The municipality of Cantoria was left without telephone and internet for two days after a digger working on the new motorway cut through the fibre optic cable which connects the town. The construction company carrying out the work has been criticised for not contacting the council or offering any explanation for what happened. The lack of telephone line meant that the town council, the town's banks and a large number of the town's businesses were unable to carry out their usual functions due to their dependence on internet.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Marijuana not tomatoes
The owner of one the greenhouses which make up the sea of plastic you see from the motorway past Almeria has been arrested for his cultivation of marijuana on an industrial scale. The man, identified only by his initials J.E.V.A., Spanish, aged 40, was arrested in connection with the discovery of a plantation in the Santa Maria del Aguila area of El Ejido. The Guardia Civil say they found growing in a greenhouse 500 cannabis Sativa plants which had a total weight of approximately 3,000 kilos. There were also two greenhouses used for drying the plants and preparing them for sale. A luxury car was seized at the time of the man's arrest and the Guardia Civil are continuing investigations looking for the accomplices who must have been involved in an operation of this scale. Spanish law does not consider the possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use a crime, although it is illegal to consume or be in possession of any quantity in any public place. Cultivation of marijuana for its sale or distribution is considered a serious offence punishable with several years' imprisonment.
Hertz open office in Almeria
One of the biggest car rental companies in the world, Hertz, has opened a car rental office in Almeria airport. The general, commercial and operations director of Hertz España, Jaime Soriano, told the press that the one of the company's obligations was to provide service any place it was demanded and that the Almeria airport was growing and currently receives more than a million passengers a year, a sufficiently positive indicator for the company to decide to provide its services there.
Hertz was founded in 1918 and was until fairly recently a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company, it has over 5,100 rental locations all over the world and this year its second quarter worldwide revenues were 2.3 billion dollars, up 4.6% year-over-year.
Electric company checking for fraud
The electricity generation and distribution company Sevillana-Endesa is currently carrying out a campaign of fraud detection in the coastal towns of Almeria. The campaign involves the company's Unidad de Control de Perdidas No Tecnicas (non-technical loss control unit) or CPNT which localises metering anomalies and frauds and, once detected, normalises the power supply and negotiates with the customers the conditions of payment for the electricity not billed. The CPNT always works more during the summer because of the number of holiday homes on the coast.
The fraud detection plan last summer dealt with 426 cases of fraud, with a deviation of 5.9 million kilowatt hours worth 571,699 euros. In the whole of 2007 they dealt with 847 cases, with 9.4 million unbilled kilowatt hours worth 1.1 million euros.
Garrucha to ‘semi’ pedestrianise main street
The Garrucha town council approved in a recent meeting how they are going to spend the 530,000 euros they have been given as part of the Provincial Plan of the Almeria government. The money is to be used to turn the Calle Mayor in the town into a pedestrian area or at least semi–pedestrian, plans are under way for its semipeatonalización. This means widening the pavements along the street, placing benches and planting trees and improving the traffic which regularly grinds to a standstill in the town.
The contract for the works will be tendered out by the provincial government as they are footing the bill as part of their twelve million euro Provincial Plan. Once a company has been contracted the works will take six months to complete.
Beware – stressed out teenagers
If a teenager living near you has been appearing more nervous than usual or has bigger than usual bags under the eyes and other signs of exhaustion it might not be as a result of their social life but of their cramming. For three days this week 777 young people who have been attending 50 different schools and colleges around the province have been taking the selection exams for the University of Almeria admissions for this academic year, their last opportunity to gain a university place for themselves this year. They are taking the pruebas de selectividad in five centres around the province; one in the university itself (where 392 students are sitting the exams) and the others in Aguadulce (104 students), El Ejido (146 students), Huercal-Overa (95 students) and Albox (40 students).
The university entrance examinations are taken simultaneously in all of Andalucia and consist of two parts, the first a general paper on three subjects studied by all baccalaureate students: a commentary on a philosophical or historical text, an analysis of a text in Spanish, and an analysis of a text in a foreign language. The other part is specific to the type of baccalaureate course the student has been studying, e.g. science and technology or humanities.
The majority of students take these exams in June at the end of the academic year. This June 2,037 students took the selectividad exam in Almeria of whom 93 per cent passed.
Mojacar ex-mayor loses slander case
Carlos Cervantes Zamora, ex socialist mayor of Mojacar, lost the case brought against him in 2004 for slandering the environmental group Salvemos Mojacar. The legal proceedings were started by the group after Carlos Cervantes referred to members of the association as manipulators and shameless and 'canalla', which could be roughly translated as riff-raff, in press meetings and interviews with the local media. The comments were widely published in a provincial Spanish language newspaper at a time when the ecologists had just founded the group and the negative image diffused by the media could have seriously prejudiced the association.
This is the second time the ex-mayor has been condemned for the same case. The first hearing was held in 2006 and Carlos Cervantes was condemned in his absence as he did not attend the trail. The sentence was later ruled invalid due to the accused not having been informed of the hearing date correctly. The case was next heard in June 2007 but the hearing was annulled due to the judge being the same as in the first trial. The trial was heard a third time in the provincial court in Almeria in February this year, again the accused did not attend but his lawyer did, and no denial was made of the accusations, the lawyer instead tried to argue their justification without success.
Salvemos Mojacar asked for 30,000 euros damages and that Carlos Cervantes be fined 8,000 euros. In the judge's sentence the environmental group were awarded 2,000 euros damages and the defendant was ordered to pay a fine of 1,000 euros and condemned to costs. Salvemos Mojacar has stated that it will use the money awarded to it towards the costs of the court cases they are currently fighting against Playa Macenas in Mojacar, Mundo Aguilon in Pulpi and the PORN(Plan de Ordenacion de Recursos Naturales – natural resource plan) in the Cabo de Gata natural park.
