-
CARNAVAL has arrived and the streets of Mojacar will be
burst-ing with life as the joyful festivities fill the town with
colour fromFebruary 5 to February 12. The towns smallest residents
willkick off the celebrations as hundreds of local schoolchildren
par-take in a fun and vibrant parade from the Bartolome Flores
Pri-mary School to the town hall.
ISSUE NO. 1555 // 23 - 29 APRIL 2015ISSUE NO. 1596 4 - 10
February 2016 WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COMCOSTA DE ALMERA YOUR PAPER,
YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
A PAIR of high school students from Albox and El Elido set offon
an experience of a lifetime this week. Isabel and Eusebiowere
chosen to take part in a volunteer project in the city ofKlodska,
Poland as part of the ESV (European voluntary ser-vice)
initiative.
A YOUNG child was rescued af-ter neighbours spotted her
climb-ing over a balcony of a flat in Al-box. The young girl, said
to be ofAsian origin and home alone,
was clinging to the railings on thethird floor of the building.
A se-curity guard from a shoppingcentre and the officers rescuedthe
child.
Rescued from balconyChild in danger when left home alone
Trip to Poland for high school students
Experience of a lifetime
End of an era Fun and festivities for all the familyMojacar
Carnaval beginsSee page 2
POLITICAL opposition partiesin Mojacar have lodged an offi-cial
complaint against the newso-called public behaviour by-law. The law
was announced
by Mojacar Council last monthand included restrictions onanyone
wearing swimwearaway from the beach or swim-ming pool.
Ban on restrictions may hurt tourism
Complaint against by-law
GREAT Train Robber dies at Mojacar home
The so-called mastermind ofthe Great Train Robbery diedthis week
aged 86, at his homein Mojacar surrounded by hisfamily.
Douglas Gordon Goody, wasone of the last surviving mem-bers of
the infamous gang whorobbed a Glasgow-bound RoyalMail train in
1963, making offwith 2.6 million in cash (theequivalent of 50
million or al-most 66 million today).
Of Northern Irish descent,Goody grew up in South Lon-don where
he became a mem-ber of the South West Gangwhich included fellow
trainrobber Ronnie Biggs.
Said to have been the instiga-tor of the plan, Goody was 33at
the time of the robbery inLeburn, Buckinghamshire.
Goody evaded arrest for al-most three months until he wasfinally
captured at a hotel inLeicestershire.
Sentenced to 35 years inprison, he served 12 years ofthe
sentence, shortly afterwhich he retired to Spain wherehe met his
long-term partnerMaria.
Goody owned and ran theKontiki bar on Mojacar playaduring the
1980s and soon be-came a popular member of thecommunity.
Despite being pressed for in-formation, he only broke his
si-lence some 30 years later, giv-ing rare interviews in 2013.
During the interviews, hesaid his one regret was the
ca-reer-ending injuries sustained
by the train driver, Jack Mills,who was beaten over the headwith
an iron bar.
Goody suffered from em-physema for a number ofyears and recently
cut a frailfigure with his oxygen tank athis side.
Mojacar residents whoknew him posted messagesof respect on
social mediachannels.
By Adele Land
Phot
o Cr
edit
Spbo
rthw
ick
See page 6
See page 61
See page 64
-
CYCLISTS in Almeria face fines for using headphones undernew
legislation planned by the council which will also banthe use of
mobile phones, and riding under the influence ofdrugs, including
alcohol. Hoping to reduce accidents, theregime will also restrict
bicycles amid large gatherings ofpedestrians.
CARNAVAL has arrived and the streets ofMojacar will be bursting
with life as thejoyful festivities fill the town with colourfrom
February 5 to February 12.
The towns smallest residents will kickoff the celebrations as
hundreds of localschoolchildren partake in a fun and vibrantparade
from the Bartolome Flores PrimarySchool to the town hall.
Saturday February 6 will feature a cos-tume party, which will be
followed by thehanding out of assorted prizes for the party-goers
with the most imaginative and origi-nal costumes.
On Sunday February 7 there will be ahuge parade, which will
proceed from theRio Aguas roundabout, along the beach andall the
way to the Commercial Park. Theparade will feature floats of all
shapes andsizes.
The traditional Burial of the Sardine willtake place on Ash
Wednesday. MojacarsMunicipal Music Band will pay tribute tothe
buried fish while mournful guests snackon chocolate and
churros.
The festivities will draw to a close onFebruary 12 with a
chirigota competition inMojacar Multi-Use Centre. The free eventis
a surefire bet for all those wishing to fin-ish off their Carnaval
season with a bang.
NEWS4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN2
ACCORDING to the Loteriasy Apuestas del Estado, theState
lottery, at least one luckylottery ticket with a prize of300,000
was sold in Velez-Rubio for the latest draw.
Anyone in the area who hasnot checked their ticket shouldlook
out for number 19802and claim their share of theprize fund if they
are luckyenough to hold that number.
Lucky ticket soldLOCAL NEWS Carnaval arrives to
streets of Mojacar Riding restrictions
ALMERIA Province wasshaken and stirred by a rum-bling magnitude
4.5 earth-quake on Sunday January31.
The epicentre was 10 kilo-
metres deep in the AlboranSea, but caused no signifi-cant
damage.
This was one of 20 minorearthquakes that day echoingfrom the
sea.
Aftershocks go on
TRADITIONAL Burial of the Sardine will take place on Ash
Wednesday
COSTUME PARTY: Prize for the most imaginative and original.
By Sam Croft
flick
r by
Ichu
nt
-
3NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
FEATURED NEWS
Just what exactly has theEU ever done for us? BREXIT factions
pay tribute to Monty Python
SCRAMBLING to denounce Down-ing Streets praise of
Cameronsprowess in negotiations with EC pres-ident Donald Tusk, the
increasinglyfragmented Brexit factions risk beingcaricatured as an
unintentionalhomage to the Judea Peoples Front inA Life of
Brian.
So with the Romans already havingleft bronze-age Britain with
irrigationand public baths, what exactly has theEU ever done for
us?
Somewhat ironically, given the typ-ical charges levied against
the union,the greatest benefits have been offer-ing some modicum of
protectionagainst the unelected invisible mono-lith that is
international capitalism.Basic benefits such as inexpensivewine,
cheap flights, and a cap on mo-bile roaming charges, make an
unseendaily difference to our modern lives.
Other developments include clean-er air, lead-free petrol,
recycling, foodlabelling, hormone bans, price trans-parency,
holiday entitlement, labourrights, equal pay, collaborative
scien-tific research, diplomatic strength,
counter terrorism, police and militaryintelligence cooperation,
humanrights legislation, and straight ba-nanas.
Of course Norway is not officiallyin the EU and undeniably
enjoyingmany of the above benefits. It wouldbe ridiculous to
suggest that, by leav-ing the EU, Britain would by defini-tion sell
off all its assets to big fi-nance, enable 70-hour workingweeks,
pollute the rivers and decapi-tate political antagonists at
HerMajestys Pleasure.
The question revolves around polit-
ical philosophies. Many who are hap-py to remain in the EU
radiate a cer-tain mistrust of the direction Britainwould take
without the harness ofcollective regulations. They mightlook at the
legacy of Thatcherism, thetight knit relationship between hedgefund
management, government bu-reaucracy, media barons, the
militaryindustrial complex, and consider a su-perior arbitrator in
the peoples bestinterests.
Others, of course, might see the EUas an encroaching Trojan
horse whichessentially embraces a neo-liberalagenda, yet cloaks
motives in the in-spiring rhetoric of freedom andprogress. While
others simply believeBritain should be entirely sovereignand have
full control over borderpolicies and financial policies, givingfar
too much credence to the power oftheir government with or without
theEU.
The question isnt so much whathas the EU done for us? The
realquestion is what kind of Britainwould emerge without it?
YOU can find out whether, andhow you can vote in the Brexit
refer-endum by reading through this paper.
By Matthew Elliott
DAVID CAMERON: In negotiations with the President of the
European Council, Donald Tusk.
4 is the number of matters
requiring change to allow David Cameron torecommend that
Britainremains within the EU.
Baroness Brady
EVEN the beautiful game hasbeen caught up in the network
ofBrexit propaganda with BaronessBrady entering the fray.
According to her, an exit fromthe EU would have a
disastrouseffect on football, as it would befar more difficult for
EU playersto obtain work permits. This ofcourse assumes that in the
eventof an exit the government wouldnot take into account the
moneythat English football brings intothe country.
AGAINST exit
Crow
n Co
pyrig
ht C
redi
t: Ge
orgi
na C
oupe
Referendums neversettle anything
former Conservative chancellor andsupporter of EU membership
Kenneth
Clarke.
Quote of the Week
Readers Brian, Mike andMargaret discussed the storyat length on
the EWN web-site, these being a few keypoints.
To join the discussion go to:
http://www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0.15/news/on-euro-weekly-news/uk-news/136726-what-has-the-eu-ever-done-for-us
Your papers,your views
Camp EuropeFOR all its faults, the ongoingEU project is an
extremelyworthwhile ambition. Quitesimply we need it in order
toretain and push forward theundoubted progress that hasbeen made
since the end ofthe Second World War. Brian
Team BrexitIF the EU lasts much longerthan the British leaving,
anagreement will be put in placeto cover many things. Citizensdata
would continue to be ex-changed, trade deals wouldstill be made.
The EU hasmore to lose if they put con-crete blocks up to the
UK.Mike
On your bikeWE are entitled to live inSpain because we are
Euro-pean Union citizens. Withoutit all Brits are aliens andwould
not have the automaticright to live here, so 2.2 mil-lion of us
would need to geton our bikes back to the UK.Margaret
Lasting legacyTHERE are millions of peo-ple that will live in
the UK af-ter us. We cant ignore the fu-ture life and prospects for
allthose people because we thinkwe would not be able to spenda few
more years here in thesun. Mike
Britain-in-hidingIF we leave and let the Unioncollapse then wed
better pre-pare to leave our comfortzone too, as our economyshrinks
we expose ourselvesto Putins warlike intentionsand basically we
withdraw,cowering, into our little rabbithole. Brian
Friends with moneyTHE British are a major con-tributor to the
Spanish econo-my. Do you really think therewould not be some
arrange-ment made to accommodatethat massive economic marketthat
the British bring toSpain? Mike
-
IN an effort to increase the number ofGerman visitors to
Almeria, an agreementwas signed by the Almeria ProvincialCouncil
and the Tourism department ofthe Junta de Andalucia regional
govern-ment on February 1.
