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VALENCIA - ALICANTE - MURCIA
February 23 - March 1 2007
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VALIANT VALENCIA
By Samantha Kett
PASSENGERS will soon be able to enjoy a
fast direct train link between Valencia and
Alicante.
The long-awaited plans for a track from
Gandia to Dénia have finally been unblocked.
The service will link the provincial capitals of Valencia and Alicante, and will
enable those living in the currently unconnected 30-kilometre stretch to visit and
work in either city.
At the moment, those living in or near Dénia and Oliva have to take a bus to Gandia
before catching the train to Valencia.
As bus and train times do not coincide,
this can add an extra hour to the journey.
Councillors and residents have been pushing for the rail link for more than 30
years.
However, it was announced this week
that the regional government would carry out the work. In exchange, the central
government’s ministry of public works
would install a train line between Xàtiva
and Alcoy.
The first stage of the project has a budget
of 400 million euros, and will cost a total
of 1.5 billion euros to complete.
Running alongside the AP-7 toll motorway,
the line will have stations in Oliva and Dénia.
Oliva’s mayor, socialist Salvador Fuster,
called the news magnificent and said: “We
already suspected it would happen this
way.”
Mayoress of Dénia, Paqui Viciano, said
the decision was very positive and a great
step forward.
A date for completing the works has not
yet been given.
Valencia’s Estación del Norte
POP-ROCK sensation Shakira takes to the stage in Torrevieja next
month on the next leg of her Fijación Oral 2007 tour.
The only performance the Colombian chart-topper will give in the
Comunidad Valenciana is on March 31 in Parque Antonio Soria.
About 40,000 people are expected to turn out for the Grammy Awardwinner’s act.
Tickets are now on sale for 40 euros (see ThinkSPAIN|today Magazine
for points of sale).
news P2 • letters P14 • travel P24 • cars P28 • sports P36
NATIONAL NEWS
Page 2
February 23 - March 1 2007
Two more
held over
missing
Briton
mystery
POLICE in Spain are holding two more people in the
case of Francis Ottley, a 56year-old Englishman who
was last seen alive in La
Línea de la Concepción in
February 2005.
Stuart James Martin, 29,
from Brighton, was arrested for Ottley’s suspected
murder last August and
faces trial in the United
Kingdom in July under the
1861 Offences Against The
Person Act.
This allows prosecuting a
murder without a body but
there is no such precedence
in Spain.
Mr Martin has denied any
involvement in the murder.
The latest to be arrested are
Lorna Montgomery MacDonald and George White.
Ms MacDonald is originally
from Glasgow but has been
living in Madrid.
Mr White is an Englishman
who lives in La Línea.
The arrests come after a
joint investigation by Spanish police and officers from
Kent, where Mr Ottley came
from before he started travelling around Spain in a
converted coach in which
he was living when he disappeared mysteriously two
years ago and has not been
heard of since.
Spain and
Italy unite
VICTORY: Julián Álvarez, secretary general of the Party of Andalucía with his supporters after the successful battle for more autonomy
Greater powers for
Sevilla government
VOTERS in Andalucía have
approved changes to the
regional charter that will
grant the region fuller autonomy.
Provisional results from
Sunday’s voting showed
the Yes vote at more than 87
per cent and the No vote at
about nine per cent.
Andalucía already has
some autonomy, but it will
now be on equal footing
WEATHER
AROUND THE COSTA BLANCA THIS WEEK
FRIDAY
PARTLY CLOUDY
68ºF 20ºC
SATURDAY
MOSTLY SUNNY
68ºF 20ºC
SUNDAY
LIGHT RAIN
69ºF 21ºC
MONDAY
MOSTLY SUNNY
69ºF 21ºC
TUESDAY
SUNNY
72ºF 22ºC
WEDNESDAY SUNNY
72ºF 22ºC
THURSDAY
68ºF 20ºC
MOSTLY SUNNY
with Spain’s three historic
regions: the Basque region,
Cataluña and Galicia.
Andalucía’s
politicians
wanted more powers to reflect the region’s growing
importance and its increasing population.
Large numbers of immigrants have moved to the
region.
The charter guarantees a
greater percentage of central government investment
into the region.
New powers will enable Andalucía to re-negotiate its
recurring debt, something
local politicians have complained about.
Andalucía’s regional parliament will also get increased
powers over the previous
version of the charter.
Spain decentralised its
government in 1978 after
the death of Franco. The
regions have powers over
education, housing, health
and public administration.
The national government
in Madrid retains control
over defence, justice, foreign affairs, airports and
ports.
Prime minister José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero said:
“Andalucía has provided itself with a new charter that
permits it not only greater
and
better
self-government, it enables it to face
successfully a new stage of
economic development and
social progress.”
Ulsterman faces murder trial
A NORTHERN Ireland man
is on trial charged with the
murder of a woman on Gran
Canaria in 2005.
Vincent Traynor, 20, is accu-
sed of killing Stella Or, 23,
whose body was found near
San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
Mr Traynor, from Loughguile, Antrim, has been in cus-
tody since he was charged
two years ago.
The court heard he admitted kicking the woman, but
denied killing her.
SPAIN and Italy have called
for a common European
Union energy policy.
The call came after Spain’s
prime minister José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero and his
Italian counterpart Romano
Prodi held a bilateral summit on Ibiza on Tuesday.
The countries reaffirmed
their commitment to a
sustainable common EU
energy policy and the liberalisation of their gas and
electricity markets.
The prime ministers also
talked about the prospects
for the EU constitution and
chances of peace in the
Middle East at the one-day
bilateral summit.
Signor Prodi has now resigned after he lost a vote
over the pro-American
parts of his foreign policy.
The countries have also
agreed to make every effort
to relaunch the process of
European integration.
Spain and Italy are ready to
join with Germany to work
to achieve the goal, said Zapatero.
The prime ministers also
talked about the chances of
peace in the Middle East at
the one-day summit.
Rail crash
AVE high speed train services were interrupted this
week, following the collapse
of a 140 ton concrete beam
on to the lines in Madrid.
Services to Sevilla and Toledo were affected.
Passengers were taken by
road from the Atocha station in Madrid to the La
Sagra station near Toledo,
from where the trains were
running south.
An investigation is being
held into the cause of the
collapse.
The lines are used by about
15,000 travellers a day.
How to contact us
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NATIONAL NEWS
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 3
Rampage
of death
Captured by passengers
A 61-YEAR-OLD man went
on the rampage in El Real
de San Vicente, 76 kilometres from Toledo, killing
his wife, his son and her
mother.
He then went to Talavera de
la Reina where two of his
daughters were staying and
tried to attack them with an
axe, before throwing himself out of a ninth floor flat
on to the street below.
Police discovered the girls
in a state of shock, and took
them both to hospital but
their lives are not in danger.
The Carnival celebrations
in El Real de San Vicente
were cancelled as a gesture
of respect.
The attack took place in
the family home on the
Travesía del Cementero.
A HIJACKER armed with
two pistols was overpowered by passengers on a
flight from Mauritania to
the Canary Islands.
The hijacker lost his balance
when the pilot of the Air
Mauritania flight slammed
on the brakes on landing.
He was then overpowered
Slow tour
planned
THE TOC, the Traction
Owners Club UK, is organising a slow tour of Spain
and Gibraltar.
It will start from Bilbao on
May 13 and go via Sevilla,
arriving in Gibraltar on
May 19 to join up with the
Gibraltar Classic Vehicle
Association.
The tour will then take a
route through Spain and
France.
The club hopes to meet up
with fellow classic car owners en route, from France
and Spain. All are welcome,
especially any classic Citroën car owners.
Dirty water
EIGHT hundred towns in
Spain, with a total population of more than 6.5 million residents, fail to meet
strict regulations over the
treatment of sewage water.
Although the Madrid government intends to invest
17,500 million euros to resolve the problems, it is
thinking of adopting a zero
tolerance attitude towards
offending towns.
In some towns where population growth has been
marked in recent years,
councils have simply ignored legal demands regarding sewage disposal in
their new town plans.
and thrown to the floor by
passengers and the cabin
crew.
The man was arrested by
police waiting with emergency services at a military
base on Gran Canaria.
None of the 71 passengers
were seriously injured but
21 people were treated for
anxiety, shock or bruises.
Salvador García, a spokesman for the government in
Las Palmas, said: “When the
plane came down abruptly,
the hijacker lost his balance
and at that moment a group
of passengers and crew
threw him to the floor.”
The passenger stood up
about 10 minutes after takeoff from Nouakchott, the
Mauritanian capital.
He shoved aside a flight attendant, took out the pistols
and demanded to be flown to
Paris.
The pilot convinced the hijacker that the plane would
have to refuel.
Woman soldier
killed by blast
A SPANISH woman soldier
was killed and two other soldiers injured on Wednesday
in an attack against a military convoy near Shindand
in Afghanistan.
She was identified as Idoia
Rodríguez Buján.
She and the two others were
travelling in an armoured
ambulance forming part of
a convoy comprising four
other vehicles.
The Spaniards were backing
up Italian teams instructing
the Afghan army.
The lives of the two injured
soldiers, both men, were reportedly not in danger.
Sra Buján, 23, was serving at the Spanish base in
Herat, 40 kilometres from
where the blast occurred.
She had joined the Spanish Army in September,
2004 and served in the Isabel la Católica regiment
of the Light Air Transport
Brigade which is based in
Figueirido (Pontevedra).
Her father, Constantino
Rodríguez, was told of her
death while at work in Nodor, near the family home in
Froil, northern Spain.
He said of his only child:
“She always wanted to be
a soldier. She adored her
work in the Army.
“There are no words to
describe how we feel. It’s
incredible, it’s so unexpected.”
The news stunned the
townsfolk of Froil and one
said: “It is terrible.
“She was young, happy,
pretty and was dedicated to
being a soldier.”
She last spoke to her family by telephone on Tuesday
night.
Spanish troops have been
helping the NATO operation
in Afghanistan since 2002,
joining 36 other countries.
Its 690 troops are stationed
in the west of the country.
Sra Buján had been in Afghanistan since October
and is the 19th Spanish soldier to die in the campaign
against the Taleban.
In August 2005 17 were
IDOIA RODRÍGUEZ BUJÁN: Killed in action
killed when their helicopter crashed. In July a Peruvian serving in the Span-
ish Army, Jorge Arnaldo
Hernández Seminario, was
killed by a mine.
Clinic closed after deaths
A PRIVATE aesthetics clinic
in Barcelona has been shut
down by authorities.
The closure came after two
women who underwent routine cosmetic surgery, died.
Hospital Evangélico has denied that the death of two of
its patients was due to gross
negligence.
The first victim, 33, died
last week after a breast and
stomach operation went
wrong.
The patient suffered a massive thrombosis and died
soon after.
The second patient, 44, was
being operated on for abdominoplasty (reduction of
fat in the abdomen).
Now health inspectors are
studying surgical procedures in the clinic to discov-
er what, if anything, went
wrong.
They want to discover if
there is a common link between the two cases as the
patients were operated on
by different surgeons and
medical teams.
According to the clinic’s
director, Samuel Fabra, the
centre is used by external
surgeons only.
They hire surgery rooms to
use for patients.
It was also revealed this
week that a third woman
has died in Spain after undergoing a routine cosmetic
surgery operation.
This time, the 50-year-old
woman from Castellón was
undergoing a routine operation for liposuction when
she died.
Spain is
favourite
SPAIN is the most favoured
destination for West Europeans considering to move
from their own country and
seek jobs elsewhere in the
EU.
According to a Financial
Times/Harris poll on attitudes among over 6,500
adults in the UK, France,
Germany, Italy, Spain and
the United States towards
immigration 17 per cent of
respondents said they would
like to work in Spain.
The Italians were the most
keen in general to work in
another EU country (more
than 50 per cent), only 23
per cent of French would
consider leaving to live and
work elsewhere.
The Spanish respondents
welcomed the positive impact of immigration, with
42 per cent saying it was
good for the economy, compared with 19 per cent in
Britain and France.
The Brits are the most
hostile against job-seekers from other European
quarters with 66 per cent
complaining there were
too many foreigners in the
country while the UK itself
is the second favourite destination of West Europeans
for working abroad.
The UK was among the three
countries, with Ireland and
Sweden, that opened their
labour markets right from
the 2004 EU enlargement.
Spain joined the camp last
year along with Portugal,
Finland, Italy and Greece.
With the UK seeing a significantly higher influx of
newcomers from central
and Eastern Europe than
predicted by the government - 427,000 instead of
15,000 - and Spain fearing
the impact of 2006 enlargement, both countries have
closed their doors to potential immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania.
Throat cut
UE Lleida manager, Carles
Llovera died after his throat
was cut during a row in Lleida city centre.
It started with an argument
between Sr Llovera and a
29-year-old man, who was
taken into custody.
UE Lleida play in group III
of the second division (B).
Strutting their stuff on the catwalks
IT’S all been about fashion this
month in Madrid, with the Madrid
International Fashion week beginning last week.
This is an event that accommodates
several shows all linked to fashion;
a business that moves approximately 13,000 million euros in Spain.
Fashion is a massive industry for
Spain, and it is undoubtedly centred in Madrid - making the capital
an exciting place to be this month.
The Cibeles catwalk show has been
attracting huge publicity, not only
for the latest styles, but also due to
the fact that size zero models have
been sent packing. Doctors were
called in to evaluate the Body Mass
Index of each model, and those
falling below recommended levels weren’t allowed to participate
in the show. Hopefully, they went
home to eat a plate of chips.
The famous Pasarela Cibeles show’s
45th edition was held last week
and included fshions from important national designers Andrés
Sardá, María Lafuente, Francis
Montesinos, Ágatha Ruiz de la
Prada, Davidelfin, and Victorio
and Lucchino, as well as creations
by several new hopefuls, that were
received with enthusiasm by the
fashion world.
I for one, am sure the clothes looked
much better on models who actually had some flesh.
Starting next week from February
28 to March 2 is the Textile Fashion
Show (Textilmoda).
It is the great Spanish textile showcase and Europe’s leader in the tex-
tile field, sees its 12th edition in Ifema
(the exhibition centre in Madrid).
The show is centred around four
topics: Thriller Glamour and Soft
Gothic introduce a style that seeks
the strictest elegance and complete
perfection, while Precious Forest
and Cosy Pop present two fantastical views of fashion.
Feeling theatrical
In the world of theatre there’s an
unusual play about to make its
debut -The Best Sketches of Monty
Python - although this version is
without John Cleese. The thought
of Monty Python without his voice
might seem incongruous, but the
genius of the writing and the classic jokes still shine through in this
Spanish show. It will be playing
next week at the Teatro Alfíl, C/Pez,
10, Tel. 91 521 58 27 from 7 March.
Another interesting show beginning in March is Sueño de una
Noche de Verano, (A Midsummer’s
Night Dream), one of Shakespeare’s
most famous works.
Normally set in an enchanted forest, this version will be set in a
more recognisable locale: next to
the Mediterranean sea.
The characters now come straight
out of the ocean in this musical adaptation of the play. Even
if you’ve seen or read this work
before, this promises to be completely unique. You’ll find it at
Teatro Albeniz, C/Paz, 11, Tel. 91
531 83 11. From March 16.
Kirsty Tuxford
[email protected]
LOCAL NEWS
Page 4
Celebrating
women’s day
AN Indian fashion show,
Eastern dancing and a tribute to Cher are some of the
acts lined up to celebrate international women’s day.
The Women In Business
Club is hosting its third
International
Women’s
Day exhibition at Dénia’s
Marriott hotel on Thursday March 8 from 10.00 to
18.00hrs.
About 100 businesses and
charities will be setting
out their stall to tell residents and visitors about the
wealth of talent and activities on offer on the Costa
Blanca.
A garden designer, yoga
teacher, property consultants and jewellery outlets
are among the firms taking
part.
Performances will be held
throughout the day including fashion shows, dance,
music and health talks.
The WIBC celebrates International Women’s Day
to raise awareness about
women’s human rights as
well as funds for domestic
violence victims.
The group works closely
with the Costa Blanca’s regional protection shelters,
where women and their
children are often forced to
take refuge.
It is now aiming to set up an
English-speaking helpline
to reach out to foreign women who often do not speak
Spanish and are afraid to
call in the police because of
the language barrier.
For more details visit the
WIBC website www.wibcspain.com
Swindler
sent to jail
A MAN has been jailed for
three years and nine months
for conning nine banks out
of 75,000 euros.
The scam affected BBVA
branches in Alicante, Valencia and Murcia. The accused, 39-year-old Gilberto
Ferdinando M.N., is from
Italy and lives in Alicante.
He forged Italian identity
cards to open accounts in
each branch, depositing no
more than 300 euros each
time. He then withdrew extra funds on the strength
of cheques paid in, which
turned out to be false.
He has been ordered to repay
the stolen money to BBVA.
February 23 - March 1 2007
Fury over votes
EXPATRIATES claim they are being
prevented from voting in the forthcoming elections.
Residents in some Comunidad Valenciana towns claim that council bureaucrats are stopping them from registering with the town hall.
This gives them the right to vote as
well as allowing the local authority to
receive more money from Madrid.
However in Serra, which has about
2,000 residents, people with the same
names have not been able to register.
They are now thinking of taking legal
measures to defend their basic democratic right.
In nearby Albalat dels Tarongers, the
situation is similar.
Residents in one urbanisation have
said the mayor will not allow them to
register.
They have set up an independent party
to stand at the forthcoming elections.
Its sole goal is to stop the general building plan which will allow houses and a
golf course to be built in Albalat.
The town hall claims these people do
not live in Albalat and therefore cannot register with the local town hall.
In the Rincón de Ademuz 106 people
were refused permission to register
because the town hall claims they do
not live in the area all the time.
Firm accused
of dumping
toxic sludge
A FIRM has been accused
of dumping contaminated
sludge on private land.
Cespa, which manages the
Cañada Hermosa sewage
treatment plant in Murcia,
is alleged to have dumped
tons of waste on land in
the neighbouring Granada
province.
The Andalucía council has
started proceedings against
the company.
The sludge is a by-product
produced during sewage
treatment and contains
highly-pollutant materials.
The council’s chief environmental officer Gerardo
Sánchez said the original
complaint came from the environmental organisation,
Ecologistas en Acción.
The group claimed as much
as 250 tons of sludge has
been dumped on the land in
La Puebla de Don Fadrique,
which borders with Murcia.
Environment department
inspectors found 14 tons at
the site during an inspection on Tuesday.
Anti-bypass
Hundreds test new skate park demo blocks
carriageway
SKATER boys and girls have
been busy practising their skills
in a new park in Pilar de la Horadada.
The skate park was officially
opened on Sunday with more
than 200 young people test-driving the new compound at the
town’s sports complex.
Fair celebrates best of the Med
THE finest Mediterranean fare is being celebrated at a special event in Villajoyosa this weekend.
The town is hosting the seventh seafood cuisine fair from Monday February 26 until Sunday March 4.
The restaurants Ca Marta, Casa Elordi, Club Náutico, Club de Tenis, Colón
52, El Emperador, El Moliner, El Nàu-
tic, Hogar del Pescador, La Marina, Miramar, Pepe Córdoba and Rompeolas
Casino Mediterráneo are taking part.