Lubrin Gastronomic fair
The residents of Lubrin are currently organising their Feria de Alimentacion Rural or rural food fair which has taken place a since the year 2000 as part of the celebrations for the day of the Virgen del Rosario, one of the town's patron saints, celebrated on October 7th. This year they are also organising an Artisans' market to coincide with the celebrations and which will take place on the weekend of October 11th and 12th.
There will be various stalls, a bar with wine tastings and tapas of local products like lamb and kid, local cheese and vegetables. The market will be held by the church and spaces are being made available for stallholders to camp overnight or leave their vans.
For more information either for stallholders or visitors you can contact Mary Richards at the Oficina de Turismo Municipal Lubrín, telephone Tuesday – Saturday 10.30-13.30 and at other times on the mobile number 607 702 622 and by Email at turismolubrin@hotmail.com.
The Municipal Tourist Office can also arrange visits to Lubrín with a meal, tapas route or a taste of our local products, for groups and individuals.
Brits meet with Almeria planning chief
Brits meet with Almeria planning chief
Members of the Abusos Urbanísticos Almanzora No (AUAN) committee, accompanied by their legal and planning representatives met with Luis Caparros, the Almeria housing and territorial planning delegate and Jose Ortiz Mallol, Director General de Inspección de Ordenacion del Territorio y Urbanismo, the head of the Junta de Andalucia organisation which was set up to control and prosecute planning irregularities.
In a statement after the meeting Luis Caparros said that the Junta de Andalucia and the town councils of Zurgena, Albox, Cantoria, Arboleas, Partaloa, Albanchez and Lubrin were to collaborate in drawing up plans for local inspections which would detect properties outside planning regulations and that individual files would be drawn up specifying the exact legal situation of each of the properties. He went on to add that the Junta had an obligation to collaborate with the justice system and that it would comply with any court decisions regarding the affected properties. The regional delegate said that the general plan for inspection of housing, town and territorial planning was awaiting its approval in December and that the provincial government had promised its total and permanent collaboration on the plan. He warned that those irregular properties that had problems, that is those without basic services or outside consolidated urban nuclei, would have no solution.
In a statement issued by the AUAN, a local organisation which is campaigning to bring about the proper legalisation of the estimated 5,000 cases of land and houses in the Almanzora Valley currently considered to be "illegal", said that the meeting was both constructive and cordial but no detailed information on the mechanics of a solution appears to be available at this time despite the representatives of the Junta re-iterating their determination to provide a solution to the complex situation of illegal houses within the law and with respect to the rights of the homeowner, regardless of their nationality.
Property sales down 40 per cent from last year
Figures have just been released for property sales in the province of Almeria for the first half of the year and they show a dramatic decrease compared to the same period last year. The figures for new homes in urban areas, second hand homes in urban areas, building plots and properties with land in rural areas all show a decline: The sale of fincas rusticas, properties in rural areas, is the market sector which has slowed the least with 3,903 sold in Almeria in the first semester compared to 4,320 last year, a decrease of 9.7 per cent. The sale of 'solares' or building plots seems to show a certain optimism for the future with 1,554 sold in the first six months of 2007 compared with 1,395 this year, a reduction of 10 per cent, a sign that property developers are continuing to invest in possible long term prospects. The number of new homes sold from January to June this year totalled 5,382, the same period last year registering 6,322 sales, 15 per cent less this year. As for the sale of second hand homes there has been a drop of 45.5 percent from last year's first half sales; 3,119 in 2008 and 6,859 in 2007. The total number of homes in urban and rural areas, business premises, and plots sold up to the end of June this year was 23,755, the total for the first six months of last year was 39 ,558, a 40 per cent drop this year. We have no figures on the number of estate agents which have closed.
President announces rescue package for housing
The socialist president of Spain, Jose Luis Zapatero, has announced a package to help the housing industry survive the crisis presently affecting it. In a move which is aimed at helping the property constructors and promoters rather than individual homeowners or buyers the president unveiled two important projects. One was the approval of real estate investment companies, quoted on the stock market, which will enjoy special tax breaks and will hopefully provide an impulse for the rental market and encourage investment in the property sector. The second was the provision of a new line of state loans to construction companies which will allow them to use borrowed money for purposes other than construction on the provision that unsold homes those companies possess are made available on the rental market for a specified period.
The move comes at a time when the European Union is predicting zero growth in Spain for the last months of the year although Zapatero himself was more optimistic with government forecasts slightly higher than the EU figures. The credit line which will be made available will start at three billion euros although this could be increased in the future. It will be administered by the Instituto de Credito Oficial, which is part of the ministry for the economy and works to help Spanish companies become more competitive. The president said that the measures should work towards providing liquidity for companies which have accumulated large stocks of property. Unemployment in Spain has recently risen to more than 2.5 million, more than ten per cent of the workforce and inflation stands at around five per cent.
Police find bale of hashish on beach
The local police in Berja had a surprise whilst on a routine patrol by the Balanegra beach in the municipality of Berja. There on the shore they spotted a bale which had been washed up by the tide, they recovered it and on later inspection at the police station they discovered it was a bale of hashish weighing about fifty kilos. The investigation remains open while police try to discover where the drugs came from.
Reports of the end of the world have been greatly exaggerated
The European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) successfully steered a stream of protons finer than a human hair around a 27 kilometre circuit that has cost 630 thousand million euros and has taken nine years to construct. They were able to accelerate the particles close to the speed of light within a total vacuum at a temperature of minus 271.3ºC – colder than outer space. Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe's first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.
The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC is a particle accelerator which has been installed in a tunnel 27 km in circumference which housed a previous machine, the Large Electron Positron collider, LEP. By studying collisions at higher energies than ever before, physicists working with the LHC will make further progress in understanding the mysteries of how our Universe is made and how it came to be. A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric fields to propel electrically charged particles to high speeds and magnetic fields to contain them. There's a good chance that you have spent a good portion of your life staring at a particle accelerator (perhaps making some progress in understanding the mysteries of our universe) as the good old fashioned cathode ray tube you have in your TV – if you haven't moved on to plasma - has one behind the screen.