It will include specific actions in orderto strengthen the
number of visitors com-ing from Germany.
This is not the only initiative to be un-dertaken to generally
promote Almeria asa tourist destination, but the focus on Ger-many
is considered to be important forthe economy of the area.
Javier Aureliano Garcia of the AlmeriaCouncil stressed the
importance of anagreement which includes specific actionsand said:
The Provincial Tourism Ser-vice spends more than 2,000,000
toconsolidate and publicise the brand Costade Almeria, but that the
contribution ofthe Andalucian government will help con-
siderably to expand the promotion.Among the activities to be
covered by
the agreement to promote the brand Cos-ta de Almeria, will be
attendance at im-
portant tourism fairs, promotion cam-paigns nationally and
internationally, aswell as special familiarisation or
presstrips.
NEWS4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN4
INDEXNews 1 - 26
Featured News 3
Finance 31 - 35
Stocks 32
Leapy Lee 37
Our View 38
Colin Bird 38
Daily TV 46
Time Out 48 - 49
Letters 50
Health & Beauty 52 - 53
Social Scene 54 - 56
Albox 60 - 65
Homes & Gardens 66 - 67
Pets 68
Legally Speaking 70
Classifieds 73 - 75
Motoring 76 - 77
Sport 78 - 80
FOCUS on Germany is important for Almerias economy
AGREEMENT: Will promote the brand Costa de Almeria.
Encouraging moreGerman visitorsBy John Smith
Chart-topping fall in dole claimsCAUSE for cautious
optimismemerged from the latest unem-ployment figures, as
Almeriatopped the tables in Andaluciafor the biggest drop in
thoseseeking the paro (dole) in 2015.
With a significant drop of43,300 people, AlmeriaProvince saw
more than 20,000leave the list in the last quarteralone.
There are now 83,200 people
seeking employment benefits,which represents 25.13 per centof
the population.
Of the 83,200 unemployed,40,200 are men and 43,000 arewomen.
The male unemployment ratestands at 21.59 per cent, 2.1points
above the national aver-age, while the female ratestands at 29.67
per cent, 7.15points above the average.
-
A FAMOUS Almeria shoe de-signer is to open a branch ofthe
long-established Madridbased Superior Fashion andBusiness School
(ESME) inAlmeria on February 11.
Patricia Rosales has been anincredibly successful shoe
de-signer, at one time reputed toregularly produce the most
ex-pensive shoes in the world,and set up ESME in 2004when she was
just 23, which atthe time was the first school ofits kind in Spain
where stu-dents could learn about bothfashion and business.
Now, recalling her birth-place at the age of 35, she hasdecided
to open a branch of
the school in Almeria whichwill teach all areas of
fashiondesign, including weddinggowns and accompaniments,handbag
and accessories, cre-ation of fashion brands andequally importantly
how tomanage a fashion business.
In her opinion, too many de-
signers can produce greatlooking products but fail tomake any
money from it.
5NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
Fashion school toopen a branchALL areas of design will be
taught, including how to manage a business
By John Smith
Phot
o by
Kar
elno
ppe
Shut
ters
tock
FASHION SCHOOL: To be opened by Patricia Rosales.
Too many de-signers fail to
make any money.
THE 19th Almeria Half Marathon is set to take place onFebruary
7, and it will feature more runners than ever be-fore. The marathon
has consistently gained popularity yearafter year, and this time
around 2,850 people are expectedto take part.
Almeria Mayor Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco said that themarathon is
one of the most anticipated events on thecitys sports and social
calendar. He expressed his extremesatisfaction at the degree to
which Almeria residents haveembraced the annual race.
This year, in addition to the half marathon, there will bea
lighter Nine Healthy Kilometres option, for those whofind the
prospect of running 21 a little too daunting.
There will also be a childrens race which will be heldon
February 6.
Half Marathon time again in Almeria
OFFICERS of the Guardia Civ-il in Vicar have reported thecase of
a person to judicial au-thorities on January 28, whohas made a
false claim of rob-bery presumably in order toclaim against
insurance.
According to the so-calledvictim, they were mugged by aman and
woman who suppos-edly stole a mobile phone val-ued at 460, 20 in
cash andtheir DNI document.
When making the statementhowever the victim showedthe alert
officers a DNI with adate prior to the robbery, whichgave them
reason to doubt theveracity of the report and pre-sent the matter
to the courts.
Insurancefalse claim
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN6 NEWS
A MAN was injured when he lost control of his car on themotorway
near Vera.
The 49-year-old had to be cut free from the vehicle byfiremen
and was taken to hospital in Huercal-Overa suffer-ing from minor
injuries.
JOHN DAVIES was theman behind Tar le tonTravel, an
independenttour opera tor whichbrought holidaymakersto Mojacar and
otherresor ts in AlmeriaProvince.
Many homeowners inMojacar will rememberusing the Tarleton bus,to
travel to and from theairport.
The business later ex-panded into offering hol-idays
worldwide.
Davies l ived in Mo-jacar with his wife Fan-ny, and their son
Michaelhas a legal pract ice inthe town.
POLITICAL opposition partiesin Mojacar have lodged an of-ficial
complaint against thenew so-called public behaviourby-law.
The law was announced byMojacar Council last month,and included
restrictions onwearing swimwear away fromthe beach or swimming
pool,and a ban on wearing fancy-dress costumes in
publicstreets.
Socialist party (PSOE)leader, Manuel Zamora,lamented that the
law wouldhave a negative impact ontourism and a knock-on effecton
the towns economy.
He argued that stag and henparties bring income to the re-sort
and they shouldnt be sin-gled out as troublemakers orvandals.
Somos Mojacars JessicaSimpson, said the law wasvery vague and
open to vari-ous interpretations dependingon personal views.
Simpson added that the lawwas another nail in the coffinfor
Mojacars tourist industry,
and compared it to the much-discussed anti-noise law,passed in
2014, which resultedin a group of girls allegedly be-ing fined some
4,200 follow-ing a complaint about noise.
Mojacar Council has not yetresponded to the complaint.
Mojacar independenttour operatorfounder diesONE of the
much-loved residents diedlast weekend
Man rescued afterlosing control of car
By Adele Land
Opposition groupsby-law complaintTHERE are concerns over its
effect on tourism in the area
FANCY DRESS: To be banned on Mojacar streets.
-
AFTER receiving a reportthat racing pigeons andequipment worth
890 hadbeen stolen from a farm-house on the Nijar boundary,a joint
investigation waslaunched by officers of theGuardia Civil and Local
Po-lice.
This was the second theftof its kind and as the firsthoming
pigeons stolen hadnot managed to find theirway home, the
suspiciousowner had affixed transmit-ters to his other pigeons,
sothe officers were able to usea GPS service to track
theirwhereabouts.
The transmitters indicatedthat they were in a local Ni-jar
residence and when thepolice called at the address,they found the
pigeons and
the missing equipment. Theythen searched a property ad-jacent to
the residence andfound additional equipmentand more stolen
pigeons.
The lucky pigeons havebeen returned to their right-ful owner and
two men willbe facing bird of their ownwhen they appear in
court.
7NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
By John Smith
Recovery of racingpigeons by police EQUIPMENT was found and more
stolen pigeons ON January 28, officers of
the National Police raideda f la t in Almeria wherethey arrested
two menaged 30 and 32 and seized228 marihuana plants, allof which
were growing in-side the property.
When they entered theproperty, the off icersfound that the
plants were
in various stages of devel-opment and the growershad fans,
electr ic t rans-formers and light bulbs il-legally connected to
thepublic electric network.
The house also had aroom used exclusively forselling drugs,
where mari-huana and hash wereseized.
ON Sunday January 31, four people were injured in Cuevasde
Almanzora as a consequence of the crash of two vehicleson the A-352
road. All the injured were taken to the Hospi-tal de la Inmaculada
according to Andalucia Emergency Ser-vice 112.
In addition another accident occurred on A-7 in Almeriaresulting
in two people being taken to Torrecardenas Hospi-tal and two being
treated at the scene of the crash.
Eight injured in 2separate crashes
Drugs foundin Almeria flat
DoubletroubleTWO thieves have been ar-rested in one night in
Alme-ria as officers apprehendedan 18 and 33-year-old inseparate
incidents. Theyoungster was found rob-bing a van, while the
otherman was stealing a bike.
New hope A NEW project launchedby the Spanish Red Crosshopes to
reduce the num-ber of children expelledfrom school. The
charityhopes to enhance pupilengagement in education.
Sky pilotVULNERABLE coastalzones will be monitored byaerial
drones with laserscanners to study erosion inCostacabana, Almeria.
Thetechnology will check engi-neering work, beach quali-ty and
climate changes.
NEWS EXTRA
HOMING PIGEON: Now returned to its owners.
Phot
o Cr
edit
guen
term
anau
s sh
utte
rsto
ck
-
NEWS4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN8
A COLLABORATIVE initiative to provide fireprevention services
throughout Almeria Provincehas fallen through, after the city and
provincialcouncils haggled over costs.
The two official bodies had discussed the moveextensively and,
after an initial concord, failed tofollow through.
The original idea was for the city council to
provide firefighters and services to all the townsof less than
20,000 residents in the province.
The controversy emerged after the initial esti-mation of costs
generated a figure of 900,000,but the head of the fire department
then calculatedan additional 650,000 for travel and special
ser-vices expenses.
The city has now decided it wants a more ex-haustive financial
report to determine the precisecosts involved.
A TECHNOLOGICAL development programme, pioneered bythe Almeria
Chamber has helped dozens of small and mediumenterprises implement
new solutions for the business needs.
The TIC Camaras programme identifies the key needs of abusiness
and coordinates improvements with Feder fundingfrom the EU.
The objective is to improve the competitiveness of small
andmedium-sized businesses, by enhancing their capabilities
inelectronic commerce, web systems, online marketing and
socialnetworks.
