TWO SHOOTING INCIDENTS IN MARBELLA
Two British men were wounded in the early hours of Saturday morning in a shooting incident outside the Nikki Beach Club located at kilometre 192 on the N-340. One of them was shot in each leg but the police did not give details of the other man's wounds. Both were taken to the Costa del Sol Hospital. It was the second shooting incident in 28 hours. Last Thursday night, three men were injured when an armed man wearing a balaclava entered into a bar in Nueva Andalucia and opened fire before fleeing in a white BMW car which was later found abandoned. Police said the target of the attack was a 38-year-old Irishman, and two other clients, aged 45 and 73, were caught in the crossfire. Police said the two incidents were unrelated and that the first one appeared to be a settling of scores.
JUDGE SLAMS DRINK DRIVING LAW
A judge in Granada said last week that drink-driving controls are "illegal and illegitimate", represented an "obsessive persecution mania" against drivers and were a "serious violation of the principle of the right to equal treatment before the law". He then proceeded to absolve a man brought before him for failing a breathalyser test. The judge based his remarks on the fact that someone caught driving under the influence of drugs can get off scot free. Although it was a so-called "fast trial" - one that normally doesn't last more than 15 minutes - it took the judge six type-written pages to expound his theory.
NUMBER OF TOURISTS DROPS
The increasing number of Britons who are feeling the need to tighten their belts was reflected in July's tourism figures for Andalucia, released last Friday. They showed a drop of 11% for Andalucia as a whole. The Costa del Sol, where Britons normally account for just over 40% of total visitors, was the most affected. However, the increasing number of tourists from the US, Ireland and Holland helped ease the shortfall. The situation was similar in the rest of Spain, where tourism registered a drop of 8%.
PANIC BUTTON SERVICE ON THE UP
More than 11,300 people in Malaga province are using the Equality and Social Wellbeing's home assistance service, out of a total of just over 75,000 people in Andalucia as a whole. Figures show that eight out of ten people who have the "panic button" are over 75, 82% are women and two thirds live alone. The service started a year ago when the Law to Promote Personal Autonomy and Attention to People in a Situation of Dependence came into force. More details about the service are available on 902 50 65 65, at the Provincial Delegation of Social Wellbeing in Malaga or on the web page juntadeandalucia.es/fundaciondeserviciossociales.
FOUR DIE IN CRASH
Four young men were killed instantly when the care they were in ran head-on into a water tanker early on Sunday morning at kilometre 36 ion the N-340 just outside Vejer de la Frontera, Cadiz province. Police said the car was a total wipe-out. The lorry driver was slightly hurt and his vehicle suffered minor damage. Thery said all four victims were from Algeciras. The N-340 is one of the most travelled roads in Andalucia in the summer, used by Moroccans heading to and fro on their vacations, as well as by tourists heading for the Cadiz beaches.
SOFTER SPANISH APPROACH TO GIB
A Gibraltar newspaper has reported that sources within Spain's ruling Socialist Party consider that the sovereignty issue will move the fore in a few years time but next time around, the party's spokesman in the Upper House, José Carracao, has said that Gibraltarians must have a say in resolving the problems. The Spanish attitude to date has been that the future of the colony must be dealt with in bilateral negotiations between Spain and the UK. Sr Carracao, a native of the Campo area, has said Spain must act with intelligence imagination and seek a solution that is "in keeping with the times we live in" and "satisfies the interests of all". He said the tough policies of the past have not worked, and all they achieved was to further entrench the Gibraltarians in their positions.
PP CALLS FOR WAGE FREEZE
The president of the Partido Popular in Andalucia, Javier Arenas, called last week for a wage freeze for all civil servants in the region, and a reduction of provincial delegates from 110 to 65. His plan to save the Junta de Andalucia €8.5 million a year also included reducing the Junta's councillors from 15 to 11. He accused the Junta of "sailing in a sea of opulence" at a time when 24 people lost their jobs in Andalucia every day. He said Junta president Manuel Chaves "deserved a gold medal for wasting money".
BRITISH WOMAN REAPPEARS
A British woman who lives in Ronda was rescued after disappearing for three days last week while visiting El Gestor in Cádiz province. The 53-year-old woman, identified only as R.M.B., slipped and fell while taking her morning walk last Tuesday. She eventually turned up last Thursday afternoon in Alto Algarán where she told the authorities that she had hit her head when she fell and became disoriented. She then stumbled into some bushes and lay there until the pain from a wound in her hip subsided, when she managed to drag herself to Alto Algarán. She said she had seen the helicopter that had been sent out to look for her but was unable to move to attract its attention. Rescuers with dogs had also combed the area where she disappeared without success.
WINE MUSEUM GETTING KNOWN
The Museo del Vino (Wine Museum) in Malaga - not to be confused with the Wine Museum located in Ojén - has received more than 500 visitors since it opened at the beginning of July, despite the fact that it has not been advertised. Its director, José Manuel Moreno Ferreiro, said he had decided not to promote the museum because most of the tourists visiting Malaga in July and August prefer the beach to the city's cultural scene. He said its promotion would begin in earnest at the Cultural Tourism Congress slated to take place in September. The three-storey museum is located in the Plaza de Los Viñeros.
PERU JUMPS INTO ODYSSEY TRAY
Peru jumped into the battle between Spain and the Odyssey Marine Exploration company last week when it filed a claim to the controversial treasure flown by Odyssey from Gibraltar to Florida last year. The haul has been at the centre of a legal tangle between Odyssey and Spain ever since and last week lawyers representing Peru said it could be part of the patrimony of Peru and want to establish if that is the case. If so, a formal claim may follow. The treasure is believed to have come from a Spanish galleon called Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was sunk by an English frigate in 1804 while sailing from the Peruvian port of Callao to Cádiz. The Mercedes was carrying a valuable cargo of silver and gold coins from Spain's colonies in South America, hence Peru's suspicion that the coins were minted in Peru from raw materials mined in the Andean mountains. Spain has until September 22nd to present evidence supporting its ownership claim and its lawyers believe the Mercedes, which was a warship, is covered by the principle of sovereign immunity and should not have been touched without Spain's permission, irrespective of its location. Odyssey maintains that there was no wreck at the site, that there is no conclusive proof that the treasure came from the Mercedes and that, in any case, historical documents suggest the ship was acting in a commercial capacity at the time, and not on behalf of the state. After Spain submits its arguments, Odyssey will have until November 17th to reply.