Lab tests free Spanish cucumbers from deathful disease in Germany

German laboratory tests on Tuesday ruled out Spanish cucumbers as the source for spreading fatal enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) which has killed at least 16 people within Europe.

Different from previous findings, the newest test did not find the deathful 0104 strain from two samples with EHEC bacteria, which are imported from Spain and sold in a Harmburg market.

"The sources for the disease are still not clear," said Hamburg's Health Minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks after the test results came out.

However, she still warned the public to avoid eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuces until the sources have been identified.

The infection by the 0104 strain of EHEC can cause bloody diarrhea and kidney failure known as hemolytic uraemic syndrome ( HUS).

People who are infected have reached more than 1,400 in Germany, while victims suffering HUS are more than 350 right now, which means the death toll will continue increasing in the future, said the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's key disease control and prevention center.

The new finding was welcomed by Spain as blame for Spanish cucumbers causing this disease has brought huge loss for Spanish agriculture and farmers as nearly whole Europe and Russia have banned the import of vegetables and fruits from Spain.

 

E.coli Outbreak Claims More Lives

Europe's outbreak of E. coli bacterial infections caused another two deaths on Tuesday, including the first outside Germany, bringing the rising total to 16 reported fatalities and around 400 severe cases.

The outbreak, centered in northern Germany, is costing farmers and retailers millions of euros as mountains of raw vegetables sit uneaten, with no clarity on what caused the infections. The aggressive strain has now spread to six other European countries.

All of the cases so far, including that of a Swedish woman who died Tuesday, have been linked to northern Germany. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, based in Stockholm, the disease is normally food-borne, but person-to-person transmission is possible. The strain, known as enterohemorrhagic E. coli, can cause bloody diarrhea and, occasionally, kidney failure.

Angry Spanish farmers whose produce has been cited as a possible source of the deadly bacterial infection in Europe are watching in despair as machines grind their suddenly unwanted fruit and vegetables.

The strain has proven unusually resistant to treatment, and victims range in age from young to old, although most are women. According to the Robert Koch Institute, a research facility funded by the German health ministry, an additional 800 people have suffered from a milder version of the infection.

Around 1,000 people in Germany contract E. coli food poisoning in an average year, but usually most cases are minor.

Researchers at the institute believe the current outbreak stems from consumption of contaminated tomatoes, lettuce or cucumbers.

Hamburg city health authorities reported last week that they had found traces of the bacteria on cucumbers imported from Spain. On Tuesday, however, Hamburg officials said the bacteria on the Spanish cucumbers didn't match the strain behind the human infections, increasing the mystery about what triggered the outbreak.

German authorities have also identified shipments of cucumbers from Denmark and the Netherlands as potential sources.

Germany first reported a rise in E. coli cases on May 22. Similar cases have been reported in Sweden, the U.K., Denmark, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The people concerned had all travelled to northern Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

The outbreak has been widely covered in German media and has led to a slump in sales of raw vegetables. Health experts have advised consumers to wash all vegetables thoroughly. "Consumer uncertainty is still quite strong," said the German Farmers' Association in a statement Tuesday. "For vegetable growers, the collapse of the market is leading to a significant loss of income."

Restaurants around Germany posted notices letting customers know that raw vegetables have been washed thoroughly. Several German grocery-store chains have stopped selling Spanish cucumbers. Lidl, a grocery store with 3,200 locations in Germany, stopped selling Spanish cucumbers, a spokesman confirmed. REWE, another German chain, offered refunds to customers who wanted to return Spanish cucumbers and also pulled the produce from its shelves.

The Spanish government said at a press conference Monday that none of the country's products had been found to be contaminated.


Doctors at the University of Hannover's medical school say they may have discovered a treatment—an antibody from a U.S. firm that has proved effective in treating 17 cases in the past week.

While not intended for E. coli treatment, the antibody had been used a handful of times previously in E. coli cases, prompting the Hannover doctors to request the drug and use it in treating the German outbreak.

A spokesman warned that more testing will be needed before the treatment is proven as a cure, and that the measure is only used after all other treatment options have failed.

 

Spain has expressed anger at links being made between Spanish cucumbers and a deadly E. coli outbreak.

Spain has expressed anger at links being made between Spanish cucumbers and a deadly E. coli outbreak.

The country's agriculture minister said Germany pointed to Spanish cucumbers "without having reliable data".

Meanwhile, German officials have voiced doubts about whether the Spanish cucumbers they are investigating carried the deadly E. coli strain.

The outbreak has led to 16 deaths - 15 in Germany and a woman who died in Sweden after travelling to Germany.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's national disease institute, says more than 1,150 people within Germany have been affected by enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, also known as EHEC.

In many instances, the gastrointestinal infection has led to Haemolytic-uraemic Syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney problems and is potentially fatal.

The RKI has confirmed 373 cases of HUS in Germany.



We want Germany to provide, without any delay and distractions, the necessary information of its investigation”

Rosa Aguilar
Spanish agriculture minister
Q&A: Contaminated vegetables
'Domino effect'
German authorities initially pointed to organic cucumbers from Spain.

But Spanish officials have refused to accept the blame, saying it is still unclear exactly when and where the vegetables were contaminated.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar said: "We are disappointed by the way Germany handles the situation."

"We want Germany to provide, without any delay and distractions, the necessary information of its investigation so that the European Union can know what is causing the E. coli outbreak."

Speaking at an EU meeting in Hungary, she also said the issue should be treated as a "common problem" and that there should be compensation for Spanish and other European producers affected.

The Netherlands has also said it will ask for compensation.

The president of Spain's fruit and vegetable export federation has urged the government to deal with the outbreak, saying it was costing Spanish exporters $200m (£120m) a week.

Asked which countries had stopped buying Spanish produce, Jorge Brotons was quoted as telling a news conference: "Almost all Europe. There is a domino effect on all vegetables and fruits."

'Outbreak could worsen'
Authorities in Hamburg said four suspect cucumbers found there last week - including three imported from Spain - were carrying EHEC, but not the same kind found in patients.



EC spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen: "We are still getting the full picture"
"As before the source remains unidentified," Hamburg state health minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said.

"Our hope of discovering the source of the cases of severe complications with HUS unfortunately has not been fulfilled by these first results."

She also defended the decision to link the outbreak to Spanish cucumbers last week.

"It would have been irresponsible with this number of ill people to keep quiet about a well-grounded suspicion," she said. "Protecting people's lives is more important than economic interests."

Earlier, a senior German scientist warned that the outbreak could worsen.

"We hope the number of cases will go down but we fear it will worsen," said Oliver Grieve, of the University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein, where many victims are being treated.

German authorities have warned people to avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.

In Sweden, authorities said there were 39 suspected E. coli infections, including 15 with HUS.

On Tuesday, Swedish authorities said a woman in her 50s had died in hospital, after being admitted on Sunday following a trip to Germany.

Cases have also been reported in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK.

Several countries have taken steps to curtail the outbreak, such as banning cucumber imports and removing the vegetables from sale.

Russia imposed on Monday a ban on imports of fruits and vegetables from Germany and Spain,

Russia imposed on Monday a ban on imports of fruits and vegetables from Germany and Spain, said Russia's chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko.

Onishchenko also said Russia did not rule out the possibility to extend the ban on vegetable imports from the entire Europe, according to Interfax news agency.

He said that vegetables from Germany and Spain already imported have been removed from the shops and markets.

"We urge population not to buy fresh vegetables from Germany and Spain. Buy Russian production," Onoshchenko said.

The ban has been introduced due to the intestinal infection outbreak in these countries.

U.K. bank Barclays PLC plans to hire Spain's former finance minister, Pedro Solbes, to the board of its Spanish unit

U.K. bank Barclays PLC plans to hire Spain's former finance minister, Pedro Solbes, to the board of its Spanish unit, a spokesman for the bank in Madrid said Monday.

Mr. Solbes will also advise Barclays on European banking industry issues such as regulation, a person familiar with the matter said.

Barclays will propose Mr. Solbes for its board at a meeting June 13, the spokesman said.