A BRITISH man has been ar-rested by Guardia Civil and re-manded
for allegedly glassinganother man during a fight.
Emergency services attendedthe scene in a square in Par-taloa,
the victim was rushed tohospital in Huercal-Overa hav-ing sustained
a deep gash to theneck, where he remains in criti-cal
condition.
By Matthew Elliott
Fire initiativefalls throughWARRING council factions cancel
their agreement
New tech drive Man critical
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-
GUARDIA CIVIL officersfrom Garrucha have arrestedthree men in
Mojacar pueblofor alleged possession oflarge quantities of
marihua-
na plants.The men, aged 19, 24 and
26 and residents of Turre andMojacar were apprehendedfollowing a
tip-off from aneighbour.
During a period of surveil-
lance on a property in thepueblo, the officers noticedthe
windows of the housewere boarded up and fanswere running
24-hours-a-day.
A total of 103 marihuanaplants were seized from the
property, along with driedmarihuana and paraphernaliaused for
cultivating theplants.
The men were detained andwill appear in court in Gar-rucha.
www.euroweeklynews.com NEWS4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
AlmeraEWN10
By Adele Land
WINDOWS of the house were boarded up and fans were running all
day
MILD weather is an attraction
Three arrested in drug raidPro-cycling teamsbegin their winter
training in Mojacar
DRUGS BUST: More than 100 plants were confiscated.
THE first of the winters cycling teams have begun toarrive in
Mojacar.
For more than a decade, European cycling teams,including
Rabobank, have chosen the town as theirtraining base between
January and May.
Teams from Belgium and Holland choose the resort,citing the
challenging and diverse routes in the areaand roads with little
traffic as the main attractions aswell as the mild weather
temperatures.
The main base for the teams is the Marina Playa ho-tel where a
section of the garage has been converted toprovide a maintenance
area for the cycles.
Illegal hunters caught Bar blaze underinvestigation AGENTS from
Seprona, the flo-
ra and fauna protection branchof the Guardia Civil ,
arrestedthree men who were in posses-sion of illegal baits.
The men were apprehended inPurchena carrying five leg trapsand
three balls of poisoned bait.
Leg traps are illegal due to thesuffering they cause the
animalwhen it is caught, and the use ofpoisoned bait is also
banned.
The poison was sent to a labo-ratory in Malaga for analysis
andthe men will appear in court inPurchena.
FIREFIGHTERS were called to the scene of afire at a bar near
Huercal-Overa.
The property, near the turn off to La Mena,sustained serious
damage to most of the interiorbut nobody was injured.
An investigation is under way to establish thecause of the
fire.
-
Your Belgian estate agent at the coast!Your Belg
THE president of the 23rdGeneral and Family Medi-cine
Conference, which willtake place in Granada inMay, will be general
practi-tioner Francisco Llave, whoworks in the emergencyarea of
Almerias El Toyohospital.
With 3,000 health profes-sionals expected to attendthe
conference and morethan 100 sessions planned,the conference is
intendedto assist general practition-ers with their day to
dayneeds, as wel l as updatethem with latest develop-ments.
Dr Llave confirmed when
the conference was announcedthat the medical activity istightly
linked to the social ac-
tivity and the present day.Special attention is to be
paid to coping with chronic
diseases and there will beworkshops on training pro-fessionals
in new methods.
PLANS are afoot to createa thematic route through-out Almanzora
with the re-gions meat products theprime attraction.
The idea was mooted bythe Andalucian govern-ments culture and
tourismrepresentative to the town,as part of a wider initiativeto
promote gastronomicaltourism across southernSpain.
Ham would naturally bethe star of the show, whichwas inspired by
the re-gions cuisine receiving anexcellent reception at atourism
fair in Madrid.
The culture representa-tive also praised Almeriassuccess in
attractingtourists last year, withroughly 1,253,000 visitingthe
province, and said thatthe future holds even morepotential.
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN12 NEWS
Evacuation after fire in Velez-Rubio
Medical conference MeatparadeWILL take place in May and
Francisco Llave has been confirmed as the president
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS: Around 3,000 are expected to attend.
By John Smith
Locked inAN operation saw an 82-year-old woman rescued byLocal
Police and firemen inAlmeria, after being lockedin her house by her
grand-son for two days withoutfood or water. She wasdeemed fine but
her grand-son has not been found.
Marine areaTWO zones in Almeriahave been given environ-mental
protection by theEU. The southern Seco deLos Olivos area, and
theAlboran marine area nowhave the highest level ofprotection
afforded inAndalucia.
Navy drillTHE Spanish Navy flexedits muscles in Almeriaport with
a display of theMendez Nunez frigateduring its NATO drill .The huge
vessel can hold200 people.
NEWS EXTRA
FOUR people had to be evacuated after afire in a residence in
Velez-Rubio.
The fire occurred around 6.30am on Jan-uary 31 and firefighters,
Guardia Civil, the
Local Police and Civil Protection all attend-ed the scene.
According to data from the Civil Protec-tion, the fire
originated in the basement of
the building, which will now have to beevaluated by a technical
team, who will as-sess whether it is appropriate or not for
theresidents to return.
-
AGE SUPPORT in Arboleas is keen to ensurepensioners in the area
are equipped with theknowledge they need to make life easier.
Volun-teer Liz Carey has put together a number of use-ful fact
sheets with information on handy hintsand tips.
This weeks subject is the Andalucia 65 card.The card gives
access to services and dis-
counts in many ways. The card, known as the sesenta y cinco
card
is available to residents over the age of 65 living
in any town in Andalucia. There are two different types of card
and fur-
ther information can be found by contactingyour local town hall
or on the Junta de Andalu-cia regional government website.
Benefits include reduced long-distance bustravel, discount on
items such as hearing aidsand glasses, or special adaptions to your
home.
Entrance to attractions such as the AlhambraPalace is offered at
a discounted price to cardholders as well as cheap hotel
accommodation.
For more information, visit www.juntadeandalucia.es and search
for sesenta y cinco card.
13NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
By Adele Land
Discount card forlocal pensionersBENEFITS include discounts on
hearing aids and glasses
A MAN was caught in theact of burgling a house inNijar.
Guardia Civil officers at-tended the house after be-
ing alerted by a neighbour,who allegedly had seen aman breaking
into theproperty in the San Isidroneighbourhood.
A 20-year-old man wasarrested at the scene and isbelieved to be
linked to astring of burglaries in thearea.
Nijar burglar is caught red- handed breaking into a house
-
SPEAKING up for local resi-dents, the mayor of Nijar, Es-peranza
Perez, has denouncedthe claims by the sub-dele-gate of Almeria that
fearsover the recent spate of rob-
beries in the municipality area little exaggerated.
She argued that minimisingsuffering is not the way for-ward, and
pointed out thatthere is not a large enoughGuardia Civil presence
tocover the needs of Nijar.
An aura of insecurity hasplagued the town, with resi-dents
claiming three to fourrobberies per day are fuellingfear and
anxiety.
Meetings are scheduled inthe near future to discuss thesituation
and possible solu-tions, after roughly 600 peo-ple took to the
streets inprotest. San Isidro is the epi-centre of the crime
wave,which has lasted more than amonth.
Ms Perez has also calledfor a new Guardia Civil sta-tion in the
locality to replacethe current one she describedas obsolete,
referencing thefact that its facilities are de-signed for 1980s
needs, andis far from equipped to dealwith an anticipated
summerinflux of visitors.
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN14 NEWS
A GOAT had a lucky escape after be-coming trapped in a hole
amongstboulders near the Playa Macenas golfcourse in Mojacar.
Animal lover Sandra DArcy spottedthe distressed animal while out
walk-ing her dogs, and posted a message onthe Mojacar Forum
Facebook page.
Members quickly responded and lo-cal businessman and Equinac
volun-teer, Alex Lawson and wife EuroWeekly News reporter Adele
Land,dashed to the scene along with Ms
DArcy and her husband.After a long struggle they managed
to free the creature, who appeared a lit-tle battered and
bruised but generallyin good shape.
With the help of local vet AstridSchroder, the owner of the goat
was lo-cated and headed to the scene to attendto the animal.
Golf course goat isrescued from a hole
LUCKY ESCAPE: Goat was pulled free
relatively unharmed.
Crime in Nijar is exaggerated
A MAN has died following anaccident involving a tractor
inHueral-Overa.
The 83-year-old farmer wascollecting olives in a field
nearAvenida Jaen, when the tractorhe was driving tipped over
ontohim.
Man dies
-
ZURGENA municipal gymis set to reopen this week af-ter
undergoing some mod-ernisation.
Located in the Jardines deAlmanzora area of the town,the centre
has a range ofmachines available includ-ing spinning bikes
andtreadmills as well as chang-ing rooms, physiotherapyroom and a
range of fitness
equipment.People can pay on a daily
basis or take out a monthlymembership from 25 permonth.
The gym wil l be openMonday to Friday from10am to 9pm and on
Satur-days from 10am to 5pm.
Zurgena mayor, Luis Di-az, said he hoped the facilitywill help
improve the healthand well-being of the townsresidents.
15NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
By Adele Land
Gym reopensto the publicCENTRE has a range of equipment
A WOMAN has died afterbeing hi t by a car in Al-box.
The 73-year-old wascrossing the street on Calle28 Febrero when
she wasrun over.
She was rushed to hospi-tal in Huercal-Overa whereshe later
died.
A man has been arrestedin connection with the in-cident and
charged withreckless homicide.
Elderly woman dies
Bull schoolOPEN door speeches is aconcept organised by
theAlmeria Municipal Bull-fight School where studentslearn about
the world ofbullfighting. At the GuitarMuseum Antonio Torres
onFebruary 5, 12, 19 and 26.
Next NadalAIMED at young begin-ners, Pechina will host aTennis
Education Con-ference including afriendly competition.Taking place
on March 5and 12, registration isopen until February 25.
All lit up AN UNHOLY alliance be-tween the regional govern-ment
and an electricitycompany will seek to bringthe heavens to La
Alcazabain Almeria, with a new illu-mination system in theworks for
2017 as part ofan Andalucia wide project.
