Two teenage boys have been found guilty of the murder of a 71 year old British pensioner who was found dead at his holiday home in Arona last year

Two teenage boys have been found guilty of the murder of a 71 year old British pensioner who was found dead at his holiday home in Arona last year, the UK’s East Riding Mail reports.

The guilty ruling was handed down on what would have been his 72nd birthday.

Peter Cockshutt from East Yorkshire was found dead at his home on an urbanisation on the Costa del Silencio, on the south of Tenerife, on February 9 2010. He had been stabbed twice in the chest and once in the leg, in what the court considered was a burglary which had gone wrong.

Two youngsters from Latin America, aged 14 and 16, were arrested in connection with his death later that day.

Sentencing in the case has yet to be announced, but it’s understood that the two teenagers face a possible sentence of eight years in a young offender’s institute.

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earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale shook parts of the Murcia Region shortly after 5pm on Wednesday, with the epicentre 7 kilometres to the east of Lorca.

earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale shook parts of the Murcia Region shortly after 5pm on Wednesday, with the epicentre 7 kilometres to the east of Lorca.

There were no reports of any injuries, but locals say the quake, which was followed by a smaller tremor, caused table lamps and other household items to fall over and shook loose parts of cornices from buildings.

EFE reports that many people in Lorca rushed out into the street for fear of injury from the quake, and the 112 emergency service was inundated with calls.

The tremor was also felt in the nearby towns of Totana, Mazarrón and Águilas, and even as far away as Murcia City and Cartagena. The National Geographical Institute said it was also felt in some parts of Almería province and Albacete.

Almost 1,000 homes were damaged in outlying areas of Lorca in a 4.6 magnitude earthquake which hit the area in January 2005. It was followed by 500 aftershocks.

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FIRE in the leading telephone exchange in the city of Málaga has left residents all over the Costa del Sol with no connection since Saturday.

Telefónica says it is unable to confirm when the problem will be resolved.

About 50 per cent of users are now back on the telephone, whilst others are still waiting.

The situation is thought to have affected thousands of residents in Marbella, Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Mijas and  Benahavís, among other towns.

Some  200 telephone engineers are working in the region the clock to restore the connection, which Telefónica says is 'completely burnt-out' and 'cannot be  used'.

A new line altogether will have to be installed.

The company believes in the region 50,000 people have no telephone line and 4,000 have no ADSL internet connection as a result of the fire at the exchange on the Cádiz road.

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The Spanish government is ruling out help for thousands of Britons who have lost money – and sometimes their homes

The Spanish government is ruling out help for thousands of Britons who have lost money – and sometimes their homes – despite promising to overhaul its house-buying process to avoid such problems in the future.

Beatriz Corredor, the Spanish housing minister, has visited Britain to launch what she calls a "roadshow" publicising "a wide range of real estate at more accessible prices than a few years ago". She has met British pension funds and other investors to encourage them to buy some of the country's 700,000 empty new homes. Some 61% of these are holiday properties on the coast which have remained unsold for up to four years.

But while Corredor is trying to ease the pressure on her country's banks – which seized many of the empty homes when developers went into administration and now must sell them to ease their own debts – she has refused to pledge help for British victims of three Spanish property scandals in the past 10 years.

First, some developers were given permission by local authorities in coastal regions, chiefly Valencia, to demolish homes already owned by Britons thank to retrospective changes in planning rules. These are the so-called "land grabs".

Second, many thousands of coastal properties were found to have been built and sold illegally, without planning consent, because of corrupt deals between local politicians, planners, architects and developers. Some homes are to be demolished as a result while the owners of others have faced years of uncertainty over their status. As a result, they are unable to sell.

Third, since the 2007 Spanish housing market crash, many British buyers who paid deposits on new homes into "independent" bank guarantee schemes have not had their money reimbursed after the homes were abandoned by bankrupt developers. Banks have cited previously unpublicised loopholes, or in some cases simply said they could not afford to pay.