Mr. Solbes, 68, was intimately involved in the creation of the euro currency as European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs from 1999 to 2004. He was then named Spanish finance minister in the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a post he held until 2009.

Barclays is in the process of reducing its retail banking operations in Spain by shutting 120 branches and cutting 700 jobs. The bank is trying to refocus the business, which was hard hit by the collapse of the country's real estate sector in 2008, towards wealthy clients.

A few months ago, Barclays hired former Bankinter SA Chief Executive Jaime Echegoyen as CEO.

The hire of Mr. Solbes was reported earlier Monday by Spanish financial daily Expansion.

UK warns citizens of Portugal violence

Britain said on Monday it had updated its travel advice to Portugal to warn against the risk of violent attacks after a tourist was killed in a suspected gang attack.

Ian Haggath, aged 50, from Dunston in northeast England, was beaten up in the Portuguese town of Faro two weeks ago and died from his injuries on Wednesday.

The foreign ministry in London said it was providing consular assistance and warned Britons of the possibility of attacks.

"We are concerned about the possibility of violent attacks and take this matter very seriously," it said in a statement.

"We have updated our travel advice to warn against the possibility of violent attacks and are in contact with the police and local authorities."

 

Spain has accused Germany of "spreading alarm" and needlessly damaging trade after blaming a deadly E.coli outbreak on "killer cucumbers" imported from Spain.

Spain's authorities went on the defensive as countries across Europe cleared their shelves of the offending vegetables insisting that there was no proof the deadly outbreak had been caused by Spanish vegetables.
Leire Pajin, the Spanish Health Minister, noting that no Spanish cases have been reported, urged Germany to speed up its probe and establish proof of what has caused the outbreak.
Germany's allegations "create alarm and affect the producers of a country without any evidence," she said.
Health authorities in Germany confirmed that 11 had died and more than 1,000 infected in the worst outbreak of its kind.
Cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. In Britain, three people were taken ill, although they are believed to have contracted the infection while in Germany.

The origin of the outbreak has been blamed on organic cucumbers grown in the Andalusia region of southern Spain and health officials across Europe were yesterday recalling suspected contaminated vegetables from supermarket shelves.
Belgium blocked the imports of Spanish cucumbers, Austria went further with a ban on sales of cucumbers, tomatoes and aubergines grown in Spain.
The Czech Republic recalled Spanish imported cucumbers from shelves and in Italy food inspectors have been testing Spanish imports but have so far failed to detect contamination.
Spain's Secretary of State for European Affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, said Madrid might take action against those pointing fingers at his southern European nation.
"You can't attribute the origin of this sickness to Spain," Lopez Garrido told reporters in Brussels. "There is no proof and that's why we are going to demand accountability from those who have blamed Spain for this matter."
The two greenhouses in Spain's southern region of Andalusia that were identified as the source of the contaminated cucumbers had ceased activities pending a full investigation.
Water and soil samples from the site are being analysed to see whether they were the problem, and the results are expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
"The Andalusian authorities are investigating to find out where the contamination comes from and when it took place," said a spokesman for Spanish food safety agency (AESA)
"This type of bacteria can contaminate at the origin or during handling of the product."
The E.coli bacteria can cause severe diarrhoea and, more seriously blood clots of the digestive system, which can cause kidney failure and death.
The Stockholm-based European centre for prevention and control of diseases (ECDC) has said the epidemic is one of the biggest of this kind in the world.
Ron Cutler, a British microbiologist, said: "It contains some very nasty toxins which can go straight to your kidneys and cause kidney failure, and it's very difficult to treat.
"For those who are treated, around 90 per cent of treatments can be successful, but one in 10 of those people could have damaged kidneys in later life."
In Germany, the worst hit area was the northern city of Hamburg, where by Monday morning at least 467 cases of intestinal infection have been recorded.
Both Britain’s Food Standards Agency and the Health Protection Agency has tried to reassure consumers that Britain is unaffected from the outbreak of E.coli.
The FSA has said: “There is currently no evidence that any affected organic cucumbers from the sources identified have been distributed to the UK,” while the HPA has said there are just three people in Britain are ill after suffering the E.coli infection. All of them are German nationals.
Britain, however, is hugely reliant on imports of salad from around the world, especially from Spain and the Netherlands. Goverment figures indicate that Britain imported £160 million worth of lettuce, compared with exports of just £8.7 million in 2009.

 

Spain's governing Socialists chose Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba as leader

Spain's governing Socialists chose Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba as leader for what analysts see as a doomed campaign to reverse slumping fortunes ahead of a general election next year.

Voters mauled the government in local polls last weekend over its austerity measures and a struggling economy that has left Spain with the highest unemployment rate in the European Union at 21.3 percent.

"Rubalcaba is the best candidate, but what the party really needed was someone to revitalize the party," said David Bach, political economist at IE business school.

"He's headed for a respectable second place in the elections," he said, behind the conservative Partido Popular which holds an opinion poll lead of around 10 percentage points.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose ratings have slumped and who announced in April he would not stand for another term, backed Rubalcaba as the Socialists' best chance for victory.

"He is confident and is capable of generating confidence and credibility that the party needs right now. I must remind you that he is a sprinter. If he's capable of running the 100 meters in just over 10 seconds, then he's capable of winning the elections in 10 months," Zapatero said.

Rubalcaba's leadership should be formalized in an all-party vote in June when he is expected to be the only candidate.

"From today we are going to think about the future," Rubalcaba said after receiving wide baking from party members.

"We're going to talk about new ideas, new alternatives, new changes, a new plan that I have in my heart aimed at the main worry for everyone: work."

One analyst said he was disappointed that although the party would hold primary elections to nominate a successor, a tougher contest against other candidates would have served the Socialists better.

On Thursday, Defense Minister Carme Chacon said she would not seek the Socialist candidacy, clearing the way for Rubalcaba.

Zapatero defended his policies of slashing civil servant wages and labor and pension reforms, which he said were needed for Spain to avoid falling into crisis.

Three former Cuban political prisoners and 15 relatives living in northern Spain are threatening a hunger strike

Three former Cuban political prisoners and 15 relatives living in northern Spain are threatening a hunger strike unless authorities resolve the “chaotic” conditions of their exile, complaining that they fall short of the welcome promised by the Spanish government.

“They are treating us like simple immigrants,” said Erick Caballero, one of the more than 100 political prisoners freed by Cuba over the past year after they agreed to go directly from jail to the Havana airport and flights to Madrid.

Spain’s Socialist government promised a broad range of benefits to the former prisoners and nearly 900 of their relatives, but many have complained that they were all but abandoned once they landed in Madrid.

The latest complaints came from Caballero, who arrived April 8 and along with two other former political prisoners, 15 other adults and six children were sent to a Spanish Red Cross migrant reception center in Torrelavega, in the northern province of Cantabria.

Caballero said he and the 17 other adults will launch a hunger strike if authorities cannot resolve their complaints. “Their care for us has been chaotic,” he told El Nuevo Herald by telephone.

He said medical care has been difficult — a woman who was treated for cancer in Cuba and now has pains could not get a doctor’s appointment until next year — and some of the new arrivals have not been able to attend job seminars because there’s no money for transportation.

The promised pocket money of 49 Euros a month, about $70, was not delivered until last week, Caballero added. The 177 Euros promised for clothing has been delivered to only some of the newly arrived Cubans.

The food at the refugee center, a converted maternity hospital, has been awful and its activities are highly regimented, he said.

“I came out of a high security prison, and here they have a schedule for everything — bathe, eat, go out, watch television,” said Caballero.

El Nuevo’s efforts to speak with the director of the refugee center were unsuccessful, but Spanish government officials have previously acknowledged delays and other problems with the benefits for the Cuban arrivals and blamed them on the country’s economic crisis. The unemployment rate stands at well over 20 percent.

Caballero was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison on charges of “enemy propaganda” and damaging state property. He left Cuba on the chartered airplane that flew the last of the freed political prisoners and their relatives — about 200 people in all — to Spain.