Their chefs will be preparing special
menus with the best seafood cuisine,
with fresh fish, shellfish and rice taking pride of place.
The fair begins with a special dinner
on Monday in the Casino Mediterráneo. Homage will be paid to the chef
Quique Dacosta, whose El Poblet restaurant in Dénia has just been awarded a second Michelin star.
To complement the food fair, the fourth
Mediterranean wine fair will take
place in the central market.
The celebratory closing dinner on
Sunday March 4 will be organised by
the chef Raúl Aleixandre from the restaurant Ca Sento in Valencia city.
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TRISAT
MORE than 300 protesters
have taken part in a demonstration against a proposed
new bypass for Orihuela.
They blocked the main
CV-95 Torrevieja-Orihuela
coast road for an hour and
a half during the protest at
San Miguel de Salinas on
Sunday.
The planned CV-95, to link
the town of Orihuela with
the coast, will cut through
large areas of green belt
land, said a spokesman for
left-wing party Esquerra
Unida.
Representatives of several
council parties and anti-development pressure group
La Vega Baja No Se Vende
attended the march, which
attracted more than 300
supporters.
Many protesters believe the
road is a prelude to more
urbanisations being built
in the area on green belt
land, which would have to
be reclassified to allow development.
Esquerra Unida said a
greener solution would be to
link the existing CV-95 with
the AP-37 toll motorway.
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LOCAL NEWS
February 23 - March 1 2007
Atmosphere
hotting up
VALENCIA city residents
are packing their bags to
flee the fiery Fallas fiesta.
Although the main part
of the festival is still three
weeks away, the atmosphere
in Valencia is already hotting up.
In a week’s time the papiermaché figures will be put on
display on the squares and
crossroads in the centre of
Valencia and most other
towns in the area.
Conservative estimates by
the Valencian Institute for
Economic
Investigation
claim the fiestas brought
up to 6.6 million euros into
the city last year, one million more than the previous
year.
However an increasing
number of locals do not
like the wild fiestas. Some
flee on holiday while others
try to put a damper on the
excesses of the fiestas.
More than 200 petitions
have been set up by local
residents about noisy fiesta
tents.
This year they can only be
up on March 10 and 15 to
18 between 23.00hrs and
04.00hrs with a maximum
volume of
130 decibels,
which is loud enough to
wake even deaf people.
About 600 streets around
the city will be closed for
the last week of the fiestas
which end on March 19.
The town hall has raised the
minimum age when children can play with crackers
from eight to 12.
Page 5
Fallas cracker to
set city port alight
A SPECIAL sea Falla is to take pride
of place in Valencia port to celebrate
this year’s prestigious America’s Cup
yacht race.
The colourful comic statue will be
made from biodegradable materials
at a cost of six million euros, half of
which has been provided by companies involved in the race.
The idea came about to enable all the
America’s Cup teams to join in the
Fallas celebrations.
The Fallas is a Valencian tradition
which celebrates Saint Joseph’s Day
on March 19.
Large colourful statues, often poking
fun at politicians, adorn the streets
only to be burnt on the saint’s day.
Other celebrations are also being set
up for the top yacht race.
Three
internationally-renowned
bands have also been invited to take
part in the race.
British-based choral group Il Divo has
already confirmed its appearance.
Valencia mayoress Rita Barberá said
the aim of the project is to ensure
that as many people as possible take
part.
Other entertainments provided for
the America’s Cup include firework
displays and a special sea festival.
This will be staged by the Plasticians
Volants Company which put on an impressive show in Sydney Harbour for
the 2002 Olympic Games.
More than two million visitors are expected to visit Valencia Port to see the
races between April and July.
Courting controversy
RESIDENTS fear their building could catch fire during this year’s March Fallas fiesta.
The Falla association Baix la Mar in Dénia is planning to put its statues in the same place as always.
People living nearby hit out because the figure is
larger than ever. They fear flames could lick over the
buildings when the statue is set on fire on March 19.
The dispute has been argued out in the courts since
May 2006.
The town council and the Falla association appealed
against the first decision to move the Falla further
away from the building.
They argued that it does not cause a danger and
pointed out the fire brigade will be present during the
burning.
The Falla organisation is angry with the neighbours’
action, especially as it is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It has also spent 66,000 euros on the
main figure and 15,000 on the children’s one.
The association has already brought parts of this
year’s Fallas to Dénia’s industrial estate and will
start to build it in on Saturday March 10 regardless of
the court’s decision.
Heros save
neighbour
A MAN who lost his father
in a fire at the family home
in Elda was saved by two
Moroccan brothers last
Thursday.
The blaze started at about
05.00 hrs in a third-floor
flat on C/ Vicente Blasco
Ibáñez.
The Benelmekroud brothers were alerted by their
mother, who saw smoke
gushing from the windows
of the apartment above.
Habib Benelmekroud said
he and his brother banged
on the door of the flat where
the fire started.
When they received no
response, they kicked the
door in and found a 29-yearold man asleep.
The brothers woke him up
and he managed to leave the
building.
However, the young man’s
father, a 55-year-old Spaniard, died in the blaze.
Firefighters believe he lost
his life while attempting
to leave his room, but was
beaten back by flames.
They suspect the fire started in the kitchen, which
backed on to the deceased’s
bedroom.
Silver screen
BOLD STATEMENT: One of last year’s Dénia Fallas
A MINI film festival is being
held at the Casa de Cultura,
Finestrat, until Sunday
March 4. The event, organised by Finestrat council,
will show 30 films from the
USA, Brazil, France, Mexico, Spain and Germany.
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LOCAL NEWS
Page 6
February 23 - March 1 2007
Back on the rails
THE Comunidad Valenciana’s two main cities, Valencia and Alicante, are connected by two roads, the
A-7 motorway and the N332.
Amazingly there is no rail link.
That may all change in the not too distant future as
it appears agreement has been reached to build a
new high-speed line between the two.
This is a welcome move.
Though the day seems far off there can be no doubt
that, as in any fast-growing economy, Spain’s roads
will become increasingly congested unless rail links
between the main cities and towns are improved.
An indication that the economy of the Comunidad
Valenciana is growing apace is the news, reported on
page 7, that top international companies are queueing up to move into Valencia where there is 500,000
square metres of prestige office space available for
rent or sale and where up to 26 more commercial
areas are to be built to accommodate the growing demand and to add to the 53 existing centres.
An efficient rail link between Alicante and Valencia
is essential to avoid the congestion problems that so
afflict the UK.
The Alicante-Dénia narrow guage railway can continue to meander its eccentric way across the plain,
through the mountains and along the coast, amusing tourists but infuriating residents who use it to
commute to and from work.
The high-speed trains, that make travel between major centres in Spain such a delight, cannot come too
soon.
The place to be
A NEW survey shows that Spain is the most favoured
place for people who want to leave their home countries to work elsewhere.
And, unlike in some other countries, it seems that
these immigrants are, by and large, welcomed by the
Spanish who see them, not as a drain on resources,
but as a benefit to the economy.
This gives the lie to those who believe that the majority of people who move to Spain are only here for the
sun and a peaceful retirement.
People of all nationalities have moved to the country
and set up businesses to reap the entrepreneurial rewards that are on offer in a booming economy and
rising population.
Here they are welcomed, a sharp contrast to some
other places that we shall not name.
STRICKEN SHIP: The Ostedijk is being refused entry into Spanish ports because of its cargo
Stranded cargo ship
leaking toxic gases
A BOAT carrying tonnes of fermenting
fertiliser has been refused entry into
Valencia’s waters, after poisonous
gases start to leak from the vessel.
The Dutch boat Ostedijk, which is
transporting 6,000 tonnes of fertiliser
from Norway to Valencia, had to stop
its engines and call for help while
sailing from Galicia.
Regional minister of land and housing, Esteban González Pons, said: “The
Valencian government will do all it can
to stop the boat entering the region’s
coast if it fails to meet safety protocol.
“We do not want this type of impure
and contaminating visitor in any one
of our ports.”
Four of the ship’s 12-strong crew - four
Phillipino men aged 30 to 35 - were
evacuated and treated at A Coruña’s
Juan Canalejo Hospital for nausea
as well as eye and throat irritations
caused by inhaling fumes from the fermenting cargo.
Greenpeace fears the cargo could explode, causing serious long-term contamination in the waters.
The shipowner had asked for
permission to take the Ostedijk to
a Spanish port to unload the cargo.
Spain rejected the request, fearing
health or environmental damage
from the gases emitted by the cargo.
The vessel is now moored off the
northwestern coast of Galicia, about
five miles off the Cabo Estaca de Bares
Universities join forces
in historical agreement
Surgery on cards to
help HIV patients
NEARLY 1,000 patients with
HIV in the Comunidad Valenciana are to undergo cosmetic surgery to improve
their lives, the health ministry has revealed.
Severe lipoathrophy, or lack
of facial fat tissue, leaves
HIV sufferers with hollow
cheeks as a result of drugs
they take to combat the disease.
The physical condition can
often cause social rejection
and discrimination.
For the first time ever, the
regional public health service is to fund surgical
procedures to reverse the
condition at a cost of 1,500
euros per operation.
Initial studies indicate the
plan could benefit 15 per
cent of AIDS patients with
severe lipoathraphy.
The region’s health minister, Rafael Blasco, said:
“This illness is a stigma for
those affected.
“The treatment will guarantee a better quality of life
for them.”
Minister puts cork
back into drink law Belt up to save lives
PLAYING SAFE: All drivers should use seatbelts
THE health minister Elena Salgado has agreed to
put the new anti-alcohol
law on hold until after
the May elections.
She said they had not
been able to reach an
agreement on the first
draft of the law involving
minors and alcohol.
Wine
producers
and
Popular Party leader
Mariano Rajoy opposed
the proposal because it
would ban the Spanish
tradition of drinking in
the streets.
The proposed measure
aims to tackle underage
alcohol
consumption,
a growing problem in
Spain. Sra Salgado said:
“We have a serious task
ahead, for which we will
see a lot of opinion in order to draw up a law.”
east of La Coruña for several days.
Winds and current will take any
possible gas emission further away
from the land.
The ship will not continue its journey
until Monday February 26. In the
meantime the ship owner will have
to cool down the cargo with water or
empty the vessel of the toxic fertiliser.
Valencian authorities will do anything
to stop the ship continuing its journey
towards the city.
However, it is normal for the city to
receive ships with similar loads. Last
year 47.5 million tons were offloaded
at the port, of which 550,000 tons were
of the same kind of fertiliser as the
Dutch cargo.
NEARLY one in five people
who died on Alicante province’s roads would be alive
today if they had worn a
seatbelt.
DGT traffic department
figures have revealed that
109 people died on Alicante
roads last year.
This included 29 people who
were not wearing a seatbelt
and, of those, 18 lives could
have been saved, according
to the new traffic report.
In Spain as a whole, there
were 2,000 road accidents
last year. More than a quarter of those involved people
who had not belted up.
The DGT has said the number of death-crash victims
in urban areas who do not
wear seatbelts is higher because they tend to pay less
attention to safety and journeys are shorter.
TWO universities have
joined forces after 10 years
of conflict.
The University of Alicante
and the University Miguel
Hernández in Elche have
signed an agreement in an
act described as historical.
The directors have decided
to work together, swapping
staff, lecturers and course
materials.
The conflict started when
the institutes of medicine,
statistics and neuroscience
were taken away from the
University of Alicante and
moved to Miguel Hernández.
At the time Eduardo Zaplana was the president of
the Gerneralitat and his
decision alienated the then
chancellor of the University of Alicante. Socialist
MPs – among them Zapatero – tried to intervene, but
to no avail.
After eight years in court,
in March 2005 the Supreme
Court decided in favour
of Miguel Hernández. By
that time the university in
Elche had developed into a
respectable institution with
a good number of teachers
and pupils.
It was only after a change
of personnel at both universities that the situation
calmed down and the first
contacts between the institutions took place.
Ordóñez admitted that over
the last year a lot of material and even personnel have
been exchanged. He considers it a great benefit for the
two universities and their
students.
Expats ‘too young to learn’
TWO British expats were denied access to a council-run
Spanish course – because
they were too young.
Leader of Orihuela’s green
party Los Verdes, Monserrate Guillén, revealed that
the long-standing residents
were turned away from the
course, held at a local social
centre, because it was aimed
at people aged 60 and over.
The couple in question are
early retirees aged 58 and
59.
Guillén called the decision
‘absurd’, saying there is no
social centre on the Orihuela Costa for those below
state pension age.
The councillor said these
residents are denied access to the centre’s Spanish
courses, library and to the
bar where their friends who
are just a year older regularly go.
He said the couple’s treatment is discriminatory, outmoded and anti-democratic.
LOCAL NEWS
February 23 - March 1 2007
Town boasts
best water
GANDIA now boasts the
best water in Spain, thanks
to its two new plants.
It took four years to build
the two plants that provide
all of Gandia and the surrounding suburbs with
quality drinking water out
of the taps.
Every day 32,000 cubic metres of perfect water are
produced in the two plants.
On Monday the second
phase of the Falconera
plant was launched, in the
sector
Beniopa-Passeig,
next to the Roís de Corella
football pitch.
It complements the water
supply of the Ull de Bou
plant, which since December 2005 only provided good
water for half of Gandia,
along the beach and in
Grau. Falconera brings water to south-west Gandia,
Beniopa, Benipeixcar, Benirredrà and Raval.
The project cost more than
17 million euros, paid by
the environment ministry,
Group Aguas from Valencia
and a private investor company.
Gandia residents are also
paying higher water rates.
People living in older buildings may not be able to fully
appreciate the water quality, since old pipes may affect the taste.
The town hall has recommended they should replace
the old pipes.
Now Gandia is a role model
for the rest of Spain. Other
authorities have already
shown their interest in
copying the waterworks.
Page 7
Prices hotting up
in vibrant Valencia
VALENCIA is to become a
top commercial city with
international companies
vying to move in.
Real estate consultancy
Richard Ellis makes the prediction in a study.
These
companies
will
require
large
modern
office space in purposebuilt premises on the outskirts of the city, mainly
along the Avenida Francia,
in Alfahuir, the Avenida de
las Cortes Valencianas and
Vara de Quart.
At present there are 500,000
square metres available for
rent or sale. It is estimated another 255,000 square
metres will be released
shortly and 90 per cent of
this space is in the new dis-
SKY’S THE LIMIT: For Valencia property
tricts. However the city centre still remains attractive
to businesses, with rents
soaring by 21.4 per cent and
top prices hitting 17 euros
per square metre.
The study expects a further
26 commercial centres to be
built in the next four years
to add to the existing 53 centres. Neutopía, a commercial centre under construction on the V-30 in southern
Valencia, will include the
first indoor skiing piste in
the Comunidad Valenciana.
The city centre is also
gaining an attractive shop-
ping street. In the quarter
Carmen a number of shops
are going to open with a
focus on the young buyers.
It is forecast that residential properties in Valencia
will also experience further growth in the next few
years.
Modernised flats in the centre already cost up to 6,000
euros a square metre.
City rents are a lot less
affordable than Dénia or
even Benidorm, where it
costs 2,300 euros or 3,140
euros respectively.
The Costa Blanca will
remain of interest for buyers of holiday homes, since
Spain offers much more
security than Morocco or
Croatia.
MORE than 7,000 people
have applied for the 900
jobs on offer at prestigious
department store El Corte
Inglés.
A new store is opening in
Elche by the end of the
year.
Head of personnel Jesús
Arias said the group would
offer employment to some
900 people.
He said that once the successful candidates have
been chosen, they will undergo training from April
to September.
The El Corte Inglés Group
is investing 140 million euros in its Elche store, which
will include a branch of the
Hipercor supermarket as
well as culture, male fashion, sports, leisure departments, textiles, household
goods and a variety of restaurants.
The underground area will
have space for 2,400 vehicles
on four levels.
150m euros
for hospital
MURCIA is borrowing millions of euros from the European Investment Bank to
build two hospitals.
The region is taking out a
30-year loan of 150 million
euros.
The bank has released the
first 50 million euros for the
two new acute general hospitals.
They will be built in Cartagena and Mar Menor to improve healthcare with new
modern and well-equipped
hospitals.
Pupils hit by
mobiles ban
MORE than 300 secondary
schools throughout the region have banned mobile
phones in classrooms, according to latest statistics.
Some schools are stricter
than others by completely
prohibiting mobiles on
school grounds or limiting their use, even during
break times.
Schools can punish pupils
who break the rules by confiscating their phones.
Some give the phones to
parents for the first offence
but if pupils re-offend, the
mobiles are not returned
for three months.
These measures have been
set up in schools where
violent incidents have occurred, for instance where
pupils have filmed ‘happy
slapping’ attacks on fellow
pupils and even teachers.
Mobiles are allowed in 15
per cent or 53 schools in the
region. Madrid is preparing a directive to ban MP3
players and video games on
school premises.
Top store
boosts jobs
Woman dies
FANCY THAT: Teulada children showing off their many different costumes
Colourful characters hit the streets
SPIDERMAN, cowgirls, oranges and
Geisha girls were among the colourful
characters taking to the streets for this
year’s annual carnivals.
Towns the length and breadth of the
Comunidad Valenciana and Murcia
Region held grand parades as carnival
fever took a grip.
Hundreds lined the streets to enjoy the
floats in towns such as Cartagena, Torrevieja, Pego, Ondara and Teulada.
Pego broke all records with 30,000 people turning out, many dressed in costumes such as nuns, bishops and Chupa
Chups sweets.
Bands and mobile discos finished at
07.00 hrs the following morning, while
at midday, there were still several people
in fancy dress sleeping on the streets or
wandering aimlessly around the town.
However the festivities were marred by
17 fights with 70 people needing medical
attention mostly for alcohol poisoning.
CLINICA TARRAULA
FAMILY DOCTORS
DR. BERNARD WILLIS - ENGLISH
DR. ANDREW BUFFEY - ENGLISH
DR. DAVID TURNER - ENGLISH
DR. GUIDO CAMPMAN - DUTCH
CT (Cabanes): 96 646 01 66
-
CT (La Plaza): 96 579 00 00
Council text
ALL DRESSED UP: Revellers in Ondara enjoy their carnival
We care about your health
www.ctonlineclinic.com
WOMEN’S HEALTHCARE TEAM
· Lynn, our specially trained Women’s Health nurse
· Judith, our Midwife and
· Alison, our Health Visitor, whose next children’s clinic will be in CT (Moraira)
on 14th February. Please telephone 96 579 41 79 for more information
-
A 27-YEAR-OLD woman
was killed in El Vergel at
the weekend, when the car
in which she was travelling
collided with a bus carrying 40 passengers.
Three other passengers in
two cars were also injured.
SAMU emergency services
rushed to the scene but
were unable to save the life
of the young woman.
Police said there have been
a number of accidents on
the CV-700, which links
Pego and El Vergel, in the
past few months.