"There are 850,000 Britons living in Spain and these problems apply to fewer than 1%," says Corredor. She says compensation will be paid to Britons only "if the courts order it" – meaning those buyers unable to afford lengthy legal action, or who are unable to prosecute developers who have gone bust, stand no chance of compensation.

Campaign groups such as Spanish Banks Guarantee Petition and the Finca Parks Action Group, made up of British victims of the scandals, have branded the roadshow an insult. Protestors picketing the Spanish embassy were denied a meeting with Corredor but one victim - Keith Rule, whose £50,000 deposit was not returned to him by a bank despite his home not being built – was granted a discussion with three officials. They "asked questions, made notes and took paperwork" without guaranteeing they could resolve the problem, he says.

Corredor insists the measures she is introducing will avoid a repeat of the fiasco. In future, for the first time developers will have to provide buyers with the paperwork for building consent and planning zoning. There will also be a property register website – to be made available in English later this year – listing properties for sale with their legal status. There will be new police teams and what she calls "a special prosecutor" charged with tackling the town hall corruption that led to previous scandals. This will take the sales process to "the standard of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors" claims the minister.

Her visit and presentations in London are being repeated in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Russia. These are being funded by the Spanish taxpayer but Corredor promises the second phase of the roadshow "in the next two months, before the summer" will consist of "approved" developers and estate agents marketing properties at shows they will organise privately.

Although the Spanish national government h as launched this charm offensive to woo British buyers, other elements of the country's property industry are being more combative. A minister in the Andalucian regional government has accused complaining Britons of lacking respect for "the culture of planning" in Spain. Purple Cake Factory, a Spanish-based PR firm with several property clients, used its Twitter feed to call Labour MEP Michael Cashman an "idiot" for urging Britons to avoid investing in Spain until victims of planning and corruption scandals were recompensed.

With unemployment and debt problems escalating, Spain's anxiety over unsold homes is likely to increase. Whether the property roadshow will help the situation, however, is another matter – given recent events, Britons may need more convincing before they believe that buying property in Spain is as safe as houses.

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BRITISH expat wanted for dodging a five star hotel bill has a track record for conning people on the Costa del Sol

BRITISH expat wanted for dodging a five star hotel bill has a track record for conning people on the Costa del Sol, the Olive Press can reveal.
A host of victims have come forward to denounce ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ charmer Alwyn Funke – who fled the Gran Hotel Guadalpin Banus owing 1,200 euros two months ago.
Over half a dozen readers insist they have lost tens of thousands of euros after falling victim to the gardener, who was struck off as a company director for 12 years in the UK.
“He is a conman by habit – not for lack of money – and he is very clever,” explained florist Zoe Strutton, 48, from Nueva Andalucia.
It comes after Strutton’s business Flowers Inc found itself hundreds of euros out of pocket after undertaking work for Funke last year.
“He promised faithfully to pay but said he was waiting for funds from a job he had done in the UK. There were lots of excuses,” she added.
This is seemingly the modus operandi of Funke, whose gardening business The Flower House Group racked up debts of nearly two million euros in the UK.
By the time it was struck off it had 10 insolvent companies, with Funke and partner Alexe Meddings misappropriating funds, misusing bank accounts and failing to do proper accounting.
This, of course, is little consolation to expats, such as Elizabeth Rostron, 58, who lost 10,000 euros to Funke after she hired him in Elviria nine years ago. “He seemed a nice man, as all conmen do, and we initially accepted his quote for the work,” she said.
But as soon as the job started he told them he needed more money and then, after receiving a lump sum of 10,000 euros, he vanished.