The aim of the six experiments to be conducted with the LHC are varied; two will be actively searching for signs of the Higgs boson, a key undiscovered particle that is essential for the Standard Model of particle physics to work. The Standard Model of particle physics predicts the existence of a particle, known as the Higgs boson, which gives mass to other particles. Currently, the mechanism by which particles acquire different masses is unknown, and finding evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson would solve this fundamental mystery of nature. The experiment which has led to predictions of the end of the world is the ALICE experiment, in which the LHC will collide lead ions to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang under laboratory conditions - a nanosecond of intense heat and pressure that will convert energy into matter and 'create' new particles. The worry of some is the possibility that a tiny black hole could be created which could then expand to swallow the earth. The scientists at CERN argue that nature is continuously creating LHC-like collisions when much higher-energy cosmic rays collide with the Earth's atmosphere, with the Sun, and with other objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. If such collisions posed a danger, the consequences for Earth or these astronomical objects would have become evident already. Actual collisions of particles in the LHC are a treat we may have to wait a year for.
The World Wide Web was invented at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 to help particle physicists around the world to communicate. No one at the time could predict the enormous impact it would have on our concepts of information, knowledge and spam mail. Now, to deal with the enormous amount of data that will be generated by the LHC, CERN is leading work to create a "computing Grid" that will harness vast amounts of computer power through networks across the world transforming the internet into a giant global supercomputer. At the moment the grid is relatively small; the processing power of roughly 100,000 home computers, distributed around the world and connected by a fibre optic 15 Gb per second internet connection. This is about 15,000 times faster than a standard home connection and you could download two high definition feature lengths films every second – but it's still not enough to transfer all of the data that will become available.
There is no doubt that the LHC will be in the news on a regular basis in the future and we can only hope it will inspire a new generation of physicists and other scientists. We can only begin to imagine what may be discovered. The LHC was built to help scientists to answer key unresolved questions in particle physics. The unprecedented energy it achieves may even reveal some unexpected results that no one has ever thought of!
Many happy returns for Google
You know your company's done well for itself when its name gets a dictionary entry, to 'google' something is now accepted English and it was first heard just ten years ago. In September 1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. with four computers and a working capital of 100,000 dollars. Now both of them are worth billions - the world's richest people under forty - and the company made a net profit of almost 900 million euros in the second quarter of this year (the first quarter was even more profitable – even Google is feeling the pinch). From the humble garage beginnings which are almost obligatory for hi-tech companies to nineteen thousand employees in offices all over the world and a dominance of computer searches and advertising that even has Microsoft worried.
It's not all been plain sailing with criticism aimed at the company for its retention of what could be sensitive information about the 650 million people who make use of its search engine (Google have just announced that from now on they will only keep search histories for nine months), concerns about the company monopolising internet searches thus controlling the flow of internet traffic and advertising and the scandal of the 'Great Firewall of China' when Google bowed to allow Chinese government censorship of its searches – at the time a search for Tiananmen in Google would not bring up references to the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Now you can walk the streets of the U.S.A., Australia, Japan or France with Google's Street View, look for your swimming pool with Google Earth, see supernovae and galaxies forming with Google Space, watch videos of just about anything you can imagine and a lot more you could never imagine on Youtube. You can now even browse the internet with Google's new web browser 'Chrome', a minimal design that remembers where you go and what you search for (if you want it to) to make browsing an intuitive experience although I always find it disconcerting when my computer seems to know what I'm thinking about.
And the future? Google on a phone, or any other mobile device that can connect to the internet, near you soon, and on your internet connected TV, fridge, dishwasher… With Apple's 3G I-Phone, with built in GPS and an accelerometer, and Google Street View the view turns as you do, detecting your movements and moving the scene on the phone screen to correspond, highlighting shops or whatever you might be looking for. Or you could just look up and see it for real.
Andalucia to introduce ‘dignified death’ law
In what will be a pioneering law in Spain the Junta de Andalucia have started the project which will become the law for a dignified death. It will give patients the right, within the limits of national law, to end their lives by deciding not to receive treatment. The law will also oblige all medical institutions, public and private and including those run by religious orders, to respect the wishes of their patients. Doctors and other health professionals must respect their patients' decisions, without imposing their own opinions, be they religious, personal, moral or professional.
In a survey of opinion on health care in Andalucia last year 93 per cent of those surveyed agreed that everyone has a right to die with dignity. The law will guarantee that patients receive all the clinical information on their case whenever they want it with a comprehensible prognosis and diagnosis to help make their decision. Palliative care will be available in terminal patients' homes whenever possible if the patient wishes. These patients are also guaranteed an individual room in hospital and can be accompanied by their family at all times if they want.
The Andalucian law will not cover euthanasia as it does not come within the region's legal competence however the Spanish government has announced it is planning legislation allowing 'assisted suicide' which should become law sometime next year.
Phishing fraudsters caught in Andalucia
The Guardia Civil, in an operation carried out in the provinces of Cadiz, Malaga and Jaen, has disbanded a criminal gang estimated to have stolen 1.5 million euros this year. The bank details of more than 12,000 people in Spain, the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom were recovered.
The operation was started at the beginning of the year when Guardia Civil in Algeciras detected the purchase of large numbers of lottery tickets on the internet with false credit cards. Those buying the tickets made themselves difficult to detect by redirecting their purchases through computers in the U.S.A. and Australia but after several months of investigation the Guardia Civil were able to track them down and searches were made of several homes in Andalucia.