CT (Moraira): 96 649 12 59
Emergency telephone 608 666 098 (24 hrs)
CALPE council is now
offering information by
email or SMS on social,
cultural, sport or tourist
activities in the town, as
well as the latest traffic
news. The service is free for
local residents. To sign up
call the town hall on 96 583
90 91 during office hours.
LOCAL NEWS
Page 8
February 23 - March 1 2007
Car prize is just the
ticket for Torry fan
WHEEL DEAL: Andy Hermida hands the Ford Fiesta keys to Cathy Duffy
Fair shows
off quality
businesses
BUSINESSES will have the
chance to show off their
wares to expatriates at a
special This is Spain exhibition.
Christine Roche and her
team are returning to Los
Montesinos, Torrevieja,
for the show on Friday
April 13 to 15.
This will be the sixteenth
exhibition they have organised and it already promises to be a roaring success.
Many businesses which
have previously exhibited
have already signed up
but there will also be new
businesses and brand-new
products never seen on the
Costa Blanca before.
This is Spain was set up as
a showcase for businesses
of all sizes but especially for new small firms to
reach out to the expat community.
It is a proven way to get
extensive exposure and
talk to a large number of
potential customers.
There will be a number of
charities and associations
at the show too, including
The Help Association of
Torrevieja and the Torry
Army.
Events and demonstrations will take place every
day while the raffle will
include some special prizes.
There is now a website
with full details of everything that will be going on
at the exhibition, including a list of exhibitors. See
the website at www.thisisspainexhibitions.info.
For details or to book a
stand contact Ms Roche on
902 636 777.
AFTER a couple of weeks
searching for his Torry
Army raffle ticket, Paul
Louca has claimed his first
prize of a Ford Fiesta and
promptly given it away.
Mr Louca bought the ticket on his first visit to the
Vicente García stadium to
see Torry play Dolores last
October.
He was told about his win
by Torry Army chairman
Eddie Cagigao.
He said: “I bought the ticket
to help the Torry Army in
supporting FC Torrevieja.
“I searched everywhere for
the ticket and just couldn’t
find it anywhere.
“On the spur of the moment
I said to my friend Cathy
that if we found the ticket
she could have the car.”
Cops seize record
haul of ecstasy
SPAIN’S biggest ever haul of liquid ecstasy has been seized in Murcia.
The national police operation uncovered almost three kilos of the drug,
which has an estimated street value of
250,000 euros.
The network was based in Caravaca,
Calasparra and Cehegín, in the north
west of the region, and distributed designer drugs to nightclubs in Murcia
city.
Officers also seized 100 grams of cocaine, 300 grams of marijuana, and
magic mushrooms.
The ecstasy was disguised as bottled
mineral water.
A police spokesman said the drug is
highly dangerous and can lead to a
coma if taken in excess.
The police operation, named Caravaca, remains open as the search for the
laboratory which produced the liquid
ecstasy continues.
Five people have been arrested. Four
are from the Murcia Region while the
other member of the network was from
Huercal, in the Almería province.
Also in the Murcia Region, an expat
has been arrested in Molina de Segura
suspected of smuggling hashish to
France in tomato tins.
Murcia customs officials said a Dutch
national repeatedly ordered large
quantities of tinned tomatoes in
the name of a legally-registered business.
These were stored in a warehouse in
Molina de Segura.
The man was seen behaving suspiciously last weekend, provoking officials to investigate further.
During their inquiries, a Portugueseregistered lorry carrying 32 pallets
of tinned tomatoes was pulled over
in Paris and the driver arrested by
French customs officials.
When they opened the tins, they found
they were full of hashish.
Guns found in
drug operation
A MAJOR drugs bust has led to 43 arrests for
alleged possession of weapons, narcotics and
illegal immigration.
The operation was set up by the Torrevieja
Guardia Civil with the aid of members of the
Rural Security Group (GRS), sniffer dogs and
a helicopter.
They seized various substances, including cocaine, hashish and designer drugs all packaged
for individual sale.
Officers also recovered a selection of knives,
bats and a shotgun.
The detainees are mostly of South American,
East European and North African origin.
Some of them have also been accused of not being legal residents in Spain.
Police set up a series of checkpoints along the
N-332 between the town centre and Guardamar
del Segura, where cars were stopped and the
suspects held.
They also raided some telephone call centres
and private homes.
Most arrests were made in the Colonia de San
Esteban area, which has a reputation for high
crime rates.
Two weeks later Mr Louca
found the ticket down the
back of the sofa, and Cathy
Duffy from Rush in County
Dublin claimed the prize
from the Torry Army.
Mr Louca and Ms Duffy,
who run Vialli’s Restaurant
in Villa Park I, La Florida,
picked up the car from
Framón Motor’s general
manager Andy Hermida,
and
company
owners
Monserati Álvarez and
Francisco Ortuño.
Mr Hermida, who is also a
director of FC Torrevieja,
said: “This is the second
time we have donated a
car and the response has
been immense. I hope we
can continue to support the
Torry Army all the way to
the Second B Division.”
Clubs fined
for late bars
FINES slapped on bars and
nightclubs in the Cartagena area for staying open too
late have doubled in number in the past year.
Police said the worst offenders are in coastal areas
including La Manga and
Cabo de Palos, particularly
in summer.
In 2005,225 fines were handed out by Local and National
Police and the Guardia Civil
to nightspots that remained
open after hours without
the required licence.
Last year, this figure shot
up to 429.
Some of these included
sanctions for carrying out
activities for which the
premises did not have a licence.
More than 60 fines were
slapped on bars and clubs
with no operating licence at
all, an offence that can carry penalties of up to 30,000
euros.
Flouting rules covering
opening hours can lead to
fines of up to 300 euros.
Police say many premises
decide to run the risk as
the penalty is less than the
amount they can earn by
staying open later.
Officers reveal that in high
season, popular bars can
earn 300 euros in 20 minutes simply by serving 50
drinks.
Taking a hike
WHITE LINES: Police found a quantity of cocaine
TEULADA town hall is offering walkers a chance to
go on a 17.5km guided hike
on Saturday February 24 to
Pedreguer. The walk begins
at 09.00 hrs at Teulada town
hall with an estimated return time of 17.30 hrs. For
details phone 96 574 01 58 between 09.00 and 16.00 hrs.
www. javea . com
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
February 23 - March 1 2007
WORLD IN BRIEF
Page 9
Man accused of murders
A MAN has been arrested in Montenegro in connection with the killing and dismemberment of
an elderly woman in New York City in 1990.
He is also suspected of similar murders of women
throughout Europe, police said Thursday.
Smail Tulja, 67, was arrested in his home in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica after the authorities
received an international arrest warrant from
FBI and Interpol agents.
Tulja is suspected of the 1990 murder of Mary Beal
in the Bronx, whom he befriended while work-
ing there as a taxi driver. The 61-year-old woman
disappeared in September 1990 and her body was
found weeks later in two plastic bags.
Police in Belgium and Albania investigating the
killings of several women in those countries consider Tulja a suspect in the cases, she said.
Tulja, who was born in Montenegro, resettled in
his native country in the late 1990s and lived alone
on the outskirts of Podgorica.
Several pieces of evidence and some documents
have been seized from his home.
Chef proves she is
a star in the kitchen
SELF-TAUGHT chef Anne-Sophie Pic has
become the first woman to win three Michelin stars in 56 years.
Ms Pic’s grandfather and father also held
three stars at the family restaurant in
south-east France.
She said: “Cuisine has been a very malechauvinist milieu for a long time in France
but things are changing.
Her restaurant, La Maison Pic, in Valence,
is well-known to travellers taking the holiday route, the old Route Nationale 7.
In 2005 Carme Ruscalleda became the first
woman in Spain to get three Michelin stars.
Her restaurant is near Barcelona.
Italy’s PM quits after
losing vote on troops
ITALIAN president Giorgio Napolitano was
holding crisis talks with political leaders
on Thursday following the shock resignation of prime minister, Romano Prodi.
He quit after just nine months in power
after being defeated in a Senate vote on foreign policy.
He had led a nine-party coalition after winning Italy’s most closely contested election
in post-war history last year.
He resigned after some coalition partners
objected to the planned deployment of 2,000
extra troops in Afghanistan and the enlargement of a US military base in Vicenza in
northern Italy.
Move to curb gas
EUROPEAN Union environment ministers
agreed this week on an ambitious effort to
cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20 per cent
below 1990 levels.
They said the target could be pushed to 30
per cent if other industrialised countries
sign on to a global effort.
The EU ministers called for United Nationsled talks to set a new climate change goal by
2009. They said the next agreement should
include the United States and less-developed polluting countries such as India, China, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa.
A UN climate official praised the new European target as a milestone in efforts to
bring down emissions from industrialised
countries, which scientists say is necessary
to curb rising temperatures.
COMING HOME: Blair on a previous visit to the troops in Iraq
British soldiers
move out of Iraq
THOUSANDS of British soldiers will be heading
home after prime minister Tony Blair announced
the long-awaited withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
However a substantial British force will remain
at the permanent base at Basra airport to provide
support for the Iraqis.
Blair made the move as a result of a successful
operation to improve security in the southern city
of Basra.
Reports suggested that up to 3,000 of Britain’s 7,000
strong contingent in Iraq could be withdrawn by
the end of the year, with up to 1,500 coming home
by the summer if the security situation in the
south of the country continues to improve.
Some battalions which had been due to go to Iraq
in May during the next rotation of troops - replacing troops returning home - may now stay in Britain.
The withdrawal of British troops will help Blair
draw a line under Iraq, which has overshadowed
his premiership since the American-led invasion
nearly four years ago.
Mr Blair is anxious to be able to demonstrate that
British troops are coming home before he leaves
Downing Street this summer.
Five adults and two kids die in fire
donesian navy’s western fleet. The Levina I was
on its way to Bangka island off Sumatra when it
caught fire soon after dawn 80 km from Jakarta’s
Tanjung Priok port.
“Seven have died. Five adults and two children.
We are concentrating on saving people,” Pakan
said by telephone.
Ferries are a popular means of transport among
the 17,000 islands of Indonesia.
AT least seven people have died after fire broke
out on an Indonesian ferry off Jakarta Bay, a navy
official said.
More than 200 people on board had to be evacuated.
Two children were among the dead and rescue vessels were combing waters nearby in case passengers had jumped into the sea to escape the heat,
said Lieutenant-Colonel Hendra Pakan of the In-
Company
to build
six ships
AEROSPACE engine-maker
Rolls-Royce has won contracts worth more than 60
million euros to build six
ships for Brazilian and
Chilean firms.
The company will supply design and equipment
packages for four ships for
Brazilian firm Companhia Brasileira de Offshore
(CBO).
The 3,000-tonne vessels will
be built in a shipyard near
Rio de Janeiro, ready for delivery by 2010.
Rolls-Royce will also build
two ships for Chilean shipyard Asnavales SA, boosting its position in Latin
America.
This is the first time that
Rolls-Royce has supplied
its designs and equipment
for ships to be ordered from
Chile.
The Brazilian ships will be
used by Brazil’s state oil
company, Petrobas, while
the Chilean ships will be
supplied to an international ship owner.
Canadians
running dry
CANADIANS Ray Zahab
and his fellow runners have
just completed a 110-day
run in 30ºC temperatures
and sandstorms.
Zahab, 38, and two companions ran about two marathons ( 42.2 kilometres each)
a day, crossing more than
7,000 km of North Africa’s
steaming Sahara Desert.
Their adventure, in aid of
charity, has been captured
on film for a documentary.
Zahab, fellow Canadian
44-year-old Charlie Engle
and 30-year-old Kevin Lin
of Taiwan finally dipped
their hands in the water of
the Red Sea, 200 km east of
Cairo, on Tuesday.
Zahab said: “I’m sore everywhere. I’m achy, I’ve got
blisters and I have a lot of
tendinitis in my ankle. Other than that, I feel great.”
One of the aims was to help
set up clean water wells for
desert villagers the runners
met along the way.
Wednesday, The 60’s Selection, Thursday, All That Jazz,
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NEWS FEATURE
Page 10
February 23 - March 1 2007
Benissa parents and teachers
demand action over school’s state
BY CORNELIA MULLER PHOTOS: GENEVIEVE LAWRIE
Did it have to come that far? The
parents and teacher of the Manuel
Bru primary school in Benissa had
to invite the mayor Bautista Roselló
to bring the appalling state of their
school to his attention and make him
understand that help is needed now.
I
n the last three years the
state of the school has
deteriorated and it has
gone from bad to worse. A
mother in the meeting said.
“We are living in the 21st
century and our kids are
using Third World facilities”.
The school has applied to
the Generalitat Valenciana
for a major renovation including the interior and the
façade, but until now nothing has happened. It is not
unusual that it takes a long
time for a regional grant
to come through, but the
school is desperate for help.
Several weeks ago, the parent and teacher association
had already invited the
town officials and the pub-
lic to come to the school
and get an impression of its
state, but they did not take
up the invitation.
However, they could not
decline the second invitation and attended. Finally
the school and the parents
did have someone to talk to.
Bautista listened and promised help. Let´s hope it will
come through.
At first it was claimed that
the repair work may start
some time next year, which
provoked an outcry among
the teachers and especially
the parents, who are very
concerned about the wellbeing of their children.
There is little that is in order in the school. Barely
any toilet works, they are
all dirty, there is no toilet
paper available. Doors and
windows do not shut; the
heating system is on its
last legs and does not function at times. It is cold and
draughty; humidity and
mould are creeping up the
walls and give some children asthma attacks. Paint
and tiles are coming off
the walls, water and heating pipes are broken. The
electricity supply is insufficient, and the school experiences power cuts nearly
daily. The school yard is
gravelled, so smaller children can hurt themselves
when they fall over and
the façade is in a sad state.
All in all, it is difficult to
believe that the children
are attended to properly in
such poor circumstances,
and that the teachers are
able to teach them anything.
The school has on a waiting list at the Generalitat
Valenciana to receive the
funds for the refurbishment for three years, but
the education department
has not responded yet.
The director of the parent
and teacher association
showed his anger and said,
“Moraira and Teulada, the
two neighbouring villages,
have already received the
funds and we are still waiting. La Nucía has already
received the funds to build
a second one, and here in
Benissa our children are
sitting in shambles.”
Mr Bautista claimed to
invest 88,000 euros per
year into the school; and a
mother showed her disbelief, saying, “It is a lot of
money; this would repair
the toilets, where is it going
to?”
The director of the school
Manuel Juan Giner said
that the school is making
some small profit on the
lunches provided for the
children and some of the
money has been used to carry out urgent repairs. He
added that parents showed
an initiative and painted
some areas themselves.
At least it seems that the
school is now moving forward. At last week’s meeting it was decided to bring
a technical architect in,
who will produce a study
on the school. It will be sent
to Valencia to give the application for the refurbishment more urgency.
Bautista himself went to
this school when he was
little, and he told ThinkSPAIN/today after the
meeting with a certain
pride. When asked how it
happened that the school is
so rundown he replied that
the school is poorly constructed, that it has always
had problems and that there
has never been enough
money for the repairs. He
added that in his school
years the walls in one wing
fell down one night, and it
was only because it happened at night, nobody was
hurt. He did not answer the
question why he did not
take action any earlier. The
director of the school admitted that the school and
the town hall have waited
too long to do something,
and added that at least now
it has been noted and hopefully with the support of
the town hall the Generalitat will grant the funds for
the repairs soon.
Everyone, the parents,
teachers and the mayor
agreed that the well being, health and happiness
of the children is the most
important issue. They have
formed a committee to contact the responsible authorities in Valencia directly
and make sure their case
is given the necessary urgency, rather than sit back
and wait for mañana.
If you have any comments,
please
email
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century. It is located in one of the oldest fincas in Énova, in Valencia province, only 50 km to Valencia and 8 km to Xàtiva, Alzira or Carcaixent.
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(Alzira - La Pobla Llarga)
NEWS FEATURE
February 23 - March 1 2007
Letizia is back
By Samantha Kett
The princess’ sister’s
hidden pain drove her
to take her own life, but
Letizia puts on a brave
face for the public.
N
obody expected to
see her there. A week
after her sister’s suicide and six months’ pregnant, Letizia was back on
duty attending a seminar
at the Instituto Cervantes
in Madrid last Wednesday.
Dressed in black and visibly
grieving, the brave princess’
arrival came as a surprise to
all those present, particularly as the event was not earmarked in the Royal diary.
Clearly, despite the tragedy
and her delicate condition,
Letizia felt it wise to return
to relative normality as soon
as possible. Despite having
been through hell and back
she has returned, against all
odds, to the public eye.
Already following a tight
agenda whilst caring for oneyear-old daughter, Leonor
and heavily pregnant, the
sudden death of Letizia’s
younger sister Érika left her
reeling. Found dead in her
home in the Madrid neighbourhood of Valdebernardo
- the house Letizia lived in
until becoming engaged to
Prince Felipe - 31-year-old TV
set designer Érika Ortiz Rocasolano was laid to rest on
Saturday, February 10 at the
parish church of La Ascensión de Nuestra Señora in El
Prado de Somosaguas, near
Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid.
Police, alerted by Érika’s
boyfriend, discovered empty packets of tablets, mainly
tranquillisers, in her rubbish bags during a lengthy
search of the house.
Érika had slept alone in
the house on the night of
Wednesday, February 7, taking two days’ holiday from
her job at television company Globomedia for ‘personal
reasons’.
Everything points to the
conclusion that the princess’ sister knew what she
intended to do, and planned
her departure to the last
detail. Separated from the
father of her six-year-old
daughter Carla, Érika had
been suffering from depression and was signed off
work for a month and a half
leading up to Christmas. Yet
she returned just weeks before her death, keeping up
an appearance of normality,
and of having recovered.
When she failed to return to
work after her two days off
and did not answer the telephone, friends began to fear
the worst. Her television
technician partner found
her just hours later.
ÉRIKA ORTIZ ROCASOLANO: Driven to take her own life, the princess’ sister will never meet
her new niece, inset: Letizia is unable to hide her grief at the loss of her sister
Although an official verdict
of suicide takes at least a
month to be approved and
signed, the autopsy revealed Érika had died from
a massive overdose. Her
distraught friends and family held a mass the next day
in the Tanatorio de la Paz
in Tres Cantos, but Queen
Sofía and the princess’ other
sister, Telma, were unable to
attend. The queen was on a
charity visit in Indonesia
and Telma lives in Manila,
and neither were able to
fly back in time, although
transport was laid on to take
them to Madrid at the first
available opportunity.
ÉRIKA’S HIDDEN
HEARTBREAK
A graduate in fine arts,
Oviedo-born Érika, on the
surface, appeared to lead a
charmed life. She had lived
in Madrid since 2002 when
she took a job as account
manager with Urzaiz Comunicación, now AB Public Relations, before starting with
Globomedia 18 months ago
in their design department.
Here, she designed the sets
for two popular TV programmes on La Sexta (channel six), Habitación 623 and
Anónimos. A strong character who loved children
and doted on her daughter
i
Tel. 96 286 59 04
C/ Magistrat Català, 31
Gandia
[email protected]
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Heating · Industrial cold
and niece Leonor, she had a
very close bond with sister
Letizia. Although Érika’s
parents separated when
she was 24, she maintained
a good relationship with
them.