“After four months we decided to cut our losses. The garden was in a worse state than before. We had no choice but to get a new landscaper which cost us another 12,000 euros on top. Every time we have seen him since he has done a runner before we can speak to him.”
Sally Duffy, 54, from Dublin, had a similar experience when she hired him to fence her garden in 2006.
“He said it would cost about 10,000 euros and we gave him 5,000 euros up front to buy materials. But later he rang and said the patio had ‘dropped’ and he needed more money to fix it.
“In total we gave him 11,000 euros and the patio was never built. In the end we had to pay someone else to do it.”
Others who lost out to Funke include friends Steve and Diana Elson, who lent him 1,000 euros over a number of months, only getting a small amount back.
Referring to him as ‘the scarlet pimpernel’, Steve, 55, said: “He charms you into lending him money and, as he seems so genuine, you do. But he is a compulsive liar, and has ripped many people off. One girl we know ended up giving him thousands, which she never got back.”
He added: “He is always looking for the next person to con. He just can’t help himself.”
When the Olive Press managed to track Funke down he insisted it was ‘all untrue’.
Funke, who lives in Nueva Andalucia, said: “This is unbelievable and a vendetta started by an old friend.
“Why didn’t these people mention this before? It is years ago. If someone ripped me off 10,000 euros I would get a solicitor. I have nothing to answer.”

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MARBELLA Mayor Angeles Muñoz fears the town may not be able to recover the millions owed following a ruling against nine people, including the four children of former mayor Jesus Gil.

MARBELLA Mayor Angeles Muñoz fears the town may not be able to recover the millions owed following a ruling against nine people, including the four children of former mayor Jesus Gil. This followed news that a court sentenced the Gil’s children to pay back more than €105 million to the town.

Between 1994 and 1999 Jesus Gil was deemed responsible for ‘causing losses’ to Marbella Town Hall estimated at €66.5 million to the town hall.

His death does not relieve him of the civil or financial responsibility derived from his position as mayor, which instead is passed on to his children, since they accepted his inheritance, and therefore his obligations.

Gil’s four children, Jesus, Miguel Angel, Fernando and Maria Angeles will now have to pay the €66.5 million plus €39.2 million in interest.

The sentence is in response to a lawsuit brought against them by the Public Prosecutor in November 2005 in which the town hall, with Angeles Muñoz as mayor, became involved three years later.

Also sentenced were: former deputy mayor, Pedro Roman, who will have to pay €66m, former councillors, Marisa Alcala (€7.4m), Rafael Gonzalez (€92.9m) and Antonio Luque (€15.5m), and former Mayor Julian Muñoz, sentenced to pay €15.5m.

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Footballer Marcos Alonso could face trial after a woman died in a car crash in Madrid.

The Bolton Wanderers defender crashed a BMW into a wall near Real Madrid's former training complex, not far from the Bernabeu, on Monday morning.

One woman suffered fatal injuries and another was seriously hurt. Mr Alonso's brother Miguel and former Real Madrid teammate Jaime Navarro were also hurt.

Mr Alonso, who was uninjured, allegedly failed a breathalyser test afterwards.

Police have not revealed what the breathalyser and subsequent blood test showed.

'Formal suspect'
Mr Alonso, 20, appeared before an investigating judge at a closed hearing on Monday evening.

The judge will have to decide if the player caused the accident and the girl's death. If the judge rules he caused the crash he could face a trial accused of involuntary manslaughter.

In a statement, the court said: "Magistrates' Court number four in Madrid yesterday released the footballer Marcos Alonso Mendoza after naming him as a 'formal suspect' in an alleged crime against road safety, a crime of intoxication, of accidental killing and causing accidental injury.

"In addition the judge has removed his driving licence as a precaution and he is banned from driving in Spain for the entire period of the court process."

Night out
Mr Alonso, who joined Bolton Wanderers from Real Madrid last summer, was at home in the Spanish capital on a weekend break.

It is understood he had been on a night out with his brother and Mr Navarro when they met the two women.

The emergency services said the car crossed into the opposite lane, overturned and collided with a wall.

One woman, who has been named only as Barbara, received severe head injuries and died 30 minutes after arriving at hospital.

The other, Teresa, suffered injuries to her thorax and is described as being in a serious condition.

Miguel Alonso also remains in hospital with three broken ribs and bruising to his lungs.

Mr Navarro broke his collar bone and was later released from hospital.