The lottery tickets had been bought with false credit cards made using data obtained through a method known as phishing; e-mailing massive numbers of people with mails pretending to be from banks or other financial institutions and asking for credit card or account information and passwords, often sending users to falsified web pages where they were asked to enter or change passwords or the 'secret questions' used online to confirm users' identities. Once the information was obtained it was used to make online purchases or to bet on the lottery, betting around 1.5 million euros in just five months and netting prizes worth 130,000 euros. Among the things seized during the searches were seven computers, five hard drives, false passports, cds and memory sticks with computer programmes used in the scam, card 'readers' and manuals and instructions for reading the magnetic bands of credit cards and cloning cards. Four arrests were made although the Guardia Civil have not ruled out more arrests being made in the next few days.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Algarrobico building licence declared illegal after three years
The environmental group 'Salvemos Mojacar' took the Carboneras town council and the construction company, Azata del Sol, to court in September 2005 asking that the building licence awarded by the council allowing the construction of an enormous 411 room hotel be revoked and that building work, which started in May 2003, be halted. The court case started almost three years ago to the day by the environmental group has finally finished with the judge giving sentence in a document running to 22 pages. Work on the hotel was paralysed in February 2006 and since then various legal processes have been started at regional and national levels. The situation was brought to the attention of the Spanish public by Greenpeace, which made the Algarrobico case a national environmental cause with questions being raised in Spanish parliament.
In the sentence the judge ,Jesus Rivera Fernandez, who presides over the provincial contentious-administrative court number 2 in Almeria capital was unequivocal in his condemnation of the conduct of the Carboneras town council and perhaps more significantly that of the Junta de Andalucia regional government. The sentence declared the building licence to be void ipso jure or as a matter of law and ordered the council of Carboneras to revoke it which indirectly implies to take steps leading to its demolition. It also reaffirmed the existing precedents regarding the 100 metres from the sea going inland which cannot be constructed on (and was in this case) and blames the Junta and the town council for the violation of this law, the sentence also highlights the fact that the town council were completely aware of the existence of this regulation beforehand. The judge also ruled that there is no right to compensation according to coastal law, with the only indemnification due being the cost of construction and not the anticipated value of the unfinished building. The ruling stated that the construction was undoubtedly built in an area protected as being a 'natural area of general interest' and considered that the regional ministry of the environment illegally altered the planning map defining the protected area (it had claimed a cartographic error in its defence of this accusation due to the map consulted when studying the planning application being difficult to read) – "giving an appearance of legality to what was manifestly illegal". The sentence also confirms that the existence of the hotel is incompatible with the recently approved re-classification of the land it is on as C3, non-urbanisable.
The part which has given most satisfaction to the ecologists is the judge's ruling that the crime of prevaricacion, something with no direct equivalent in Anglo-Saxon law but which is equivalent to collusion to act illegally or pervert the course of justice has been committed on the part of the Carboneras council and the Junta. As a result the sentence orders that declarations be taken from those involved and the case referred to the public prosecutor's office.
There exists a right to appeal within fifteen days from the notification of the sentence.
Cuevas to get ‘Desert Museum’
The town council of Cuevas del Almanzora has voted in favour of a project which will be unique in Europe. The council has agreed to cede 30,000 square metres of council property in the area known as El Zorzo for the creation of the 'Fundación Museo del Desierto y de la Aventura Joel Lode'.
Joel Lode, born in Nantes, France, has lived in Cuevas for eight years and participated in the creation of the Desert Springs golf course. He is a member of the International Organization on Study of Succulent Plants, part of the UNESCO Botanical Commission and has spent more than thirty years travelling the deserts of the world studying succulents and cacti. He is the author of several books including an encyclopaedia of deserts and another on cacti. The desert museum will be home to his collection of 14,000 plants representing more than 4,000 species of cacti and succulents valued at more than 180,000 euros.
The museum will consist of a desert garden with plants distributed according to their geographic origins, allowing visitors to take a botanical journey around the world, a greenhouse and museum of the deserts which will display the objects collected by Joel in his travels including poisoned arrows from Kalahari tribesmen, prehistoric stones, Australian aboriginal objects or baskets made by Papago Indians. As well as the botanical garden and museum there will be a library with books dedicated to the subject, a photo library with more than 30,000 transparencies, a museum of the cactus with hundreds of objects dedicated to these curious plants, a greenhouse dedicated to cultivation of cacti for sale to the public, a gift shop, restaurant and parking.
Protest march in Cantoria
Residents of Cantoria are organising a protest march at midday on September 18th in their town to highlight the situation many in the area find themselves in due to planning irregularities which have gone unchecked in the past. With demolition orders having been issued on four properties in Las Terreras in the municipality and another 19 homes in the El Fas area facing the threat of demolition feelings are running high in the town. The owners are taking all the legal measures available to them but there is little optimism as to the possible outcome. The owners of the houses in Las Terreras are waiting for a decision from the provincial high court on whether the process against their properties should continue with no mention of compensation being made by any official involved in the matter. Those involved in the El Fas case still don't know what the fate of their homes will be but at least the judge in their case has admitted their right to some form of compensation from the promoters who have been charged as alleged perpetrators of planning abuse.
All this comes at a time when the Priors, whose house in Vera was demolished in January, are waiting for their case to go before the Constitutional Tribunal after the application for it to be heard there was admitted and the European commission announces its decision to take Spain to the European court of justice for the 'land grab' law in Valencia which allows developers to expropriate rural land from owners.
Almeria to use its rubbish for power generation
The Almeria city council has given the go ahead to Cespa, part of the Ferrovial group of companies, to spend 15 million euros on modernising the city's rubbish plant and adapt it for the production of energy from organic waste. The council has also extended the company's contract to collect the city's rubbish, originally awarded three years ago, from fifteen to twenty years. The council pays Cespa 4.5 million euros per year for rubbish collection and disposal.