Yet the successful career
woman
image
masked
something much darker and
deeper - Érika was suffering from depression, severe
enough to lead her doctor
to sign her off work for six
weeks.
Her relationship with the
father of her child, Antonio
Vigo, was not a high-profile
affair.
Until their separation a year
ago was announced in Hola!
magazine, the public were
unaware that they were not
married, and that he earned
a living as a sculptor and
road-sweeper. Érika struggled hard to maintain her
family financially, working
around the clock, and fought
to balance motherhood with
a demanding job after splitting from Antonio.
Érika’s new partner, who
found her body two weeks
ago, was a colleague at Globomedia who lives in the
Madrid suburb of Vicálvaro
and was described by glossy
magazine reporters last
year as ‘extraordinarily attractive’. They say he is far
more outgoing than Érika
who, although a natural
leader, was considered by
those who worked with her
to be a serious character,
quite distant, who kept herself to herself.
There is speculation that
shortly before her death Érika had separated from the
television technician, with
reports linking her to an
older man. Neither’s identity has been revealed.
Even those close to Érika
will probably never truly
know what drove her to
make her final, devastating
decision to give up on life,
leaving her child without a
mother and knowing that
she would never meet her
eagerly-awaited new royal
niece.
Page 11
NEWS FEATURE
Page 12
February 23 - March 1 2007
Queen for a fortnight
Miss Cantabria hits out at the ‘discrimination’
that cost her the prize
BY SAMANTHA KETT
Outraged cries from mothers all over Spain resounded
this week after Miss Cantabria was de-throned. Stripped
of her title simply because she has a child, Ángela Bustillo, 22, intends to fight for her crown in the courts – and
her case has aroused impassioned views from both sides
of the fence.
“
They are penalising motherhood as
though it is an impediment to a woman’s
ability to function professionally,” storms Cantabria’s minister for equality,
Soledad Murillo.
Yet many members of the
public consider that, if
she knew the rules before
entering the competition
and proceeded to enter
anyway, the decision to
remove her crown is justified.
Furthermore, the rules
governing these infamous
‘Miss’ and ‘Mister’ competitions apply all over the
world, not simply to Miss
Cantabria or even Miss
España.
Candidates must not be
either pregnant or already
have a child, as the Miss
Universe
organisation,
which covers all such contests, believes childbirth
ruins a woman’s figure
– a view that has raised
public outcry amongst
women’s
organisations
throughout Spain. Quite
apart from the blow to a
mother’s self-esteem that
this supposes, the basis of
this regulation is ‘contradictory’, says Ana Isabel
Méndez, Director General
of Cantabria regional government’s Department for
Women.
“If her figure had been
ruined by having a child,
she wouldn’t have won the
competition in the first
place,” Méndez states. “A
woman is capable of working in any professional
situation, whether she is a
mother or not.”
Méndez wants to see the
organisation ‘take a step
forward’ and change what
she considers to be antidiluvian prerequisites to the
competition. Rules that not
only send out a negative
message to women who
have had children, suggest
that they can no longer be
physically attractive, and
also constitute gender discrimination - a man can
enter the Mister España
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competition irrespective
of whether he is a father,
because fatherhood does
not affect a man’s looks.
“Rules are
rules”
“Most of the rules for the
competition are discriminatory anyway. You have
to be a certain age, height,
weight and measurement,
for a start. The entire nature of the competition is
discrimination – so why
is she kicking up a fuss?
She chose to enter, knowing the regulations,” says
Cristina, 29.
“She’s just trying to get
her fifteen minutes of
fame and live off the drama. It’s a different matter if we’re talking about
inequality affecting your
fundamental legal rights
– but this is only a competition.”
Discussion forums have
opened up on the Internet for the public to vent
their spleen on the subject
– and there are strong feelings in both camps.
“They should withdraw
these events altogether if
they think the rules are
so prejudiced, and concentrate harder on eliminating the same type of
prejudice at work and in
Ángela Bustillo – stripped of her title for having a
child (pictured). Photo: EFE
society,” says one woman.
“Well, I’m also going to
denounce my town council for inequality because
they won’t let me be Fiesta Queen (I’m a man and
rather ugly); they won’t
allow me to play for the
‘married’ team in the local
‘Married v Single’ football
match because I’m single,
and they won’t let me join
in the annual pensioners’
lunch because I’m only in
my thirties,” is another
very pointed comment.
“With all due respect to
this girl, she knew the
rules, but entered anyway
and lied,” says José.
“If people don’t agree
with the regulations of
the Miss España competition, then they should be
changed, but don’t give us
all this ‘political correctness’ business.”
Moral
dilemma
After
being
crowned
queen of her autonomous
community, Ángela Bustillo, who has a three-year-
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Tel. 96 285 61 79
Are beauty contests outmoded and pointless – or just harmless fun?
old son, would have competed against the other 16
regional winners for the
title of Miss España. Yet
a fax she received from
the judges’ headquarters
just two weeks after being
named Miss Cantabria
announced that her title
would be withdrawn and
she would not be eligible
to enter the final round.
It is a decision that Bustillo calls ‘unconstitutional’, and is distraught at
the thought of losing her
crown, but she says her
main concern is to ensure
that the rules are changed
for the future, even if she
is not allowed to keep her
title.
Cantabria’s regional government does not hold out
much hope, saying it has
little capacity to change
the rules, although Méndez says her department
will do whatever is in its
power to make sure this
‘unjust and illegitimate’
condition of entry is withdrawn.
Miss España SL’s legal
department says it faces an ethical dilemma.
Morally, the company
explains, Ángela Bustillo’s complaint should be
upheld, but legally, there
is probably little that can
be done as she entered
the competition with full
knowledge of the entry
requirements.
Whatever the final outcome of the case is, it is
certain to provoke extremes of opinion and
fuel the debate even further. Ángela Bustillo has
thousands of supporters
who believe that the Miss
España contest’s ‘no kids’
rule is narrow-minded
and old-fashioned, yet
there are plenty more
who say nobody forced
Bustillo to enter the event
and she was aware of the
strict – and possibly unfair – criteria. Deciding
to take part automatically
implies that she accepted
the rules, even if she did
not agree with them.
Then there are those who
say such contests should
be scrapped altogether,
their very essence being
discriminatory, degrading, and pointless.
Clearly, the issue runs
much deeper than whether or not Miss Cantabria
is permitted to retain her
title. The real question is
whether such competitions and their entry criteria have any place in
today’s society.
NEWS FEATURE
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 13
Murcia’s dark secret
BY SAMANTHA KETT
Distraught families, medics working around
the clock, teenagers collapsing with heart
attacks and ruined lives punctuated by routine psychiatric appointments. This is the reality of drug-abuse, light years away from the
glamorous image of celebrities snorting a line
before heading onto yet another glitzy bash
– and its rise in the past few years has been
relentless and unstoppable.
S
pain currently holds
the dubious title of
having the world’s
greatest number of cocaine addicts, even ahead
of Colombia and the USA.
Even more terrifying is
that first-time users are
becoming younger – by
the age of 14, thousands
will have already tried illegal drugs.
In the Murcia Region,
the crisis is particularly
serious. The number of
under-18s who have taken
cocaine has more than
doubled in the past decade
to 7.7 per cent, with 10 per
cent of teenage girls admitting to sporadic use of
the drug. In fact, just over
six per cent of the region’s
adult population have taken it in the last year, compared to a national average of 2.5 per cent.
La Arrixaca Hospital in
the city of Murcia says
its casualty department
is constantly busy at the
weekends with young
people who are admitted
suffering from the classic symptoms of drug-use
– trembling, agitation, fits
and even heart attacks
and haemorrhaging.
The increasing level of
substance abuse is particularly notable in the psychiatric wing, with more
and more patients being
admitted or attending as
outpatients because of
drug problems.
Hospital director Diego
Teruel laments that no
amount of publicity, policing or awareness campaigns seems to work – the
figures continue to rise
inexorably.
“Every weekend we get
new cases, and when we
carry out tests we find
a high percentage of
patients have taken cocaine,” he reveals.
According to the head of
the Reina Sofía Hospital’s
detoxification unit, José
María Basterrechea, “the
problem is much worse
than research suggests.
“We have noticed an
alarming rise in psychological disorders such as
paranoia and hallucinations, which are usually
caused by cocaine use.”
Most people who are treated at the weekends, say
the Reina Sofía’s accident
and emergency team, have
taken a mix of substances
– cocaine with alcohol,
speed, or hashish. Staff
say patients are often aggressive and frequently
security guards have to
intervene.
Although the percentage of drug-use is higher
amongst the young, medics say they have patients
of all ages.
“We find many people in
their 40s, as many men as
women,” reveals a spokesman for the hospital’s casualty department.
“Yet when a 17-year-old
comes in showing symptoms of heart failure, we
have very few doubts. Either they have an existing
pathological
condition,
or they’ve taken something.”
José*, 34, a recovered addict, declares, “there are
more people using cocaine in Murcia than we
believe. In fact, the traditional profile of a drugaddict – homeless, badlydressed and dishevelled
– no longer applies. They
are people like I was.
“In my family’s eyes I was
a model son, father and
son-in-law,” he reveals.
“Normal, of smart appearance, with no apparent problems.”
José was one of the lucky
few – his wife stood by
him, his family supported
him in kicking the habit
and he has fully recovered. Yet many more will
face a bleak future unless
they seek help, and fast.
* José’s name has been
changed to protect his privacy.
A free helpline is available for addicts and
their friends and families on weekdays between
09.00-14.00hrs
and 16.00-21.00hrs. If
you or somebody you
know may be affected,
call 902 929 811 for further advice.
PLAN AHEAD TO AVOID HEALTH CARE AND FUNERAL PROBLEMS!
With the continued rise of funeral costs in Spain, expatriates of all nationalities
are paying more than ever for their funerals
Many people experience big problems
with communication and a lack of
understanding of the Spanish way of
conducting funerals, thus leaving a
bereaved family like a fish out of water.
A spokesman for Avalon, a leading UK
provider of funeral plans, noted: “We
have witnessed the worries and concerns of people living abroad and the
difference in organising a funeral in
Spain.” Avalon, following its lengthy
research, decided to extend its service to expatriates of all nationalities
resident in Spain. They provide a
choice of plans to cover both the funeral costs and all the arrangements. Members may rest assured; the
security of the scheme is paramount as all the funds are maintained
by a major UK bank which holds the funds separate to the company.
Avalon has English-speaking funeral directors throughout the coastal
region to fulfil the plan arrangements.
FIX FUNERAL COSTS FOREVER
As more and more people are taking early retirement, it is quite natural to look forward
to a lengthy time of leisure and quality of life. Therefore, this is an opportune time to
take a serious look at the necessity of making full financial provision for important
expenses that will be incurred in later life. The idea of making sure there is enough
money available for one’s funeral is not new. It has been the custom in many families
for generations. It’s no wonder so many people are now turning to prepaid funeral
plans to solve the problem. As people are living longer nowadays, they spend a large
number of years on a fixed income. People are paying more then ever to bury
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ESPAÑA
LETTERS
Page 14
Letters
Dear editor,
I am writing in response
to last week’s article about
bullfighting by Rachael
Loxston.
Although she quite rightly highlights cruelty and
corruption in the socalled ‘sport’, I feel that
many people who jump
on the anti-bullfighting
bandwagon condemn the
cruelty, which is exercised in front of crowds,
but will probably support
the meat industry by eating meat products.
The truth is that animals
farmed for meat experience far worse cruelty behind the closed doors of
an abattoir.
Firstly,
animals
are
herded into holding pens
where their necks are restrained impeding their
movement. They are then
stunned by a variety of
means, either by a captive
bolt pistol, their necks are
broken or they receive an
electric shock to the temples.
Then a main artery is cut,
and the animal literally
bleeds to death, usually
while strung up by one
leg. It is a fact that many
slaughterhouses are unregulated, and other cruel
practices which are best
not mentioned in a family
February 23 - March 1 2007
Get in touch with
by email: [email protected] or by post to Letters to the
editor; Centro Comercial La Teulera 12-14, Avda. Rey Juan Carlos I, 61-63, 03727, Jalón/Xaló, Alicante
THE OTHER SIDE: Many of those against bullfighting
turn a blind eye to other types of animal cruelty
newspaper are rife.
Animal cruelty exists on
many levels, but sometimes people would prefer
that it is pushed away behind closed doors.
In Portugal, bulls are not
killed in bullfights but are
later killed in the abattoir.
Some people who are
against the public spectacle would prefer this
practice being adopted in
Spain, but the truth is, the
bull would actually suffer
more if this happened.
Gisele King
Albir
Dear editor,
Since moving to Spain I
have started to follow Valencia CF and go to watch
them at the Mestalla from
time to time, funding permitting.
While having a drink
in the bar opposite the
ground after a match I
was amazed to see the
players stroll across the
road to get their cars.
They posed for photos
with excited fans and
signed autographs.
What a change from Britain’s pampered players.
West Ham manager Alan
Curbishley was slated for
talking about a ‘baby Bentley’ culture at the ground.
But how right he is.
Premiership players constantly moan about their
wages, coaches and constant media attention.
Here, in Spain, great players like David Villa are
happy to meet their fans.
You never hear about
them fighting one another
or bitching about their
manager.
They behave like professionals who have a job to
do - and do it well.
I hope the ‘baby Bentley’
attitude never reaches
Spain’s shores.
Yours
Andy Parker
Benicàssim
ALAN CURBISHLEY: Slated for his comments, but
does he have a point?
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NEWS FEATURE
February 23 - March 1 2007
The trial of the
century – one week on
Page 15
Live the dream
BY SAMANTHA KETT
Six days into the trial of the Madrid train bombing suspects, fresh evidence is coming to light
painting an even more convoluted picture of the
greatest massacre in Europe since the Balkan
war.
J
udges have revealed
a possible link between the terrorist
attack, which claimed 191
lives and left nearly 2,000
injured, and a large-scale
international drug-dealing operation.
Jamal Ahmidan, better
known as ‘El Chino’ and
said to be the brains behind the bombing, was
among the seven suspects
traced to a flat in Leganés
(Madrid) three weeks after the bombing who blew
himself up to avoid capture.
His friend Rachid Aglif,
alias ‘El Conejo’, testified
this week, claiming to have
witnessed a meeting in
MacDonald’s in October
2003 in which El Chino
and two others made a
deal exchanging explosives for marijuana. Aglif,
who describes himself as
non-religious and a habitual drinker and drug-user,
denies any involvement
with the incident or prior
awareness of it, but reveals
El Chino became ‘more serious, closed and religious’
after returning from a trip
to Morocco the summer before the bombing.
Rafá Zouhier, close childhood friend of El Chino
and said by Aglif to have
been at the meeting in
MacDonald’s, was described as ‘worried-looking’ during the testimony.
Zouhier was in fact thrown
out of the screened-off audience room on Wednesday by a leading court
official who was ‘fed up
with the gestures he was
making’.
Yet judges learnt more
about El Chino from his
cousin, Hamid Ahmidan, who was carrying
out building works in the
house in Morata de Tajuña
where the explosives were
found. In March 2004, a
few days before the blast,
El Chino refused to allow Hamid Ahmidan to
enter the property. On
this occasion, a Toyota
Corolla thought to belong
to Emilio Suárez Trashorras – the third man at the
reunion in MacDonald’s
– was parked outside the
building.
Hamid Ahmidan, one of
the suspects on trial and
possibly facing up to 23
years in prison, was arrested when a large quantity of drugs and a forged
identity document bearing El Chino’s photograph
were found in his home,
and traces of his DNA discovered in the Morata de
Tajuña house.
The first week of the trial
also saw Saed el-Harrak,
a friend and colleague of
one of the seven suicide
bombers, give a statement.
He claimed to have last
seen his friend Abdennabi Kounjaa the day before
the Atocha attack to recover a box of tools he had
left at his house. He could
not explain, though, how
Kounjaa’s letter describing how he intended to
perform the Jihad (‘holy
war’, or suicide bombing) found its way into
the rucksack containing
his working clothes and
remained there for three
months before police discovered it.
7.80 %
RAFÁ ZOUHIER: Accused of trading drugs and explosives,
and thrown out by a court official on Wednesday for making
‘gestures’
Facing 27 years behind
bars, Mohammed Larbi
ben Sellam - the man considered the ‘messenger’
of the Atocha bombing’s
organiser Rabei Osman
El-Sayed Ahmed, alias ‘El
Egipcio’ – is accused of
recruiting new members
for Al-Qaeda and helping
two suspected terrorists
escape. However, Larbi
ben Sallam denied any
connection with El Egipcio when questioned by
judges.
On Monday, February 26,
El Egipcio is due in the
dock. One of the prime
suspects and considered
to be a key figure in the attack’s planning, telephone
conversations from Milan
in which he allegedly revealed his involvement
in the train bombing and
lamented the death of his
seven ‘brothers’ in Madrid
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February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 16
Pets
I wanna be your
dog
CAT OF THE WEEK
Columbus is a shy
young cat who
will make a great
pet if someone is
prepared to spend
time with him.
If you would like
to give Columbus,
or any of our other
cats/kittens, a loving home please
call Lynda on 628
498 813.
Aldea Felina, Dénia
Cat
Protection
League, cares for
and re-homes abandoned cats/kittens
in the Dénia area.
If you would like to
help the charity in
any way call Lucy
on 650 214 909.
Why not visit our
charity shop in Els
Poblets, next to the
vets, open daily
10.00 - 14.00 hrs.
My name is Joe
and although I am
only two years old,
I’m a pretty smart
boy who is also
very well-behaved
too.
My ‘parents’ left
me tied to the gates
of the Dénia Dog
Sanctuary during
a very long wet
and windy night
in January.
If you come and
take me home I
promise to give
you lots of love in
return.
Ring Steve Allen
at APAD for more
information
on
699 872 157.
The arrival of
spring also heralds
the move of the
hairy caterpillars
of the pine processionary
moth
(procesionarias in
Spanish).
If they are touched,
their hairs release
an extremely nasty
allergic skin reaction. They can also
prove lethal for dogs.
If you are walking near pine trees
and you notice your dog’s mouth has
started swelling or he is dribbling,
foaming at the mouth or vomiting,
then he is likely to have come into
contact with the caterpillar. You will
need to get him to a vet straightaway
for an injection.
It is best to avoid woods or areas with
a lot of pine trees until the processionary caterpillar season is well
and truly over. The pests live in easily-identifiable silvery nests in pine
trees throughout Mediterranean
Spain and get their name from their
habit of forming head-to-tail trails
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or visit our web site www.ladyhaye.co.uk
as they move across
land.
They go on the
march
between
February and midApril because they
are looking for somewhere for cocooning.
In summer the moths start popping up
from the ground following the cocoon
stage.
They then find a
mate and fly to a
pine tree where
they lay their eggs
and die.
About four weeks
later, the eggs start
hatching.
A couple of weeks later the bugs
start getting nasty as they acquire
an outer layer of thin hairy needles.
These needles will serve as their defence mechanism.