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Residents announce a hunger strike in Almogía to demand repairs to a local road

The group of locals in Almogía who have been holding a sit-in at their Town Hall since the beginning of March have announced a hunger strike, which Europa Press reports starts on Thursday, as they continue with their protests to demand repairs to a local road.

Eight kilometres of the A-7075 have been closed to traffic for the past 15 months, since it was affected by subsidence after heavy rainfall.

The group said in a statement on Wednesday that they want a written commitment from the Junta de Andalucía of the regional government’s support in addressing the problem. The group has accused both the Town Hall and the Junta of extortion, manipulation and obstruction during their two month protest.

 

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hunting club of Cartaya, Huelva province, is coming to the rescue to address the rabbit problem which is affecting Sevilla Airport.

The hunting club of Cartaya, Huelva province, is coming to the rescue to address the rabbit problem which is affecting Sevilla Airport.

The club’s president, Manuel Botillo, told El Mundo newspaper that the rabbit population around the airport is so great that the birds of prey they attract pose a serious threat to aircraft.

The club’s members have captured 100 rabbits in the past month, using ferrets to drive them out into nets which have been placed around the burrows. They were all set free in the designated hunting area of the Cartaya countryside last weekend, an area where the rabbit population has been seriously depleted by disease.

The club has applied for permission to deploy their ferrets and nets at the airport again this month, and hopes to repeat the operation periodically throughout the year.

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Spain's centuries-old Almadraba bluefin tuna fishing trade threatened by overfishing

The season for an ancient and spectacular tuna-fishing technique has begun off Spain's southwest coast amid fears it could disappear because fleets of factory ships in international waters are overfishing stocks.
In this method called almadraba in Spanish, fishermen here have stretched maze-like nets from sandy beaches to catch Atlantic bluefin tuna since a time when Phoenician traders sailed to these shores 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.
This laborious harvest, which includes lifting nets heaving with fish onto ships, is timed to coincide with annual migrations by tuna from the Atlantic to lay eggs in warm Mediterranean waters.
The fish, some as large as 10 feet (3 metres) long and weighing more than 1,430 pounds (650 kilograms), are hoisted on to ships and, while hanging from their tails, are drained of blood by slitting their gills to concentrate flavour in their deep red flesh. The churning sea water below turns red with blood.
Today bluefin tuna are a prized delicacy in top Tokyo restaurants where a thin slice prepared as sushi can fetch 2,000 yen ($24). Most of the catch is flash frozen and flown to auction at the Japanese capital's vast Tsukiji market. One large specimen fetched a record 32.49 million yen, nearly $396,000, in January.
These prices translate to about $526 (€350) per pound, a tempting booty for fishermen equipped to chase down and land almost any amount of fish at sea.
The seemingly insatiable demand for Atlantic bluefins has led to a serious depletion of stocks by fishing ships using the latest technology, including advanced sonar and spotter planes, to follow shoals and catch as many tuna as they can, said Marta Crespo, spokeswoman for a local association of almadraba fishermen.
"In recent times we have had seasons where almost no tuna were caught by us," said Crespo.
She said one of the problems was that factory ships have been allowed to indiscriminately catch and sell tunas as small as 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds).
"A tuna reaches maturity at 30 kilograms (66 pounds), so if people are allowed to fish and consume juveniles it will not be long before stocks are extinguished forever," Crespo said.
Most environmental groups say the almadraba technique does not represent a serious threat to the survival of bluefin tuna, but they agree overfishing by factory ships needs to be cut drastically to save the species.
Crespo said almadraba fishermen support environmental activists fully in a quest for greater regulation because they are worried their age-old trade could vanish.
In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas voted to reduce the bluefin fishing quota in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean from 13,500 to 12,900 metric tons annually — about a 4 per cent cut. It also agreed on measures to try and improve enforcement of bluefin quotas.
The decision was strongly criticized as inadequate by environmental groups. They hoped to see stronger action taken against large-scale bluefin fishing. Almadraba people favour a slashing of quotas to preserve tuna stocks.

