love padlocks being placed on the Isabel II bridge which links the city centre to the area of Triana.

Sevilla is a pretty romantic place, but the City Hall says it no longer wants to see love padlocks being placed on the Isabel II bridge which links the city centre to the area of Triana.The idea of couples placing a padlock on a fence or bridge is thought to have started in the 80’s in Pécs, Hungary, and has proved very popular in Sevilla where many couples have placed their locks thinking that they would never be opened.But the City Hall considers the padlocks damage the aesthetics of the bridge and have removed more than 1,000 of them already.
Público reports that locals are divided on the move.
‘Is the love represented by the lock broken?’, they ask.
The Municipal Junta for the Triana district has made up its mind and on Wednesday placed a motion that the padlocks be taken away every 15 days. They note that the Triana bridge is the only one in the city declared to be a Monument of Cultural Interest

Self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez

self-confessed killer of 17 year old Marta del Castillo from Sevilla, 20 year old Miguel Carcaño, and his friend Samuel Benítez who helped to throw the body of Marta into the Guadalquivir River, have been ordered to prison in Sevilla today without bail.
Dozens of people waited outside the courts before and after the appearance of the two youngsters, shouting ‘asesinos’ and other insults, as the emergency services spent their third day searching the river for the body of Marta.It’s now known the two used a wheelchair belonging to the late mother of the main accused, and a moped to take Marta’s body to the river from Miguel’s house in the Macarena area of the city.
The two spent some four hours giving their statements to the judge in Instruction Court 4 in Sevilla which heard how the two got rid of the body in the early hours of Sunday January 25, just a few hours after Miguel had killed Marta by hitting her with an ashtray during an argument.

There has been a fourth arrest in connection with the death of the missing Sevilla 17 year old, Marta del Castillo.The latest arrest came this morning and is understood to be Javier Carcaño, the brother of the man, Miguel Carcaño, who has confessed to the killing the girl after getting into an argument with her three weeks ago.
Javier, along with an unidentified 15 year old boy, faces charges of covering up the crime, while a friend of Miguel, Samuel, could face other charges after helping to dispose of the body.There were shouts from the public of ‘asesinos’ as Miguel and Samuel arrived in court in Sevilla today. The prosecutor has called for prison on remand for the two.For the third day the search is continuing along the length of the Guadalquivir river for Marta’s body. The two used a wheelchair belonging to the mother of the main accused, and a moped to take her body to the river from Miguel’s house in the Macarena area of the city.

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla

Miguel Carcaño, the 20 year old who has confessed to the killing of missing 17 year old Marta del Castillo in Sevilla, has been currently going out with a 14 year old girl, Rocio. Miguel Carcaño will appear in court in Sevilla on Monday charged with the murder of 17 year old Marta del Castillo.She has told the press that although she knows that he is the killer, she cannot believe it. She said she knew that he was quite a jealous man, and when she had asked him if he had anything to do with the crime, he had simply hung his head in silence.

17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago

Eva Casanueva, the mother of the 17 year old Marta del Castillo, who vanished from Sevilla nine days ago, has spent most of that time in bed just waiting for news. On Monday she made the effort to attend to the questions of the media. There are no firm clues to go on, although rumours that the boy who said he dropped Marta off at her home on the Saturday night is under suspicion. An expert dog has indicated that the clues may be in the Triana part of the city, where Marta spent Saturday afternoon with friends before she disappeared.Meanwhile her uncle, Javier Casanueva, who is acting as family spokesman, has complained to the press that neither the Prime Minister, nor the Minister for the Interior have called the family.

Gang of drug traffickers had six light planes for bringing drugs from Africa into Spain.

Spanish authorities have broken up a gang of drug traffickers that had six light planes for bringing drugs from Africa into Spain.The criminal organization was led by a veteran airline pilot, arrested together with 11 other gang members, who used airfields and landing strips in wooded areas in Andalucía to evade detection by security forces.Besides the six airplanes, the Civil Guard, Spain's militarized national police, seized assault rifles and other weapons plus documents and a quantity of drugs.The first phase of the operation was launched last November, when the Civil Guard was alerted to the existence of several drug traffickers suspected to bringing hashish from Africa into Spain.At the end of February three Spanish citizens and two Frenchmen were arrested in the southern province of Seville with 400 kilos (880 pounds) of hashish.A laboratory was also dismantled where the drug was ground up and mixed with chemicals to make it undetectable by any possible police inspections.After this first phase, the Civil Guard verified that some gang members were still at large.The group had acquired new fast, long-range aircraft for transporting cocaine, using routes familiar to the gang from their experience of bringing hashish into Spain.These later investigations led to the capture of one of the kingpins, a Spaniard, together with a second pilot of Colombian origin and an airfield employee who apparently aided in the operations.

Head of the BBVA's debt-collection department had been shot twice through the chest

Police are investigating a number of leads after a bank director was found shot dead at a chalet in Bollullos de la Mitación (Sevilla) where he has been staying occasionally since the break-up of his marriage.
Andrés Toro Barea (55) was found by a work colleague after failing to turn up for work on Monday. He had been shot twice through the chest. Detectives believe it to be significant that none of the doors or windows had been forced and that nothing appears to have been stolen. The positioning of two armchairs in the lounge seems to suggest that the victim and his killer sat and talked, providing further evidence that they may have known each other. Neighbours have confirmed that Mr Toro was seen taking out the garbage at around midday last Sunday.
As the head of the BBVA's debt-collection department, Mr Toro had noticed a considerable increase in his workload recently as a consequence of the economic slowdown.

four year in prison after more than 3,150 child porn images were found on his computer

The court in Sevilla has sentenced a man to four year in prison after more than 3,150 child porn images were found on his computer together with 157 videos, all of which he shared with other users of the internet.EFE news agency reports that 32 year old C.T.R. was discovered when he took his lap-top computer in for repair and the shop informed the police on finding the contents. Police say that there were images of children, some aged under 13, taking part in explicit sexual practices. The sentence rejected the defence claim to the man’s right to privacy and the claim that the police registered the computer without a judicial order.

stag party-goers Bus driver arrested during the early hours after a positive breath test

The 45 year old driver of a bus carrying a party of nineteen stag party-goers was arrested during the early hours of yesterday morning after a positive breath test at a routine police control, leaving his passengers to make their own way back to Sevilla city-centre on foot. The man was stopped at around 4.30am on the SE-30 near the Tablada/ exhibition centre exit.
He was taken into custody after officers also discovered that his licence had already been confiscated, and jailed following a preliminary court hearing yesterday.