts. That involved the common O157:H7 strain of E. coli. The current outbreak in Germany involves a rare strain known as O104:H4.

Bacteria can flourish in the warm, humid conditions in which sprouts are grown, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control. Investigators have sometimes found that the seeds used to grow sprouts are contaminated with bad bacteria, like E. coli or salmonella. Once those seeds start growing, the bacteria can easily spread.

“If you’re concerned about your risk of food-borne illness, don’t eat sprouts,” Dr. Keene said. “They’re essentially a dangerous kind of food.”

The Spanish government did not comment Sunday on the latest news in the German investigation. But mounting evidence that the problem should never have been linked to produce from Spanish farms is likely to raise pressure on Germany and the European Union to compensate Spanish farmers for estimated weekly losses of $286 million in revenue because of canceled shipments, as well as massive job cuts among seasonal growers in Andalusia.

That area, the Spanish agricultural heartland, was already suffering the worst unemployment problem in the country.

 

There's No Money To Pay 70,000 Employees In The Castilla-La Mancha Region Of Spain

The central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha is “totally bankrupt”, according to the incoming administration of the rightwing Popular party (PP), an accusation that will deepen concerns about Spain’s budget deficit.

The claim has prompted angry denials from the Socialist government.

Spain’s 17 autonomous regions and its more than 8,000 municipalities, with €150bn ($220bn) of accumulated debt between them, have become the latest worry for investors in Spain and its sovereign bonds.

Although the amount is less than a quarter of total public sector debt, regional debt has doubled since 2008. The 17 regions collectively exceeded official budget deficit limits in 2010, and appear likely to do so again this year despite repeated demands for compliance from the central government.

Catalonia, an economy the size of Portugal, says its deficit will be double the target.

Vicente Tirado, a senior PP politician in Castilla-La Mancha, said the region was “totally bankrupt”; owed suppliers such as pharmaceutical companies that provide drugs for hospitals a total of €2bn in unpaid bills; and would have trouble finding the money to pay the region’s 76,000 civil servants next month.

Marcial Marín, the PP’s economy co-ordinator in the region, accused the departing Socialist government of “the height of irresponsibility” and alleged that unpaid bills were being destroyed to hide the evidence.

“From the data that the PP has, Castilla-La Mancha is the Greece of Spanish regions,” he said, referring to the bail-out of the Greek economy by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Mr Marín said the PP, which won the region from the Socialists in elections two weeks ago, would shut between half and three-quarters of Castilla-La Mancha’s 95 government owned companies because they duplicated the work of other organisations and were staffed mostly by Socialist party members.

German-grown bean sprouts are the most likely cause of the deadly E.coli outbreak

The admission is hugely embarrassing for Germany, which had previously blamed Spanish cucumbers for the bug.
Beansprouts are a common ingredient in salads and stir frys, but have previously been blamed for major health scares. They were held responsible for a serious outbreak of Salmonella in Britain last year and 17 E.coli-related deaths in Japan in 1996.
On Sunday evening, Gert Lindemann, agriculture minister in the northern state of Lower-Saxony, said a company that grew bean sprouts had been shut down and further test results were expected on Monday.
"There was a very clear trail (to this company) as the source of the infection," Mr Lindemann said in a news conference. He urged consumers in northern Germany to refrain from eating all types of sprouts.
"It is the most convincing...source for the E.coli illnesses," he said.

 

Spain arrests Moroccan on accusations of terror recruitment from Canary Islands

Spanish police have arrested a Moroccan citizen in the Canary Islands on accusations he that he tried to recruit teenagers to become terrorists via the Internet and in clandestine meetings.
Spain's Interior Ministry says Imad El Mouahhid, 25, was taken into custody in the small city of San Bartolome de Tirajana on the island of Gran Canaria by authorities after a three-year investigation.
A ministry statement Wednesday said the probe found he had been in contact with members of unnamed terror groups currently jailed in Morocco.
The ministry said El Mouahhid tried to recruit teens by posting inspirational videos on the Internet and in secret meetings. Authorities searched his home, but the ministry did not say what was found.

 

Spain threatened Wednesday to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of a fatal outbreak of E.coli.

Hamburg health authorities admitted Tuesday that tests on two suspect Spanish cucumbers showed they did not carry the bacteria strain that has killed 15 people in Germany and one in Sweden.
"We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products," Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
"We may take action against the authorities, in this case Hamburg," the minister said.
Spain's vegetable exporters estimate damages of more than 200 million euros ($290 million) a week as 150,000 tonnes of produce go unsold in a Europe-wide reaction to the crisis.
Madrid has demanded European Union compensation for Spain and other producer countries hit by the crisis.
"The bacteria is not in Spain," Rubalcaba said.
"Once the truth is re-established, what we need to do is repair the damages, which are not small: we have lost a lot of money and a lot of our image," the minister said.
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg say they are still searching for the source of the outbreak.
In tests so far, two cucumbers from the southern Spanish region of Andalucia came up positive for enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) but not the strain responsible for the huge outbreak, they said.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the Spanish producers' federation FEPEX.
The Andalucian region says cucumber batches from the two suspect distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing. Results were expected some time this week but there is no set date for their release.
The Spanish government says there have been no infections in Spain and it argues that there is no evidence the bacteria come from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
A 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, the Donostia hospital said this week. Tests so far have been inconclusive.

King and Queen attend military tribute in Malaga

Thousands turned out this weekend to witness the numerous events that formed part of the Armed Forces Day celebrations in the city of Malaga.
On Sunday some 50,000 people crowded into the Paseo de Parque for the final part of the celebrations which was attended by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía as well as the Prince and Princess of Asturias and Defence Minister Carme Chacón, among other authorities. Some 250 servicemen and women from the three armed forces took part in the flag ceremony and the tribute to the fallen followed by a 21-gun salute.
The previous day an estimated 80,000 people gathered on the Malagueta beach and promenade for the exhibition that took place on land, sea and air. While Harrier jet fighters and helicopters landed and took off from the Príncipe de Asturias aircraft carrier, a demonstration of the forces' skills and resources was given in the form of a staged operation to rescue UN observers captured by rebels. The exhibition culminated in an aerobatics display put on by the Patrulla Águila who finished by painting the Spanish flag in the sky with their vapour trails.