These insects rarely leave their host
tree until they are ready to find an
adequate place for cocooning.
The best time to get rid of the nests
is at the end of the summer - but it’s
not easy.
Wearing thick gloves, you can cut the
nest down and inject petrol into it.
That should kill anything inside.
Alternatively call your local town
hall for advice or to get rid of the
nests for you.
Canisax
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Complete pet shop
Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier,
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Page 17
February 23 - March 1 2007
Children
One young student enjoyed taking the plunge when she won a travel
scholarship.
Sophie Wright was the first person to receive The Adina Harper Award
at The Lady Elizabeth School.
She used the scholarship to go to South Africa where she volunteered
with a wildlife sanctuary. The award was set up by Paul and Jeanette
Harper, in memory of their daughter Adina, who died of meningitis in
2005. Applications for this year’s award are due in shortly.
Sophie gave a Powerpoint presentation at the school to share her experiences and show what a fantastic opportunity the award gives. Pupils
were shown pictures of the wild animals that she worked with and
were told about the many extra adventures she had, including skydiving and bungee jumping.
After the talk, students left in thoughtful mood. Many are now seriously thinking about putting in an application of their own which just
might make one of their dreams come true.
Sophie
dives in to
challenge
going...
Going...
going...
gone!
Xàbia Port school carnival
Shopping list
Alex Cross and Lachlan Bruens took part in the Xàbia
Port school carnival on Wednesday afternoon
Educational
Rainbow Nursery
LOCATED IN JÁVEA
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• 3 months - 5 years •
647
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057 233
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· A quality Education from
Nursery to University
· English Curriculum
· Spanish Programme
For more information: Tel. 96 647 17 85
[email protected]
www.xabia-international-college.com
THE LADY ELIZABETH SCHOOL
As part of the Spanish curriculum, Years 5 and 6 of The
Firs Primary School, Jávea, visited the local supermarket
to learn more about shopping and food in Spanish.
The children were eager to fill in their worksheets, much
to the amusement of the staff who were only too pleased
to assist. The children enjoyed chatting to the supermarket
assistants in Spanish as well as having great fun learning
new words and phrases.
‘THE FIRS’
PRIMARY SCHOOL
JÁVEA
Offering:
National Curriculum
(Nursery to Y6)
Small Classes
High Standards
Structured Teaching
est.1987
Attention to Individual
Needs
SIXTH FORM OPEN EVENING
WEDNESDAY 28th FEBRUARY 2007: 16.15 - 18.00
Good Discipline
An opportunity to visit all departments and discuss AS and A2 options for
students entering the Sixth Form in September 2007.
21 AS/A level subjects available plus Spanish Studies.
Further information available from Mrs Maria Wickman, Head of Sixth Form.
Preparatory School, Jávea · Tel/fax 96 579 02 52
Senior School, Llíber · Tel. 96 573 19 60 - Fax 96 573 25 77
www.theladyelizabethschool.com
Excellent Facilities
96 647 29 29
La Guardia 125 · Costa Nova, Jávea
www.firsprimary.com
mail@firsprimary.com
DENTAL
CLINIC
Dr. Carolyn CARBASSE B.D.S
(GUY’S) LONDON
GENERAL AND COSMETIC DENTISTRY
Castell d’Olimbroi, 30 • Tel. 96 642 54 85
03700 DÉNIA - Alicante
www.clinicadentalzen.com
ADVERTISING
Page 18
February 23 - March 1 2007
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FOOD AND DRINK
February 23 - March 1 2007
The 35-year-old Michelin 3- star
award winning chef has invented
a cooking pot with a difference.
Ascribed as being one of the
new bred of chefs that have
revolutionised
local
cooking
traditions, Torres demonstrates
how the Gastrovac, a pot invented
by him allows food to conserve all
its textures and flavours.
Well-versed in the culinary
traditions of the world (Torres
once travelled to the Amazon
to learn of the local cooking
traditions) he takes the art
and indeed the science of
cooking very seriously. He has
extensively experimented with the
gastronomic traditions of different
cultures and fused them with
local cooking traditions. A great
believer in natural ingredients,
he says “The cooking process
must be as natural as possible. By
obligation and honesty, as cooks
we must offer the best thing to our
clients. We feed on the benefit and
the happiness of those who prove
our plates.”
Baths - Spa - Pool
Villa de Catral - Hotel & Spa
A brand new concept in rest and
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Page 19
Torres’ eagerness to experiment
with creating the best possible
tastes for his customers lead him
to the invention of the Gastrovac.
“When putting a frying pan to the
fire already a chemical reaction
has taken place.”
It is this chemical reaction he
has been at pains to perfect,
working on the project for three
years, with the collaboration of
the food technology department
at the Polytechnic University of
Valencia.
His invention cooks with a low
pressure using water that boils
at the low temperatures of 35 to
40 degrees Celsius, so that food
does not lose texture, vitamins,
taste and its natural colour. In
addition when cooking meat, fish
or vegetables, they absorb the
flavours of accompanying sauces
and flavourings.
Torres invention is already being
used in the kitchens of other
prestigious chefs, such as Ferran
Adrià and now it will be sold in
the U.S.A.
Torres has demonstrated his new
cooking innovation with a wellreceived response. His fresh cod
cooked with freshly plucked lemon
grass from El Rodat’s kitchen
garden is apparently exquisite
and fragrant.
As Torres himself says, each plate
he creates, “There is a mood, some
magic and some mystery.”
Villa de Catral - Hotel & Spa
We offer a new concept in food, drink
and accommodation thought to meet
everybody’s needs. Enjoy our daily
selected menus from €15
(including drinks).
Live music on Saturdays, the
ideal atmosphere to have fun with your
friends and family.
SPECIAL WEEKEND OFFER
UNTIL 31-03-07
Double room (1 night): € 50
2 nights: € 90 (incl. breakfast)
Includes full use of Spa facilities
For reservations please call 96 678 78 76 Fax: 96 678 78 92
e-mail: [email protected] • www.hotelvilladecatral.es
C/ Villa de Catral, s/n - Polígono de Poniente • 03158 Catral (Alicante)
· Beautiful venue
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Our clients also have access to our
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C/ Mar Sargazos, 4.
03740 Moraira, Alicante
Email: [email protected]
call 96 649 1177
FOOD AND DRINK
February 23 - March 1 2007
Authentic regional
cuisine
Menu
37 € + V.A.T.
(7 courses)
Rtaurante
Restaurant Casa Imbernón in
San Javier offers the best
produce in the Region of
Murcia. Traditional dishes
cooked by Javier Imbernón
CHEF’S CHOICES COOKED ON THE GRILL
COOKED IN THE WOK
Opening Hours
1.30 - 3.30 p.m.
and 7.30 -11 p.m.
Carrer la Mar 7 - DÉNIA
Tel. 96 578 16 29
SAUCES FOR THE WOK
DELICIOUS SELECTION OF DESSERTS TO FINISH
Price per Adult €8.95 · Child Under 7 yrs €5.95
Open every day
12am - 4pm & 8pm - 12pm
Avda. de la Safor, 5 • Bellreguard • Tel. 96 281 57 39
Concesionario
Volkswagen
Avda. Atlántico, 6 (opposite Volkswagen)
San Javier (Murcia). Tel. 686 101 744
We are open every day from 07.00 h.
Smoking allowed
To Los Alcázares
➡
Creative Mediterrean Cuisine
The new restaurant in Dénia
Page 20
CC
Hispania
To SanJavier ➡
Hostal-Restaurante Cristina
3
MENU FROM ONLY € 9
COURSE MENU INCL. GLASS OF WINE OR BEER
Tel. 96 642 31 58 for RESERVATIONS or info. Find us just below Dénia Castle in Hostal Cristina
Avda. del Cid, 5 - 03700 DÉNIA ∙ [email protected] www.hostal-cristina.com
Encantados de Conocerle...
...Pleased to meet you
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★ GYM
Urbanización Marisol Park, 1-A, 03710 Calpe (Alicante) - ESPAÑA
Tel. 96 587 57 00 - Fax: 96 583 85 44 - [email protected]
www.marisolpark.com
HOTEL
FOOD AND DRINK
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 21
GURKHA PALACE
NEPALI-INDIAN RESTAURANT
RESTAURANTE
Our specialities: beef entrecôte and
cod with prawns and garlic
DAIL
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Extensive wine list, wines from Valencia and Rioja.
Lunch at very good prices, terrace,
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€8.50
BUÑOL
YÁTOVA
DISCOVER THE REAL NEPAL
IN THE VERY HEART OF JÁVEA PORT
Also take away !
CONSUM
Free bottle of wine with every takeaway meal over 30 €
ALBORACHE
Monday closed
Opening hours: 12:45 to 15:30 and 19 to 22:30
Ptda. La Solana (Ctra. Alcalalí-Pedreguer)
03728 ALCALALÍ (Alicante) - Tel. 96 648 24 56
TANDOORI AND THALIES SPECIALITIES
OPEN 7 DAYS!
Tuesday at lunchtime closed
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 8.30 to 19 h. Saturdays from 8.30 to 01 h.
Closed on Mondays. Staff holidays in September.
Avda. Rey Jaime I, nº 8 - Jávea Port
For reservations call 96 579 33 31
Avda. de Valencia, 35 · 46369 ALBORACHE (Valencia)
Tel. 96 250 83 78
HOTEL *** - RESTAURANT
font salada
Ctra. Nac. 332, Km 210
961196009
626308233
OLIVA
Situated among 43,000 m 2 of orange fields
Comfort
and
Gastronomy
MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE
-
Mediterranean cuisine in an amazing place
-
www.fontsalada.com
HOTEL L’ESTACIÓ
BOCAIRENT
Parc de L’Estació, s/n • 46880 Bocairent • Valencia - Spain
Where History meets Nature
ISO 9001:2000 Certificate
Member of Eurotoques
European Cuisine Association
ART EXHIBITION
EASY PARKING
Tel. 96 285 61 52
(Next to Yacht Marina)
OLIVA BEACH
Tel. +34 96 235 00 00 • Fax +34 96 235 00 30
www.hotelestacio.com • e-mail [email protected]
we are just starting
FOOD AND DRINK
Page 22
February 23 - March 1 2007
Riu Rau
Feeds the Body and Soul
your guide
to
food
drink
at
&
Miguel Ángel Costa and his
family have been running
their country restaurant
for more than 20 years. He
usually serves the clients
and she does wonders in
the kitchen.
The name of the restaurant
comes from the building. A
Riu Rau is a large terrace
with characteristic arches
where once grapes were
dried into raisins. Now it
is home of the restaurant,
situated next to the river
in Jalón, opposite the new
commercial centre.
The rustic style restaurant
is as popular with foreigners as it is with Spaniards.
At lunch time it is usually
populated by lovers of a
menu del día, which is only
14.50 euros.
But eating a la carte is a
truly wonderful experience.
It is an excursion into the
local cuisine. Miguel recommends a selection of tapas
as a starter, meatballs in a
tomato sauce, cod croquettes,
broad beans and cocas, they
are like pizzas with a topping of roast vegetables.
The paella is juicy and
laden with extras, fish, seafood, meat and vegetables.
During the cooler times of
the year caldo con pelotas
warms the heart and soul,
a tasty broth with meatball
wrapped in cabbage and a
Sunday favourite in homes
throughout the region. Fish
lovers will always find a
selection of fresh local fish
dishes, the suquet de rap
deserves a special mention, a monkfish stew that
will satisfy even the most
demanding diner.
For those who prefer something more meaty, there are
several wild game dishes.
Miguel buys them directly
from a private estate in the
Cuenca region. The wild
boar comes in a sauce of
port and roasted fruit. The
deer sirloin is best tried in
a sauce of wild forest fruits.
Both dishes are served with
a selection of vegetables
and some roast potato.
A good meal has to be
rounded off with some des-
sert. All cakes at the restaurant are homemade, fresh
and succulent. Most popular are the pumpkin, chocolate and almond cakes.
The wine menu is varied,
there are choices from
Rioja, Ribera de Duero,
as well as several regional wines. It is best to ask
Miguel what he has in stock
and be surprised.
Keeping to traditions
More than 300 pintxos
at your fingertips
Kitchen open from 9 to 24 h.
Open from 9 h. to 24 h.
The restaurant is open every day between 12.30 and 16.00 hrs and
19.00 until 22.00. It is closed on Thursday night. Tel. 96 648 05 06
FOOD AND DRINK
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 23
Chinese New Year Recipes
Happy Chinese New Year! We’re excited to ring in the Year of the Fire Pig - an event that happens only once
every 600 years. This is the kind of year that brings greater opportunities for growth, expansion, prosperity
and more. So, let’s harness the Fire Pig’s unique energy for success in the new lunar year.
Beginning as always with the Aquarian New Moon (February 18 this year), Chinese New Year signals a time
for fresh starts according to our planet’s lunar calendar. It’s a perfect time to invoke the power of ancient
divination - in particular, the Chinese oracle of changes known as the I-Ching – which is also a source-book
for martial arts, feng shui and Chinese medicine. But if I have lost you there, why not ring in the new with
a few Chinese New Year recipes.
Most dishes served during the Chinese New Year (which is also known as the Spring Festival) are symbolic
of hope and prosperity. Chicken and fish symbolise happiness and prosperity, oranges represent wealth
and good fortune as they are abundant in China. Noodles represent longevity, so should never be cut. Duck
symbolise fidelity and eggs fertility.
So here are some recipes and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Chinese orange chicken
Chinese
turnip cake
This sweet dish
is always eaten at
New Year. It is best
served hot.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 ounces Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked overnight in water
1/3 cup dried shrimp, soaked in water overnight and drained
1 pound pork sausage, sliced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 slices fresh ginger root
3 turnips, shredded
1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon ground white pepper
Servings per recipe: 6
2/3 pound white rice flour
METHOD
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat.
Add mushrooms, shrimp and sausages and sauté for 30 seconds.
Remove from skillet and set aside.
Heat 1 more tablespoon oil in wok/skillet.
Add ginger and sauté a bit.
Add shredded turnips and stir fry for about 3 minutes (do NOT remove
turnip water).
Add 5-spice powder, salt, chicken bouillon and white pepper and toss all
together until evenly distributed.
Extract ginger slices from mixture. Turn off heat.
Top turnip mixture with rice flour and use chopsticks to toss and mix flour
in evenly.
Add reserved sausage mixture and toss to mix in. Remove mixture from
wok/skillet and place into a 9x2 inch deep round cake pan.
Clean wok/skillet, fill with water and bring to a boil. Place cake pan on a
round wire rack over boiling water.
Reduce heat to low and let simmer, steaming cake ‘batter’, for 45 minutes.
(Note: you can also use a large bamboo steamer if you have one).
When ‘cake’ is steamed through, slice into pieces and serve hot OR cool
on wire rack before covering tightly with plastic wrap and placing in
refrigerator to chill.
Deep fried seaweed
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound bok choy
1/4 cup toasted almonds
2 cups oil for deep-frying, or as needed
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
INGREDIENTS
Sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange
zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh
ginger root
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped
green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
Chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
Servings per recipe: 4
METHOD
Pour into saucepan 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce;
and set over medium-high heat. Stir in orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and chopped
onion. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and let cool 10 to 15 minutes.
Place chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag. When contents of saucepan have cooled,
pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve remaining sauce. Seal bag, and refrigerate at least 2
hours. In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and pepper.
Add marinated chicken pieces, and shake to coat. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium
heat.
Place chicken in skillet, and
brown on both sides.
Remove to paper towels, and
cover with aluminum foil.
Wipe out the skillet, and add
the sauce. Bring to a boil over
medium-high heat. Mix together
cornstarch and 2 tablespoons
water, and stir into sauce.
Reduce heat to medium low; stir
HILLI HOCOLATE UDDINGS
in chicken pieces, and simmer,
about
5
minutes,
stirring
100g good quality dark chocolate
occasionally.
2 tbsp crème fraiche
This is a vegetarian dish that uses bok
choy seaweed
METHOD
Wash the bok choy and drain thoroughly. Finely chop the
toasted almonds.
When the bok choy has dried, separate the stalks and leaves.
Roll the leaves up cigar-style, and then cut into thin shreds.
Heat the oil in a wok to between 300-325ºF/150-160º.
Add a batch of the shredded bok choy.
Submerge the bok choy shreds in the hot oil for a few seconds only and remove quickly. (If you have one, a mesh
deep-frying basket is ideal for this). Do not let the leaves turn brown. Drain on paper towels. Continue with the
remainder of the bok choy shreds.
Place the shreds in a bowl and toss with the sugar and chopped almonds.
Serve immediately.
C
C
P
90g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
125g self raising flour
Bart Vanilla Pod
1 tsp Bart Hot Chilli in Suflower
1. Melt 35g of the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir in the crème fraiche. Oil 2 sections in an ice cube
tray and divide the chocolate mixture between them. Freeze for 1
hour or until frozen.
2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/ Gas 4. Melt the remaining chocolate as before. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl. Split the
Vanilla Pod and scrape the seeds into the bowl. Beat together until
light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs then fold in the flour
and Chilli. Stir in the melted chocolate.
3. Butter 2 individual metal pudding basins and half fill each with
the mixture. Put a chocolate ice cube in the middle of each one
and top with the remaining mixture.
4. Stand the basins in a small baking tin and cover loosely with
buttered foil. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until firm to
the touch. Turn out and serve immediately, with cream or crème
fraiche.
Page 24
TRAVEL
February 23 - March 1 2007
YOUR
HOLIDAYS
AT OLDFASHIONED
PRICES
Travel from May 1 to
October 31 2007 at
the same prices as
40,000 children can travel FREE
Ask for our brochure for this SUMMER
For more information about these offers visit
any of our 850 offices
Now, with your Visa Halcón card,
6-month
We also
refund you,
interest-free
payment
of your card expenses
TRAVEL
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 25
Titanic sails on
The poignant story
of the dramatic rise
and fall of the Titanic luxury liner moves to Valencia next
month. Sarah Farrell
visited the exhibition in Granada earlier this year.
day March 1 this year until March 30, 2008. Tickets
cost 12.40 euros, including
entrance to the Príncipe
Felipe science museum.
The show then moves on
to Zaragoza, Madrid and
Palermo before heading
for London in 2012, the
100th anniversary of its
maiden voyage and disastrous end.
For further information
on the Valencia exhibition
visit the website www.
comunitatvalenciana.
com, or for more details
on the Titanic, visit www.
titanic.es.
S
ince the Titanic disappeared under the
icy waters of the Atlantic ocean, its story has
captivated the public’s attention like no other, and
the discovery of its remains in 1985 only helped
to increase our fascination and curiosity even
further.
The stories of the 1,503
people who died and the
voices of the 705 survivors have inspired great
artists of our time, turning it into a tragedy of
epic proportions, while
the blockbuster film, Titanic, starring Leonardo
di Caprio and Kate Winslet, fanned the flames of
this legendary tale.
From Thursday March 1
visitors to Valencia’s City
of Arts and Sciences can
relive the story for themselves. Each person is
handed a personal audio
set, with tapes in many
languages
including
Spanish and English, and
at the push of a button
you can embark on your
own personal journey of
Titanic’s history.