The release was part of an agreement by the Raúl Castro government, announced by the Cuban Catholic Church last summer, to free a large number of political prisoners. The Spanish government agreed to take in any prisoners and relatives who wanted to leave the island.

Caballero said Spanish authorities in Cuba gave each of the former prisoners and relatives a long document titled Process for Receiving and Socially Integrating Persons Seeking International Protection, which laid out the government’s promises and the exiles’ duties.

Each family was then assigned to one of three non-government organizations that provide benefits to refugees — the Spanish Red Cross, the Spanish Catholic Association Commission for Migration and the Spanish Commission for Help to Refugees.

But the head of the Red Cross migrant center in Torrelavega did not know about the government promises, Caballero said, until he showed her the document. Her center does not have the resources to meet the promises, he added.

Complaints from previous Cuban arrivals had grown so harsh that when Caballero’s jetliner landed in Madrid, his group was kept away from waiting reporters and put on buses that took them to refugee reception centers, most of them far from the Spanish capital.

Former political prisoner Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina said he wound up in a Red Cross shelter on the outskirts of Malaga where his toothpaste and deodorant ran out last week and there’s been no money for a haircut since he arrived.

Rodriguez said he thanked the Spanish government for taking him and his family out of Cuba and did not want to appear ungrateful, but added that since arriving he has faced “bureaucratic hell.”

“If the Spanish government did not have the conditions, because it faces an economic crisis, I don’t understand why it made a deal with the Cuban dictatorship to send 1,000 persons to a place where there are no jobs,” he added.

Ibiza's largest ever forest fire started by smoking of bee hives

The forest fire which has been burning since Wednesday afternoon on Ibiza remains out of control, and is by far the worst fire ever seen on the Baleares. So far 2,000 hectares have been destroyed.

Some 200 people have been evacuated from some 80 homes in the area affected by the fire in Sant Joan de Llabritja, and more than 250 people are now fighting the blaze which has left a six kilometre long swathe of destruction. 50 from the Military Emergency Unit working on Thursday will see their numbers taken up to 150 on Friday.

120 children were evacuated from their infant and primary schools in Sant Joan, and the municipality has also lost all land line phone connections.

The hotel Paradise Beach in Portinatx has also been evacuated because of its proximity to the fire. 700 guests have been transferred to another three hotels which the Estela Polaris company has in El Puerto de Sant Miquel, in Sant Joan de Llabritja.

Five helicopters have been brought in to fight the fire, which is being fanned by the strong winds in the area. Six amphibious planes have been drawn into the operation to drop water on the flames.

A man, named with the initials M.C.C. who is accused of accidentally starting the blaze has been arrested and is now at the disposition of the court, facing charges of serious negligence. It’s understood that he comes originally from Argentina and was using a device to smoke a bee hive when, according to the Guardia Civil, he unintentionally started the fire. The judge decided to keep him in custody until he gets full reports from SEPRONA, the Environment Department of the Guardia Civil.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued travel advice regarding the fire which is affecting the NE of Ibiza.
It notes that the Spanish authorities are currently dealing with the fire and evacuating people as needed, and that there have been no injuries.

It says the areas affected are Portinatx, Cala San Vicente, San Juan, Sierra de Marna and Es Figueral, and that wind is making fighting the blaze unpredictable.

Consular staff have liaised with Tour Operators who have contingency plans in place should evacuation be required. Spanish police are implementing road blocks to control access to areas in immediate danger.

Anyone intending to travel to the affected area of Ibiza should check with their tour operator or accommodation provider to get a latest update before travelling.

Ibiza fire 'much more controlled'

fire affecting the NE of Ibiza continued to burn on Saturday, three days after it broke out on Wednesday after an Argentinean man allegedly got into difficulties when smoking bee hives in the area.

The authorities say that although still active, the blaze is ‘much more controlled’, and they have reduced the amount of land calculated to have been affected to 1,440 hectares.

A fall in the wind and the forecast for rain is also helping in the fight to put out the fire, and no further evacuations have been needed in addition to those which took place on Thursday and Friday when between 220 and 250 people were evacuated from 100 homes, and some 700 tourists were reallocated from a local hotel.

Some 500 people have been taking part in the extinction, including soldiers, firemen, technicians, volunteers, police and the civil guard. 20 fire-fighting planes and helicopters have been used in the operation, with some reinforcements being sent from Valencia.

It’s hoped the blaze can be described as under control on Sunday.

On Thursday night, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued travel advice regarding the fire which is affecting the NE of Ibiza.
It notes that the Spanish authorities are currently dealing with the fire and evacuating people as needed, and that there have been no injuries. It says the areas affected are Portinatx, Cala San Vicente, San Juan, Sierra de Marna and Es Figueral, and that wind is making fighting the blaze unpredictable.
Consular staff have liaised with Tour Operators who have contingency plans in place should evacuation be required. Spanish police are implementing road blocks to control access to areas in immediate danger.
Anyone intending to travel to the affected area of Ibiza should check with their tour operator or accommodation provider to get a latest update before travelling.

Woman takes husband to court in Lleida for alleged abuse and only allowing her to go out in a full-body veil

27 year old Moroccan man, named as Jamal D., is on trial in court in Lleida in charges brought against him by his wife for alleged psychological and physical abuse. He faces a possible sentence of three and a half years in prison.

The wife claims that she was told by her husband, after the couple moved to La Seu d’Urgell, Lleida, two years ago after an arranged marriage in Morocco, that she could go only go out into the street in a full-body veil and was forbidden from learning Spanish.

El País reports that the prosecutor considers the accused kept his wife under ‘a reign of terror’ for the past two years. She told the court that he controlled all her movements, that she was beaten and insulted on a regular basis, and that her husband threatened to throw her over the balcony on one occasion.

The accused denied the accusations in court, claiming that his wife’s ‘denuncia’ was a strategy to obtain a divorce without having to return the dowry paid to her family. His defence argued for his acquittal for lack of proof.

 

Illegal subsidy scam uncovered in Galicia

Estela San José, head of Instruction Court No. 3 in Lugo, was continuing questioning on Thursday of some of the 15 suspects she ordered arrested in a new corruption case which broke on Tuesday into a network which allegedly obtained fraudulent subsidies from the regional government.

Two of the people taken into custody are the director and deputy director of the public body IGAPE, the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion - Galicia’s regional development agency -which awarded the subsidies.

Another suspect is the businessman Jorge Dorribo, whose companies are reported to have received 4 million € worth of subsidies from Igape over the past six months. He owns the Nupel pharmaceutical laboratories and the Agencia Tributaria Tax Authority believes the IGAPE bosses advised Nupel managers on the alleged scam to obtain the subsidies.

The Xunta de Galicia has announced an internal investigation of IGAPE and is understood from El Mundo to have applied to the judge on Wednesday to place its own private accusation in the case.

Red flags were flying on all of Benidorm’s beaches of Wednesday over the risk of being stung by the shoals of jellyfish

Red flags were flying on all of Benidorm’s beaches of Wednesday over the risk of being stung by the shoals of jellyfish which were first spotted off shore some days ago and moved closer into the coast on Tuesday.

The species is understood to be the ‘compass jellyfish’, which can inflict a painful sting. Juan Guillén, from the Coastline Ecology Institute, warned that the weals left by the sting can last for a number of weeks.

Diario Información reports that the Town Hall brought in more staff for the clean-up operation on the beach and the beach cleaning machines were ordered to work closer to the shore line.

The red alert was reduced to yellow on Thursday, after the jellyfish began to move away from the coast.

1,200 kilos of jellyfish have been removed from the town's beaches.

The protests across Spain over the past two weeks to demand jobs, economic equality, and “real democracy” turned violent Friday for the first time.

Officials say 121 people were injured in Barcelona as protesters clashed with police officers clearing a makeshift camp. The police had previously told protesters the square had to be cleared so that cleaning services could move in to remove debris.

Catalonia regional Interior Ministry spokesman Felip Puig said 37 police were also injured. He did not say how many people had been arrested.