The modernisation of the plant will involve the automation of rubbish classification and separation, the construction of a new area for the recycling of recovered plastic sub-products and the enclosure of the area where the organic waste undergoes a biological fermentation process, called biomethanisation, from which biogas is obtained. It is estimated that 1.5 megawatts will be generated from this biogas, 20 per cent of which will be used to power the plant and the other eighty being sold to the power company Endesa. The automation of the plant will mean a reduction in the number of workers needed there but part of the agreement with the council was that these workers would not lose their jobs but instead be transferred to other jobs in the company.
Works are due to begin at the end of this year and should be completed by the end of 2009.
New road in Mojacar a step closer
The new road that we have been hearing about for years which is to provide an alternative to the beach road came a step closer last week. The mayoress of Mojacar, Rosa Maria Cano, met with representatives of the Junta de Andalucia regional government to discuss the project and ways it could be completed as soon as possible.
The road, which is the continuation of the A-1203 which connects the Turre-Garrucha road with the roundabout on the road up to Mojacar Pueblo, will run from the roundabout to join the Paseo del Mediterraneo at some point past the Hotel Indalo. The road is included in no less than three development plans for the area and a budget of 13 million euros has been allowed for the construction of its 5.7 kilometres. At the moment studies are being made in preparation for the declaration of environmental impact which is the next stage in the planning of the road. The provincial delegate of the regional ministry for the environment, Clemente Garcia, told the mayoress that the ministry would do all it could to speed up the process so that work could start as soon as possible.
Albox man arrested for robbery
A man, identified by the Guardia Civil as Ricardo R.H. aged 22, was arrested for robbery with violence and intimidation in Albox. The robbery took place in a shop in the town where, according to an employee of the shop, the accused entered around 9.40 in the evening just a few moments before closing time when the days takings were being counted. When greeted the attacker ran at the employee, pushing him back, grabbed the takings and ran out of the shop. The employee reported the crime to the Guardia Civil who immediately started a search in the town. They found the man within the hour drinking in a bar in the town. When the Guardia Civil searched him they found 500 euros in fifty euro notes hidden in his underwear and when he was taken to the local police station he confessed to having been responsible for the robbery. The man had previous arrests for similar crimes and drug related offences.
Unrest and violence on the streets of Roquetas
In what seems to have started as a dispute between drug dealers the streets of Roquetas have become the focus of national attention as Guardia Civil in riot gear try to calm groups of angry African immigrants.
The disturbances were triggered by the murder of a 28 year old Senegalese man, stabbed to death during a fight in the neighbourhood known as Las 100 Viviendas in Roquetas de Mar, the majority of the residents of which are Gypsies. Groups of African men went on the rampage; burning rubbish bins, erecting burning barricades and trying to set fire to several homes in the area, one of which was that of the man who is supposed to have committed the murder. They also attacked emergency services attending the scene, throwing stones and bottles at fire-fighters, an ambulance crew and Guardia Civil. One Guardia Civil officer was hospitalised for serious injuries to his ear which occurred when the car he was driving was hit by a stone from a catapult. The crew of an ambulance also suffered injuries as a result of the glass from the windows of the vehicle they were in being broken by stones.
The mayor of Roquetas,
Gabriel Amat Ayllon, has said that the disturbances are just 'isolated incidents' and has played down the racial aspect of the violence although comments from Africans in Roquetas have been published in the Spanish press saying that they have taken to the streets to obtain justice for their murdered compatriot because 'without justice another Gypsy will kill another black and, again, nothing will happen'.
The dead man, identified by the initials O.K., was married with two daughters and had lived in Spain for at least three years. According to the Almeria Acoge, a charity organisation which helps immigrants in Almeria, the victim was trying to mediate in a fight between two others.
Taxi drivers in a tiff
Most of the taxis drivers of Mojacar, Garrucha, Antas, Los Gallardos, Turre, Cuevas and Bedar in theory work together as part of a 'Prestacion Conjunta' area, that is they all (the eight towns - as until now they also thought Vera was part of this area - have a total of about thirty licensed taxis) help to cover the whole area which includes these municipalities, coordinated by Radio Taxi Almeria which is part of the Almeria taxi drivers' guild. The problem is that taxi drivers in Garrucha and Mojacar are claiming that the Vera taxis aren't doing their part; they claim that the Vera taxis are quite happy to leave the town to pick up clients from hotels for airport runs, pick up clients from the nearby towns like Antas and Garrucha and man the ranks of the Vera bus station but they are not so happy when taxis from other towns pick up fares from the bus station (the local police have had to intervene on more than one occasion at the request of the Vera drivers). It has also been claimed that the Vera taxis refuse to participate in the night time on-call system which has been operating for over a year now.
A representative of the Vera taxi drivers, Ramon Romero, has said that as far as they are concerned the 'Area de Prestacion Conjunta' doesn't exist, legally they are only obliged to pick up fares in Vera and that they hardly leave the town and only do so if given a fare by the Radio Taxi service. He added that Vera is the only town with a 24 hour service with a minimum of two or three cars every night and that the police have only been asked to intervene when taxis from out of the town pick up fares in the town despite the fact that not all the Vera taxis are busy.
British man burnt to death in Chirivel
In what appears to have been an act of self immolation a 63 year old British man died at the weekend in Chirivel near Velez Rubio. According to the Albox fire-fighters who attended the scene in the town's rambla it seems that the man emptied an eight litre container of petrol over himself before setting light to himself. Residents of the town heard an explosion at about six in the evening which they at first thought could be a shot being fired or a gas bottle exploding and on seeing the flames and smoke in the area where the sound had come from calls were made to the Guardia Civil and the fire-fighting service. It was not until the fire, which had spread through bushes and undergrowth, had been put out that the emergency services discovered the charred body. Due to the state of the body identification was extremely difficult although it was eventually identified as a result of a tattoo the victim had on his back.