In the exhibition are mas-
sive photos showing the
world’s biggest and most
luxurious cruise liner being built and launched in
Belfast before setting off
on its maiden voyage.
On board were British
The Titanic on its maiden voyage
nobility, American industrialists along with the
cream of New York and
Philadelphia society. It
also attracted many poor
emigrants, hoping to start
a new life in America or
Canada.
Their journey began in
Southampton on Wednes-
day April 10, 1912, at
noon.
Just five days later most
of them were dead.
Throughout the exhibition hand-written personal letters to family and
friends describe the life
of luxury on board Titanic. The authors describe
their excitement and firm
belief that they are sailing
towards a new, improved
future full of hope and
prospects. Yet for many,
these letters only served
as a final poignant farewell from a loved one lost
at sea.
The exhibition includes a
model of the liner, a replica of a first-class chamber, the splendid staircase, made famous in the
film, and goblets and dinner service stamped with
the Titanic brand. It also
has numerous photos and
moving stories surrounding the moments after the
ship hit a massive iceberg
and started to sink.
Stories of heroes are
retold, like that of Benjamin Guggenheim, who
went down with the ship
because ‘no woman will
die because of Benjamin
Guggenheim’s cowardice’.
Together with other tales
tell of desperation, cow-
ardice and negligence.
“Someone said the Titanic was unsinkable and it
is true, because it is still
alive in the hearts of all
those who visit the exhibition,” said Titanic Centenary 2012 representative
Jesús Ferreiro.
Sr Ferreiro said the Valencia exhibition will
be the biggest and most
spectacular to date, and
will include many new attractions such as the automobile boat-bus that was
to be transported by the
Titanic on its return voy-
age, and the dinner jacket
of Spanish multi-millionaire Víctor Peñasco. The
display will also include
a two-metre-high, sevenmetre-wide iceberg, the
largest ever exhibited.
Titanic - The Exhibition is
in Valencia from Thurs-
In the heart of
Monumental Xàtiva.
Restaurant
All rooms with en-suite bathroom,
air conditioning, Satellite T.V
The City of Arts and Sciences
·
·
levels.
Courses for all ages and
[email protected]
·
Tel. 678 351 323
Hotel
Vernisa
·
C/ Académico Maravall, 1 - 46800 Xàtiva
Tel. 96 227 10 11 - Fax 96 228 13 65
e-mail [email protected]
Visit our website
www. hotelvernisa.com
SPORT’S CLASSES
mini-tennis
tennis
paddle
ACTIVE TOURISM
hiking
barranquismo
canyoning
rock climbing
SPORT’S PROGRAMS FOR URBANISATIONS
paddle
tennis
TRAVEL
Page 26
February 23 - March 1 2007
Fancy lunch in
the snow?
BY CORNELIA MULLER
T
he days are already
becoming longer and
warmer, and already
lunch on a wind-sheltered
terrace is certainly a possibility on a sunny day.
But what about lunch
in the snow? This would
make a change and it is
easily done.
If you opt for a day trip
you will have to get up
really early, let’s say at
six o’clock. Because of
the early hour, let’s skip
breakfast and set off
north towards the closest
skiing and snowboarding
resort. The drive takes
about three hours, but
that still leaves you with
nearly eight hours on the
pistes, since the lifts are
open until five o’clock.
The route takes you along
the bypass around Valen-
cia. On the north side of
the city join the road A232 at Puerto de Sagunto
towards Teruel. About
an hour later you reach
a turn-off to the resorts.
Valdelinares is on the
right of the motorway,
Javalambre is on the left
side. The last stretch up
into the mountains takes
approximately 40 minutes.
Unless there have been
very recent snow falls, the
roads are clear and there
is no danger of sliding off
the side of the road.
Aramón is the smallest
skiing and snowboarding
resort in Spain. It is divided into Javalambre and
Valdelinares. Both are
at about 2,000m and the
season lasts from January until the beginning of
April. If there is no snow,
snow-making machines
help out and ensure that
the pistes are white. This
year has not seen a lot of
natural snow, so when you
go up in the lift and look
around the surrounding
panorama appears a little
barren.
Both resorts are more
suitable for the relaxed
skier or snow-boarder
or for beginners who are
still learning how to get
down the mountain with
only a few falls. Javalambre offers a total of seven
kilometres on eight pistes
with two green (simple)
ones, four blue (intermediate skills) runs and one
red (advanced). Equally
an experienced skier or
snowboarder would probably exhaust Valdelinares
in one day, as it also offers eight pistes over 6.5
kilometres, having three
red runs, three blue ones
and two very short green
pistes.
For those who do not have
their own equipment
there are hire centres.
Skis and boots are availa-
ble for a day at 15.50 euros,
and the all-so-fashionable
snowboarding equipment
is nearly twice the price
at 28 euros for a day. It can
be worthwhile stopping
at the shops on the way
up to the resorts for your
kit-hire. It is up to a third
cheaper, opening hours
are friendlier and you
avoid the mad rush at the
end of the day to return
everything on time.
For total beginners lessons are always the best
solution. It is not only
much safer to get down
the mountain with a little
instruction, but also a lot
more fun since you learn
the ropes and do not fall
over quite as often. Private lessons are only 26
euros per hour and every
additional person who
comes along for the lesson only has to pay three
euros extra.
So what happened to
lunch in the snow? After
a couple of hours up and
down the slopes, everybody is happy to tuck into
a hearty lunch. Both resorts offer a three-course
set meal for less than 15
euros, or big and very
tasty sandwiches. The
premises are a little basic and reminded me of a
self-service fast-food restaurant. But you come out
all the quicker ready for
more time on the pistes.
The resort shuts at five
o’clock and about half
an hour later it is empty.
So if you want to be back
for dinner with friends
in your own home, you
will not miss anything up
there. Resting can wait
until the following day…
however, if you have not
had enough, there is plenty of accommodation in
the surrounding villages.
The closest ones are about
15 minutes drive away. The
hotels usually do not have
many rooms, are familyrun and offer homemade
food. The local cuisine is
rather meaty, a lot of ham
and sausages, but all very
tasty.
If you want to go over the
weekend, it is better to reserve a room in advance,
since it tends to be quite
busy.
A little tip at the end: the
slopes can have icy patches, so take it easy, and that
way you will come away
without colourful bruises
on your knees and bottom!
For more information
consult the website of
the resorts on www.
nievedeteruel.com
TRAVEL
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 27
Go quad for
a fun day out
turn up - even without a
driving licence.
Once hooked, you can buy
your own quad, Fun &
Quad has been an official
Yamaha dealer.
Prices for a new quad
start at 3,000 euros. There
is a choice between an
ATV (all terrain vehicle),
which is automatic and
easy to handle, or a sports
version, which is faster
and tends to have gears
to regulate the speed better. The official speed
limit is 45 kilometres per
hour, but the quads can go
much faster. If you push
them hard, they reach a
speed of up to 140 kilometres per hour.
The shop also provides a
repair and general overhaul service for any quads
brought into the shop.
Once a year, Álvaro organises a trip with a small
group of passionate quadders to Morocco. Just imagine going into the Atlas
mountains, or into the Sahara or along the dunes of
the Atlantic.
Fun & Quad also rent out
kayaks, bikes and scooters. In the summer they
organise a combination
of kayaking and snorkeling. The trips start in
Las Rotas and go along the
cliffs to a nice spot where
everybody can dive into
the water. All equipment
is provided.
BY CORNELIA MULLER
I
f you like being outdoors, and you like
fun, speed and people,
and are not afraid of mud
splashes join Álvaro on
an excursion on a quad.
He organises quad trips
through the orange groves
and into the mountains.
The usual routes take
him towards Els Poblets,
Orba and Fontilles. Participants can choose how
difficult they want it. If
they prefer off-road tours
across muddy, sandy or
stony terrain or something easy or difficult, but
the options are obviously
endless.
The shorter trips take an
hour and a half to two
hours, and the longer
ones up to a whole day.
If you think you get hungry Álvaro will prepare
a snack or organise a bar
stop. When the temperatures rise he is also more
than happy to include a
refreshing bathe in the
pool in Sagra.
The groups are always
small, as hardly ever
more than four people can
participate in an outing.
This assures that everyone can feel safe, because
the guide can take care
of possibly arising problems, but it also guarantees maximum fun, since
you can take in nature at
its best.
The shop keeps 10 vehicles for excursions on the
premises in Dénia. To take
part in an excursion you
will have to have a driving
licence.
Those who love speeding
around a track, can go to
Gandia, where Quad &
Fun maintain an 800-metre-long circuit with eight
quads. Since they are private premises you can just
Out of the shop
and on to
the road
More information
on quads can be
found on:
www.funquads.com
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri 9.30 – 14
hrs and 16.30 – 20
hrs. Sat: 10 – 14 hrs
Consolat del Mar 8
(next to the roundabout where the ferries to the Balearic
Islands leave from)
Dénia
Tel. 96 578 72 28
Mob: 639 54 23 65
MOTOR
Page 28
February 23 - March 1 2007
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01 OPEL ASTRA 1.6 AUTO ELEGANCE, A/C, PAS, 04 FORD KA STREET CABRIO, silver, black hide,
CD, in signal red, low kms, as new, FSH.....€8,999 A/C, PAS, CD, alloys, low kms, gift at.....€12,999
02 mod. RENAULT LAGUNA INTAGLE, automatic
01 DAEWOO NUBIRA GLS EST, A/C,
flagship, met thistle green, alloy, climate...€12,999
PAS, alloys, silver............................€6,999 04 FORD FOCUS, 5 dr AUTOS, CD, vario02 HYUNDAI ACCENT 1.3, A/C, PAS, 5 door, us...................................................€11,999
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km,
silver................................€5,999 11/03 PEUGEOT 206 HDI EST X LINE,
02 HYUNDAI ATOS PRIME, A/C, PAS, red...€5,999 A/C
PAS,
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ter, met. green, RHD on Spanish plates, ideal LWB, silver, inc. alloys............................€8,999
boat puller, forget the RHD...............€5,999 00 OPEL CORSA 1.4 SPORT, 16v, A/C,
PAS, FSH, low kms, white...............€6,999
02 RENAULT TWINGO, A/C, PAS, m.
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05 CITROËN C4 1.6 PREMIER AUTOMATIC, climate, cruise, CD, ice blue...........................€14,999
05 FORD FOCUS AUTO EST, A/C, CD, PAS,
claret, ice blue, grey silver...................€14,795
05 FORD FOCUS TDCi EST, A/C, PAS,
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silver. Low kms....................................€10,999
02 FORD MONDEO V6 GHIA 2.5 AUTO, in met. cava,
inc. climate, CD, alloys, fab spec and value..€9,999
02 FORD FOCUS AUTO EST, silver, very low
kms, A/C, PAS, charcoal..............€8,999
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July 04 FORD GALAXY 1.9 TDDi 115 BHP
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A/C.....................................................€18,999
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Nov 01 CHRYSLER VOYAGER 3.8 LE,
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05 FORD MONDEO 2.0 16V GHIA, blue...€15,999
May 05 FORD FOCUS C/MAX 1.6TDi 110
BHP, A/C, CD, silver, grey and blue....€14,999
02 CHEVROLET 3.4 TRANSPORTER AUTO,
7 seater, in met. black over gold, silver grey
hide, climate & alloys, nav TV, CD.....€14,999
02 VW PASSAT 1.8 T ESTATE AUTOMATIC,
trendline, climate, alloys, CD, ABS, PAS, FSH,
84 kms, finished in met emerald..............€14,999
05 FORD FOCUS AUTO EST, A/C, CD, PAS,
claret, ice blue, grey silver................€14,795
03 model FORD MONDEO GHIA AUTOMATIC,
climate, alloys, black metallic (Ghia X)....€12,999
05/05 FORD FUSION 1.4 TDCi TREND, A/C,
CD, silver or met. blue, low kms...........€10,999
02 RENAULT SCENIC DCI FAIRWAY, 1/2 hide,
A/C, met. blue or met. sage, only........€9,999
99 VOLVO V70 2.4 OPTIMA EXCLUSIVE AUTO
EST, climate, blue, FSH, 1 owner..............€9,999
04 FORD FOCUS AUTOMATIC, 5 dr, A/C, PAS,
CD, compare price, diamond white.............€9,999
01 FORD MONDEO 2.5 GHIA AUTO, climate,alloys,
gold or silver, gift at only.......................€8,999
03 FIAT STILO 120 BHP TDi, silver, A/C....€8,999
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February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 29
Exhibitors have jumped the gun
Honda is also showing off
a number of ecologically
friendly models, including the
FCX, which is powered by
hydrogen/electricity and
can travel almost 600km
on just one tank of the
fuel.
There is also the Small
Hybrid Sports Concept
which has been styled
by Honda’s
Ger man
R&D design centre and
looks
quite
sporty.
Honda
will also
be promoting its new clean die-
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Mitsubishi is also showing off two concepts, but
both of these have been
seen before at other motor
shows but the Prototype
X, provides an early look
at the anticipated Mitsubishi Evolution X.
The 10th model in the Evolution’s lifespan, it promises to be the most powerful version yet, and as the
styling suggests, possibly
the most attractive too.
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the presentation of prototypes, the introduction
of new brands or marketing communications, the
world automotive industry often prefers Geneva
for a variety of reasons.
“The
Geneva
Motor Show is
an open, nonprotectionist market, it
attracts
media
attention
from all over the
world, it is able to
offer a complete international showcase in a topof-the-range setting, and
it achieves all this while
still retaining a human
scale.”
New arrangements to
improve visitor convenience, hitherto unseen
attractions and other innovations are all under
preparation and will be
announced shortly.
Three Japanese carmakers have jumped the gun
and revealed their 2007
Geneva Motor Show products, which for the most
part are concept cars.
Honda, Mazda, and Mitsubishi will have strong
showings at the show.
Mazda will show a 4seat coupe-style compact
crossover SUV.
Sp
T
he Geneva International Motor Show is
from March 8 to 18 at
Geneva Palexpo and the
event looks promising,
with the announcement
of many world and European premières as well
as new exhibitors taking
part for the first time.
Only two of the five most
important motor shows in
the world take place every
year: Detroit and Geneva.
Hardly has the former
closed its doors when all
eyes turn to Switzerland
where 244 exhibitors will
share 76,000-plus square
metres area.
Demand for exhibition
space
has
increased
again and several new
exhibitors are registered,
including the Chinese,
Brilliance, KTM which
is presenting its first car
based on its experience of
motorcycles, and RussoBaltique.
Two brands are celebrating their renaissance
at Geneva: the Abarth,
(from the Fiat stable) and
the Dutch manufacturer,
Donkervoort.
Rolf Studer, general manager of the show said:
“Whether it is a case of
important premières from
the major manufacturers,
all of whom will be here,
CMAX from ................ €13,000
Mondeo from ............... €7,000
Citroën Saxo ......................... €6,000
Citroën Xsara Dsl Auto.......€10,500
Citroën Picasso DSL ............€9,000
Chrysler Voyager ................€19,000
Daewoo Nubira .....................€6,500
Hyundai Accent from ...........€5,000
Mitsubishi Spacestar..........€11,000
Opel Astra 2.0 DSL .............€18,000
Peugeot 206 ........................€10,000
Peugeot 206 Auto .................€9,000
Peugeot 307 HDi .................€12,000
Renault Megane Dsl ...........€13,500
Renault Megane Dsl Scenic.€10,000
Seat Ibiza ...............................€8,500
MOTOR
Page 30
February 23 - March 1 2007
Stealth tax denial
T
he United Kingdom prime minister Tony Blair has denied
that road pricing is a “stealth
tax” on drivers.
More 1.7 million people signed the
anti-toll petition that was posted on
the Downing Street website.
Mr Blair is sending an e-mailed reply to the signatories which says
that no decision has yet been made
on pricing, but the aim is to tackle
congestion.
Pilot projects are going ahead in
a number of cities and towns and
Mr Blair claimed the funds raised
from these would be spent on local
transport.
His reply is to all the 1,792,116 people who signed the petition which
closed this week.
The petition was set up by Peter
Roberts, 46, an account manager
from Telford, Shropshire, who said
tolls were “sinister and wrong” and
unfair to poorer people.
Mr Roberts said he welcomed Mr
Blair’s response but would have
preferred a moratorium on road
pricing while alternatives are considered.
The petition appeared on the Downing Street website set up in November to allow anyone to address and
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deliver a petition directly to the
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scrapping of planned vehicle tracking and road-pricing policy.
In his e-mail response, the prime
minister said: “Congestion is a major problem to which there is a no
easy answer.
“Let me be clear straight away: we
have not made any decision about
national road pricing. Indeed we
are simply not yet in a position to
do so.”
He said that allowing congestion
to grow unchecked would be bad
for businesses, individuals and the
environment and cost an extra £22
billion in wasted time in England
by 2025.
He said: “I know many people’s biggest worry about road pricing is
that it will be a stealth tax on motorists.
“It won’t. Road pricing is about
tackling congestion.”
Mr Blair said local schemes would
teach more about how road pricing
would work and funds raised from
the pilot schemes would be used to
improve transport in those areas.
The government is to go ahead with
10 road-pricing pilot schemes in 10
locations around the country.
Plans to introduce a nationwide
pay-as-you-drive system were unveiled by former transport secretary Alistair Darling in 2005.
His successor, Douglas Alexander,
has since suggested that road pricing could be brought in within a
decade.
Mr Alexander said: “We’ve got two
policies, the first in terms of a national system of road pricing is
that we have a debate ahead of a decision which lies some years away.
“What we are planning on taking
forward in the mean time, however,
is a number of local pilots of congestion charges and we’ve already
made clear that every penny of the
money raised by those local congestion charges would be used to improve transport within those communities.”
Mr Roberts said investment should
be made in the transport network
without a road-charging scheme.
He said: “Road pricing as an idea
has got some merit but the cost of
the technology and the infrastructure would be far better spent on
improving the railways and the
public transport system”.
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FINANCE
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 31
Government invests
in foreign residents
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a further 20 million euros
to equip the new hospitals, which are expected
to open their doors in two
years’ time.
These new centres will
relieve the pressure on
Cartagena’s Rosell Hospital and Murcia’s La
Arrixaca and La Reina
Sofía.
Property Sales & Purchases
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New hospital plans for the
Mar Menor and Cartagena have been given a huge
cash boost by the European Bank.
The two much-needed
centres will receive a loan
of 150 million euros, to be
paid back over a 30-year
period.
The loan will be guaranteed by Cajamurcia bank.
Health minister María
Teresa Herranz explained
that a first instalment of
50 million euros will be
granted by the European
Bank to enable the regional government to start
the works. As these progress, the remaining monies will gradually filter
through.
Herranz said the regional
government will provide
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in power.
Her criticisms were directed above all at the
‘massive legalisation’ of
non-EU foreigners who
have come to Spain illegally and the implied
invitation that this and
other measures, such
as family reunification,
send to those planning to
emigrate from their own
countries to Europe.