 

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US special forces stormed Osama bin Laden's $1million hideaway in Pakistan.

Buildings went up in flames during the firefight which claimed the al-Qaeda leader's life.

Bin Laden was holed up in a house in a two-story house in the town of Abbottabad, about 60 miles north of the capital Islamabad.


US reports said it was one of the largest in an affluent neighbourhood. Built around five years ago, it was estimated to be worth around a million dollars (£600,000).

Surrounded by 18ft walls topped by barbed wire, the only access was through two security gates. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall.

Suspicions are understood to have been roused by the fact that no phone lines or internet cables ran to the property and the residents burned their rubbish rather than putting it out for collection.

The premises were located close to a military academy.

US Navy Seals launched a helicopter raid on the compound and killed bin Laden and three other men, including one of his son's.

Four choppers swooped in a pre-drawn raid.


Pakistani officials and a witness said bin Laden's guards opened fire from the roof of the building and one of the choppers crashed. The sound of at least two explosions rocked the small north-western town of Abbottabad where the al Qaida chief made his last stand.

The US said no Americans were harmed in the raid.

Bin Laden's remains were taken into custody and American officials said they were being handled in accordance with Islamic tradition. 




Abbottabad, home to at least one regiment of the Pakistani army, is dotted with military buildings and home to thousands of army personnel.

Surrounded by hills and with mountains in the distance, it is less than half a days drive from the border region with Afghanistan, where most intelligence assessments believed bin Laden was hiding.

Abbotabad resident Mohammad Haroon Rasheed said the raid happened at about 1.15am local time. "I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped.

Then more thundering, then a big blast," he said. "In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field."

A Pakistani official in the town said fighters on the roof opened fire on the choppers as they came close to the building with rocket propelled grenades.

Another official said four helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in north-west Pakistan.

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Former comedian killed in Morocco blast

Former stand-up Pete Moss has been named as one of the 16 victims of a bomb that exploded in a Marrakech café yesterday.
The father-of-two, who became an acclaimed travel writer after his time as a comedian, was thought to have been in the popular Argana café when the blast ripped through the building.
The Foreign Office confirmed that a Briton had died, but has not yet confirmed his identity. However, Mr Moss was named by the Jewish Chronicle, a paper he used to work for.
The 59-year-old had left his family property business in the Nineties to become a stand-up, then ‘reinvented’ himself again, as a travel writer.
In an interview with The Independent in 1994, Moss explained how he turned to comedy after receiving therapy to help him accept his emotions, rather than bottle them up.
He said: ‘Through therapy I have found my true vocation as a comedian. I could never have done it before. You can't make people laugh if you can't communicate with them.
‘I don't see [the therapist] any more. I guess I've just graduated to a different form of therapy. Comedy is my therapy now.’
He performed more than 2,000 times on the comedy circuit before finding his new vocation as a writer.
His friend Laurie Margolis told the BBC yesterday: ‘[Moss]was always trying to be someone other than what he was, and what he was was someone from a fairly wealthy background.
'He always wanted to be somebody different, and it made sense to be a stand-up comic.
‘And then he reinvented himself as a travel writer.'
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: 'I am deeply saddened by yesterday's explosion in Marrakech.
'We believe that a British national was amongst the 16 people killed. My thoughts are with their friends and families and all those affected by this distressing incident.
'We are in touch with next of kin and are offering them full consular support.’
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the remotely-triggered bomb.

 

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holidaymaker from Lancashire believes she is lucky to be alive after a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh, Morocco

holidaymaker from Lancashire believes she is lucky to be alive after a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh, Morocco, that left 16 people dead.

Genevieve Haines, from Garstang, had visited the Argana cafe in Djemaa el-Fna square, a major tourist spot, the night before the explosion.

She told the BBC she "felt very lucky" to avoid the blast, which killed 11 foreigners and injured 20 other people.