The protests that started just before the elections last weekend reflect the growing anger among 16- to 24-year-olds who face a jobless rate of an incredible 45 percent, and a construction sector slump that has caused nearly two years of recession.

Luna, a Spaniard protesting in Barcelona, who the AP described as having “a thick, dark, wild pony tail and the rich voice of a radio announcer,” said it was virtually unheard of for someone to get a job in their field in Spain right after graduation.

“I should be out looking for a job. But my heart tells me I should be here now,” Luna said.

Aitor Aguirre, a 32-year-old freelance photographer who has attended the protests in Madrid during the past few weeks, said police cracked down because they were worried about the highly-anticipated soccer match between F.C. Barcelona and Manchester United Saturday.

“The police [are] trying not to let people in such numbers be on the streets... just in case.”

Spain said Friday there is no evidence its farms are to blame for a bacterial outbreak suspected of leaving five dead and nearly 300 sickened in Germany.

The Spanish agriculture minister said she had spoken to her German counterpart and an investigations is under way. Officials are probing whether the cucumbers were contaminated with E. coli when they were shipped from southern Spain, or if they went bad during shipment or while being handled in Germany, Rosa Aguilar said.
There are different strains of E. coli and the one detected in Germany is extremely rare in Spain, she said. She added, "as of right now, we have to say that there is no evidence that leads one to believe the contamination occurred in the country of origin."
She said the cucumbers have been traced to a specific shipment that has now been destroyed.
The Spanish cucumbers are suspected as possible causes of five deaths and 276 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, in recent days. HUS is a rare complication arising from an initial infection most commonly associated with E. coli, a bacterium found in undercooked beef or contaminated food.
Nordic authorities say the infection may have spread to Sweden and Denmark.
Spain's health ministry said an EU alert about the health scare in Germany also mentions an unnamed company in the Netherlands. The Dutch Agricultural Industry Association denied the cucumbers had any connection to Dutch growers.
Germany agrees with Spain that the exact cause of the contamination and infection "must be cleared up as soon as possible" and their officials will work closely together to do so, ministry spokesman Holger Eichele said in Berlin.
"We can only speculate at this point about the cause and place of the contamination," he said. "According to experts, it is still completely unclear in what place and in what way the pathogens got onto the produce — be it in Spain, in transport, or in Germany."

Spanish youth demonstrations turn violent as police fire rubber bullets at protesters in Barcelona

Riot police fired rubber bullets and used truncheons on protesters camped out in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya as they tried to clear the square ahead of today's Champions' League final.

Authorities said they had to clear the square ahead of the Champions' League final  Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images
By Fiona Govan, Madrid 4:21PM BST 27 May 2011
Riot police fired rubber bullets and used truncheons on protesters camped out in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya as they tried to clear the square ahead of today's Champions League final.
After nearly two weeks of peaceful protests in a youth movement that brought tens of thousands to occupy plazas across Spain, the first violent altercations occurred in the Catalan capital Friday morning.
The local police force, Mossos d'Esquadra, equipped in anti-riot gear moved in after protesters blocked cleaning trucks attempting to dismantle the encampment that has been in place since the demonstrations started on May 15.
Some 45 people, including one police officer, were treated for slight injuries after the clash during which police were seen swiping activists with truncheons and firing rubber-bullets.
Authorities said they had to clear the square ahead of the Champions' League final between Barcelona FC and Manchester United in Wembley on Saturday night.

Crowds are expected to gather in the square to watch the match on giant screens and to stage celebrations if their team are victorious.
"Once the cleaning is finished the protesters can go back but without the tents, knives and potentially dangerous objects," explained a police spokesman in Barcelona.
The demonstrators, who call themselves 'los indignados' – the indignant ones – began gathering May 15 – in a swelling movement known variously as "M-15", "Spanish Revolution" and "Real Democracy Now" driven onto the streets by an economic crisis that has pushed youth unemployment to 45 per cent.
Inspired by the Arab Spring revolts, the protests swelled ahead of the regional elections in Spain last Sunday that delivered Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero's socialists a resounding defeat.
Protesters from their base in Madrid's Puerta del Sol have vowed to continue their movement despite dwindling support and are preparing a manifesto calling for an end to political corruption, an overhaul of the electoral system among other demands.

UPDATE:Fifteen Britons suspected of running one of Europe's biggest "boiler room" scams have been arrested in Spain.

Armed police carried out a raid in Mallorca as part of an investigation into a gang believed to have been cold-calling thousands of UK residents.

The arrested men, from Nottinghamshire, Essex, Luton and London, appeared briefly in a Spanish court yesterday but are yet to face trial.

Boiler room fraudsters use pressure sales tactics to sell worthless shares.

City of London Police, who worked with the Spanish authorities, said younger members of the alleged scam are thought to have been lured into the operation by crime bosses who targeted them in English-speaking bars.

'Fake companies'
Dyno Medical, Inca Pacific Gold and Mining and Viking Gold Resources have been named as fake companies linked to the gang.

The 15 include Liam Rymell, 23; Dominic Jones, 24; Shafiq Dad, 41; Omar Rana, 27; and Rashid Shafayat, 30, all from Nottingham.

Also arrested were John Bartlett, 22; Tyrone Robinson, 23, and Lee Fisher, 24 - all from Mansfield - and Essex residents Danny Dilliway, 25, Chris Savva, 30, Mohamed Ghazalli, 26, and Neil Simpson, 27.

Farhan Khan, 24, from Hayes, west London; Anthony Baugh, 25, from Luton; and Fahim Khan, 36, from south London but residing in Spain, are the other British suspects.

Two German nationals also appeared in court.

Boiler room scams are estimated to cost the UK about £200m a year.

Police in Spain detained a beekeeper suspected of accidentally starting the biggest wildfire in the history of the holiday island of Ibiza

Police in Spain detained a beekeeper suspected of accidentally starting the biggest wildfire in the history of the holiday island of Ibiza, local officials said Thursday.
Some 200 people have been evacuated from about 80 homes, the regional government of the Balearic Islands said in a statement.
Around 200 guests were also evacuated from the Hotel Paradise Beach in the resort of Portinatx in the northeast of the island on the orders of the local authorities, the front office manager Mariano Ramon said by telephone.
"It was just a preventive measure. We are not in any immediate risk," he said, adding that the fire was about one kilometre (half a mile) from the hotel.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire erupted Wednesday near the town of Sant Joan de Labritja in the north of the Mediterranean island, a spokesman for the regional government's environment department said.
"It is the biggest wildfire in Ibiza since records started being kept," he said.
Defence Minister Carme Chacon, who flew over the affected zone, said some 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) have been burnt.
Police detained a 50-year-old Spanish national of Argentine origin who is accused of starting the fire with a smoker he was using to blow smoke into a beehive, a police spokesman said.
He faces charges of negligence.
"A spark fell at the moment that the fire started," the spokesman said.
Beekeepers use smokers to pacify bees and protect themselves from getting stung.
Some 300 people, backed by eight helicopters and three planes, fought the wildfire which was fanned by oven-hot winds. The fire has torched mostly pine forest and scrubland and is not near built-up areas.
Chacon another 100 troops would be sent to fight the blaze on Friday.

The Peurto del Sol camp is changing everyday. Latest editions include a psychologists office, a massage palour and a library.

The Peurto del Sol camp is changing everyday. Latest editions include a psychologists office, a massage palour and a library. On Thursday most banners had been taken down. A police van is now visible on each entrance to the square. There have been reports in local media that the camp may be shut down.


But it's not clear whether the ruling Socialist Party would risk it. The protests - that have spread to over 60 Spanish cities - intensified their defeat in local elections on Sunday and the party is in the middle of a leadership battle. They can't afford another PR blow.

With all the talk on politicians and protestors it's easy to forget that the banks are at the heart of this. In Madrid the banks own thousands of empty houses, when there are thousands homeless on the street. We've come to the Bank Customers Association to find out more.

President of the Association says that the banks and the government are to blame for the current state of the country.

We went to talk to some of the people he was talking about. Rosa is 45 years old. She says she has had to start taxi driving because she can't make ends meet at home and needs to support her 18 year old daughter.