Almeria crime rates down
The Fiscalia Superior de Andalucia, The regional public prosecutor's office, has released figured for crime rates in Andalucia for 2007.
In Almeria last year 99,006 crimes were processed by the prosecution service, a decrease of 0.19 per cent from the year before after – a tiny drop but one that breaks the trend of the last ten years. Serious crime was down 2 per cent, with a significant decrease in drug trafficking, which the prosecution service attributes to the deterrent effect of the SIVE coastal vigilance system.
Last year there were 56 cases of murder and manslaughter, one less than in 2006 but still a figure which the prosecution service considers excessive for a population such as Almeria's. Prosecutions for assault and battery were down by 4 per cent to 19,677 last year. The only type of crime on the rise is that against property with robberies up four per cent on the year before, of which robbery with violence went up 6.5 per cent.
The prosecution service has stated that the figures are not necessarily an accurate reflection of the real situation as, despite improvements in recording crime through the use of computer technology, there is still some duplication of cases where no action is taken and there is some difference of criteria between judicial bodies for recording cases.
Car park ‘Gorilla’ arrested
In many of the larger cities in the province it is normal when looking for a parking space to be given 'help' by what are popularly known in Spain as 'gorillas', individuals who find themselves down on their luck for whatever reason and see this as a way to scrape some kind of living, usually leaving the occupants of the car in a state of confusion as to whether they are under any obligation to pay for being 'helped' and what the consequences of not paying might be.
In an unfortunate incident in Almeria last week a 57 year old man was arrested in Almeria capital, accused of assaulting a couple who had refused to give him money. The man, identified only as M.F.A. from Guardahortuna in Granada, approached the couple after they had parked in an area used as a car park in the Avenida de Madrid. After asking the woman for money and being refused the man grabbed her bag, breaking the handles; on seeing what was happening the woman's partner went to her defence and the accused hit him. The couple informed a police patrol which was passing what had happened and they went after the aggressor, arresting him after discovering him hiding in a rubbish bin. The victim was taken to Torrecardenas hospital for treatment for the injuries inflicted.
922 kilos of hashish seized off Almeria coast
As a result of investigations carried out by the EDOA (organised crime and anti-drugs group) of the Guardia Civil in Pontevedra in the north of Spain, a small motor cruiser was seized about sixty miles off the coast of Almeria and on being searched in port was discovered to be carrying 922 kilos of hashish resin carefully hidden within its hull.
The operation involved the Air and Maritime Service of the Guardia Civil in Almeria coordinated by the EDOA in Pontevedra. The boat had transferred the drugs onboard from a speedboat coming from the Moroccan coast on its way to a port in Andalucia. One arrest was made; a Dutch man, aged 22, identified only by his initials, J.O., and as well as the boat seized an off road vehicle was also confiscated.
Spain’s internet users increase by 15 per cent
The number of people using the internet in Spain has increased by 15 per cent over the last year with 16.2 million people over the age of fifteen now using the internet regularly according to a survey by Comscore, an IT research company. There are now over 240 million 'internauts' in Europe with the biggest increases in numbers being seen in Russia, with a 27 per cent increase on last year, and France, with a 21 per cent increase to 31.5 million internet users. The country where most people use the internet is Holland where 82 per cent of the population over 15 connected to the world wide web in 2007, followed by Denmark and Sweden with 77 and 76 per cent respectively. The English were those who spent most time online dedicating, on average, 28.5 hours a week to surfing the internet.
Telefonica starts charging for free service
Organisations representing consumers in Spain have criticised Telefonica, the country's largest telephone company, for introducing charges for what up to now has been a free service.
As from October 1st Telefonica's customers will see a new charge on their bills for identification of incoming call identification. This service was introduced in 2001 with the introduction of domestic telephones with integral screens and Telefonica offered call identification, with the incoming caller's number identified on the screen, as a free service but now the telecommunications giant has decided that they must charge for it due to the cost of the equipment and personnel necessary for it to function.
According to the OCU consumers' organisation the new charge is outside the law as it is illegal to charge for a service which a customer has never asked for nor has personally activated. Telefonica never notified its customers that this was an extra service and so it is understood that it is included within the standard service offered by the company. The company will charge 50 cents plus vat. for the service. Official complaints have already been made to the Instituto Nacional de Consumo in Madrid, where Telefonica's headquarters are, and to the secretary of state for telecommunications.
Telefonica customers who do not want to take advantage of this service can have it deactivated by calling 1004.
Ministry waives environmental impact study for water supply works
In what the government has said is an effort to speed up the works connecting the Carboneras desalination plant to local towns the Ministry of the Environment has waived the normal environmental impact evaluation that is a legal requirement in large scale public works. The ministry considers that the measures taken in the project guarantee its 'maximum environmental viability' according to the official state bulletin (BOE). The works in question involve the connections from the 'Carboneras-Valle del Almanzora, Fase I' pipeline, which is now complete, to the water storage deposits managed by the water company GALASA supplying Cuevas del Almanzora, Garrucha, Mojacar and Vera. These connections consist of a total of 27 kilometres of pipelines and the most sensitive area they have to pass through is the so called LIC (Lugar de Interes Comunitario – site of community interest) in the Sierra Cabrera, home to several protected species. To avoid the impact of the works there the pipes are to follow the routes of existing roads and tracks. This second phase of works, finalising the supply of drinking water from the desalination plant, is expected to be completed within twelve months.
Almeria motorway to get third lane
The government ministry has given the go ahead for plans to build a third lane in each direction on the A-7 motorway where it passes Almeria capital. The works are planned for 23 kilometres of motorway from the Viator junction at Km. 452 to the Roquetas turn-off at km. 429. This stretch of motorway has some of the heaviest traffic in the province and traffic jams are usual at rush hour or in the case of accidents or other incidents which lead to lane closures. The traffic on this road is expected to increase when the new motorway between Motril and Adra is completed – improving the connection with the province of Malaga. The tunnels to the north-west of the city were built with space for an extra lane thus avoiding the need for costly excavation work now. The new lanes are expected to cost around 55 million euros to build.