NEWS EXTRA
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN16 NEWS
A fistful of dollarsBOOMING business for Almeria hotels courtesy
of films
INSCRIPTIONS discovered on a holocaust memorial monu-ment are
being investigated by the Almeria Council whohave ordered the
cleaning and restoration of the tribute inParque de las
Almadrabillas. The site consists of 142columns and has been
declared a Place of Historical Memo-ry by the Andalucian
government. At least 20 of the columnswere found with Arabic
writing scrawled on them.
Disrespect of site
HOTELS are reaping the benefits of Alme-rias second golden age
as the province rein-forces its image as an ideal film
productionset. Indeed, with a capacity rate of approach-ing 100 per
cent, it is becoming difficult to
find a room in the capital even in February. The nearby Tabernas
desert in particular is
proving a fertile ground for production crewsif not plants.
Recent productions includePenny Dreadful, Game of Thrones, and
As-sassins Creed, following the footsteps ofSergio Leones western
classics.
By Matthew Elliott
Phot
o by
OSS
OBU
KO v
ia S
hutte
rsto
ck
FILM SET: The Tabernas desert is proving a fertile ground for
crews.
PATIENTS and rela-tives alike are delightedwith a new visiting
sys-tem inaugurated at theTorrecardenas hospital.
As reported by theEuro Weekly News, avisitation system aimedat
ensuring maximalcomfort and rest for pa-tients was recently
ini-tiated and has alreadyseen rave reviews ac-cording to
hospitalmanager Francisca An-ton.
It came about in re-sponse to patient re-quests that only
twoguests be allowed perpatient in order to easevisitations and
preventcongestion in the ward.The visit timetable willalso remain
the sameand will not change inwinter and summer toprevent
confusion.
Goodpractice
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN18 NEWS
WITH nigh on 100 colleagues cheering heron, Isabel Fernandez Lao
has been selected asnurse of the year in Almeria. The womanfrom
Abla has worked in the Almeria Centroand Nueva Andalucia facilities
and now livesin Aguadulce.
The married mother-of-three showed mod-esty in accepting her
award, saying that, inher opinion, any nurse is worthy of such a
ti-tle. She was praised for her daily work andthe enthusiasm she
brought to the centre eachday.
Nurse ofthe Year
A FLYING pensioner who careered into thedeep blue sea at
Almerimar beach, near ElEjido, after his plane suffered serious
faultswill have the crash investigated by theGuardia Civil. The
84-year-old pilot swamout of the water himself and was found
bypolice who took him to Poniente hospital fora medical test. The
plane was reportedlyheading to Almeria airport from Murcia.
Plane crashpilot swimsashore
A WAVE of robberies hasstruck local Almeria taxi dri-vers with
the scourge begin-ning last summer and continu-ing well into the
new year.
The modus operandi sees
villains posing as customers,with one sitting behind the dri-ver
and grabbing his neckwhile the other rummagesthrough his pockets,
stealingmoney, valuables and docu-ments.
The majority of the inci-
dents have reportedly takenplace in the
Torrecardenasneighbourhood and an emer-gency meeting has been
calledbetween taxi drivers and LocalPolice to discuss how best
toavoid being victimised by thebandits.
Highway to hellTAXI drivers are targeted in spate of
robberies
By Matthew Elliot
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN20 NEWS
GARRUCHA Council is inviting peopleto donate old or broken
mobile phones toraise funds to help combat a rare child-hood
disease.
Tays Sachs disease affects children un-der the age of four. It
causes progressivedeterioration of the nerve cells, in mostcases
eventually resulting in death.
The initiative was launched in collabo-ration with Almeria
association ACTAYS.
Phones can be handed in at the publiclibrary.
MOJACARS extreme mountain bike event La Mojaquerais set to
return in April.
The challenging course takes riders from Marina de laTorre,
along the beachfront, up through La Parata and theSierra Cabrera,
finishing near Mojacars football ground.
This year will be the sixth edition of the event and is
ex-pected to attract top riders from across Spain.
A maximum of 500 riders can take part and informationcan be
found at zonarfec.com.
DURING a visit to Tabernas, Rural Employment DevelopmentPlan
delegate for Almeria, Guillermo Casquet, expressed hissatisfaction
with the improvement works achieved so far.
The council itself has ploughed in the princely sum of392,000 in
order to extend the cemetery, improve certaintown streets and
childrens playgrounds and engage in cleaning,clearing, pruning,
weeding and painting work.
WATER company, Galasa,will save some 300,000 ayear thanks to a
new pipe-line funded by the provi-sional government. Theconnection
to the pipelinewill significantly reduce op-erational costs for the
com-pany and improve services.
New pipes
Rural reforms
Inscriptions open
Old phones can help infight against rare diseaseBy Adele
Land
TAY SACHS disease affects children under the age of four
OLD PHONES: Can be handed into the public library.
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN22 NEWS
THE British Ambassador Simon Manleythis week launched a major
campaign tomake expats aware that they may be eligibleto have their
say in the EU referendum, pro-vided they register to vote in good
time.
Speaking at a meeting with representa-tives of the expat
community to launch theregistration campaign, Mr Manley said:
In-terest among expats in the EU referendumis high, but awareness
that you may be ableto vote is low. We want as many expats
aspossible to be aware that they can have theirsay.
Some 283,000 Britons are registered onthe padron as residents in
Spain, but just11,000 are registered to vote in the UK. Sothe vast
majority of expats will miss out onhaving their say in the
referendum, unlessthey take a few simple steps.
To register as an overseas voter, you musthave been registered
in a UK constituency
within the last 15 years. All you have to dois visit
www.gov.uk/register-to-vote withyour passport details and National
Insur-ance number to hand, and the postcode ofwhere you last lived
in the UK.
You can choose how you want to vote, bypost, by proxy (voting by
appointing some-
one you trust to vote on your behalf), oreven in person if by
chance you will be inyour UK local authority area on polling
day.
All it takes is five minutes to register.And because overseas
voters must allowenough t ime for their ballot paper to beposted
from the UK, you should do it now
rather than wait for the final deadline, atwhich point i t may
be too la te to use apostal vote effectively.
Postal ballot papers will be despatchedabout a month ahead of
the referendum, ear-lier than for the General Election last
year,giving overseas voters more time to receive,complete, and
return their ballot pack to theUK.
Just as in the UK, you need to register an-nually. So if you
registered as an overseasvoter for last years General Election,
youneed to renew your registration for the EUvote.
The Embassy is urging Brits to pass onthe register to vote
message via its Britsliving in Spain accounts on Facebook
andTwitter, the expat media and a wide rangeof partners that work
with the British Con-sulates in Spain.
You can find out more about the Registerto Vote campaign at
www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
THE railway project AVEAlmeria has continued itslacklustre epic
of drawnout bureaucratic shambles,as work stopped yet againon the
construction of thestretch between Pulpi andCuevas del
Almanzora,and between Lucainena delas Torres and
Almeriacapital.
Social unrest engulfedthe region as residents de-manded a 21st
centurytrain system last year, anda contract for the workswas
awarded in July.
Six months later, how-ever, the machines haveceased operating,
and theworkers are hangingaround waiting on ordersfrom above.
It will be months, oreven years, before the bu-reaucratic rabbit
hole be-gins to make sense and res-idents needs are put first.
The AVEnightmarecontinues
By Matthew Elliot
Expats may be eligible tovote in the EU ReferendumTHE British
Embassy has launched a major awareness campaign
REGISTER TO VOTE: It must be done in good time.
-
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN24 NEWS
ECOLOGISTS are pleading with the An-dalucian government not to
proceed withthe construction of a bar in a protected areaof
Monsul.
Friends of the Natural Park in Cabo deGata-Nijar say they have
collected 80,000
signatures against the plans, and that an en-vironmental centre,
not a bar, had previous-ly been agreed.
Monsul is one of the last unspoilt stretch-es of the
Mediterranean and its peculiarecology, rich minerals, fossilised
beachesand volcanic formations are deeply cher-ished across
Europe.
A CULTURAL ex-change between Spainand Japan is the goalof a new
project,which hopes to makeAlmeria the hub oflanguage
immersioncourses and local dis-ciplines.
The JAPAES cultur-al centre will work intandem with
Almeria-based Japanese com-pany Kanami. The organisers hopenot only
to attractJapanese visitors, butto establish a fullyfledged
cultural centrein Almeria devoted tocreating an academic,cultural
and entrepre-neurial environmentfor people to explore.
JAPAES has beenrecognised in Japanfor its business
initia-tive.
Orientexpress
By Matthew Elliot
Ecologists areagainst planDONT want construction to destroy
Monsul habitat
CONSTRUCTION: Andalucian government has plans to build a
bar.
Phot
o by
Nik
ater
via
Wik
iped
ia
FEBRUARY is a busy monthfor the Albox branch of theRoyal British
Legion, whichhas announced the followingline-up for the next
fewweeks.
The coffee morning willtake place as usual at La Par-rilla in
Albox on ThursdayFebruary 4. Pop along at
10.30am and have a drink anda chat with friends.
Dont forget to take any un-wanted gifts or good as
newbric-a-brac items that can besold on the poppy stall, to
raisemoney to help the RBL contin-ue to improve the lives of
ser-vice people, veterans and theirfamilies.
On Sunday February 7 thebranch is holding a stall at thecar boot
sale at El Teatro inPiedra Amarilla. The eventstarts at 10am.
Guest speaker at the meet-ing on Thursday February 18will be Lin
Oldham, talkingabout her time in the WRENs.The meeting will start
at 11am.
Royal British Legion, Alboxbranch February news
Spectrum FM in Almeria SPECTRUM FM Costa Almeria has announced
that new state of the art transmitters and antennashave now been
installed at all their transmission sites, improving quality of
service for thousandsof listeners across Almeria and Costa
Calida.
Richard Shanley of Spectrum FM said: This is great news for
listeners and advertisers alike.We will now be reaching in excess
of 2,700 square kilometres of our beautiful area.
-
25NEWS 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com EWN
MORE than a thousand students at schools inHuercal-Overa took
part in a peace rally to markthe day of non-violence and peace in
schools.