Rosa is one of the lucky ones - she at least has a job - 5 million in Spain don't. Unemployment is over 20-percent in the country. Among the young it's over 40-percent. Protests are, in part, against high unemployment, but also against what is seen as the corrupt system that has bought it about. Corruption the government is seen to have a hand in.

It seems Spaniards have found their voice. Now we have to see how loudly they can shout.

Icelandic volcano ash won't disturb Air Morocco flights

The Royal Air Morocco (RAM) traffic to European countries, which accounts for half of the company's routes, will not be disturbed in the coming days by Grimsvoetn Icelandic volcanic ash, PANA learnt in Rabat. 'There will be no disruption in the coming days, at least until Friday,' said the Deputy Director General for RAM's European traffic, Abderrahim Sadok, explaining that 'the intensity of the eruption had fallen and the wind sent the ashes to the north.' 'A Watch Committee, which was established shortly after the announcement of the Icelandic volcano Saturday, is closely following the developments,' said Sadok, quoted Wednesday by local newspapers. Sadok added that the Moroccan company had no flights to Iceland.

'We are in contact with relevant agencies and meteorological services,' said Sadok, who chairs the Watch Committee, which will remain in place until the end of the eruption.

The Grimsvoetn volcano is Iceland's most active, with no fewer than nine eruptions in 82 years.

It erupted on Saturday.

In April 2010, the eruption of Icelandic Eyjafjöll plunged the world air transport into chaos and led to the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights, while more than eight million passengers were stranded.

The combined losses for all airlines were estimated at 1.7 billion euros.

Royal Air Morocco lost some 150 million dirhams (13.63 million euros), according to company management.

 

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces on Thursday said it has entered into a management contract with Morocco's JK Hotels to manage 'Taj Palace Marrakech'

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces on Thursday said it has entered into a management contract with Morocco's JK Hotels to manage 'Taj Palace Marrakech', which will increase the company's global portfolio to 17 hotels.
With this, the Taj Group has now established its presence in North Africa and will now manage Taj Palace Marrakech, which is set to launch in autumn 2011, the company said in a statement here.
"Taj Palace Marrakech, is our latest venture into the African continent and is in sync with our strategy to continue our vision of growth in key international destinations," Indian Hotels Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Raymond N Bickson, said.
This hotel will fit perfectly into the company portfolio with its meticulously crafted and vivid blend of Moroccan, Indian and Asian themes, he said.
"Taj Hotels' is a legendary chain and we are delighted with this association. Under the Taj management, our guests will experience the most exacting standards of world class hospitality. We look forward to a mutually rewarding relationship," owner of JK Hotels Jaouad Kadiri said.

Spanish imports implicated after E. coli deaths

The source of an E. coli outbreak in Germany that has killed four people and affected at least 200 more has been traced to fresh produce imports.

European health officials at the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Thursday that cucumbers imported from Spainmay be the source of the outbreak with two unnamed Andalusian companies implicated.

The ECDC, which monitors diseases in the EU, said it had reports of 214 cases of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication of a type of E. coli. HUS affects the blood, kidneys and, in severe cases, the central nervous system.

German officials said four people had died so far but the ECDC said its most recent information was that two people had died. Both were women, it said, one in her 80s and the other in her 20s.

Online journal Eurosurveillance reported that cases linked to this outbreak had been seen in Sweden, which reported nine instances of HUS, four in people who had recently travelled to northern Germany. Smaller numbers were also reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain.

Of the 214 cases, 186 are 18 years of age or older and 146 are female. Early studies implicate raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce as the source of the disease.

The Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment (HU) said that three of four contaminated cucumbers analysed by came from Spain. The country of origin of the other cucumber was not yet known.

Hamburg health minister Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said: "The suspicion concerning the cause of the illnesses now points to cucumbers.”

The Spanish health ministry said: "While the cucumbers were produced in Spain, an investigation must find out at what stage of the production chain the contamination occurred.”

The ECDC report said it had found a "significant association between disease and the consumption of raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salads" in its early investigations into the cause.

Germany imports around 182,000 tonnes of cucumbers a year from Spain.

 

SEVEN men have appeared in a Spanish court accused of stealing tens of millions of pounds from UK residents.

The men stand accused of cold-calling residents throughout the country and pressurising them to part with money for non-existent shares.

Liam Rymell, 23, Dominic Jones, 24, Shafiq Dad, 41, Omar Rana, 27 and Rashid Shafayat, 30, all from Nottingham, and John Bartlett, 22, and Tyrone Robinson, 23, both from Mansfield, were among 15 men arrested earlier this week in an armed raid on their suspected headquarters in Palma, Mallorca.

Officers appealed for potential victims to come forward, and revealed that Dyno Medical, Inca Pacific Gold and Mining and Viking Gold Resources were fake companies linked to the gang.


Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart, from the City of London Police's Economic Crime Directorate, said: "It is the first time in Spain that authorities believe they have dismantled an operation of this scale in its entirety."

Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested a former leader of the armed Basque separatist group ETA for his alleged role in a kidnapping.

A ministry statement Wednesday said Ignacio Miguel Gracia Arregui, known as Inaki de Renteria, was arrested in the northern city of Irun for ordering the 1996 kidnapping of prison officer Jose Antonio Ortega Lara.
Gracia Arregui was arrested in France in 2000 and served eight years in jail there before being handed over to Spain.
He was jailed in Spain until April 2010.
Spain has long suspected him of ordering a 1995 assassination attempt against Spain's King Juan Carlos.
ETA has killed more than 825 people since 1968. It declared a ceasefire last September but the government insists it must lay down arms.

Thousands of Spaniards in central Madrid have vowed to defy a ban on their protest camp and continue their open-air sit-in.

Spain's electoral board has ruled that the gathering cannot continue into the weekend.

It argues the protest could unduly influence voters taking part in local and regional elections across the country on Sunday.

The decision was met with jeers in Puerta del Sol, where thousands gather every evening - and hundreds have been camping out for five nights now.

Dubbed the "Spanish revolution", the protest began with a march through Madrid on Sunday, led by young Spaniards angry at mass unemployment, austerity measures and political corruption.

It turned into a spontaneous sit-in on the square in Sol, which organisers say has now been mirrored in 57 other cities.

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Our life is practically over, but they are acting for their future. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose”

Alfredo Guerra
Unemployed hotel worker
Independent of any trade union or political party, the protesters' ranks have been swollen through campaigns on social networking sites and Twitter.

"Finally the Spanish people are on the street," says Juan Lopez, 30, a camp spokesman. He lost his job six months ago in a round of staff cuts due to the economic crisis.

"Young people are here because they're worried about the future. We can't tolerate it that 43% of the young have no jobs. That should be the first priority of our society," he argues.

Spain's young generation has been hard-hit by the crisis. Most had temporary contracts, making them cheap and easy to fire.

Many highly-qualified graduates are forced to work as low-paid interns for years and a growing number have moved back home to live with their parents.

'Democracy camp'
Increasingly frustrated, they have finally found their voice.

"On Sunday we realised we were not alone," Juan Lopez explains. "Before [the march] we didn't feel we could make a difference. Now we want the politicians to listen to the people, and help change our country."


The protesters are not identifying with any particular political party, Spanish media say.
The protesters' demands, pasted up all over Puerta del Sol, are impossible to ignore.

A statue of King Carlos III on horseback has been decorated with declarations. The metro entrance is now a vast citizens' noticeboard. "We are not slaves," one sign says; another instructs: "No alcohol: today the priority is revolution!"

The camp has become more organised by the day, with bright blue tarpaulins strung from statues and lamp posts and tents pitched on the cobblestones. There are sofas, mattresses and - since Wednesday - four chemical toilets, provided by the firm for free.

Behind a table piled high with fruit, biscuits and Turkish delight, is a mountain of milk cartons, canned fish and crisps.

"I brought bread, tomatoes, cheese and chickpeas," says Leticia Moya, 28, an unemployed nursery worker who lives close to the camp and is one of many supporters donating supplies.