Fire interrupts Mojacar fiestas
A fire in the centre of Mojacar pueblo put a temporary stop to the town's fiesta celebrations at the weekend. The fire started at about five in the afternoon in the well known souvenir shop – 'Angelas' in the Plaza Nueva, location of the town's most popular viewpoint. The fire consumed all three floors of the building and residents of the neighbouring buildings were evacuated by fire-fighters for fear of the fire spreading. The top floor of the shop was used as a store for rugs and other textiles which made controlling the fire difficult and fire-fighters from Turre and Albox took three hours to bring it under control and clear the building of the dense smoke it provoked, the plume of which could be seen from Garrucha, Turre and Vera. The shop is owned by the ex-mayor of Mojacar Bartolome Flores.
Air conditioning will cause more than 2 million colds this summer
The Spanish Society of Lung Disorders and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) has warned that about two million people will suffer colds, pharyngitis or bronchitic problems this summer as a result of the abrupt temperature changes provoked mainly by the incorrect use of air conditioning.
The SEPAR experts have offered some guidelines to help avoid what amount to twenty per cent of the respiratory disorders diagnosed throughout the year; wear light clothing to protect you from the cold while your body acclimatises to the temperature change, don't set air conditioning at too low a temperature – never less than 22º c., avoid the dryness caused by air conditioning – keep well hydrated drinking lots of water and keep the filters in the apparatus clean – dirty filters can harbour organisms including Legionnaire's Disease and fungal spores which can cause rhinitis, asthma or pneumonia.
Vera aquarium nearing completion
The works on the new aquarium in Vera are progressing well and should be finished on schedule the town's mayor told a visiting group of provincial government officials in a recent visit to the installations. The aquarium is being built next to the plaza known as the Glorieta de Vera close to the town's Guardia Civil building. The three story building is being built on a 185 square metre site and will have twenty salt water tanks displaying a variety of Mediterranean species ranging from those we might be more accustomed to finding on restaurant menus such as dorada (bream), salmonete (red mullet) or mero (grouper) to the more spectacular sharks, rays, octopus and jellyfish. There will be a special attraction of an area where visitors will be able to touch some of those creatures which will not suffer as a result of physical contact such as starfish or crustaceans.
The aquarium is being built next to the town's Botanical Garden and the latter can be accessed from the aquarium with plans to sell tickets which permit entry into the two attractions. The works are part of the Almerian Levante Tourist Plan.
Puffin saved on Vera Playa
The Guardia Civil nature protection service - Servicio de Proteccion de la Naturaleza (SEPRONA) - was given a Puffin last week which was found on a beach in Vera in obvious distress, unable to fly due to an injured wing and with injuries to one of its eyes. It was found by a member of the public who took it to the Guardia Civil building in Garrucha which has a SEPRONA section. After being cared for overnight it was sent to the provincial threatened species recovery centre (C.R.E.A.).
The Arctic Puffin (Fratercula artica), known in Spanish as Frailecillo which literally means 'little friar' breeds on the coasts of northern Europe, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, from well within the Arctic Circle to northern France. The winter months are spent at sea far from land and they habitually venture as far south as the Mediterranean but normally stay well out to sea.
Number of mortgages given drops dramatically
The figures just released for the number of properties given mortgages in Spain in the month of June show a dramatic decrease from last year. In the month of June 69,239 mortgages were awarded, a drop of almost 38 per cent from the same period last year. The average amount lent also fell 4.5 per cent to 141,939 euros meaning the total amount of money lent out fell 40.5 per cent to 9,827 million euros.
The figures in Andalucia roughly reflect the national trend with the number of mortgages given dropping 35.6 per cent in relation to June 2007 to a total of 22,107.
Albox town hall considering formula one race track
The mayor of Albox, Jose Garcia Navarro, has made quite clear his support for a project which has come before the Albox council. The Royal Medina complex is an ambitious plan which proposes the construction of a circuit for Formula One and Formula 1000, a go-kart circuit, a Moto-cross circuit an artificial lake for water sports, multiple sports facilities, a technological park (with an emphasis on research into electric vehicles and low consumption motors), a commercial area and tourist facilities.
The mayor has said that the council wants to classify the project as being of social interest for reasons which include the employment and economic advantages it could offer at a time when the national economy is slowing considerably. The mayor added that the town hall would support any projects and private initiatives which mean investment, employment, technological development and environmental sustainability in the municipality.
Vera police to take industrial action
The local police in Vera have decided in a meeting called by the CSI-CSIF (Central Sindical independiente y de funcionarios - a national union representing public employees) to take industrial action to protest against the treatment of two of their colleagues. The two police officers in question have been suspended from their duties without pay for taking leave due to the illness which the council has claimed they have feigned. According to the police officers' union the town council is prepared to take similar measures against more than half of the municipality's officers for abandoning their duties.
The action to be taken by the police includes; weekly authorised demonstrations outside the town hall, refusing to work overtime during the town fair due to take place in two weeks time, not imposing traffic fines until given the adequate means to do so, not carrying out any individual patrols, not patrolling in cars which are not police cars, not using personal mobile phones as a substitute for the police's own communications system which was acquired by the town council and has not been working for a month and has not been repaired ( the communications system cost the council 300,000 euros).
Negotiations have been going on between the police and the council recently over the conditions of the police force's work contracts and the union believes the council's actions have been taken to pressure the police officers into signing this contract.
Jellyfish – fertiliser, face cream or food?