The day is celebrated across Spain every yearon the closest
school day to January 30.
The children held a minutes silence and 12
doves of peace were released.The ceremony, held in the Plaza de
la Paz, was
attended by the towns mayor, Domingo Fernan-dez, and the
education councillor, Belen Mar-tinez.
Fernandez said the event was an opportunityfor children to
understand there is no place for vi-olence in the classroom.
THE children held a minutes silence
School peace daycelebrations
By Adele Land
RESIDENTS of Arboleas willfind it easier and more conve-nient to
recycle rubbish andunwanted goods thanks to anew clean point
(PuntoLimpio) recycling area.
The 400,000 project was80 per cent funded by the Eu-ropean
cohesion fund of wastemanagement and has generat-ed employment in
the town.
Residents can dispose of all
types of goods including liq-uid waste, oils,
photographicmaterials, household goodsand garden waste.
There are special unloadingbays in each area.
Waste disposal made easy
SPREADING PEACE: A dozen doves were released.
Mojacarseen on canvasVISITORS to Mojacar Pueblowere treated to a
display ofartwork depicting scenes fromaround the village.
A competition organised bythe Mojacar is Pueblo asso-ciation
attracted a number ofartists from around the areaand some 25 pieces
of art-work were on public display.
Jose Luis Cortes won thefirst prize with his aerial viewof
Mojacar, with Ana Sanchezand Manuel Sanchez takingsecond and third
place.
-
BASING their inventive tapason films shot in AlmeriaProvince, 40
bars and restau-rants participated in the thirdTapas de Pelicula
festival.
The winner was declared asLa Tahon Vieja for the tapabased on A
Fistful of Dollars,while Whatsabi Sushi & Tapaswon second with
Game ofThrones tapas, and La Encimaa close third with Lawrence
ofArabia.
The region is famous world-wide for its impressive
desertshooting.
GASTRO-TOURISM could beon the agenda for the Almanzo-ra valley,
thanks to a proposalby Junta de Andalucia regionalgovernments
tourism delegate,Alfredo Valdivia.
Validivia held a meetingwith mayors and businessmenfrom the
various towns and an
agreement was made to devel-op a gastronomy route in
thearea.
The project will allow visi-tors to the area to taste and en-joy
food products grown ormade in the Almanzora valleyand put the area
on the map foralternative tourism.
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN26 NEWS
RESIDENTS of Zurgenajoined together to raisemoney for a young
boy suf-fering from Perthes disease.
Hundreds of peoplepacked out the local sportspavilion to watch a
charityfootball match betweenZurgena and Murcian team,Jumilla and
the event raised
more than 1,300.The funds raised will go
towards helping Dani, ayoung boy from the villagewho suffers
from the raredisease. Perthes disease is acondition which affects
thehip, when the blood supplyis cut temporarily and caus-es the
bone cells to die.
Neighbours rallyto help youngboy in Zurgena
Film tapas in Almeria
Tasty tours agenda
FESTIVAL of food modelled on desert films is a huge hit
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS: The winner of the most inventive tapa.
By Adele Land
PHOTOBY
MOV
IESTUD
IO
-
MEMBERS of a community web-forum haveraised 500 through various
activities throughoutthe year and will donate the money to a
localcharitable group.
The Arboleas forum, founded by Gary Bastin,has more than 500
members and achieves morethan 300,000 page views per month.
The forum pages are maintained by volunteersand all monies
raised go to charity.
Gary described the forum as an honest, open
platform for exchange of views, news andevents.
The funds raised will be handed to FACE(Fundraising in Arboleas,
caring for everyone) atan upcoming event.
The forum celebrates its first anniversary this
month and members are set to enjoy a fun-packednight at Maloans
bar on Saturday (February 6),with music and dancing from Dusty
Boots andAtlantis. Both artists are performing free.
Mr Bastin will hand over the cheque to a repre-sentative from
FACE.
VERA hosted the fourth edition of the beach rugby tournament.
Atotal of 10 teams from across Spain took part in the event
whichtook place on one of the towns beaches.
This years winners were CRC Madrid, with Granada Rugby andCosta
Almeria in second and third place.
Sports councillor Pedro Garcia and youth councillor
BelmonteCaparros attended on behalf of the town council along with
repre-sentatives from event sponsors SAMA2005.
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.comEWN28 NEWS
Community forum supports charity
Beach-rugby title
MONEY is raised by members from various activities held
throughout the yearBy Adele Land
FANS of electronic music willbe able to enjoy three days
ofrevelling as the third edition ofthe event is to return in
August.
The three-day music festivalwill take place from August 11
at its regular venue in Villari-cos. Many artists are
alreadyconfirmed including latest addi-tions, the UKs Jamie
Jones,along with Dutch Claw fromHolland.
Dreambeach line-uphots up for August
-
By John Smith
DESPITE the doom and gloom be-ing spread through the stock
mar-kets and the economies of oil pro-ducing nations due to the
rapid fallin the wholesale price of oil, Royal
Dutch Shell is about to invest $49billion (45 billion) to take
over oiland gas exploration company BGGroup.
This expenditure, which isgreater than the annual GDP of
107countries and equal to that of Slove-
nia, shows both the wealth of thiscompany as well as its
commitmentto the production and sale of fossilfuels and natural
gas.
Unlike rival BP, Shell has not hadto expend large amounts of
moneyto clean up environmental spills.
SMOKERS: Number has reduced due to regulations.
LONDON - FTSE 100 DOW JONES NASDAQ-0.02% +2.47% +2.22%CLOSING
PRICES FEBRUARY 1
IBEX 35 +0.87%
SPAINS second largest daily newspa-per El Mundo, which sells
just over180,000 copies each day, is looking toreduce its staffing
levels by about 20per cent. Owned by an Italian group, ithas been
instructed to reduce wages by15 million over a three-year period.It
appears the move to online reportinghas affected circulation, which
hasshown a reduction of advertising in-come.
THE very last cigarette facto-ry in Spain, based in La Riojaand
operated by Altadis, asubsidiary of Imperial Tobac-co which
manufactured theFortuna brand, is to close bythe end of June, with
its 471workers either retiring or be-ing made redundant.
As the number of smokers
in Spain reduces due to gov-ernment regulations onsmoking in
public places, andwith an unprecedented num-ber of fraudulent
cigarettesbeing made in unlicensedfactories in Spain and
othercountries, it became impracti-cal to continue with
theirmanufacture.
Cigarette factory to close
IMF forecastupgrades SPAIN is set to outpace theworlds leading
advancedeconomies in 2016, accordingto the International
MonetaryFund (IMF), as the agencyupgraded its outlook forSpanish
GDP, predictinggrowth of 2.7 per cent in 2016and 2.3 per cent in
2017. Thisis still less than the recentlydowngraded forecast for
theoverall world economy.
Trade profitREPSOL, the Spanish oilcompany, announced onJanuary
27 that its ac-counts for 2015 showed anincrease in trading profit
of8 per cent over the previousyear at 1.85 billion. Tocounter this
good news, ithas had to write down thevalue of its reserves by
2.9billion due to plummetingprices.
CRIPPLED engineering giant Abengoa hasproduced and submitted to
its administra-tors a five-year plan projecting a reductionof the
company debt by 3 billion, througha combination of selling assets
and closing
non-viable areas of its business. By concentrating on core
engineering and
construction business it hopes to renegotiateits 9 billion debt,
to allow it to return toprofit and make the company viable
again.
Abengoa submits a newplan and may survive
is the percentage of shareholders who voted in
favour of the board proposalto take over the BG Group.
Quote of the WeekBillions of euros are lost every year to tax
avoidance. This isunacceptable and we are acting to tackle it. The
EU tax
commissioner Pierre Moscovici on legal tax avoidance.
CLOSING PRICES FEBRUARY 1CLOSING PRICES FEBRUARY 1CLOSING PRICES
FEBRUARY 1
83.08
El Mundo toreduce staff
ABOUT to take over oil and gas exploration company BG group
Shell to spend billions on expansion
BUSINESS EXTRA
Alex
andr
u Ch
iriac
Shu
tters
tock
FINANCEbusiness & legal
31Costa de Almera EWN4 - 10 February 2016
A EURO WEEKLY NEWS 6 PAGE SPECIAL SECTION //
WWW.EWNBUSINESS.COMSTAT OF WEEK 8.7 billion is said to be the
amount that Chinese entrepreneur Wang Jianlin, owner of the
EdificioEspaa in Madrid lost due to the January stock market slump
in China.