"I feel we should all collaborate, however we can. I can't stay sleeping here overnight, but at least I can bring food. I don't have much, but I prefer to spend my money on this, than on going out at the weekend," she says.

Usually filled with mime artists, tourists and shoppers, the plaza in Sol has been transformed into a vast democracy camp.

During the day, curious locals - many of them pensioners - tour the site, joining in on one of dozens of animated debates.

Suggestions box
There are committees for food, cleaning, legal affairs and communication and daily assembly meetings that hear proposals and allow joint decisions to be made.


The protests have spread to Bilbao in the north and to other cities in Spain
"It's the young who are leading this," says Alfredo Guerra, admiringly, as he listens in on one assembly. A hotel worker, aged 56, he also lost his job in the recession.

"Our life is practically over, but they are acting for their future. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose," he says.

A core group of protesters have been camping out non-stop since Sunday. Others, who have to work or study, sign up for shifts to join them.

A rough attempt by police to dislodge the apparently peaceful demonstration on Sunday night only brought more people out in support.

In one corner, there is a queue to sign a petition that reads: "We want to demonstrate that society is not asleep, and we will fight for what we deserve. We want a society that prioritises people over economic interests."

"We're fed up with politicians governing according to the markets, and not the needs of the citizens," explains Antonio Rodriguez. "They don't represent us - we're asking for change," he says.

Opinion polls show the Socialist government will fare badly in Sunday's elections. But the protesters in Sol are no happier with Spain's right-wing alternative.

There is much talk on the plaza of electoral reform - to prevent power simply switching back and forth between two parties. Many also demand a ban on all candidates implicated in corruption.

Proposals for debate are posted in a suggestions box.

The camp in Sol has been growing every night, even spawning its own internet TV channel - soltv.tv - and dominating the local news coverage. But as it all emerged spontaneously, no-one is quite sure where it will lead.

Later on Friday, the protesters will discuss the electoral board's ban on their action and take a formal decision on their response.

Individually though, they have already vowed to stay put - right in the middle of Madrid.

Spain has become the latest country to apply for early European farming support subsidies

Spain has become the latest country to apply for early European farming support subsidies this year as poor weather continues to threaten harvests across the region, a spokesman for the European Commission said Friday.

The European Union's executive arm has already approved in principal France's request for an advance on the Common Agricultural Policy, which would pay farmers around €4 billion ($5.72 billion) on Oct. 16, rather than in December.

But commission spokesman Roger Waite said Spain also had applied for early support for its producers, which could total up to €2.6 billion, while "Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg are expressing an interest, and Hungary too."

Europe is in the grip of the worst drought to hit the region for decades, with some parts receiving only around 40% of their average rainfall between February and April.

France's Ecology Minister has declared "a state of crisis" and imposed restrictions on the use of water in 28 out of 96 administrative regions due to the lack of rainfall.

In Spain, however, unseasonably heavy downfalls have stopped farmers planting this year's tomato crop, delaying the start of the season.

Analysts forecast output from the key producing region of Extremadura could fall 22% compared with 2010 to 1.38 million metric tons, while Andalusia could lose 35% of its crop compared with last year.

Mr. Waite said the commission is likely to decide on the early payments in June or July. The Oct. 16 deadline is imposed because it is the start of the new budget year, and advances couldn't be paid before then, he said.

But he added that under the EU's state aid regime, farmers could be paid up to €7,500 ($10,733) in extra support over a three-year period.

head of the Guardia Civil traffic authority in Soria has been caught speeding at 207 km/hr on the A-15 road

head of the Guardia Civil traffic authority in Soria has been caught speeding at 207 km/hr on the A-15 road between Soria and Lubia. Claudio Argüello told the Instruction Court 2 in Soria that he was pursuing a suspect at the time.

However a denuncia from the UGC Union of Guardia Civil question his argument, and say the statement from the two men who stopped him said that they failed to see any other speeding car.
They also noted that he did not have his siren on at the time.

The Guardia Civil has also put out a statement that Argüello was not driving the car at the time.

If he is found guilty he will lose his licence for between 1 and 4 years, and could be sent to prison for as much as six months, with 90 days community work.

Polls indicate Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party could on Sunday suffer the humiliation of losing historic Socialist strongholds such as the town halls of Seville and Barcelona

Spain’s ruling Socialists are bracing for stinging losses in regional and municipal voting this weekend as people vent anger over staggering unemployment and bleak economic prospects, launching a drumroll toward likely defeat in general elections next year.

Butting noisily into the campaign is a growing protest movement by Spaniards fed up with both main parties and what they call a stagnant political system that favors economic interests over everyday people facing a grim future.




Polls indicate Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party could on Sunday suffer the humiliation of losing historic Socialist strongholds such as the town halls of Seville and Barcelona and the regional government in Castilla-La Mancha, the Spanish heartland that was the setting for Don Quixote tilting at windmills.

Elections like these are supposed to be about building new schools and hospitals and other projects. But deep economic woes — 21.3 percent unemployment, forecasts for limp economic growth and mountains of debt — have given the voting a higher-altitude twist.

“You’d have to be blind not to see it. People are planning to vote from a national perspective,” said Fernando Gonzalez, 58, who has been unemployed for two years.

Zapatero, who has said he won’t seek a third term next year, has undertaken austerity measures and other reforms which for now seem to have warded off investor fears that Spain will join Greece, Ireland and now Portugal in requesting an international bailout.

But that’s no great consolation for Spaniards enduring hard times, particularly young people facing over 40 percent unemployment and armies of Spaniards who do work do but earn €1,000 ($1,400) or less per month.

Antonio Fernandez, leaving a Madrid lottery ticket office after ponying up a few euros to test his luck, said he has voted Socialist in the past but sees the party as finished now that people are so desperate over the economy and jobs.

“I work in Spain’s largest sector: the unemployed,” said Fernandez, 52, who has been jobless for two years.

There’s also an acute sense that Spaniards are not particularly pleased with the opposition conservatives, either, and feel politicians in general only care about looking out for themselves and fighting each other.

Several corruption cases have tainted both of Spain’s two main parties in recent years. And between them, they also control the political system to such an extent they even decide together which judges sit on the country’s highest court.

A survey released in April by government-backed pollster CIS said that when some 2,500 Spaniards were asked about their country’s biggest problems, “the political class and political parties” came in third, after unemployment and the economy in general.

With help from social media like Twitter, protests by Spaniards young and not so young are popping up around the country, forcing politicians to take notice and leaving them somewhat at a loss as to how to respond. Some say they understand the protesters’ frustration but urge them not to abandon the political system and turn out to vote Sunday.

It all started when tens of thousands marched in Madrid and dozens of other cities last weekend to vent disgust with the political system and what they see as kid-glove government treatment of the troubled financial sector. For the rest of the week thousands have been gathering in the city’s main plaza each evening, the Puerta del Sol, with some spending the night and pledging to stay until election day, even though their rallies have now officially been prohibited on grounds organizers did not seek permission to stage them.

There have also been smaller anti-establishment protests this week in Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Seville and other Spanish cities.

Mexican environmental groups and other activists said that Spanish real-estate development firm Hansa Urbana will destroy one of the world’s best-preserved coral reefs if it is allowed to go through with a massive tourist project in the Baja California peninsula.

ALICANTE, Spain – Mexican environmental groups and other activists said that Spanish real-estate development firm Hansa Urbana will destroy one of the world’s best-preserved coral reefs if it is allowed to go through with a massive tourist project in the Baja California peninsula.

The activists made their concerns known during a gathering in the eastern city of Alicante, the corporate headquarters of Hansa Urbana, which has acquired 3,800 hectares (9,380 acres) in the Mexican municipality of Los Cabos to build a luxury development similar to Cancun with a projected population of 40,000 people.

Plans for the Cabo Cortes project, to be located a short distance from the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park in the southern part of the peninsula, include 27,000 rooms distributed among seven hotels and 10,000 residential housing units, as well as two golf courses, a 490-boat marina, lagoons, canals, a private jet port and other support infrastructure.