The company Bionaturis, working for the Andalucia Technological Corporation, has just completed a scientific study of the causes of the 'blooms' of jellyfish which are common during the summer months and the possible industrial advantage that could be taken of the proliferation of this often undesired visitor off our beaches. The project counted on the participation of the Posidonia Sur research group from the University of Malaga and the Oceanographic Centre in Malaga and had the support of the Andalucian Research and Development Agency and the DAP (fishing and farming development) which let them use their ship the Regina Maris for the oceanographic studies.
The study concluded that the proliferation of jellyfish in recent years is the result of overfishing in the area and the reduction of turtle numbers both of which have reduced competition for food, and higher water temperatures (attributed to global warming).
The study concluded that the use of these creatures, 16,000 kilos of which were collected off the Andalucian coast last year, with most possibilities in the future is in the manufacture of fertiliser for use in agriculture. Their composition; 95% water and the rest almost all protein, with almost no fat, carbohydrates or cholesterol, makes them an excellent and healthy food source, something known in many Asian communities for centuries where they are often eaten in salads or made into a kind of biscuit, but unaccustomed as we are to such delicacies Bionaturis suggest using them for the manufacture of animal feed. The other alternative is their use in cosmetic products due to their high content of collagen. Have you ever seen a jellyfish with wrinkles?
Jellyfish Salad
Serves one.
Ingredients
125g (4 oz) Salted jellyfish
1 Cucumber,
60g (2 oz) Small peeled cooked prawns,
125 g (4 oz) Roast chicken, preferably breast,
2 tbs Vegetable or peanut oil,
1 Spring onion, finely chopped,
1 tbs Fish sauce (nuoc mam),
Fresh coriander leaves, chopped,
Black pepper,
Salt,
2 tbs Pickled carrot,
2 tb Roasted peanuts, chopped
Instructions
Soak the jellyfish in hot water for 2 hours, changing the water twice. Drain and cut into thin strips. Peel the cucumber, cut in halves lengthwise and slice thinly. Place in a dish with 1 teaspoon salt and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse and drain. Shred the chicken. Saute the chicken and prawns briefly in the oil adding the chopped onion and fish sauce. Add the jellyfish and toss in the pan. Remove and leave to cool, then mix with the remaining ingredients and pile onto a small plate. Enjoy!
Spanish supermarket fish sales ‘unsustainable’
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations three quarters of the world's fish stocks have been completely exploited or are overexploited and 88% of European fish populations are victim to overfishing. It is estimated that at a world level the populations of big predators such as cod, tuna or swordfish have diminished by 90%, mainly as a result of overfishing. Consumers in Spain spent a staggering 5,600 million euros on fish and fish derived products last year, and almost 70 per cent of that spending was in supermarkets, far outstripping that spent in high street fish shops. The purchasing power of the supermarkets puts them in an important position to influence the fishing industry but a report from the environmental group Greenpeace shows that the supermarkets are failing dismally in this field.
In other European countries such as Great Britain, Germany, Holland or Sweden supermarkets have adopted policies of buying their fish from sustainable sources and have stopped selling some or all of the species in Greenpeace's red list, a list (drawn up using a scientifically developed methodology and with versions for different countries) of species the stocks of which are exhausted or are on the point of collapse due to unsustainable fishing practices. In the survey Greenpeace made of the six largest supermarket chains here in Spain the only two that currently demonstrate any consciousness of the problem are Lidl and Carrefour although both fell far short of what could be described as a sustainable fish policy. Mercadona, the supermarket with the greatest share of fish sales in Spain showed a complete lack of awareness of the problem and according to the Greenpeace report makes no effort whatsoever to purchase fish from sustainable sources or restrict its sales of endangered species.
The Spanish ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is currently running a campaign raising awareness of the minimum permitted size of different species of fish so consumers can refuse or complain if offered immature fish. For example the minimum size for sardines is 11cm. which is the height of a coke can and for boquerones (fresh anchovies) it is 9 cm which is about the length of a five euro note.
Giant dinosaur find in Castellon
In what could be one of the most important dinosaur finds in Europe paleontologist have discovered the fossil of an enormous dinosaur that lived about 120 million years ago. Although the species of the find has not been identified it is of the sub order sauropod which included the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. Well-known sauropods include the Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus), Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. 'Sauropod' is derived from 'lizard foot' in Greek. The discovery was made in Morella which is about half way between Valencia and Barcelona. The scientists are currently working on uncovering the lower neck of the animal and the six vertebrae uncovered are about six metres long, one of the dinosaur's ribs would be about 2.5 metres long and indications point to the animal having a total length of some 20 metres.
The surrounding area is rich in fossils and is close to Teruel, the home of Dinopolis; Spain's dinosaur theme park.
Speeding campaign nets more than 30,000
During the month of August, from the eleventh to the twenty first of the month, the Guardia Civil have been waging their annual summer campaign against speeding. The Dirrecion General de Trafico (DGT), the government organisation responsible for road safety and driving in Spain coordinated the campaign in all of Spain except the Basque country and Cataluña which have independence from the central government in such matters. The Guardia Civil made use of 264 mobile radars to supplement the fixed radar speed traps which has meant a total of more than two thousand control points around the country. This effort caught a total of 33,898 drivers exceeding the speed limits, this number was 2.38 per cent of the more than 1,400,000 speed checks made. Six out of ten of those caught were informed there and then with the rest receiving a surprise a few days later in the post. During the fifteen day campaign eight drivers were clocked doing more than 80 km per hour more than the speed limit, a fact which takes the punishment from more than just a fine and a few points off their licences to a possible prison sentence and the loss of their licences. One car, an Audi A-8, was caught doing 226 km per hour on the R-3 motorway outside Madrid.
The DGT highlights the fact that in 27 per cent of fatal accidents excess speed is a factor and that if drivers respected the speed limits 900 deaths a year could be avoided.
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