-
MMM 3M 151.00 +3.68 +2.50% 4.0MAXP American Express 53.50 +0.62
+1.17% 14.0MAAPL Apple 97.34 +3.25 +3.45% 64.4MBA Boeing 120.13
+2.12 +1.80% 9.2MCAT Caterpillar 62.24 +1.16 +1.90% 8.2MCVX Chevron
86.47 +0.55 +0.64% 20.2MCSCO Cisco 23.79 +0.68 +2.96% 39.7MKO
Coca-Cola 42.92 +0.35 +0.82% 20.5MDIS Disney 95.82 +2.29 +2.45%
8.2MDD E I du Pont de Nemours and Co 52.76 +0.75 +1.44% 6.3MXOM
Exxon Mobil 77.85 +0.86 +1.12% 25.2MGE General Electric 29.10 +0.89
+3.15% 51.6MGS Goldman Sachs 161.56 +4.50 +2.87% 4.9MHD Home Depot
125.76 +3.48 +2.85% 7.6MIBM IBM 124.79 +2.57 +2.10% 8.2MINTC Intel
31.02 +1.05 +3.50% 38.3MJNJ Johnson & Johnson 104.44 +2.17
+2.12% 15.6MJPM JPMorgan Chase 59.50 +2.22 +3.88% 27.0MMCD
McDonald's 123.78 +1.40 +1.14% 10.5MMRK Merck 50.67 +1.47 +2.99%
16.9MMSFT Microsoft 55.09 +3.04 +5.83% 83.6MNKE Nike 62.01 +0.81
+1.32% 10.5MPFE Pfizer 30.49 +0.29 +0.96% 56.7MPG Procter &
Gamble 81.69 +1.87 +2.34% 19.9MTRV Travelers Companies Inc 107.04
+2.57 +2.46% 2.2MUTX United Technologies 87.69 +1.24 +1.43% 7.9MUNH
UnitedHealth 115.16 +3.78 +3.39% 5.3MVZ Verizon 49.97 +0.96 +1.96%
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Kleinwort Benson Elite PCC Ltd
Johnson Matthey 2,469.00 4.00 0.16 4,900.61Kingfisher 329.50
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8,446.96Legal & General Group 242.40 -1.10 -0.45
13,938.35Lloyds Banking Group ORD 65.69 0.23 0.35 45,572.13London
Stock Exchange Gr 2,460.00 -14.00 -0.57 8,345.15Merlin
Entertainments 413.85 0.15 0.04 4,073.23Marks & Spencer Group
425.60 1.50 0.35 6,902.93Mondi 1,150.50 14.50 1.28 5,440.63National
Grid 984.60 -1.20 -0.12 35,807.17Next 6,942.50 17.50 0.25
10,391.58Old Mutual 169.20 -0.50 -0.29 7,933.57Provident Financial
2,924.00 -14.00 -0.48 4,130.87Prudential 1,350.00 -17.50 -1.28
33,854.74Persimmon 2,032.00 -4.00 -0.20 6,006.69Pearson 797.50 8.50
1.08 6,355.18Reckitt Benckiser Group 6,211.50 -22.50 -0.36
43,576.80Royal Bank of Scotland Group 254.65 1.95 0.77
15,964.64Royal Dutch Shell 1,517.00 -1.00 -0.07 57,834.59Royal
Dutch Shell 1,515.00 -6.00 -0.39 36,276.70RELX 1,224.50 -5.50 -0.45
13,293.81Rio Tinto 1,709.50 -4.50 -0.26 23,777.91Royal Mail 460.80
1.60 0.35 4,480.00Rolls-Royce Group 553.50 -1.50 -0.27
9,887.04Randgold Resources 5,005.00 38.00 0.77 4,453.93RSA
Insurance Group 417.65 1.25 0.30 4,107.70SABMiller 4,178.25 -4.25
-0.10 67,508.15Sainsbury (J) 246.60 1.50 0.61 4,547.79Schroders
2,727.00 3.00 0.11 5,974.90Sage Group (The) 622.50 1.50 0.24
6,520.95Shire 3,895.00 -15.00 -0.38 22,506.43Sky 1,099.50 17.50
1.62 17,869.18Standard Life 363.90 0.40 0.11 6,963.04Smiths Group
941.50 -2.00 -0.21 3,614.19Smith & Nephew 1,156.00 -6.00 -0.52
10,111.10Sports Direct International 416.35 0.75 0.18 2,418.10SSE
1,450.50 0.50 0.03 14,071.75Standard Chartered 472.43 1.43 0.30
11,673.21St James's Place 948.00 -5.00 -0.52 4,771.33Severn Trent
2,219.00 30.00 1.37 5,049.75Travis Perkins 1,822.00 -3.00 -0.16
4,425.48Tesco 173.25 -0.15 -0.09 13,571.69TUI AG 1,194.50 8.50 0.72
6,904.32Taylor Wimpey 192.70 0.30 0.16 6,022.16Unilever 3,067.25
-17.75 -0.58 37,868.47United Utilities Group 969.50 13.00 1.36
6,351.79Vodafone Group 225.88 1.98 0.88 56,731.88Wolseley 3,452.50
-10.50 -0.30 8,692.40Worldpay Group Ord 3p Wi 310.85 -2.15 -0.69
6,083.00WPP Group 1,512.50 -4.50 -0.30 19,010.74Whitbread 4,019.00
19.00 0.48 7,115.09
Most AdvancedAvenue Financial Holdings, Inc. $ 19.24 5.53
40.34%Chiasma, Inc. $ 10.30 2.11 25.76%Coherent, Inc. $ 77.27 14.73
23.55%Mimecast Limited $ 7.5901 1.3901 22.42%Vanguard Natural
Resources LLC $ 5.98 1.04 21.05%Hansen Medical, Inc. $ 2.15 0.34
18.78%Century Aluminum Company $ 4.72 0.74 18.59%Vanguard Natural
Resources LLC $ 5.89 0.91 18.27%Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. $ 2.95
0.45 18%First Cash Financial Services, Inc. $ 35.50 5.28
17.47%Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $ 6.68 0.90 15.57%Most
DeclinedQuality Systems, Inc. $ 13.11 3.16 19.42%Unwired Planet,
Inc. $ 9.28 1.48 13.75%ABAXIS, Inc. $ 43.55 6.88 13.64%Tuesday
Morning Corp. $ 5.57 0.80 12.56%Independent Bank Group, Inc $ 29.91
3.16 9.56%region $ 8.45 0.75 8.15%Accuray Incorporated $ 5.33 0.47
8.10%Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. $ 56.15 4.92 8.06%Amazon.com,
Inc. $ 587 48.35 7.61%Electronic Arts Inc. $ 64.545 5.245
7.52%Vanguard Natural Resources LLC $ 8.45 0.67 7.35%
CCOMPANYOMPANY PPRICERICE((PP)) CCHANGEHANGE((PP)) % C% CHGHG..
NNETET VVOLOL
DOW JONESCLOSING PRICES FEBRUARY 1
Anglo American 282.95 5.50 1.98 3,820.42Associated British Foods
3,142.00 -8.00 -0.25 24,007.52Admiral Group 1,774.00 0.00 0.00
4,845.32Aberdeen Asset Management 245.15 -1.35 -0.55
3,137.47Ashtead Group 900.00 1.00 0.11 4,481.02Antofagasta 382.35
2.15 0.57 3,725.55ARM Holdings 1,005.50 12.50 1.26 13,442.60Aviva
479.65 -1.15 -0.24 18,721.70AstraZeneca 4,436.50 -51.00 -1.14
54,441.47BAE Systems 514.00 -2.00 -0.39 15,946.56Babcock
International Group 915.25 0.25 0.03 4,579.37Barclays 188.45 2.45
1.32 29,663.75British American Tobacco 3,864.00 -33.00 -0.85
70,145.53Barratt Developments 603.50 4.00 0.67 5,766.16BG Group
1,053.50 -1.00 -0.09 35,562.36Berkeley Group Holdings 3,551.50
16.50 0.47 4,754.99British Land Co 741.75 1.75 0.24 7,366.78BHP
Billiton 681.45 5.05 0.75 14,147.71Bunzl 1,876.50 8.50 0.46
5,997.88BP 373.28 -2.82 -0.75 66,684.81Burberry Group 1,195.50 0.50
0.04 5,204.55BT Group 497.18 12.33 2.54 38,665.60Coca-Cola HBC
1,451.50 22.50 1.57 5,057.78Carnival 3,495.00 15.00 0.43
7,221.68Centrica 205.85 1.05 0.51 9,939.12Compass Group 1,199.50
-3.50 -0.29 19,335.78Capita Group (The) 1,176.50 1.50 0.13
7,544.12CRH 1,857.00 3.00 0.16 14,664.31Dixons Carphone 475.75 2.05
0.43 5,347.96DCC 5,395.00 -10.00 -0.19 4,629.25Diageo 1,892.00 7.50
0.40 45,952.34Direct Line Insurance Group 375.90 1.30 0.35
5,522.25Experian 1,188.50 -1.50 -0.13 11,337.25easyJet 1,572.00
24.00 1.55 6,063.38Fresnillo 729.00 7.00 0.97 5,198.78GKN 280.10
1.30 0.47 4,556.05Glencore 90.43 0.95 1.06 13,028.39GlaxoSmithKline
1,435.75 -3.25 -0.23 67,922.53Hikma Pharmaceuticals 2,024.00 6.00
0.30 3,865.23Hargreaves Lansdown 1,360.50 -2.50 -0.18
6,178.00Hammerson 585.75 2.25 0.39 4,456.85HSBC Holdings 489.95
-2.35 -0.48 92,908.27International Consolidated Air 545.25 5.75
1.07 10,640.23InterContinental Hotels Group 2,330.00 33.00 1.44
5,333.893i Group 441.85 -0.15 -0.03 4,209.79Imperial Tobacco Group
3,742.00 -44.00 -1.16 34,728.04Intu Properties 298.45 -0.55 -0.18
3,805.29Inmarsat 1,104.50 4.50 0.41 4,698.06Intertek Group 2,820.00
-10.00 -0.35 4,498.77ITV 266.70 -0.10 -0.04 10,415.75
CCOMPANYOMPANY PPRICERICE((PP)) CCHANGEHANGE((PP)) % C% CHGHG..
NNETET VVOLOL
COMPANY PRICE CHANGE NET / %
US
dollar..................................................................1.08504Japan
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.................................................................131,534Switzerland
franc
..................................................1.10774Denmark
kroner...................................................7.46238Norway
kroner
......................................................9.41249
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currenciesdirect.com/mojacar Tel: +34 950 478 914
FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de
AlmeriaEWN32 www.euroweeklynews.com
-
EWN34 FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL
ROBINSONMURPHY have a dedi-cated team of Family Lawyers
as-sisting their expat clients living inSpain, with regards to
family anddivorce matters.
Even if you have lived in Spainfor many years it is still
possible touse the English courts if you retainyour domicile in
England.
Domicile is in essence the coun-try to which you consider
yourselfmost connected, and does not haveto be the country of birth
(thoughthis is often the case with expats liv-ing abroad), or where
you currentlylive.
RobinsonMurphy help theirclients use the English courts as
theSpanish system can be slow, frus-trating, costly and not in
their lan-guage, making it difficult to under-stand the advice
given to enablethem to make informed decisions.
The advantage of English courtsis that they can adjust the terms
oflegal ownership of a property, irre-spective of who bought it.
Whereasthe Spanish courts approach is if
there is no express agreement be-tween the parties, and no
children,the home will be retained by the
original owner. This may be themost valuable asset.
The Spanish courts approach to
children is also different. If one par-ent has custody of a
child they willremain in the property while an
English court may order it to besold, to allow both parties to
proper-ly adjust and provide adequatehousing for their needs.