Greenpeace Mexico representative Alejandro Olivera told Efe that Cabo Pulmo was dubbed the “world’s aquarium” by Jacques Cousteau due to its important Gulf of California marine ecosystem.

Considered Mexico’s best-preserved marine ecosystem, the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designated that reserve as a World Heritage Natural Site in 2005.

In addition to its ecological importance, the great wealth of marine life that inhabits the coral reef makes that region’s fishing grounds (only outside the limits of the park) the source of 50 percent of all fish caught in Mexico, Greenpeace said, adding that that abundance could be threatened by the tourist project.

Construction of the large tourist project would mean the end of the marine reserve, both due to construction work and to subsequent residential and tourist activity, Olivera said, citing destructive elements such as waste generated by the transit of boats and noting that the complex will use valuable resources in an area of water scarcity.

Judith Castro, with the Friends for the Conservation of Cabo Pulmo association and a member of the affected community, told Efe it is regrettable that Hansa Urbana wants to “export to Mexico the residential tourism model that has destroyed Spain’s coastline in recent decades.”

She said the developer has a partial construction license and can start building whenever it wants, but added that there are a score of Mexican organizations that are fighting to prevent the project from getting off the ground.

Castro recalled that Cabo Pulmo’s 120 inhabitants stopped fishing in 1995 to preserve the area’s natural resources and began a move toward sustainable tourism by offering diving and canoe excursions that enable them to be economically self-sufficient.

Spanish hit streets after tweets

Spaniards have marched and pitched tents in central Madrid for a fourth night to protest budget cuts, bank bailouts and the country's electoral system before regional voting on Sunday.

Thousands of people filled Puerta del Sol, where demonstrators have used Twitter to attract supporters to a makeshift camp in the central Madrid plaza, mirroring the use of social media that fuelled the recent protests in Tunisia and Egypt. People held banners declaring the plaza ''Tahrir Square'' in reference to the Egyptian revolution.

Spain's Socialist government, which faces regional and local elections on Sunday, turned against its traditional base to push through the deepest budget cuts in at least three decades and overhaul labour and pension laws. The collapse of Spain's debt-fuelled property boom left the country with an unemployment rate of 21 per cent, and 45 per cent of young people out of work.

''The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer,'' Pepa Garcia, a 34-year-old unemployed actress, said yesterday at the Puerta del Sol.

''People should be indignant; some banks are getting rescued with our money while we're almost drowning.''

The protest movement wants changes to the voting system to make it more representative and less dominated by the two main parties.

Polls show the Socialist Party will suffer a setback in most of the regional elections. It will be beaten in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, which it has controlled for three decades, and may lose Barcelona for the first time since Spain's return to democracy in 1975..

The Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has angered traditional supporters by slashing public sector wages, freezing pensions and seeking to change wage-bargaining rules as part of efforts to cut the budget deficit and shield the economy from the sovereign debt crisis.

 

Residents began sifting through the rubble left by two earthquakes on Thursday morning as questions were asked about how such apparently minor tremors could cause such havoc.

Residents began sifting through the rubble left by two earthquakes on Thursday morning as questions were asked about how such apparently minor tremors could cause such havoc.

Hundreds of people queued for food from emergency workers as they were prevented from returning to their homes.

Up to 20,000 people had spent the night in squares, parks and nearby countryside amid fears of aftershocks.

People slept in tents and cardboard boxes, while hundreds more bedded down on the ground with nothing more than their clothes and blankets.

Authorities put the number of injured at 120 and said three people were still in a serious condition. The number of fatalities was revised down from an earlier report of 10. Two pregnant women and a child were among those who died in the two quakes – which struck with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2.

"Today will be even longer than yesterday," warned mayor Francisco Jódar, who vowed to get people under cover for Thursday night and proclaimed three days of mourning.

Rescue teams, military personnel and bulldozers moved into the city on Thursday morning to clear away rubble, which included one three-storey building that collapsed across a city street.

At least two of the dead were killed by falling masonry which crashed to the ground from an apartment building in one of the town's poorer neighbourhoods.

Some of those who began returning to their homes on Thursday morning reported serious damage, raising concerns about the quality of building work in an area known for normally low-level earthquakes.

Engineers, architects and surveyors began the task of checking buildings for structural damage.

Roger Musson, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, said the town had been unlucky because the quake had happened two miles (3km) underground.

"It's only really caused such damage because it was so shallow and the epicentre was so close to the town of Lorca," he said.

"A magnitude 5.2 is not that big – it's not considered a large earthquake."

Earthquakes normally strike at a depth of between six and 12 miles, and the shocks are more dispersed.

"On average there are probably about 1,000 magnitude 5 earthquakes every year, which is around three per day," he said.

"They mostly happen in the sea, or in remote places. It's only when you get one in a place like this where you get significant damage," he added. "It's certainly unlucky for the people of Lorca to get one so close and shallow."

The town is in an area of Spain were quakes are not uncommon, but where they mostly cause little damage.

This was the deadliest quake in Spain since 1956, when 12 people died and some 70 were injured in the southern Granada region.

Euro chiefs rule out 'stupid' notion of Greek currency exit

Europe's inner currency cabal ruled out "stupid" calls on markets for 340 billion euros of Greek debt to be restructured, as speculation soared that the government in Athens could exit the currency area and with it the EU.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker dismissed growing claims a write-down would be needed after late-night talks among G20 eurozone states prompted by worries in the United States and at the IMF that saw Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou summoned for what one EU official described as a dressing-down.

Juncker, the head of the 17-state Eurogroup of currency partners, said during urgent Friday night talks that restructuring was "an avenue we would never take."

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"We don't want to have the euro area exploding without reason. We were excluding the restructuring option which is discussed heavily in certain quarters of the financial markets," he said.

With yields on Greek government 10-year bonds having leapt to over 15 percent and on two-year bonds to over 23 percent on the secondary market, the boomerang nature of the Greek crisis suggests deep scepticism among investors that they will be repaid is not going to go away.

Juncker conceded that eurozone finance ministers would discuss a second re-negotiation of repayment terms on its year-old 110-billion-euro ($160-billion) bailout -- likely to stretch well into the next decade at least -- at their next scheduled talks in Brussels on May 16.

The result will leave ongoing EU efforts to close off a sorry chapter at a late-June summit looking ever more complicated.

Athens owes more than a year-and-a-half of its entire economic output, which markets consider unsustainable.

"We did not discuss an exit for Greece from the eurozone, we think that would be a stupid option," Juncker said after the closely-guarded talks at a castle here with Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble, France's Christine Lagarde, Italy's Giulio Tremonti and Spain's Elena Salgado.

"We have ruled out any restructuring of Greek debt," Juncker underlined after the initially secret meeting also attended by the European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, the EU's economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn and Greece's George Papaconstantinou.

Juncker said Papaconstantinou was brought in "because we've been asked by US, by the IMF (to look at) issues concerning Greece."

While Europe struggles to put a lid on a lava-esque sovereign and banking debt crisis, the Greek government in Athens attacked reports of a eurozone exit unleashed by German news magazine Der Spiegel, which has close links to the EU's richest and most powerful government in Berlin.

Der Spiegel reported that Greece had raised the possibility of such an exit during recent meetings and that it would bring the subject up again at the Luxembourg talks.

It also said that Schaeuble's office had conducted an internal study of the consequences of a Greek withdrawal which concluded that Greece's new currency would likely depreciate by 50 percent compared to the euro, making a debt restructuring inevitable and provoking capital flight.

The Greek government said the idea it could withdraw or be kicked out was "completely untrue... provocative... (and) highly irresponsible."

An EU source said ministers from the big four continental European states warned during the meeting of a "difficult" path ahead as Greece battles a deeper-than-expected national recession following drastic public budget cuts and an ongoing firesale of state assets.

Barely one year after partners coughed up for Greece, nervous financial markets have already forced similar emergency rescues for Ireland and Portugal -- whose own 78-billion-euro deal was only announced in Lisbon on Thursday.

Spain had long been thought by experts to face an outside risk of being sucked in itself given a burst real-estate bubble, high exposure to losses among its banks and an unemployment rate running at one in five.