 Civil Action
C. Administrative
Labour Proceedings
Criminal Procedure
Breach of Duty
The socialist government’s immigration policy was criticised by the
main opposition, the conservative Partido Popular
(PP).
PP official Ana Pastor
said that Spain’s immigration problem is “much
worse than 13 years ago,
very much worse,” as a
consequence of the socialist government being
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11 percent of the total is
for employment.
The main objectives are
to guarantee the full exercise of immigrants’ civil,
social, economic, cultural
and political rights and
adjust public policies to
meet the needs that come
with immigration.
Labour minister Jesús
Caldera said the initiative originated through a
consensus of regional authorities, social organisations and foreigners’ associations, which in itself is
‘a guarantee of success’.
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Spain is to invest two
billion euros to help immigrants to feel they are
‘part of Spain’.
“If there is social cohesion, if the inequality between Spaniards and immigrants is reduced to a
minimum, living together
will be that much easier,”
said Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as she outlined the plan.
Defending the idea of ‘legal, orderly’ immigration,
she said that immigrants
in Spain have risen from
900,000 in the year 2000 to
three million at present.
Foreign workers now
form six per cent of the
population.
Moroccans represent the
largest single group of
foreign-born residents in
Spain, followed by Ecuadorians.
The plan, which will invest until the year 2010,
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www.white-baos.com
Page 32
BUSINESS AND FINANCE
February 23 - March 1 2007
LEGAL AND FINANCE
February 23 - March 1 2007
RAYMUNDO - HOPMAN - VILLAMOR
ENGLISH-SPANISH SOLICITORS
Page 33
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LEGAL AND FINANCE
Page 34
February 23 - March 1 2007
ASK THE EXPERT...
If you have a problem concerning a legal matter, pensions, investments or general finance then write to one of our experts here at [email protected]
Stephen
Ward
pensions expert
Q
I’m trying to
convince my two
kids that it is
high time they invested
in a pension fund. The
problem is that, at the
ages of 19 and 26, they
cannot even picture the
day they’ll need to draw
on it and prefer to enjoy
their money now, whilst
they are young. What
age, roughly, should a
person start to think
about making pension
arrangements?
A
It is never too early in reality - but
it is hard enough
to have them think about
their finances over the
rest of the week let alone
over the rest of their lives.
I am going to assume that
your offspring are both
employed in the UK.
In reality few start saving
for a pension other than
through membership of
any employer’s scheme
before they are in their 30s
- but if you can afford to do
so, give them a kick-start
by paying into a personal
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£2,808 (4,175€) each which
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to £3,600 (5,353€). Very few
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to or are inclined do this.
The bottom line is that,
from a standing start, the
later you leave it, the more
you need to save as a percentage of your income to
have any chance of accumulating enough to give a
decent pension. A rule of
thumb approach is to take
your age, halve it, and apply that figure as a percentage of what you earn.
For most, the answer this
gives is eye-watering - but
the longer it is left, the
worse the sums become.
Q
I had a company
pension in the
UK many years
ago and have since
moved to Spain. How
will they be able to
find me to pay it to me
when the time comes? I
don’t know the contact
details of my old company’s pension department and, although I’m
sure they send a statement every year, it prob-
ably just gets returned
to them in the post because I didn’t redirect
my mail when I sold up
to move here.
If you are still
unable to find the
contact details after a thorough search, you
can access a central register of schemes through
www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk. From the home
page, click on A-Z, then ‘P’
and scroll down to ‘pension tracing service’.
Perhaps you still have an
address for the company
A
where you could write in
the first instance, but if
they have moved you may
still find their address at
www.companieshouse.
gov.uk.
Contact is vital and, maybe, sooner than you think.
If the scheme is being
wound up, for example,
the scheme trustees cannot tell you about your
options unless they can
contact you.
You may otherwise end
up with a deferred annuity being bought for you
which, as you know noth-
ing about it may, when the
time comes, prove even
harder to trace.
If, when you are due to
receive a pension, the
scheme has out of date
information, they will try
and find you - but if they
fail, your benefits will just
be held on suspense until
you surface.
Stephen Ward can be
contacted personally at
Premier Financial Solutions (UK) Ltd. See advert in this section for
details.
COSTA BLANCA SOLICITORS, S.L.
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together with any third parties contracted by Think Press SL assume no responsibility whatsoever for any
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DÉNIA. TEL. 649 462 223 / FAX 96 643 15 08
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LEGAL AND FINANCE
February 23 - March 1 2007
Mark
Davies
investment expert
Q
I have an existing portfolio of
shares and unit
trusts, including PEPs
and ISAs. I have been advised that to make them
tax-efficient in Spain I
need to sell and reinvest
the proceeds in an offshore trust and an associated insurance policy.
What is your opinion?
In my experience,
many expatriates
are advised to invest via offshore structures including trusts and
insurance policies.
While these structures are
appropriate for some, they
are not right in all cases.
Irrespective of whether
or not a trust or insurance
policy is right in your circumstances, there is normally no need to sell and
reinvest existing shares
or collective investments
when placing them in
trust and/or an insurance
policy. Transfers of most
investments can be made
into a trust or an insurance policy using an in
specie transfer, which is a
cost-free change of registered ownership and does
A
not require the assets in
question to be sold.
In relation to transfers
of PEPs and ISAs, there
is an important point;
where units in these are
transferred into a trust or
insurance policy, their UK
tax-favoured status will
be lost. This is because,
to continue to qualify, investments in PEPs or ISAs
must be in the name of
the individual who first
bought them; assets placed
in trust are owned by the
trustees or, in the case of
an insurance policy, by the
insurance company.
As a separate point regarding PEPs and ISAs,
having left the UK, for tax
purposes it is not possible
to make further investments into an ISA. There
is no reason, however, why
existing holdings cannot
be held indefinitely.
It is also worth noting
that, in addition to in specie transfers of collective
investments and so on, an
existing insurance policy
can be transferred by assignment into trust without the need for it to be
surrendered.
In the majority of situations, therefore, most asset types are capable of
being transferred for taxplanning purposes without them being sold and
reinvested. Correspondingly, there are a limited
number of circumstances
where, for tax reasons,
the wholesale disposal of
an investment portfolio is
required or justifiable. Investors advised that they
need to sell and reinvest
their investments wholesale in order to make
their affairs tax effective
in Spain should therefore
exercise caution.
While there are often
reasons to adopt a new
investment approach after moving to Spain, this
is normally achieved by
structural
adjustments
made over a period of
time as investors typically
move towards safer and/
or higher income assets.
Importantly, decisions to
adjust a portfolio should
be driven by investment
and not tax-planning considerations. Tax-planning
often requires changes to
be made within a specific
time window; however,
provided the correct independent advice is being
taken, this can normally
be accomplished without
tearing up previous investment planning.
Mark Davies can be contacted at Brooks MacDonald Asset Management. See advert in this
section for details.
Page 35
Marc
White
legal expert
Q
What is the position concerning
money held offshore as far as the UK is
concerned?
A
You may recall an
article of mine
written a while
ago relating to a case
brought by the UK Revenue against Barclays
Bank. That ruling has
now been extended so as
to apply to four more UK
high street banks - understood to be HSBC, HBOS,
Royal Bank of Scotland
and Lloyds TSB - who are
to be forced to hand over
details of their clients’ offshore bank accounts after
Revenue & Customs won
consent from the Special
Commissioner on February 1, 2007.
Revenue officials will now
search the records of an
estimated 100,000 custom-
ers for information on
UK-domiciled individuals who have not declared
income on money kept in
offshore centers, such as
the Channel Islands.
Although it has been legal
to hold money offshore
since the relaxation of
exchange controls in 1979,
it is illegal to conceal
the interest earned. This
said, the ruling is thought
unlikely to force the disclosure of secret bank accounts in Switzerland and
some other offshore jurisdictions.
Revenue & Customs is
proposing to encourage
individuals with undeclared offshore accounts
to come forward in a partial amnesty, which would
offer reduced penalties of
ten per cent of the maximum for a limited period.
Investors could still face
a bill for up to 20 years of
unpaid tax and interest,
however.
Under the proposals, investors would be given
six weeks to disclose the
existence of an offshore
account, with a further
four months to make a
complete disclosure and
pay the tax bill. Revenue
& Customs is expected to
announce the concession
this spring when it has received information from
the banks. Such a schedule would give accountholders limited time to
seek advice.
Do not forget that Spain
will also have expected its
residents to declare monies held offshore. There
may come a time when
the UK decides to share
such information with
Spain in respect of nonUK domiciles. Merely living in Spain and holding
Spanish residencia does
not necessarily mean that
you are no longer domiciled in the UK.
I hope the above is useful and please feel free to
give either myself or Carlos Baos a call on 96 642
61 85, or send an email to
[email protected] if
you wish to discuss the
above or any other issue.
Marc White LL.B. (English Solicitor) C/Diana
16, 1º, 03700 Dénia.
© White & Baos 2007
– All rights reserved.
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 36
SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT
Tour of
Valencia
THE Tour of Valencia starts
on Tuesday and will finish
on Saturday in Valencia after covering 774 kilometres
spread over five stages.
The first stage starts and
finishes in Alzira, the second in Calpe, the third in
Vila-real, the fourth goes
from Albaida to first category climb, Alto del Campello,
in Vallada and the fifth and
last starts and finishes in
Valencia.
Eighteen teams and 160 riders, including the winner
and runner-up of last Tour
of Spain, Alexander Vinokourov and Alejandro Valverde, and the runner-up
in last year’s Giro d’Italia
(Tour of Italy), José E. Gutiérrez Cataluña.
They will have to climb 13
mountain passes, including
10 third category ascents
and three first category.
Racing on
Castellón
beaches
HORSE-racing returns to
Castellón on Sunday when
the Jewel Races (Les Corregudes de la Joia) are held
on the Gurugú beach between the city and Benicàssim.
More than 30 riders will
take part in the races that
have three categories, English thoroughbred, Arab
and crossbred.
The English and Arab horses compete over 1,000 metres while the crossbreds,
farming animals, race over
500 metres.
The correguda winner in
each category is decided on
the results of three races.
As well as a cash prize he
receives the joia or scarf to
mark his triumph.
Racing begins at 11.00 hrs.
Half marathon
around Torry
THE 24th Torrevieja international half marathon is
on Sunday in Paseo Vista
Alegre starting at 10.00 hrs.
The route will cover 21 kilometres and 97 metres.
Runners will do two laps
of the circuit which starts
and finishes at Torrevieja
casino.
The race is along Paseo Vista Alegre, Avenida Doctor
Gregorio Marañón, Avenida
Doctor Desiderio Rodríguez,
Calle Ramón Gallud, Avenida de la Sal, Calle Mar Báltico, Calle Roentgen, Calle
Gabriela Mistral, Calle Doctor Fleming, Avenida Doctor Mariano Ruíz Cánovas,
Avenida de la Purísima,
Calle Ramón y Cajal and Paseo de la Libertad.
Throughout the race there
will be shows and children’s entertainment, brass
bands music performances,
dolçainers i tabaleters (Valencian pipers and drummers), stilt-walkers and jugglers.
STARS OF THE FUTURE: Charlton youngsters take on Alone at Pilar de la Horadada
Valencia snap up Charlton
lads for academy training
By SARAH FARRELL
ENGLISH
premiership
football club Charlton Athletic is helping hundreds of
sports-mad youngsters finetune their skills in Spain.
CAFC School España has
netted a hat-trick of successes to ensure the successful scheme remains in
the spotlight.
Firstly, four youngsters
training with the school in
Pilar de la Horadada have
been picked to train with
top Spanish side Valencia,
thanks to an agreement between the two clubs.
The school has also just
opened another training
camp on the Costa Blanca.
Thirdly, director David
Greene has enlisted the
help of his identical twin
brother Dennis to run the
new La Marina site.
David said the school is continuing to expand across
Spain, with some young
players attracting the attention of top coaches.
He said: “A coach from Va-
DAVID GREENE
lencia came down here and
picked four boys to train
with their academy.”
Liam Sarkadoo, Lewis Rutterford, Spencer McCall and
Ashford Dawkins, all 11,
head for the club’s training
ground once a fortnight.
They have the chance to
work alongside youngsters
vying for a place in the Valencia team, which is riding
high in the Spanish first di-
vision and is in the quarter
finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Dennis Greene, former
Maidenhead United manager, is in charge of the new
La Marina campus, which
holds training sessions on
Wednesdays from 18.30 to
20.00 hrs.
He said: “It doesn’t matter
whether they’re good or not
as long as they enjoy it.
“The better ones we will
feed into the academy.
Hopefully we’ll make them
into superstars.”
CAFC Soccer España has
eight teams in the Spanish
league at Pilar where they
train about 100 children,
70 youngsters at Mazarrón
and already 20 have joined
the La Marina camp.
The club also has three sites
at Málaga where they combine football with language
lessons.
For further information
on the Pilar centre, contact
David Greene on (0034) 96
Great week for Benitachell bowls
IT was a good winning week
for Benitachell Bowling
Club.
In the Winter League BBC
beat Jávea Green 6 - 4 but
it was the Northern League
side that claimed the biggest triumph.
They blunted El Cid Swords
10 - 0, their second maximum victory on recent
weeks.
The Jaguars were at home
to Calpe Egrets and won 6 4 while Lions went to Albir
Pandas and ran up an 8 - 2
win.
Tigers are now third with
126 points, Jaguar fourth
with 116 and Lions sixth
with 109.
In the Winter Fours League
both leading teams, Wickers World and Traders lost
but No Pasa Nada won and
lead with 16 points and the
best shot difference.
These three have 16 points
so the final matches should
be exciting. In the Winter
Wapinschaw, Eileen Grady
WAPINSCHAW RIVALS: Winner Linda Richards
(right) with Eileen Grady
and Linda Richards went
into the final match neck
and neck, but in the end
Linda had the slightly better shot difference.
The Valentine’s Day match
between the men and ladies
was won by the men by two
shots.
Iain Donaldson is running
another beginners’ course
on March 15, 20, 23 and 27 at
13.30 hrs. There will be two
hour sessions and the entry
list is on the notice board or
phone Iain, the club and national coach on 96 649 37 30
for details.
NEW COACH: Dennis Greene
678 67 29 or phone Dennis
Greene on (0034) 671 280 247
for information on La Marina.
For details of CAFC Soccer España visit the official club website www.cafc.
co.uk.
Mislaid by
Mixed bag
Green’s Winter
Greenlands JÁVEA
League team were away to
GREENLANDS SABA Triples League team is still
seeking its mislaid form.
At Monte Mar they took on
the San Luis refugees but
failed to find their form losing 8 - 2 and 46 - 75 on shots.
In the Valentine’s Club
Day the best scoring lady
was Pam Cluney who beat
Janet Leonard and Sheila
Hewett.
The best man was Phil
Heyes from Brian Pocock
and Ted Lamb.
In the Southern League the
Greens took on the Sharks
of La Marina and brought
home eight points. The
rinks were honours even
but the overall shots went
to the Greens by 110 to 93.
The Yellows beat Monte
Mar Toreadors by 116 shots
to 67 and 12 - 2.
They won again at the Horadada Gladiators by 134
shots - 96 and 11 - 3, and are
now 13 points clear.
Benitachell BC and lost 6
- 4.
Quartz welcomed Albir
Bears and with two wins
and two draw scored eight
points to reduce the margin
between them and El Cid
Swords.
Opal beat Finca Guila 8 - 2.
All the Onyx teams won
against Calpe Flamingos
and took 10 points.
The Valentine’s Day match
saw the women play the
men.
Some of the men like to
think that they won with a
shot difference at 115 to 108
but the ladies won on four
rinks and the men on three
to make the result a draw.
The Captain’s Day, saw the
captain’s team take on the
vice captain’s select.
The captain’s team won 140
- 133.
The Club Championship
finals are expected to be on
March 9 and 10.
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 37
SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT
AROUND THE GOLF SOCIETIES
Pego find perfect
golfing conditions
PEGO Golf Society saw 35
members at Alicante Golf
Course on Tuesday and
enjoyed perfect golfing conditions enjoyed by all.
The course was in great condition, particularly the new
greens and even the two temporary greens on the fifth and
sixth holes were better than
many regular ones offered at
other courses.
Results: Division One: 1 Ian
Robertson 39 off 12.5, 2 John
Guest 36 off 8.2, 3 Alan Craig
36 off 9.7.
Division Two: 1 Janine
Ackerman 35 off 18.7, Gordon
Weston 34 off 20.8, 3 Colin
Sayer 34 off 23.3.
Twos were recorded by Alan
Jamison, Graham Bush, Colin
Sayer, John Newnham, Alan
Craig, Janine Ackerman and
John Guest.
PRIZE WINNERS: Pego members in Alicante with their prize bottles
Knowing the
course was
help to Mosa
members
SAN Javier visited Mosa
for the Mosa Trajectum competition and a good turn out
allowed us a two-tee start
and we were able to play the
Pine and Olive as many of
members have a real dislike
of the Stones.
There were four nearest-thepin prizes on the par threes.
There are four members of
Mosa in the society and they
all turned out to play on
Monday.
It does pay to know your
way around the course as
Tony Elsworth proved by
scoring 39 points.
Quite a few members were
playing Mosa for the first
time and despite the wind
gave it a thumbs-up for its
condition.
It wasn’t until I finished
though that I discovered
that I had won Category
One with only 23 points, the
reason being that I was the
only player under our 10
handicap limit for the class.
Results: Category One: Bob
Gallard 23 points.
Category
Two:
Tony
Elsworth 39, 2 Barry Geary
323, 3 Les Carr 32;
Category Three:
Steve
Millgate 31, 2 Joyce
Armstrong 26, 3 Margaret
McBride 25.
Best guest: Anthony Pickup
32.
Nearest the pins: Tony
Elsworth, Bob Gallard,
Boris Pharo and Charlie
Chaplin.
SPORTS COPY
DEADLINE
12.00 hrs
WEDNESDAY
Not the most popular
STROKE play is not the most popular
game among Jalón Valley members
as one very bad hole can destroy an
otherwise steady round.
So when the team game planned for
Don Cayo could not go ahead because
one player failed to turn up, we played
a stroke play competition but with a
‘10-stroke limit’ on each hole.
This turned out to be a great success
and produced some good scores.
First with a net 70 was Noel Reeve who
was followed home by Clive Elmer (73)
Alan Barwick (74) and George King
(75).
There was a full house for the Irish
Four-Ball Stableford.
The game was very enjoyable and the
winning team was Alan Barwick, Clive
Elmer, George King and Dave Moore.
Runners up were Dave Monk, Paul Darragh, Graham Haslam and Ken Oliver.
The highest scorer was Rob Lintern
with 37 points.
We are now having excellent turn-outs
for both our Monday and Wednesday
games and unfortunately have had to
disappoint players who have not given
sufficient notice that they wanted to
play.
Please ensure that you give the booking secretary (626 550 196) at least seven days notice if you want to play so
that the necessary number of tee times
can be booked.
It is also very important that you let us
know as soon as possible if you are down
to play but for any reason are unable to
turn up. This means that your place can
be reallocated to another player.
There are still places available for our
meal and quiz night at Restaurante
Awraba, Orba, on February 26 so if
you are interested please get in touch
with Noel Reeve.