English courts take a sensible andpragmatic approach with
childarrangements and adopt a no orderprinciple, ie they trust the
parents tomake appropriate arrangements forthe welfare of the child
or children.
In Spain a custody order is in-evitably always made, even if
theparties have reached an agreement.
Decisions have to be made as towhere the children will live
andhow often the absent parent hascontact, and also decisions on
issuessuch as your childrens health andeducation.
The English courts allow you tomake a decision as long as it is
inthe childrens best interests, whereasthe Spanish courts may
impose theirwill.
To contact RobinsonMurphySolicitors call 900 801 020 or youcan
send an email to [email protected].
4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.com
By John Smith
THE problems with troubledBankia just continue, with thelatest
blow to its reputationbeing a Supreme Court ruling,which rejected
its appealagainst two cases which hadbeen heard in Valencia
andOviedo.
Disgruntled shareholders de-manded their money back be-cause of
serious inaccuraciesin the banks share prospectus.
This decision cannot havecome as too great a shock tothe bank,
as it had already set1.84 billion aside in its ac-counts to cover
possibleclaims from individual share-holders, but it will have
comeas a blow due to the fact thatthese funds are now likely tobe
needed to meet repaymentclaims.
What may worry the bankeven more is the fact that thedoors are
now open for corpo-
rate investors to look to claimsimilar refunds for their
share-holders, which would almostdouble the amount that thebank,
which has already re-ceived 20 billion of taxpayerand EU support,
will have to al-locate in reserves.
Its a vicious circle, as themore the bank has to pay outin
compensation for sellingshares which were hyped up,the lower its
share price willbecome on the four markets in
which they trade.Previous directors of the
bank are said to have treated itas their own personal piggybank,
using credit cards andtaking money as if they wereplaying
monopoly.
Former government ministerand chairman of the bank Ro-drigo Rato
had his passportconfiscated whilst awaiting tri-al, in respect of
his activitieswhen with the bank, althoughhe denies any
wrongdoing.
The problems continue for Bankia
BANKIA: Disgruntled shareholders have demanded their money back
because of serious inaccuracies in the banks prospectus.
Phot
o Cr
edit
Loui
se A
shto
n Sh
utte
rsto
ck
English court or Spanish court?Advertising feature
ROBINSONMURPHY: Help their clients to use the English
courts.
-
35FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL EWN4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa
de Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com
AFTER the US increased interest rates, monetarypolicy between
the US and the Eurozonecontinues to widen and drift apart. On the
onehand we have the European Central Bankcontinuing with their
quantitative easingprogramme, and on the other the Bank ofEngland
issued a statement reaffirming thatinterest rates are unlikely to
rise in the near future.
Meanwhile, economic data released from theUK revealed a slowdown
in industrial andmanufacturing production for the month ofDecember
and January. The pound slid rapidlyclose to 5 per cent against the
euro, exacerbatedby a postponement of an interest rate hike as
wellas fears mounting over the Brexit outcome in thereferendum
(most likely to be held in June).
As inflation has struggled to get anywhereclose to the Bank of
Englands 2 per cent target,due to falling oil and commodity prices
puttingCentral Banks in a conundrum on monetarypolicy planning, it
is looking increasingly likely
that the Monetary Policy Committee will refrainfrom raising
interest rates in the first half of 2016.
Meanwhile, with 2016 starting with globalgrowth concerns amidst
a stock market routacross world markets, the UK economy
willcontinue to lean on consumer spending to lookforward to better
data prints.
From the Eurozone, we have had a bit of asubdued month as far as
economic data prints go.However, the main event for the month was
themuch anticipated Central Bank statement onmonetary policy. In
his speech Mario Draghi,President of the European Central
Bank,launched a staunch defence of the central banks
accommodative monetary easing policy tocounter criticism of the
policy.
In fact, he went a step further and said that thecentral bank is
prepared to cut rates, and alsoreview and reconsider further
quantitativeeasing as a premature increase in interest ratescould
bring about yet another recession.
In a fairly interesting month to kick off 2016,we have witnessed
a global stock marketcorrection, falling commodity prices as well
as aslide in the pound. However, after such a rapidand drastic fall
it looks like sterling has bottomedout and could nip up slightly
from current levels,though unlikely to achieve last years
soaringheights for the first half of the year. From Europe,the
silver lining continues to be the CentralBanks accommodative
monetary policy, as itmeanders towards growth and seems to
beworking.
As we move forward in the year, currencymovements are likely to
be driven by CentralBanks and their monetary policy stances,
withthe major risk event being the referendum onBritain leaving the
European Union, which willdetermine the shift/stability in market
sentimentand whatever the outcome is.
Either way, it is likely to be a cautious, yeteventful first
half of 2016!
An eventful month for currency trading
THE POUND: Slid rapidly close to 5 per cent against the euro in
January.
Visit us at our Spanish offices in Costa del Sol, Costa Almeria,
North Costa Blanca and South Costa Blanca. Telephone: UK +44 (0)
207 847 9400 SPAIN +34 950 478 914 Email:
[email protected] www.currenciesdirect.com
Ask theexpertPeter Loveday
Contact me at [email protected]
-
TO tell you the truth, Ive just about had thisentire refugee,
migrant, Arab Spring businessup to the eyeballs.
Dont you just long for those wonderfuldays when we were all
enjoying the peace andhappiness so many of our forefathers gave
lifeand limb for? Days when Jihad, Burkas andaffairs of the Middle
East were far far away, inlands that had no more impact on our
daily ex-istence than a few snowflakes on a summersday.
Wouldnt it be paradise, just to awaken andrealise it was simply
all a nightmare? Well Imafraid those days of peace and happiness
arewell and truly over. The influx of migrants hasnow reached
ridiculous proportions, and stillthe do gooders try to make those
who seek todiscourage this onslaught feel bad and unfeel-ing.
To be honest I cant really blame some of
them. Not when the media (especially theBBC) continually put the
tales of tragedy andhuman trauma to the forefront of their
reports.
Why dont they give more air time to the ri-
oting in Germany, with large mobs of men ofAsian appearance
attacking police with anymissile they can lay their hands on? (Wait
tillsomeone starts handing out the Kalashnikovs!)
The wrecked migrant trains, covered in graf-fiti with their
smashed windows, destroyed fur-nishings and toilets literally
overflowing withexcreta. The young, able-bodied men of
Asianappearance, disdainfully throwing donatedfood back into the
bewildered faces of kindlysouls, because it was considered
unclean.
The men of Arab and North African ap-pearance, marauding through
supermarketshurtling insults and lifting the skirts of
femaleshoppers. In heavens name, how do the au-thorities think its
all going to end?
Im not trying to stir up hatred, Im trying tobring some common
sense into the equation.Sooner or later, the most volatile of the
localpopulace will take matters into their ownhands, more out of
frustration than hatred.
We can then prepare ourselves for theBlood Rivers Enoch Powell
tried so hard towarn us against. Are we listening now?!
The innocent children are of course an ex-ception. I believe we
should endeavour to saveas many of them as we possibly can.
Keep the faithLove Leapy
[email protected].
Ive had this up to the eyeballs
LEAPY LEE SAYS IT
OTHERS THINK IT
DONT you just long for the days when we were all enjoying peace
and happiness?
MIGRANTS: The influx has reached ridiculous proportions.
OPINION & COMMENT EWN4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
37www.euroweeklynews.com
Gio
vann
i Val
e / S
hutte
rsto
ck.c
om
PROPERTIES occasionally come tothe market that are presented
andfurnished to a level that is simplyabove and beyond that of
their mar-ket competitors; this is without doubtone of those
properties.
With well proportioned internaland generous external living
space,the house, with 10 x 4m privateswimming pool has a very
relaxingfeel about it and in which, summerand winter living can be
enjoyedutilising the areas accordingly.
The ground floor of the propertycomprises an open plan lounge
dinerwith doors and staircase giving ac-cess to the various parts
of the house.
To the rear of the living room thereare glass doors leading to
the 28mcovered terrace, open terraces andswimming pool whilst
adjacent to thedining area there is a fully fittedkitchen with gas
hob, eye level elec-tric oven and microwave, extensivestorage space
and worktops includinga breakfast bar, and a separate utilityarea
for the washing machine, tumbledryer and fridge-freezers.
Accessed via a separate hallwayoff the living room there are
twodouble bedrooms; a family bathroomwith bath and shower over,
toilet,bidet and basin and also a separateguest wc with basin.
On the first floor there is a landingarea from which to the left
you findthe large master bedroom and en
suite bathroom with shower, toilet,bidet and twin basins; and to
theright the 42m solarium.
Externally, there is a covered ter-race area with views of the
garden,swimming pool and backdrop of theCabrera Mountains.
Retractable sunawnings are fitted to two sides togive shade from
the sun as required.
A second designated area to therear of the property is the
outsidedining area with potential to create afly screen enclosure
room.
Finally to the rear there is theswimming pool with Roman
stepsand terraced surround ideal for sunloungers and with safety in
mind it isfenced dividing it from the other gar-
den areas.To the front of
the property there is a per-gola covered car port;
storagecupboard; and mature Mediterraneanstyle gardens that wrap
around thesides of the house.
The property benefits reversibleair conditioning throughout (hot
andcold); mosquito screens and shuttersto all windows; built in
wardrobes inall bedrooms; mains gas for hot wa-ter and cooking; is
very well main-tained and furniture is available sub-ject to
negotiation.
Los Gallardos has a variety of barsand restaurants, two small
supermar-kets and a weekly street market, isclose to the A7
providing easy ac-cess to Almeria, Murcia and Alicanteairports and
has plenty to offer near-by including golf courses and beach-es.
There are plentiful walking,bowls and craft clubs in the area.
For more information on this andother properties please
seewww.nextstopalmeria.com or call:950 617 518.
3 bedroom house - Los Gallardos Advertising feature Property
of
the weekBrought to you by Next Stop Almeria
PRIVATE POOL: Has a very relaxing feel about it with plenty of
room for sun loungers.
-
WHEN I was growing up in Eng-land in the 50s and 60s, there
werea number of constant smells whichI can still clearly remember,
coaland wood burning, escaping coalgas from gas holders, the smell
ofyeast and hops from breweries, waxfrom the candle factory and
some-thing I was too young to put a nameto from the Gordons gin
distillery.