One Marrakesh official said a suicide bomber could be behind the attack.

Ms Haines said she had been returning to the city after visiting the Ouzuode Waterfalls when she heard about the explosion.

"It was only because I got a text off my friend asking if I was alright that I knew what had happened," she said.

Ms Haines said forensic examinations and clean-up operations were continuing at the square on Friday.

"After we'd seen what had happened we left the square because of the advice of the embassy," she said.

"The cafe where it happened was three storeys high and it looked like the bomb had gone off in the middle terrace, which is where all the tourists like to sit and overlook the square.

"[I felt] a bit worried because we were actually sat facing it last night, so obviously it could have been us if we hadn't have left and gone somewhere else.

"I obviously feel very lucky that we weren't there and directly involved, and sad for the people that have been injured and the people who have lost their lives in the incident."

Witnesses described hearing a huge explosion just before noon on Thursday that sent debris flying into the square.

Much of the facade from the cafe was blown away.

The UK Foreign Office is investigating reports one of the victims was British.

The last serious attack in Morocco was in Casablanca in 2003, when 45 people - including suicide bombers - were killed.

 

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Briton 'among 14 tourists killed by suicide bomber' in explosion at popular Marrakesh cafe

A British tourist was believed to be among 15 killed yesterday in a  terrorist attack in Marrakesh, Morocco’s most popular holiday destination.

Up to 80 victims were injured after a suicide bomber dressed in a Real Madrid shirt set off what is believed to have been a massive nail bomb.

The attack happened after the man ordered a drink in a cafe overlooking the Djemma el-Fna Square in the heart of the ancient city.

The Argana restaurant is hugely popular with British tourists, who used its terrace as a vantage spot to watch snake-charmers, fire-breathers and dancers.

 

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Palma prosecutor is seeking a two-year prison sentence for an alleged Chinese hit man accused of extorting a Chinese couple

Palma prosecutor is seeking a two-year prison sentence for an alleged Chinese hit man accused of extorting a Chinese couple. According to the prosecution, in April 2007 the defendant, now aged 49, tried to force the Chinese couple to buy out their business partner’s share of the restaurant at an exorbitant price, threatening to kill them if they did not.

The suspect, who police say is part of an organized crime gang dedicated to extortion and blackmail, denied the allegations during the hearing on Monday.

The male victim who reported the incident said their business partner, a woman, told them of her intention to sell her stake in the Chinese restaurant.

"We were asked for €50,000, but that seemed to be too much so we rejected the offer," he explained.

Instead of reducing the asking price, “she came to the restaurant with the accused and demanded €78,000. He told us if we did not accept he would get the Malaysian Mafia to come to the restaurant every night to collect the day’s takings, and if we stopped him, he would cut off our hands,” he told the court.

Hours later, the suspect allegedly returned to the restaurant and threatened them again. “He told me if I did not pay, I was dead. That he would cut off my arms and legs. I was very scared, because everyone knows he belongs to the mafia,” he said.

The victim’s wife echoed her husbands testimony and claimed that in 2004 they had paid €3,000 to the accused to avoid ‘problems.’

Following the arrest of the accused, police investigations revealed there were other victims of extortion by the gang.

Some victims had allegedly paid this ‘mafia’ gang €16,000 for fear of reprisals.

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THE owner of an Alicante ice cream parlour received a letter from her bank informing her that she had 90 days to pay €1,000 billion in interest

THE owner of an Alicante ice cream parlour received a letter from her bank informing her that she had 90 days to pay €1,000 billion in interest. Encarnacion Gomez, had the shock of her life upon opening the letter from the Guipuzcoano Bank and when she told her husband he thought she must have misread it.

But when Vicente Asencio checked the letter, it indeed stated the couple owed €1,000,000,000,030.89.

Fortunately, after contacting the branch, they were told it was a computer error and management sent a letter of apology to the couple. "They gave us a good scare," said Vicente.

Encarnacion and Vicente have run the establishment located in the Buevard del Pla neighbourhood for seven years.