Excellent turnout at Oliva Nova
LA Marina had an excellent
turnout at the fast-improving Oliva Nova Golf for the
Stapleford competition.
Many members travelled
north with trepidation but
the course was much drier
than expected and golf was
played in sunshine all day.
The nearest-the-pin competition was won by Barry Stevens and Noel pipped Sean
Rainey to first prize.
They both had 34 points but
Noel took first prize on the
lower handicap rule and
third was David Reynolds
with 31.
Valentine’s Cup
for Pemberton
ORBA Warblers played the
Valentine’s Cup at Alicante
Golf.
Category Two winner was
Richard Morris with a fine
72 off 21.6. Second was Ed
Jones with 73 off 20, and
third Brian Taylor with 74
off 19.8.
In Category One Stafford
Pemberton’s 69 off 18.4 beat
Colin Foster’s 70 off 8.7.
Gordon Holloway was third
with 74 off 17.8.
Stafford and John Costigan
won the nearest the pins
and Pat Casson-Smith,
Lionel Hawkes, Colin Davis,
Stafford Pemberton, Roy
Jones and Sally Marsden
had twos.
Members are reminded all
subscriptions must be paid
by the end of February.
On February 27 we play El
Bosque course for an individual Stableford and Team
Accumulator competition.
This is also the final date
for playing the first round
of the singles knock-out.
Guests are welcome to join
us, subject to availability
and handicap certificate, all
bookings to Norman Howell
on 619 325 671.
The picture shows the captain, John Feek presenting the Valentine’s Cup
to Stafford Pemberton,
accompanied by other
prizewinners.
Division B saw Peter Saunders return a fantastic 41
points, Alistair Catchpole
was second with 35 and
Kevin Keady took third
spot.
Best guest was Dave Henderson with 28 points.
Next week we visit Alicante
Golf for a 10.00 hrs start and
players must arrive and pay
green fees before 09.30 hrs.
Those who wish to play
should contact Noel Eastwell
on 96 587 40 17 or 639 730 891.
Golf on Monday will be followed by a meal at Restaurante Gran China in Calpe.
Nearest the pins were Alan
Craig and Jim Gillies.
One matchplay game was
played with Manny Carlin
beating John Newnham by
two. Balls in the water were
117 and the correct score was
predicted by Carl Walker.
The next golf meeting is at
Oliva Nova on Monday. Guests
welcome subject to space and
handicap certificate.
First tee-time is 10.32 so be at
the clubhouse for 9.30 hrs. If
you want to reserve a buggy
for any Society day then call
Barry Eaton on 620 172 604.
If you require any information about the Society contact
Mike Tomkins on 680 393 831,
Monday - Friday 10.00 - 18.00
hrs.
A quiz night will be held on
Wednesday at Hunter’s Bar,
Pego.
The scoring
was good
BLUE Lagoon were at
Altorreal for the February
Texas Scramble. Seven
teams of four took part and
scoring was good.
Results: 1 Joe Savage, Ray
Fleming, John Eyre and
Chris Ibbottson 50 nett; 2
George Faulkner, Richard
Curtis, Neil Goatley and
Steve Cunnliffe 53.1, 3
David Webster, Dave Baker,
Sandie Cooper and Barry
Grainge 53.3.
Nearest the pins: George
Faulkner and John Eyre;
Longest drives George
Faulkner
and
Peter
Robinson
The monthly meeting is at
Wolffie’s Bar on March 5 at
18.00 hrs.
The competition is at La
Torre Golf Resort on March
14. For more information
about the society call Tony
Wolf, on 96 679 11 60 or
George Faulkner, on 96 676
42 30 or mobile 659 691 550.
February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 38
SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT
An impossible task
LINE OUT ACTION: Dénia and Ciencias battle for ball
Tomás is
a saviour
Santa Pola 2 Altea 2
ALTEA failed to turn up
until the start of the second half, during which the
home side went missing in
action.
In truth it was a terrific
game, played between two
very good sides and the result was a fair one.
Full marks must be given
to Altea keeper Tomás who
performed quite superbly
despite dislocating a finger
during training.
Altea were non-existent as
an attacking force throughout the first half as Santa
Pola piled forward fully
deserving their half time
lead.
On 20 minutes Santa Pola
took the lead when a clearance was fluffed for the centre forward to score.
The second goal came on
halftime when Santa Pola
swept forward to score.
In the second half Altea
were
transformed
and
David scored in the 52nd
minute.
Santa Pola’s lead began to
look tenuous, Altea grew in
confidence, and on 65 minutes Mario took a corner,
the home left back punched
David 12 inches from the
referee who proferred a red
card before Jorge Salero
equalised from the spot.
DÉNIA travelled to second-placed Ciencias
of Valencia hoping for an upset against a
side that had lost their last two games.
Dénia’s recent form suggested this was possible, but with several players unavailable,
the task was made somewhat more difficult
by the non-appearance of five players on the
day.
With a bare 15, including several veterans,
the game was over in the first quarter as
Ciencias ran in four tries.
Dénia responded well, but with several players out of position, it was always going to be
a case of damage limitation.
Solid defence and good team spirit reduced
the home side to a 38 - 0 victory.
On Sunday Dénia hosted Tatami at 13.00
hrs hoping to field a strong side and to reverse the run of recent bad luck.
Dénia RC: Pescata, Nico, Pato, Juan,
Xàbia, Tim, Dale, Adrian, Shaun, Nigel,
Sorin, José, Geviny, Yovanny, Mac.
The Infantiles (under 15s) continued to
struggle losing 35 - 12 to top side Tecnidex.
The Cadetes (under 17s) also played Tecnidex with both sides needing a win to guarantee the last play-off place.
Dénia’s impressive recent form continued
and despite conceding two breakaway tries,
fought hard to lead 14 - 12 well into the second half.
A late Tecnidex try seemed to have sealed
the points but again Dénia found a way
through to level at 19 - 19.
This result means that Dénia now have to
play their game in hand and beat UPV to secure the play-off place as Tecnidex are two
points ahead.
Dénia Cadetes: Manu, Bebo, Fabricio,
Miguel, Markuz, Sam, Lee, Nathan,
Juan, Giuliani, David, Santiago, Ryan,
Iñaki, Ben.
Elche suffer as
La Vila run riot
POOR Elche received an
almighty hammering at
the hands of the runaway
league leaders.
La Vila won 160 - 0 against
a team that only fielded
12 players to start with although that rose to 14 during the game.
The spectators were bored
by the monotony as La Vila
ran in try after try as the opposition tried but could do
nothing to stem the flow.
La Vila inevitably stay top
of the league and the first
game of the play offs is away
on March 18.
The first home game is on
March 25.
The under 14 and under 16
teams travelled to Valencia
on Saturday morning to
play Abelles.
The under 14s lost, but the
under 16 team won to reach
the league play offs.
The under 12 and under 10
teams went to Dénia for a
provincial tournament and
both gained two wins and
one loss.
On Sunday at home before
the senior game La Vila Under 14 played beat a Bradford
and Bingley under 14 side
from England and the under
18s were beaten by visitors
from Otley, Yorkshire.
There is no senior game
this week but on Saturday
a Valencia Selection under
18 team will play Aberdare
from Wales at 16.30 hrs.
This will be followed at 18.00
hrs by a Valencia Selection
under 16 match against La
Vila under 17s.
Anyone wishing to come
along will find the ground
is situated at Carretera Pantano, Villajoyosa.
Take AP-7 exit no 66 (Villajoyosa). At the first roundabout head for the mountain.
It is about 1 km from Motorway exit no 66 or take
the Villajoyosa by-pass, and
take the middle exit, at the
first roundabout, bare right
towards the motorway entrance and at the second
roundabout bare left towards the mountain.
Dénia still hold all the aces
DÉNIA retained a firm grip on the
leadership of Division Three, Group
VI, with an emphatic victory over Horadada at the Nou Camp.
They fell behind in the sixth minute
when Juanjo netted but Migue was on
target six minutes later and from then
on Dénia were in charge, Toni (43) and
Nicolau (46) adding further goals.
Torrevieja, four points behind are
holding off the challenge of wealthy
Villarreal.
They beat Catarroja 2 - 1 and are three
points clear of their rivals who won 2
- 1 at Castellón.
These three are well clear of the pack
which is headed by Ontinyent in
fourth, 12 points behind Dénia.
Oliva (28 points) slipped back into relegation trouble, losing 2 - 0 at fellow
strugglers, Puzol, who are level on
points.
Below them are Sueca, Alicante and
Requena, who look doomed.
In Division Two Murcia maintained
their challenge beating Castellón 1 - 0
and their local rival Ciudad de Murcia
are not out of the running for honours
as they beat Lorca 2 - 1.
Hércules still have play-off hopes,
beating Tenerife 3 - 1 but Elche are hovering about the relegation zone, only
two points better off than 19th-placed
Castellón after a 0 - 0 draw at mid-table Sporting. Rock bottom Vecindario
were beaten 5 - 1 at Alavés.
Inept referee
ruined spirit
of the game
Orihuela 3
FC Jacarilla 1
THE referee had most
influence on this game and
showed how inept he was
when in the second minute
he allowed an Orihuela goal
to stand.
In the melee that followed
he then sent off Jacarilla
playmaker Domi.
In the ninth minute
Orihuela added a second.
For the rest of the half
Orihuela were kept penned
in their own half.
In the 26th minute the referee awarded Jacarilla
penalty but player/coach
Sergio managed to blast the
ball at the keeper.
Ten minutes later Sergio
made amends as he broke
through and released a
fine ball wide to Corto who
skipped inside one defender
and sent the keeper diving
the wrong way as he slotted
home at the near post.
Orihuela scored again
in the 60th minute with
their centre forward again
impeding the keeper.
It was a signal for more
reaction from the Jacarilla
players. In the midst of this
the referee threatened a
Jacarilla player and at one
point seemed to raise his
hand too.
The remainder of the game
passed without incident.
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February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 39
SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT
Jávea turn Soriano grabs
the corner spoils for Torry
Calpe 0 CD Jávea 0
THE match was marred by a dug-out
punch up, a repeat of what happened at
Jávea when the two sides met.
In the second half it appeared that Calpe’s
Pascual was booked for the second time
but he remained on the pitch, much to
amusement of the locals and dismay
of the travelling fans, writes Matthew
Smith.
The linesman waved over the referee and
they had a short discussion before the
official decided the player had been cautioned once.
All hell broke loose and both sets of officials brandished clipboards with their
own evidence.
Jávea physio Visbal was struck by one of
the Calpe officials and there was a mêlée
which saw the arrival of the Guardia
Civil.
The incident ended when Visbal and the
Calpe official were red-carded.
Jávea had made Calpe look very ordinary
and if striker Costa had more confidence
they might have won for the first time in
more than three months.
Just before half-time Costa pounced on
to a terrific through-ball from Javi, easily beating the static defence, but he shot
wide.
The second-half saw him miss another
chance and David Ivars also went close.
After last weekend’s bore draw, the match
was an exciting stalemate with terrific
passion from both players and fans. But
for the rojiblancos, the game just might
have marked a turning point for the club
as they battle to avoid relegation.
FC Torrevieja 2 Catarroja CF 1
EVERY time these teams meet
it produces controversy and
passion and this game was no
exception, writes Andrés Hermida.
There were two red cards and a
number of yellows with Catarroja guilty of making the most
of harmless tackles with some
pathetic play acting that fooled
no one except the referee.
Catarroja were a good footballing side and one can understand
why they have been climbing the
table since they drew with Torry
in October.
They were well organised and
played to win, even when they
went one up in the 12th minute
with a goal from Raúl Sáez.
Torry started off as championship contenders and used the
midfield and defence effectively
but had difficulty in breaking
down the visitor’s defence.
Torry were in a generous mood
and Héctor tackled Coque from
behind just outside the box but
the free kick floated over the
bar.
In the second half Catarroja
continued to attack but lost Fortuny who was sent off for a foul
on Roberto Carlos.
Corcoles missed a couple of
chances and was also denied a
penalty when he was brought
down in the 65th minute.
Catarroja were now being ripped
apart and when Polanco was
bought down in the 68th minute
just outside the box Meijides
free kick hit the wall.
With 20 minutes left, Torry made
BALL WINNER: Manrique in action
a double substitution with the
full backs replaced by attacker
Soriano and defender Ayala.
A minute Torry were awarded a
penalty which was converted by
Polanco to level the scores.
Torry continue to press for the
winner and were rewarded five
minutes from time when Soriano made no mistake.
Club is digging way out of hole
LAST week I said: “One thing you can be sure of is
that week by week our confidence will grow”. How
prophetic were these words.
This was a fantastic team performance. Our players
fought like tigers, and they can be very proud of
themselves.
Neither team deserved to win or lose this game, it
had everything, lots of goal opportunities, controversy, passion (and at times this boiled over), but
above all Jávea once again believed in themselves.
Our players played like real men, they were disciplined and worked hard.
At last we have shown we are more than capable of
digging ourselves out of the hole we are in.
Supporters saw a team that once again had belief
that they were better than their position in the
league. They also know that this is a direct result of
the stability, hard work, and improved atmosphere
that we have all worked hard to restore.
This has been a fantastic week all-round as we
occupy top spot in both Infantil and Cadete categories, our B team whipped Teulada 7 - 0, our Juveniles
won, and generally the whole club is alive and confidence is once again running through our teams.
Amigos on top
JÁVEA Amigos results:
FC Amigos Under 10s 6
Penya La Marina 1
Scorers were Jack Skellett,
Max Stenberg (2), Alex
Parkin and Joe Winstanley
(2).
FC Amigos under 12s 14
Penya La Marina 1
Scorers were Chad Keiron
(6), Cain Keirnan (4), Jack
Hunter, Jordan Knight and
Charlie King
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February 23 - March 1 2007
Page 40
SPORT SPORT SPORT SPORT [email protected]
SPORTS
SHORTS
César signs
BOLTON have signed off
Spain defender César Martín until the end of the season.
Martín, 29, is able to join
the Premiership club immediately as his contract
with La Liga team, Levante
of Valencia, was cancelled
at the end of January.
Martín has made more than
200 starts in La Liga and
has been capped for Spain
nine times, although not
since 2004.
Bolton manager Sam Allardyce said: “César can
make an impact in the last
11 games of the season.
“I am delighted to sign him
and I had been monitoring
him for quite some time.
“Once he became a free
agent, we moved quickly to
secure his services.”
Summer raid
All at home
CHELSEA,
Manchester United and Arsenal
avoid each other if they
reach the FA Cup quarter-finals.
The winner of the United
and Reading replay goes
to
Middlesbrough
or
West Brom, Chelsea are
at home to Tottenham,
Arsenal or Blackburn
will host Manchester
City and Plymouth meet
Watford in the ties to be
played on March 10 and
11.
THE two Davids, Villa and
Silva, were Valencia’s heroes as the Mestalla team
scored two vital away goals
as they twice came from behind to draw this Champions League clash with Inter
at the San Siro.
Esteban Cambiaso headed
Inter in front as he followed
up Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s
blocked shot from Luis Figo’s cross.
David Villa’s stunning second-half free-kick round
the wall drew Valencia
level.
Maicon then linked up
with Julio Cruz to put Inter
ahead but David Silva’s shot
through a crowded penalty
area in the 87th minute after a poor clearance secured
the draw and Valencia are
hoping to make progress in
the second leg at the Mestalla on March 6.
In the first legs of the other
ties Chelsea recovered from
the loss of an early goal and
an injury to John Terry to
gain a draw in Porto.
Terry had to go off with
an ankle injury after seven
minutes and things became
worse when Raúl Meireles
scored with a volley in the
12th minute.
Andriy Shevchenko levelled
six minutes later.
Both Didier Drogba and
Porto’s Ricardo Quaresma
hit a post but neither side
could find a winner.
Goals from Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise
shocked holders Barcelona
at the Nou Camp in the
first leg of their Champions
League tie with Liverpool.
Deco had headed Barcelona
in front in the 14th minute
but Liverpool equalised
when Víctor Valdés let Bellamy’s header creep over
the line and scored the winner in the 74th minute.
A Ryan Giggs goal gave
Manchester United a controversial win against Lille
who have lodged an official complaint with UEFA.
Giggs scored from a freekick as Lille were still lining up a wall.
UEFA will consider the
protest and the behaviour
of Lille players when they
meet today. It is also investigating why police fired tear
gas into the crowd.
In other ties Arsenal went
down 1 - 0 at PSV Eindhoven while Celtic were held 0
- 0 by AC Milan.
Issue No: 199
THE Torry Army has been
asked to help marshall the
the Torrevieja half-marathon on Sunday and has appealed for anybody who is
available and would like to
help to call the Torry Army
Office on 696 423 452 or Eddie Cagigao on 618 292 174.
Sunday also sees Crevillente FC play host to FC
Torrevieja’s rivals Dénia.
Because Crevillente are
having their pitch resurfaced they will play the
game at Torrevieja’s Vicente García stadium.
The kick off is at 18.00 hrs
and prices are reduced to
5 euros on production of a
valid Torry Army membership card, otherwise they
are 6 and 12 euros.
DUO OF DAVIDS
SAVE VALENCIA
SILVA LINING: David Silva grabbed draw
Andy fights back to retain San Jose crown
ANDY Murray fought back from a
set down to beat big-serving Croat
Ivo Karlovic and retain his SAP
Open title in San Jose.
The British number one came
through 6 - 7 (3 - 7) 6 - 4 7 - 6 (7 - 2) to
claim the second ATP Tour title of
his career.
Murray recovered superbly before
dominating the final set tie-break.
The Scot has been working hard
on his fitness and looked the more
energetic of the two in the closing
stages as he fended off three break
points.
And with the match hanging on the
outcome of another tie-break, this
time Murray was the more composed.
The icing on the cake was that his
brother Jamie won the doubles title
in partnership with Amercian Eric
Butorac, beating Rainer Schuettler
and Chris Haggard 7 - 5, 7 - 6 (8 - 6).
Jávea’s David Ferrer moved into the
third round of the Rotterdam tournament and Andy Murray won his
first round match in Memphis. If he
progresses he should break into the
ATP top 10 in the next rankings list.
The Wimbledon Championships
will hand women and men equal
prize money this year.
This brings it into line with other
Grand Slams and equal rewards
will be offered across the board.
Last year Roger Federer, the men’s
champion, won £655,000 while Amelie Mauresmo won £625,000 for winning the women’s title.
Valid only with a purchased newspaper
Marshall aid
GOAL-GETTER: David Villa celebrates his sensational 64th minute strike
Client Token
REAL Madrid president
Ramón Calderón plans a
summer raid on three of
the Premiership’s biggest
names.
Reports suggests he wants
to sign Jose Mourinho to
replace Fabio Capello as
coach and it is claimed
he has been in talks with
the Chelsea boss’s agent,
Jorge Mendes.
He also wants Chelsea’s
Frank Lampard and Manchester United Portugal
star, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mendes has told United
that they must make
Ronaldo, another of his
clients, the world’s bestpaid player to have a
chance of keeping him.