The worst smell however wasfrom the sewage works and if thewind
was in the wrong direction, itwas s t rong enough to not onlymake
you gag, but it seemed to in-sinuate itself into your nostrils
andfollow you around.
Now the UK has literally cleanedup its act and most of these
smellsare long gone, even though thememory still lingers.
In Spain however, this isnt thecase and although I dont object
to
the smell of wood, which manyhouses do still burn as soon as
itbecomes a little chilly, what I justdont understand is why, in
todaystechnological age, sewage plantsstill have to smell so
bad.
In my perambulat ions, whichregularly take me from Malaga to
Gibraltar, I pass three areas whichalways stink, although some
daysare worse than others.
The first is by the Rio Fuengirolawhere there is a permanent and
un-pleasant smell of sewage. The sec-ond is by Elvir ia , and there
thesmell permeates around at least
four square ki lometres , and thethird is at the entrance to La
Linea,which on a bad day is absolutelyputrid.
In 2010 in response to an EU di-rective concerning the treatment
ofsewage, the Junta de Andalucia re-gional government announced
47projects that were necessary in or-der to complete the Costa del
Sols
sewage treatment plan. These required an investment of
some 390 million and needed tobe completed by January 1,
2016.Although a great deal of progresshas been made in order to
stop thepumping of raw sewage directly in-to the sea, there still
seems to be along way to go before the wholesystem actually allows
localresidents to enjoy a peacefullife, without having to smellthe
results of others actions!
IN response to the recentstrike by junior doctors inthe UK, a
plethora of post-ings have appeared onFacebook in support of
theNational Health Service.
One of those post ingspleaded: Lets stand up forthe best health
service inthe world.
Of course it is vital thatwe save the NHS, buttelling ourselves
that it isstill the best in the world,is frankly delusional andwe
must recognise that it isnot acceptable in i ts pre-sent state of
decline.
Here in Spain our localNHS hospital in Torrevie-ja provides en
suite roomsfor each patient, cleanersare in evidence 24/7 andthe
place is spotless.
Convertible sofas are ineach room with familymembers encouraged
tostay overnight if they wish.
In addition, patient ap-pointments with consultantsare made at
point of contact
with GPs, and it is not un-common for them to beseen the
following week.
Many people are in de-nial and bel ieve thatBri ta in is s t i l
l the worldleader in qual i ty f ree
healthcare, and whilst it istrue that many have causeto be
grateful for the treat-ment received, there are fartoo many who
have differ-ent stories to tell.
My father-in-law was ad-
mitted for a relatively mi-nor condi t ion and s ixweeks later
died from a vir-ulent bug that he contractedwhilst there.
The condi t ion of thewards was disgusting andthe attitude of
some of thestaff unbelievable. To de-scribe some areas of thathospi
ta l as Third Worldwould not be an overstate-ment.
This is the downside ofan organisat ion that haslost its way,
and we mustimpress on our politiciansthat horror stories like
thatof my wifes Dad (andthere are many of them),are not acceptable
, andfresh, drastic thinking mustbe applied to rectify mat-ters and
s t r ive to onceagain make it the envy ofthe world.
When reports l ike thisare tucked away on the in-side pages of
UK newspa-pers, and are no longer re-markable, then this
surelytells its own story.
Colin BirdA weekly look
A case for drastic surgery
Each week, Colin brings his slightly off-the-wall view of the
world to the pages of EWNin his own irreverent style.
TELLING ourselves that the NHS is the best in the world is
frankly delusional
One smell we could all do withoutIN some places in Spain there
is a permanent and unpleasant smell of sewage
LOCAL HOSPITAL: Provides en suite rooms for each patient.
OPINION & COMMENTEWN38
THE phenomenal growthin electronic media hasbrought some real
benefitsto people around the world,allowing them to be in
easycontact with friends andfamily and to be updated onworld
events, celebrity gos-sip, trends and indeed any-thing and
everything thatone can think of.
Whilst older people strug-gle to keep up with ad-vances such as
tweeting,Tinder, Instagram and manyother new developments,younger
people take to themlike a fish to water, and itis quite amazing to
see real-ly young children manipu-lating iPads and othertablets as
if they were bornwith the ability.
Whilst this is all well andgood, there is quite a down-side as
many parents andgrandparents will have ob-served.
Children are becoming farmore occupied with theirgames and
tablets and lessinterested in either talking toeach other or their
parents,and are far less polite andindeed in many cases seem-ingly
less educated as theyare so used to text talk.
It used to be suggestedthat despite the negatives,the TV was a
great babysit-ter, but now it has becomethe tablet or iPad.
How many times haveyou visited a restaurant tosee children
completelyoblivious to all around thembecause they are engrossedin
a game? This doesnt ex-cuse teenagers and adultswho spend half of
their timechecking or sending mes-sages and taking pho-tographs of
their food.
www.euroweeklynews.com
YOUR PAPER - YOUR VOICE - YOUR OPINION
Now we want to
hear your views.
Mannersmaketh man!
OUR VIEW
www.euroweeklynews.com4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
Keky
alya
ynen
Shu
tters
tock
SEWAGE PLANTS: Why do they still have to smell so bad?
John SmithRandomthoughts...
CHILDREN: Born with ability.
chai
naro
ng ja
ykea
w sh
utte
rsto
ck
Although a great dealof progress has been
made in order to stopthe pumping of raw
sewage directly into the sea,there is still a long way to
go.
-
MEN be warned. Grabbingflowers from the local grocersas you
stumble towards yourdate is not the way to awomans heart.
Its even worse than nothing asnobody enjoys being consideredas
an afterthought.
We can confidently say that thewoman in your life wouldnt mind
alittle more romance, so here are a fewideas that may make you a
romantichero on February 14 with all the re-wards that brings.
Remember that the exciting trem-bles of a blossoming new
relation-
ship were the most romantic timesof your life. So dont let
that
linger as a memory, bring it to the pre-sent, recreate the
spark. Romance is astate of mind, so dont behave like acocky
success story, be the prince try-ing to win her hand, you were
thathero once upon a time.
Long romantic strolls arm in arm, aspontaneous trip to a
reclusive hotel, achange of surroundings, an air of ad-venture,
place yourselves whereveryoull feel moments embraced by theonly two
people on earth.
By divulging yourselves of all thehumdrum practicalities of
daily living,whether doing the shopping or wash-ing the dishes, you
can both be aloneand relish in one anothers exclusivecompany.
Dont forget the classics, even ifyoure not a Valentine Casanova
bynature, you know what works. Choco-late is a must, with a top
quality brandcloaked in seductive wrapping sure tomake a statement.
Be sure not to scoffthem all yourself, and lay off quaffingthat
expensive wine too. The night isabout a different kind of
pleasure.
Follow the time-honoured traditionof taking your flame out for a
specialmeal. This isnt about showing off, itssimply a chance for
you both to spruceup nicely and do things the properway. Shine
those shoes, make a reser-vation even if its not necessary, hire
ataxi and make it an event, pull out allthe stops.
EWNCosta de Almera 434 - 10 February 2016
Special
Want to be the perfect Valentine?
Pages
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EWN44 4 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almera
www.euroweeklynews.com
St Valentines Day:
Behind the loved-up day lies a richand, sometimes, romantic
history.
Originally established as a Romanfertility festival called
Lupercalia,celebrations began with the sacrificeof two male goats
and a dog whichwere then flayed to make costumesfor locals to run
around in, to imitatethe wolf-god Lupercus.
Girls and young women queuedup to be whipped with thongs of
ani-mal skin, and this bizarre ritualpromised to ensure fertility,
preventsterility and ease childbirth.
The Lupercalia celebration waslater outlawed and renamed
StValentines Day at the end of the 5thcentury, by Pope
Gelasius.
Although the date wasnt celebrat-ed as a day of romance until
the14th century, after its rebrand it wasalways associated with St
Valentine,who, according to some sources, wasa martyred priest
beheaded by em-peror Claudius II for helping couplesmarry.
By the Middle Ages, Valentine wasone of the most popular saints
inEngland and France, with severalhistorians attributing his
stratos-pheric ascent to a poem by Britishwriter Geoffrey Chaucer,
called TheParliament of Fowls.
In the poem, a raucous philosophi-cal debate between a group of
birdsresults in Mother Nature encourag-
ing them to choose their appropriatemates. The poem is believed
to con-tain the first reference to St Valen-tines Day as a day to
celebrate love.
The oldest known Valentines Daytoken was a poem by Charles,
Dukeof Orleans, in 1415. Sent to his wifewhile he was imprisoned in
the Tow-er of London after being captured inthe Battle of
Agincourt, the greetingsurvives in the British Librarysmanuscript
collection.
Several years after the Duke ofOrleans penned his love poem,
ten-der-hearted King Henry V commis-sioned a writer to compose a
Valen-tines note to wife Catherine ofValois.
SO why do we celebrate romantic relationships on February
14?
The Origin
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454 - 10 February 2016 / Costa de Almerawww.euroweeklynews.com
EWN
ACCORDING to legend and folk-lore, women can propose marriageto
their partners in a leap year,which gifts February 29 to
theGregorian calendar every fouryears, as it will in 2016.
Some historians argue the leapyear rules on romance originatedin
15th century Scotland when theunmarried Queen Margaret estab-lished
the somewhat forward-thinking concept that womencould be the maker
ofmarriage proposals, aslong as the manwasnt alreadyengaged.
The wonderfullegislation is said to have also in-cluded the
proviso that those in-tending to propose must wear a redpetticoat
under their skirt.
Another myth has it that longbefore Queen Margarets stance
ongender equality came to light, thefifth-century nun St Brigid of
Kil-dare, appealed to St Patrick, patronsaint of Ireland, to permit
propos-als by women after hearing fromfemale singletons whose
suitorswere too bashful to do the job.
Hundreds of years later and sur-prising statistics show that
only 5per cent of American women havetaken this
less-than-conventionalroute to finding a life partner.
Love in a leap yearLADIES keep a ring at the ready in case you
want to proposeBy Kylie J Brennan
LEAP YEAR: Women can propose.
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