News in Spain
MARCH 2010 ISSUE
News from 2009 you may had missed
Lost mobile numbers can be recovered by those who failed to register- some news you may have missed in 2009
PAY-AS-YOU-GO mobile phone users who did not registered with their network providers lost their number in November but they will be able to reactivate these numbers and recover their lines if they provide their network operators with their personal details within six months.
Pay-as-you-go mobile owners were given two years to register with shops selling phones on their network.
The move was aimed at preventing terrorists and organised criminal gangs from being untraceable by using pay-as-you-go mobiles.
Now, anyone who buys a new phone of this type will automatically be registered, and anyone who has not registered their previous number will lose it today.
On Saturday November 7 though it was announced by minister for the interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba that they have given another six months for owners to get their numbers and their phones back by calling their network provider in order to give the ‘least-informed members of society, such as the young and the elderly’ the chance to resolve their problem of being excommunicated by failing to register.
Urban solutions to curb uncivilised behaviour in a Barcelona district Authorities in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona City have implemented a new plan aimed at helping to put an end to uncivilised behaviour by applying urban solutions to the problem. 24 areas seen as the most unsightly spots in the district were identified and targeted for action. One measure, which Europa Press reports as the most successful so far, is public benches fitted with armrests, dividing the bench into four separate sections and preventing anyone using them to sleep. Other urban solutions have been applied to stop youngsters using the locations where they normally hold the ‘botellón’, where groups gather together to drink in the streets. One of the other moves hopes to curb another type of unsocial behaviour – by building ramps onto the corners of buildings in an attempt to stop public urination..
Best record of the year goes to Miguel Poveda The Spanish Academy of Arts and the Science of Music has named the last album from Catalan flamenco singer, Miguel Poveda, as record of the year. He will be given the award at the Premios de la Musica Gala in Madrid on March 4 for his album of coplas, ‘Coplas del Querer’. The record also picks up the Best Spanish Music Album and Best Production awards. Poveda gave his thanks in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where he is currently on tour, and confessed a certain ‘shock’ at the news. He says he has liked the Copla since he started his career and he had always played with it during his flamenco recitals. He said he hoped that the prize would bring a gigantic step forward in the recognition of flamenco.One of the coplas on the disc, ‘Final y a Ciegas’, was used by Pedro Almodóvar in his latest film, ‘Broken embraces’.
Two more ETA arrests in Cataluña The number of ETA activists arrested this year has reached 23 with the detention of Adur Aristegui Aragón and Jon Rosales Palenzuela on Wednesday. The two were arrested in Molló, a small village in Girona, at a control point near the French border set up by the Catalan Police, Los Mossos d’Esquadra. 18 of the arrests this year have been made in Spain, 15 of them in the Basque Country, and three in Cataluña. Three more were detained in France and two in Portugal. Catalan Interior Councillor, Joan Saura, has said that they have no confirmation of any ETA base in the region, despite the recent arrests.
Supreme Court orders the annulment of abusive credit card and loan clauses The Spanish Supreme Court has ordered the annulment of several clauses in the contracts for credit cards , loans and mortgages, taken by clients of the Santander, BBVA, Bankinter and Caja Madrid banks, considering that they are ‘abusive’, disproportionate’ or ‘confusing’. In particular the Court cannot accept a clause which exempts the banks of all responsibility in the case of the theft of the card, and they described clauses which stop the owners of mortgaged property generating an income from it as ‘abusive’. The Civil Hall of the Supreme Court has therefore agreed in part with the complaint placed by the OCU, Organisation of Consumers and Users, after the Madrid Provincial Court declared such causes in 2005 to be valid.
Religious controversy at the ARCO Madrid Modern Art Fair. The ARCO modern art fair in Madrid has its first controversy of the year with a work ‘Stairway to Heaven’ from the young Madrid artist, Eugenio Merino. It shows an Arab on his knees praying, with a Catholic priest on the Arab’s back also knelt in prayer and with a Rabbi in turn standing on the shoulders of the priest. The work, made from resin, silicone and human hair, has already sold to a Belgian collector for 50,000 € and is exhibited at the ADN Gallery in Barcelona, but has also drawn a complaint from the Israeli Embassy in Spain. They have commented that the freedom of expression or freedom of art serves on occasions only as a simple mask for prejudice. ‘An offensive message does not stop the hurt because it pretends to be an artistic work’. The artist has said he did not want to provoke with the work, saying that his idea was ‘the co-existence of the three religions, each making a common effort to reach God on the literal plain’.
Consumer spending up for the first time in two years Family spending in Spain has increased for the first time in two years. It rose by 0.3% in the last quarter of last year after seeing continued falls since the last quarter of 2007 when it grew by 0.9%. The increase in consumer spending is at odds with that of the State which fell for the first time in 12 years by 1.7% according to the data from the National Statistics Institute.
Spain Business Brief Banks in Spain are reported to be rejecting 25% of the credit applications being made by small businesses here. Numbers indicate Spain to be the largest main economy in the Eurozone with the worst access to loans. Here only 44% get what they ask for, while in France it is 80%. Meanwhile 93% of the self-employed in Spain say they will not be taking on any employees this year. 34.8% of autonomos say they reduced their workforce last year. British clothing company Burberry is closing its offices in Barcelona with the loss of 300 jobs. Jobs of the 100 who work in the company’s shops in Spain are not affected. The company is blaming the recession for the decision in Spain. Spanish Airports Authority AENA has said it will remove the live data of the flights taken by the Prime Minister and the King from its webpage. Military flights are also to be removed and information on commercial flights will appear now with a 12 hour delay and only be visible after the plane has landed. However we have been sent details of another page which we are told updates live information every 14 seconds – at www.localizatodo.com. And finally, Contributors to the Catholic Church in Spain gave 252 million € last year, 11 million more than in 2008. The Bishops have estimated that there are some nine million contributors.
The SUPER SLICK new AVE train
This S103 model has a 200 metre long aluminium chassis carrying up to 404 passengers, it even has reclining seats that swivel to face the direction of travel, and these seats even have video and music players.
The aim of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is to have 10,000km of high- speed track in Spain by 2020, meaning that 90% of the population will be no more than 30 miles from a station through which the train passes.
December saw the opening of lines connecting Madrid to Valladolid and to Malaga, which have slashed journey times and proved hugely popular. Carrillo describes the success of these two lines as “unprecedented and well ahead of what we expected. Traffic has doubled on the Malaga line, and grown by 75% on the Valladolid line.”
What the AVE offers is unavailable in the rest of Europe in terms of comfort, speed and punctuality. Do not read on if you are a British commuter used to delays, if an Ave train arrives more than five minutes late, passengers are reimbursed the full price of their ticket, the main problem for those hoping to get their money back is that the trains are almost 98% reliable.
New Rail Link Between Seville and Barcelona Announced
Plans were announced last week for a new high speed train route for Andalucia, to connect Seville with Barcelona and also Malaga with Barcelona without having to go to Madrid. A date has not been set, but the plan is to provide a link south of Madrid which connect the existing AVE lines from Barcelona and Andalucia.
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