With some irony, Vicente Asencio says, he would not have cared if he owed that much money because it would be "a sign that I have much more money. I assure you that if I had taken out ​​a loan with €1,000 billion of interest, I wouldn’t be working in an ice cream parlour,” he joked.

 

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BENIDORM theme park Terra Mitica opened its door for the first time this season receiving an estimated 10,000 visitors

BENIDORM theme park Terra Mitica opened its door for the first time this season receiving an estimated 10,000 visitors Much has changed following the renovation programme over the winter months. The areas are verdant and more nebulizers have been installed to help keep visitors cool. The park generally has a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere than previously.

Although not greatly publicised, admission on the first day was free to those who had the coupons. Those who weren’t aware of the scheme turned up and paid as usual. The free first day might have artificially boosted attendance, as on the following day there were noticeably fewer people at the park.

“I don’t think there were 10,000 people today” said Thomas Murdin on Sunday’s attendance,  adding “We were there most of the day and we didn’t have to queue once to get on any ride.”

Some say the basic problem that faces Terra Mitica is not that the concept is wrong or that the park needs updating or somehow “tweaking” to make it more attractive. The new owners have done a marvellous job in improving the experience. But it seems there simply aren’t the people available to fill its massive facilities.

What must be worrying for the new owners is the proposed construction of the new Paramount theme park in Murcia, just an hour away.

With its intended size covering the equivalent of 109 football pitches it will provide stiff competition for a finite market in difficult times.

The new owners of Terra Mitica would do well to concentrate on their core market of Benidorm visitors, for whom Murcia might as well be Florida in terms of distance.

The partnership with the colossus that is Benidorm, could well salvage the area’s biggest theme park. Only time will tell.

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18 hurt in Barcelona train crash

18 people were slightly injured at 10am on Thursday in a collision between two trains in a tunnel in Barcelona. A local cercanías commuter train ran into the back of an empty sleeper train close to the El Clot station.

Some 70 passengers were evacuated from the scene, and some were treated for cuts and bruises and whiplash. All managed to walk from the scene, guided by the fire and civil protection services.

Line 1 trains were diverted through Passeig de Gràcia.

 

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The lights go out in Jerez City Hall

A power cut as a result of an unpaid bill has paralysed the activity of Jerez City Hall. The collapse of the computer system meant that all activity had to be done by hand.

A council meeting, chaired by the Socialist Mayor, Pilar Sánchez, has to be suspended given the impossibility to approve and transmit the agreements and documents through the computer system.

The City Hall has called for ‘more understanding’ from the Endesa power company which is owed 3.1 million € by the ayuntamiento.

Public services in the city are now reported to be under threat because the City Hall has failed to meet other payments. Bus drivers are on strike today in protest at not being paid for three months, and the 2,500 municipal workers have only just been paid for March.

 

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Spanish submarine leaves Cartagena for Libyan waters

The Mistral will relieve the Tramontana on the mission to enforce an arms embargo on LibyaThe Defence Minister Carme Chacón at the Navy submarine base in Cartagena


The Defence Minister, Carme Chacón, was at the Spanish Navy submarine base in Cartagena on Tuesday to see off the ‘Mistral’ submarine, as it left to relieve the ‘Tramontana’ which is deployed in the operation to enforce an arms embargo on Libya.

The Tramontana has been in the area since March 26.

The Mistral is almost 26 years old and, with a top speed of six miles an hour, will take a week to reach its destination. It’s sailing with a crew of 62, including 7 seven women, who will be in Libyan territory until the first fortnight of July. EFE reports that it will then return to Cartagena for the quarterly revision which all submarines must undergo.

The Mistral will be under NATO orders during its Libya mission.

Admiral General Manuel Rebollo, Chief of Staff of the Spanish Navy, announced at the event that four new submarines, with a design and technology which are ‘genuinely’ Spanish, are currently under construction to relieve the older models. He noted however that both the Tramontana and the Mistral are both ready and able to take on new missions.

 

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