 

Spanish Minister Says Fewer Than 700,000 Homes Are Unsold

Spain has fewer than 700,000 unsold homes after the market collapsed in 2008, the Transport and Development Ministry said.

About 61 percent of those are in coastal areas, Deputy Minister for Housing Beatriz Corredor said at a press conference in London today. Prices in seaside areas have fallen as much as 40 percent from the peak, while on average prices have declined 20 percent in real terms, said Development Minister Jose Blanco, whose remit includes housing.

The estimate of homes left over from the construction boom compares with the Bank of Spain’s figure of as many as 1.1 million. Blanco is in London to promote Spain’s economy and housing market to investors. He will deliver the same message at meetings in France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Russia.

Blanco said lenders that have taken foreclosed real estate onto their books are valuing homes “fairly,” at market prices. Valuing land “may be more problematic,” he said.

Spain built 675,000 homes a year from 1997 to 2006, more than France, Germany and the U.K. combined, according to a report by a unit of Spanish savings bank Cajamar.

 

Spain's sea rescue service pulled 29 sub-Saharan African migrants from a capsized boat early Friday off the coast of southern Spain

Spain's sea rescue service pulled 29 sub-Saharan African migrants from a capsized boat early Friday off the coast of southern Spain, but 22 others who were also aboard are missing, a rescue official told CNN.
The 22 missing include 19 men, a woman, a 5-year-old boy and a baby, according to accounts from the rescued survivors, said the official, Miguel Zea, of the Maritime Rescue Service in the port of Almeria.
Spanish authorities are searching for the missing, who were lost in Mediterranean waters with a temperature of about 16 or 17 degrees Celsius (about 60-62 degrees Fahrenheit), which might normally allow a person to survive an average of 10 hours, Zea said.
The 29 people rescued are mainly men, but also include three women, including two who are mothers of the missing boy and the baby, respectively, Zea said.
The survivors were taken to the port of Motril in neighboring Granada province.
The rescue service began combing the Mediterranean on Thursday afternoon after receiving unofficial information, from contacts in Morocco, that a boat of migrants was heading to Spain, Zea said.
Poverty-stricken migrants from Africa have long tried the risky voyage across the Mediterranean in hopes of reaching Spain and a chance to improve their economic life in Spain or elsewhere in the European Union.
Last month, the rescue service located 42 migrants from Africa and Asia on a flimsy boat near Motril.
But Spain's increased cooperation with Morocco and other countries in Africa has stemmed the flow of migrants in rickety boats.
The Interior Ministry reported last January that the number of illegal migrants arriving on Spanish coasts in 2010 was 3,632, some 50 percent less than in 2009, and that the overall flow of migrants to Spanish coasts had declined about 80 percent in the past decade.

Spanish Plume could cause sinkings

An insurance company is warning of an increased risk of boats sinking or flooding this weekend due to heavy rain caused by the Spanish Plume
While temperatures may be in the high twenties in many parts of the UK today, this hot weather, courtesy of the Spanish Plume, also suggests that thunderstorms are on their way and Navigators and General (N&G) says that if you don't take precautions to secure your boat it may be at an increased risk of sinking.

As the name suggests, the Spanish Plume is a wedge of warm air that pushes north from Spain and reaches the British Isles on a southerly airflow. When this mass meets the much cooler Atlantic air that reaches us from the west, the very warm ‘plume' air is pushed above the cooler air with such force that it produces thunderstorms.
N&G says that wooden boats are most at risk of sinking following the dry spell as deck and hull seams may open up, particularly if there is more water than the cockpit drains or automatic bilge pumps can cope with. And they are not alone: open boats could be in danger should the bilge pump fail, RIBs are at risk of their outboards fully immersing, while larger boats can also take on too much water if water outlets go below the waterline.
A spokesperson for N&G said, "N&G has seen a number of claims over the years for sinking motorboats where exhaust outlets are submerged under the waterline and leak into the boat or enginebay.

Cockpit lockers and engine covers that leak can send water into the bilges, especially if drains are blocked by debris. If not pumped out over prolonged periods it can lead to serious damage and even sinking."

N&G advises boaters to regularly check your vessel (or get someone else to do so on your behalf) and take action if necessary. Check for wearing mooring lines, blocked cockpit drains, tearing covers or canopies, and especially check on heaters and dehumidifiers.

 

Spanish students cause havoc with mass party

massive party organised by students using social networking sites brought university classes to a standstill on Thursday in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia.

The law and economics faculties at the city's university had to close their doors as drunken students began to run amok after more than a thousand people had gathered for an outdoor bring-a-bottle party at the campus.

The party was organised as a protest against the university's failure to put on a traditional student paella party this year.

"It will end when people tire of it, or when we get chucked out," organisers had promised on the Spanish answer to Facebook, a social networking site called Tuenti. "The aim is not to create a disturbance or to demonstrate against anyone, but to have a good time together."

Students carrying bottles, food, cooler bags and guitars packed out the campus, with the more drunken ones eventually disturbing classes.

Authorities said they had suspended classes to avoid incidents.

The students' union said it had nothing to do with the impromptu party, but blamed university authorities for the failure to organise the traditional annual student paella party.

 

Spain is saturated with budget flights and at least one carrier needs to go out of the market to bring stability

Spain is saturated with budget flights and at least one carrier needs to go out of the market to bring stability, according to International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh.

IAG, made up of British Airways and Iberia, is considering how to trim Iberia’s Spanish short-haul network, which operates in a country with Europe’s highest number of no-frills flights. Walsh told an analysts’ briefing consolidation was needed:

“The likelihood is that either somebody will disappear or someone new will come in and support one of the existing carriers,” he said. Walsh warned the market might test any budget airline investors’ patience and added: “We would like to see one of them disappear.”

Walsh, who has already slashed BA’s domestic network, said Iberia needed feed into Madrid for long-haul connections, but warned:
“A presence in the short-haul market just for the sake of being present is not something we are looking at.”

IAG will this summer examine Spanish routes that can be given to Vueling, the budget carrier in which Iberia has a 46% stake and its regional subsidiary Air Nostrum. Some have already been transferred temporarily, but IAG must first get agreements from unions for a wholesale shift.

“It is no secret that we are committed to tackling the cost issues we have in the Iberia short-haul network, we have some time to decide what we want to do for the winter season,” said Walsh.

Enrique Dupuy de Lome Chavarri, IAG chief financial officer said: “I can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen,” but said agreements had to be in place in time for the winter schedules.

Walsh added that short-haul premium travel for BA and Iberia had recovered from the recession quicker than he had anticipated, but said it was still below pre-recession levels.

“I don’t believe it will ever get back,” he said.

Kathleen Rodger (62) plunged from a third-floor balcony at the apartment block she shared with husband Andrew in Torrevieja in the Costa Blanca.

Kathleen Rodger (62) plunged from a third-floor balcony at the apartment block she shared with husband Andrew in Torrevieja in the Costa Blanca.

It is believed Mrs Rodger, who lived in Leven before moving to Spain four years ago, slipped on a wet floor as she made her way on to the veranda on Friday.

Her funeral is to be held in Peebles in the Borders, where she will be buried alongside her two children — Carol, who died when she was just four days old, and Alan, who was killed in a tractor accident 18 years ago.

Originally from Jedburgh, Mrs Rodger moved to Leven in 1993 after meeting Andrew (65), who she married in Scoonie Kirk the following year.

They lived together in Scoonie Drive for 14 years before deciding to retire to the Spanish sunshine when Mrs Rodger suffered a stroke.

She had previously worked as a nurse, with her last job being at Leven Beach Nursing Home.

Her heartbroken husband described her as a lovely, easy-going person who made friends easily.

Mr Rodger said that when his wife was not working she enjoyed shopping, and was also a member of Scoonie Kirk — now known as Leven Parish Church.

He said, "She used to love her work but she had to give it up because of her stroke. We moved to Spain for her health and she really liked it here.

"The balcony was wet and she slipped and went right over the railings. She was a bit unsteady on her feet after the stroke."